Category: Book Challenge 2015
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The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson
I don’t know that I could ever say it better than The Calgary Herald did: “Nothing less than gorgeous … Evocative and unforgettable, it manages to arouse both a longing for travel and a longing for home … It is beautiful. Both inside and out.” No. 16 on my challenge, in the sense that I went…
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Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess)
I loved so many things about this book. First: LOOK at the cover and endpapers. It’s hard not to instantly love a book that puts a smile on your face just by looking at the cover, and then makes you laugh out loud before you read even a single word. Second: The Bloggess is hilarious even…
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Don’t Worry, It Gets Worse by Alida Nugent
Certainly an entertaining read, but it’s pretty much the same old song and dance as with other memoirs by funny twenty-somethings—stories about being single and jobless, having awful boyfriends and no money, finding a first apartment and struggling to buy groceries, pay the phone bill, and make student loan payments. The genre is starting to get…
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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
I purchased this book because nearly two years ago a younger cousin of mine could do nothing but sing its praises. I was skeptical, and the photos of creepy children gave me pause (for real, creepy as hell), but it was on sale and I can’t help myself when it comes to purchasing books. And…
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A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett
For two reasons, I cannot believe that this is a memoir: It seems unimaginable, incredible, incomprehensible that this was her life for 460 days; that she suffered so much, that she was treated so horrendously, that she had the strength and mental capacity to constantly fight for herself both inwardly and outwardly. It is so…
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Born Weird by Andrew Kaufman
Honestly, I’m not sure how he manages to do it—to weave magical realism so seamlessly with morality and truth—but he does it so convincingly that it takes a minute to understand what he’s writing about. He’s a genius. No. 7 on my challenge. I only just discovered Kaufman last year, but he’s quickly become one of…
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The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman
I’m 100% convinced that everything Andrew Kaufman writes is pure gold. Absolutely genius. I don’t know how he’s able to say so much about love in such a short book, but he is incredibly successful in doing so. No. 14 on my challenge. Thank goodness—it would have been terrible for Nancy if she’d had to…
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Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
Well, Oprah certainly enjoyed it more than I did, but I didn’t not like it. I just didn’t love it. I should have just sat down and read it in one sitting, but I don’t think I cared enough about the characters or the story to do so. All in all, though, it was a…
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Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
This is my first encounter with Vonnegut. Yes, it’s a classic. Yes, it’s satirical and anti-war. Yes, it’s very good. But holy Batman is it odd. I was not expecting Tralfamadorians. So it goes. No. 19 on my challenge. Not because I didn’t read it in high school, but because my teachers should have assigned it in…
Being Tori 