I went into I Who Have Never Known Men not knowing much other than it’s dystopian and about a bunch of women trapped in a bunker. I think that’s the best way to approach the novel. Anything more would stray into spoiler territory, because with this book, the less you know beforehand the better.   I […]

Howards End is one of those books, like Lolita for entirely different reasons, where I can appreciate the execution and ingenuity after the fact, but the experience of reading isn’t the most pleasant. While reading, I felt like most of the aspects weren’t really working for me. Upon reflection, I better understand how and why […]

I didn’t go into Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales expecting a lot. After thinking the sequel was just decent relative to my enjoyment of the first novel, I really just picked up the third to finish the series. I would say the quality of the books decreased with every installation, though that isn’t to […]

I first came across Cat on a Hot Tin Roof when I watched Richard Brooks’ 1958 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman on a plane to or from Italy. I remember it striking me so much that I wanted to watch it again, but I couldn’t ascertain why, and I couldn’t find it anywhere […]

This year was such a whirlwind and yet it also felt very long. Things that happened in January feels like it happened two years ago, things that happened in June feels like it happened a year ago, October feels like 6 months ago. I got the shortest haircut I’ve had since I was eight (that […]

I think there is something to the criticism that you have to be a teenager or at least in close proximity to your teenage years to relate to and enjoy The Catcher in the Rye. I was mostly bored throughout the book, trying to finish it as soon as possible so I could move on […]

I was mostly bored throughout the entirety of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. It was a chore to get through from the very first paragraph. I also don’t think the premise is something that speaks to me. I’m not interested in actors or their vices, their lifestyle or their attention-seeking. So maybe this book was […]

I really truly enjoyed 3/4ths of this book. Which surprised me because I wasn’t overly enthralled with Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove. Backman’s Anxious People is about an incompetent bank robber and a hostage situation with “the worst hostages ever,” but it’s even more about understanding and finding connection in unlikely places, with unlikely […]

Letters to a Young Poet is a compilation of ten letters that the poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke wrote to an aspiring writer. It sounds like a boring premise for someone not obsessed or even remotely familiar with Rilke’s work, but Rilke’s writing is so engaging and thoughtful, and a lot of the topics […]

Yet another science fiction novel that has surprisingly enthralled me. I believe I read it in three sittings, which isn’t common for me these days. It was the humor that made The Martian un-put-downable for me. It made me laugh throughout the entire book and endeared me to Mark Watney so that I had to […]