After reading, I felt like I had to write things down in order to process it, so this post will be split in half: an in-depth summary and the review.  Summary Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling was largely written as a response to a prevalent philosophical theory at the time expounded by Hegel, who believed that […]

This short novel is broken up into two sections, titled Franny and Zooey respectively. Shocking given the title of the book, I know. I think they were originally published separately as a short story and novella. I really liked Franny’s section. If the entire book was like it, my impression of the book might be […]

I read The Handmaid’s Tale and then almost immediately forgot about it. It was an enjoyable read to a degree, but I didn’t find the book profound or the world particularly well-conceptualized. For me, it was more of a fever dream world than a poignant or prophetic dystopian world. It’s not nearly as timeless or […]

Adored it. Loved it. Murdered by it. I was so taken in by these characters. I think the women in the Epanchin family and Nastasya Fillippovna are the best female characters in classic Russian literature that I’ve read.* Lizaveta P in particular has my heart with her direct manner and a heart that’s quick to […]

I was compelled to grab the sequel, Either/Or, immediately after reading The Idiot, despite not knowing whether I had truly enjoyed the first book. I said in my review of The Idiot that I was under some sort of spell.  The structure of Either/Or is very similar to that of The Idiot. The first half […]

I was really looking forward to reading Batuman’s The Idiot because I had heard such good things, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It somehow had an emotional pull on me before I even realized I was invested, but I’m still not sure I can call it a “good” book.  There […]

I grew up watching Roy Rogers and John Wayne, and throughout middle school, I read a ton of Louis L’Amour, because my brother was growing a healthy collection of his novels. So it’s really no surprise that this is my brother’s book and I only borrowed it. He gave it to me because it’s considered […]

I wouldn’t say Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a fun or even enthralling read, either due to plot or ease of reading, but I can’t help but love it. I don’t remember when I first read this—it might have been a bit after high school—but Tess always stuck with me, and after recently […]

Jamaica Inn is my fourth Daphne du Maurier novel (I’ve previously read Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Mary Anne). Unfortunately, while I did enjoy the premise and some of the aspects of the novel which I’ll discuss below, Jamaica Inn might be a dud for me. But it still ranks above Mary Anne. The best […]

I’m so glad I now have this in my personal library. I originally read this novel for a college course, and I really wanted to reread it because I would find myself thinking of it from time to time. For some reason, I remembered it as a novella rather than a full novel, perhaps because […]