I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into when I picked up this novel. My expectations are laughable in retrospect. I bought The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith at nearly the same time (I still have yet to read the latter), because I was in […]

I grew up on westerns, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, and Louis L’Amour. My Hannah Montana was the Roy Rogers show and my Harry Potter was Barnabas and Tyrel Sackett. I read Louis L’Amour throughout middle school until someone asked me why I was always reading “those books” and I realized I hadn’t visited my school […]

I’m in love. When I first read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, I enjoyed it. But now I’m in love. I’ve nearly underlined, bracketed, or annotated every line in that book. It seemed like every single line spoke to my soul. Every character was living, breathing, vitalized. Every observation felt natural and insightful.  I reread […]

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 […]