All posts tagged: fiction

October Book

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Image © Beck’s Books Happy Fall everyone! It’s the perfect time of year to curl up with a hot beverage and haunting book. So, for this month’s selection we’ve gone with the theme: {Ghost Stories}. We had a long list to choose from… but there was one classic that made its way to the top: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Surprisingly, none of us have read this highly acclaimed novel, named on such Goodreads lists as: Best Books Ever and The Most Disturbing Books Ever Written. Published in 1986 by award-winning, Canadian author Margaret Atwood, this is the story of a dystopian United States set in the near future when a totalitarian Christian theocracy has overthrown the government. In this disturbing world people are segregated by categories and made to dress according to their station. The bodies of those who rebel swing from the walls that surround the new world. This new world is a haunting look at humanity’s capacity to impose a social control so disturbing, so all-consuming, that the citizens wander as ghosts of their former selves. Some might categorize this as …

…Were Watching Love

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I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. Although the vernacular was hard to read through at times (just slowed things down a bit), I thought the pacing was well done (her use of time pulls you through the story… 25+ years in less than 200 pages) and her writing style was captivating. After reading the last page, I went back and read the first two paragraphs: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by the Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.” Rereading this intro gave the book a clarity for me. It’s as though Hurston puts the thesis of protagonist …

All the Parts

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Their Eyes Were Watching God was a profoundly communicative summation of parts that created a rhythmic narrative of the many lives of Janie.  Janie, herself, is certainly a workhorse character embodying many lives. Each of her lives served a distinct purpose to describe the struggles of mankind (man or woman, black or white) – the struggles of balancing the innate desire to stand alone, free, and independent with the crushing need for love and the struggles of defining community and oneself within community. Zora Neale Hurston created Janie as a heroine for the African American woman. While their eyes were watching God, Janie’s were strictly focused on determining her own path. As complicated as the many lives of Janie were the decidedly varied narrative techniques. Oscillating between vernacular speech and highly rhetorical narration, Zora Neale Hurston’s diverse writing style helps define Janie’s loves and lives.  Janie moves from a stifled relationship with Jody wherein she does not speak rather is spoken for to her verbose, solid relationship with Tea Cake.  The intercut use of Southern …

September Book

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American Broadcasting Company © 2005 “Their Eyes Were Watching God” TV Movie Okay folks, Summer has come to a close and school’s back in session (or soon to be). But have no fear, that means fall is on its way! Maybe you all don’t feel the same way, but we look forward to this colorful season of cooler weather, layers, and school supplies (is our inner nerd showing?). So for this month’s book choice we’ve gone with the theme: {Back to School}. There are so many great options to choose from, but we’ve decided to go with Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960). Set in Florida in the early 20th century, the story follows Janie Crawford on an extended flashback as she tells her story in three parts from her grandmother’s plantation shack to the Everglades—until a tragedy brings her home. Janie narrates her life story to her best friend, satisfying the “oldest human longing—self-revelation.” Maybe a lesser known option, but the more we learn about this book the more excited we …

Made For the Beach

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I have to say, I’m a little undecided on this one. I think I liked it. I do wish I’d had more beach time with this book. Instead, a lot of my reading time was spent rushed and indoors during my daughter’s nap time. I agree with Kathryn H. that it lacked a bit of the page-turning urgency that I usually enjoy for a good beach read. But even still, the individual characters’ end goals were just interesting enough to make you want to hang on and see if they were fulfilled. And I did like the use of multiple character perspectives… it allowed me to feel connected, at least in some way, to each of the characters. Although I do wish they’d all been a little more relatable. There were parts of each character that seemed not to fit, that seemed contradictory in a way (Franny seems to have few redeeming qualities, and yet Jim is still so in love with her despite his indiscretions… that feels a bit unrealistic, or like I’m missing something). I …

I Want to High Five Sylvia

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I am going to admit this up front: when I started reading The Vacationers by Emma Straub, I was a bit unsure. It’s not a book I would gravitate toward, but I knew it was a book I would enjoy. There was something about it that reminded me of Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan, a book that I basically anger-read because I was so irritated that I wasn’t reading another completely delicious book like Commencement (though in hindsight I should’ve seen it coming, and I have a lot of thoughts on Sullivan’s writing in general – specifically that she’s very good at what she does, but I digress – that’s fodder for another post). I was prepared to force myself to read The Vacationers. Before you read any further, know that I did change my tune! I enjoyed it, it was the perfect book to read while lounging poolside during my break between summer camp and back to school. It lacked a bit of the urgency I usually crave in my beach reads (the kind where you find yourself …

August Book

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Against all odds, summer is still alive and well! And we want to enjoy every last bit of it… are you with us?! This month’s theme is {Beach Read} … for pretty obvious reasons. Beach season is still in full swing and this may be our last chance to soak up some sun and sand before fall makes its inevitable debut. Some of you might be asking, what’s a beach read? Well, it’s a book that’s bright, fun and not terribly long or intense. It’s a low-maintenance friend to spend time with while relaxing in the summer sunshine. Granted, that means different things to different people. But if you enjoy the company, that’s all that matters. For us, a great beach read means Emma Straub‘s The Vacationers. Or at least we hope it’s a great beach read. Straub is a New York-based nonfiction author who hit her big break with this New York Times bestseller in 2014. The story centers around a family vacation to Mallorca, Spain and the figurative baggage they bring with them. …

Eager for the End

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After reading (and loving) Ready Player One I was excited to give Ender’s Game a try. I’d heard from many trusted fellow book nerds what a great book it was but had shied away because I thought it wasn’t “my kind of book.” I should have trusted my gut. This book tested my patience as I struggled through the first third, finding nothing that captured me or held my interest. After setting it down for a few days (instead I read Wonder, which I would highly recommend, and The Good Girl), I picked it back up, determined to chug through. Plus, I was told the ending would change my mind. Eager to get to said ending, I admittedly skimmed a large part of the middle half. So as not to give anything away, all I’ll say about the ending is I appreciated what they were trying to do. And I certainly enjoyed the last quarter of the book much more than the rest, I just wish I didn’t have to slog through the other three-quarters just to …

Sooner rather than later

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Hello, all. Long time no talk to. I have to say, it was a good thing we decided to combine May and June and to just read one book over two months… phew! Life’s been busy! Anyway… I did finish Ender’s Game a few weeks ago. And I have mixed feelings. Overall, I liked it. But I feel like my impression suffered a little from high expectations. I know this is a favorite for a lot of readers in my generation, and I can see why. But it didn’t quite hook me as strongly. Mostly because I didn’t love the pacing. It felt to me a lot like the third book in the Hunger Game series… 200 pages were dedicated to some very slow-paced events, and then the remaining pages had years worth of action. It felt a little rushed. But the sprint to the finish line aside, there were some really interesting themes that pulled me in… The difference between the male and female persona. Although I’m not entirely sure this book depicted those differences …

{Ender’s Game} Cover Redesign

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I thought the hyper-scifi, ultra-nerd Ender’s Game cover could use an update. No offense to those scifi covers, they definitely serve their purpose. But I thought it’d be fun to rethink the look for Ender’s Game (it’s been a long time coming). Since the book was first published in early eighties, I thought something colorful and slightly retro was fitting. And if you’re a fan, you’ll notice I used the colors of the Dragon Army color code… it seemed appropriate 🙂 Ultimately, as I was reading Ender’s Game I just had this image in my head of a young boy overwhelmed and surrounded by different pressures, looking so child-like and alone…