Ready Player One (5)

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving. I hope you spent time with family and only screamed about politics a little. If you would like to take a little bit of the edge off of the current national screaming match, perhaps pick up this book and escape into a world where things are even more screwed up. 

Ready Player One

Wade Watts is a poor kid in an ugly time in history. Basically everything has collapsed: the economy, the climate, civilization in general. Fortunately, most people spend all of their time in the vitural world of the OASIS, a free digital utopia where you can hang out with friends, go to school, work, game, the possibilities are endless. Of course, the most exciting part of the OASIS is searching for creator James Halliday's hidden easter egg. Whoever finds it first will inherit James Halliday's entire fortune and control of the OASIS itself. 

 

I just finished the audiobook to this one. I actually listened to it with my husband, which is probably the nerdiest thing we have done. Do other people have the conversation, "Honey, do you want to sit around the house this Friday and listen to Ready Player One?" Or is it just us? 

If you generally are into nerds solving puzzles and going on adventures, you will love this. I was originally told that it's all about 80's pop culture and video games, so I thought I wouldn't be able to follow it and it wouldn't be my cup of tea. And while it is all about 80's pop culture and video games, you can totally follow it even if you know approximately nothing about either. 

BONUS: You have approximately 18 months to read it before you see the movie, which should premiere in spring 2018. 

American Gods (5), Neil Gaiman

Shadow is days away from being released from prison. Days away from seeing his beloved wife Laura when he gets the phone call. His wife has died in a car crash with is best friend at the wheel. But time ticks on and Shadow is still released from prison, but where to go? What’s the point anymore? Enter Mr. Wednesday, who hires Shadow to do…odd jobs. Like, really odd jobs.

(Spoiler alert?) Mr. Wednesday is old. Like, centuries old. Like, used to be a god worshipped by thousands. When settlers came to America, they brought their gods with them. Now, these abandoned gods are left to live as best they can, hunted by the new gods.

This book was crazy. I don’t even feel like I can rate it because I feel like if I give it less than a five it means I didn’t “get it” the way everyone else did. It was also super weird to read after The Ocean at the End of the Lane which feels so innocent and simple by comparison. American Gods is dense and awesome. If you’re ready to hibernate for the winter with a giant, creepy book, this one’s for you.

Fun fact, Neil Gaiman was on NPR's Ask Me Another last week. It was hilarious and reminded me about how adorable his British accent is. I wish he read all of the audiobooks I listen to. He also mentioned that, when people ask him what American Gods is about, he replies, "oh, it's a big book," because he doesn't really know how to explain it. Which makes me feel a lot better. 

This is a super belated post, this is the book I read before The Bloodletter's Daughter, I'm trying to play catch up! 

Previous Reads 

Eleanor & Park

The Bloodletter's Daughter

Outlander

Eleanor & Park (5), Rainbow Rowell

WARNING: Some swearing. Loads of swearing in the book, so if you're not into that, move along and read Cinder or something. 

Oh my God, you know when you finish a book and then all other books are ruined for you forever and you just have to lay there and wish there was someone else who had just finished being in this world so you could talk to them because why is this book over? Where will you go now? That was Eleanor & Park for me.

Eleanor is a chubby redheaded misfit who has just moved in with her mother, stepfather, and younger siblings after spending some time kicked out by her stepfather and living with her mother’s friends.

Park is a gangly half-Korean kid who manages to fit in with the other kids on the bus because his dad’s a vet and they’ve always been part of the neighborhood.

On Eleanor’s first day, the back of the bus kids immediately smell the scene of fresh meat. She has nowhere to sit on the bus until Park takes pity on her and whispers, “Jesus, fuck, just sit down.” They don’t talk. They never talk. But Park begins to catch her reading his comic books out of the corner of her eye. And then he begins to turn the pages more slowly, to make sure she has a chance to finish the page. And then he’s giving her comic books to read and she’s giving them back and before you know it they can’t stop talking to each other.

love is listening to a mixtape he made

You guys, I tried so hard to pretend this book was overrated. But I was so in love with it by like the third chapter. It dresses up as a love story, but it talks about bullying and abuse and all sorts of real stuff. Even the love story feels so real, you can feel them sneaking up on each other, you can feel them fall in love. And the end? The end is so smart. I tried to write a book once that began on the premise this book ended on and she sums up what I tried to say in 50,000 words in one sentence.

I’m not going to tell you what that sentence is because I don’t believe in spoilers.

So I finished this book at like 11:30 on a Wednesday and had no one to talk to so I went on twitter which was a mistake because all the teenyboppers who read it were like “sigh. SO IN LOVE. SO ROMEO. SO JULIET.” And I was like, “omg. Shut up. You understand nothing,” which is really the sign of a good book that it speaks to everyone on the level they’re on. Me? I’m in grad school and studying middle schoolers. Them? They’re in middle school dreaming about falling in love one day. And yet this book speaks to both of us.

But I have to admit, the love story was so cute.  I think I literally said “aww” out loud. More than once. In that really squeaking "squee" way like I saw a puppy or a unicorn. And now I’m ruined and can’t read anything else. It’s like playing a really pathetic game of Duck, Duck, Goose.

nope

nope

fine, I guess

Stay tuned to see what I actually finish.

I can’t even go back to Hunger Games because I literally just finished rereading the series after I finished Outlander. 

If you like this, read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, more Rainbow Rowell, or something. I need to go read something that is a complete 180 because I can't even.

Up Next:

American Gods

A Chorus Line (5)

Conceived by Michael Bennett

Book by James Kirkwood & Nicholas Dante

Music by Marvin Hamlisch

Lyrics by Edward Kleban

This book is everything. I’ve listened to the cast recording countless times. I’ve choreographed to “One” for my musical theatre classes, and I’ve danced to “I Hope I Get It,” but I’ve never seen it. And the next best thing is reading it, right? (wrong. but. I spend a lot more time on a bus than I do in front of a tv)

If you DON’T know what A Chorus Line is LET ME TELL YOU REAL QUICK. Michael Bennett had some long conversations with some of his dancer friends about what life is like for a Broadway chorus dancer. The interviews were turned into this musical. In A Chorus Line, a room full of dancers are auditioning for a musical, and are told by the director that not only their dancing will be judged, but their personalities, and he tries to get them to open up. What follows is a story of love, loss, and theatre. Will watching it help you understand why we crazies do these shows? Maybe.  

CASSIE: “But I don’t want to prove anything anymore. I want to do what I love as much as I can and as long as I can. But at least, now – I’m doing it for me.”

For me, this new path I am taking, diving into teaching and studying child development and learning is so fascinating. Teaching is rewarding to me in the way that I think making art should feel. If you've missed this in the past, I'm an actress. I've wanted to be an actress since I was five, but have pursued it timidly, never being the child who desperately wanted to move to LA or New York. I wanted LA to want me so badly they made me move because that's where I was going to be working. But the nomadic reality of becoming an actor, doing touring shows (if you're lucky!) before you break into Broadway, going from LA to New York, to a regional house that will pay you.... I just don’t want that enough. I want to do the shows and the roles I want to do and not worry about whose watching or how doing show A might get me to theatre Z at some point maybe.

Reading this play was like hearing a resounding "that's ok!" from the artistic community. "Do what you love! Love what you do!" I am so proud of all of my friends who are literally chasing their dreams to New York or Broadway, and I am equally excited about my next year studying teaching. Who knows what the future holds.

Water By the Spoonful (5)

"I just remember the instant I saw him, there was just something changed in his eye," Hudes says. "You know, he was still absolutely the same young clown of a cousin I had always known and had grown up with, loving, but there was something different. And I felt that I might never understand it. And that's the simple spark that it came from," (NPR Morning Edition). 

The play starts in a chat room. Haikumom and her devotees make up a chatroom for recovering crack addicts, and are checking in with each other. Orangutan, a young Japanese-American woman who decided to run from her addiction back to Japan to meet her birth parents. Chutes&Ladders, an IRS worker in his 50s. Fountainhead, new to the site.

We also follow Eliot, a 20-something Iraq vet & Yasmin, the family rock -cousins dealing with their aunt's death and funeral arrangement.

Far be it from me to give less than five stars to a Pulitzer Prize for Drama Winner, but this one earned it. It was lovely, yes, but it also spoke to me, which it should. And I understood it. Perhaps because I know someone who's struggled with addiction, and I think it speaks truths that you're afraid to ask that person. Hudes also finds a way to be so forgiving and loving to her characters, while allowing her characters to be unforgiving to each other. It's a truly beautiful piece and I can only assume it's a total bitch to stage.

Boston's Lyric Stage Company

I mean, the characters are chatting online...but they're real and present and really connecting to each other, they know each other in that online way, where you can know everything about a person, things they won't admit out loud but feel free to type. Yet you wouldn't recognize them on the street. How do you stage that?

It has just enough heartbreak in it to make you feel human, but not so much that you want to go numb yourself afterwards. And that is what makes this play really beautiful.

Books Are Boring OR They Make You Cry OR BOTH (jk not both)

Books are boring. No, seriously, some are. Except for sometimes when they aren't. But they're too depressing to read every day. Anyway, I totally understand how some people become non-readers. It's hard when you're reading a book and you just don't really care anymore. You don't want to be a quitter. You want to finish what you've started. Except you really don't. So just...you know...go find a different book and tell yourself you'll "come back" to that boring book and eventually you'll give it enough distance and read enough better books that it'll be ok you didn't finish that one book.

Remember when I started out this year going "I am going to post a blog post every week! I am the best at blogs and reading!" And then I did in January and almost did in February, and now it's been a month since I've posted anything. Well, I've been reading. And I've been writing. But I've been writing scripts for my budding actors. And reading scripts for monologues for audition season....and not finishing all of them because I hate reading plays. I like watching plays and being in plays, but I suck at reading plays. I always feel this need to sit down and read the whole thing in one setting and seriously, who has the time for that?

So here's my list of boring books that I've started and haven't finished. Go ahead and yell at me if they're your favorite. I had to wander off and re-read Ella Enchanted for like the 19th time to remind myself that I do like some books.

I would like this play a lot more if "my" character (Lady Percy) was in more than three pages. It starts to get really funny and oddly make more sense when you read it while drinking wine. Kind of like how I can speak French again when I drink. Maybe if I drank more wine I would like to read plays more. I'll let you know.
Kind of like Game of Thrones with less sex and strong female characters.
Status: Just need to finish Act V

Ugh. I remembered hating the third book, but then I realized I gave it five stars when I reviewed it, so I decided I might actually have secretly liked it.
I do not care about Robert Langdon anymore. I do not like that he always has a beautiful, smart female "assistant" every case, who he sleeps with and then we never see again. You are forty freaking years old, figure out how to have a relationship with another human being.
This book basically makes me want to re-read Dante's Inferno and/or write my own novel using Inferno as it's basis.
Status: Just over halfway before the library stole it off my kindle. Rude. Just kidding, now I don't have to finish it. Thanks, library!

I feel the same way about Philippa Gregory as I do about Glee. Out of four books/episodes, 1 is fantastic, 2 are meh, and 1 is ugh-freaking-noxious (like obnoxious but with more pain to the reader/viewer). I loved most of her Tudor series (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Virgin Queen, The Constant Princess, in that order. Fab.) But I feel like she drones on and on and this is like the third book she's written about the same series of events so I vaguely know what's going to happen and I liked the first queen better so I really just don't care about this character or what happens to her.
Status: I liked the first half. I'm stuck in the last quarter. I'll probably finish it. Except I started a new nonfiction book that's more interesting so maybe I'll just quit reading fiction.

AND FINALLY

a book I loved.

OH MY GOD THIS BOOK. I listened to it via Audible which was AMAZING but listening to it made everything ten times worse. This is one of those books that makes you feel good about yourself for having read it, because you clearly understand life and pain and the world better because you read it. Unless you don't like books like that, in which case, um, sorry? 80% of the books I love made me cry. If a book doesn't make me cry, I basically assume that it's a terrible book. Because I'm a monster.

No just kidding. Old Nick is a monster! (In case you care about what this book is about, this is the part where I tell you.) The novel is told from Jack's perspective. Jack has just turned five-years-old. Jack and his mom live in a room together.

(super minor spoiler alert)

No, literally. A ROOM. Room. Because Old Nick kidnapped his mom and has held her there for seven years, or all of Jack's life. Jack's mom hasn't really explained this to him yet, because she's a good mom and is trying to take care of her child. But you, the reader, figure it out pretty quick and are completely horrified. 

I drove to a party while listening to this book. And cried. So it took me a long time to get through it because I could only listen to it when I was driving home and it was ok to arrive sobbing, and the roommates would say "Oh, you're listening to that book again." To which I would nod and go get chocolate. 

HUGE SPOILER ALERT

THERE IS NO BIGGER FONT

BECAUSE BLOGGER IS FREE.

I'M WARNING YOU.

READ HALF THE BOOK AND THEN COME BACK, BECAUSE YOU'LL ALREADY HAVE READ THAT PART OF THE BOOK.

(SORRY SHANNON, who alerted me that the GIANT FONT was actually really small in the real post. PROOF READ PEOPLE. And by people, I mean me.)

About halfway through the book they escape. Which is the part I cried the hardest. And then Jack has to learn about the REAL world and he misses his home, which depresses his mother and everything is beautiful and nuts.

The voice actor who played Jack is my new favorite person. So nuanced. So adorable. Just want to hug Jack forever. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (5), Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is a freshman. A geek. The kind of guy that doesn't really fit in and mostly just talks to his English teacher and reads books. That is, until seniors Patrick and Sam begin to hang out with him and introduce him to the world of smoking, drinking, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This book was beautiful. I'd heard for years that I should read it and it just stayed packed away on my list of books, getting skipped over for non-YA while I was being a pretentious snob. Then I realized that there are earth-moving YA books and you are still allowed to read them when you become an adult, crazy right?

Anyway, this book is beautiful. It reminds you of the messiness of life and doesn't try and wrap it up in shiny paper and make it all ok, but let's you wallow in the shared misery of being a human. It gives you hope that it's all wonderfully worth it.

The other thing I love about it is that Charlie reads a whole bunch of really good books, which makes me want to go out and read a bunch of really good books.

Charlie's Reading List

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald

On the Road, Jack Kerouac

A Separate Peace, John Knowles

Walden, Henry David Thoreau

Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs

Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

L'Etranger, Albert Camus

The Mayor of Castro Street, Randy Shilts

Selected poems, E. E. Cummings

Wild (5)

I’m not going to lie to you: I started this book for the wrong reason. I’d heard how famous and inspirational this book was, but I thought a book about a girl wandering around the woods sounded really boring. And the from lost to found part? I took it literally, and was like, so what? Clearly she got found because she wrote the damn book.

Then I found out Reese Witherspoon was filming the movie. Not only that, but my friend whose character tried to kill mine in my last show was in a scene with her. It all felt very real and artsy and like I must be a real actor, even though he’s the real actor and Reese is, obviously, the best. So I had to read the book, you know, before the movie comes out.

Photo: Reese Witherspoon, Twitter/WhoSay

I have two things to say about this book.

#1 Cheryl Strayed is my spirit animal, as the kid’s say these days.

#2 I am so glad I didn’t try to read this book any earlier then I did.

When Cheryl was a senior in college, she found out her mom had terminal cancer, and dropped everything to be with her for the last six months of her life.

When I was a senior in college, I found out that my dad might have cancer, and rushed home, planning on dropping everything and move two states away from my life to do whatever I could for my dad. One week later, he was gone. He passed away five days after being officially diagnosed with cancer. That is a big, terrible, black hole of my personal history that I am still, four years later, processing and healing from.

Four years after her mother died, Cheryl Strayed hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. This book felt like the journey of a woman I could have been, and feel so very fortunate that I didn’t have to be. I feel very blessed that I wasn’t so broken that I had to hike 1,100 miles all by myself, putting my body through excruciating pain to come out on the other side finally whole.

Photo: Josh Myers

It’s a beautiful, honest memoir and not nearly as depressing as I just made it sound. What I love about Cheryl is that she is so strong and so vulnerable at the same time. I feel like any woman can understand what she’s going through as she hikes the trail, by herself and occasionally runs into some trouble. Sometimes she allows herself to be the damsel in distress (a little) and be fed by the kind strangers she runs into, and she certainly admits to being scared when she runs across a man that makes her feel unsafe, alone, in the woods, away from everyone. Or a bear. Or a moose. She runs into all of these characters and now I feel as though I got to experience this too.

That is the best thing about books. I can go on a safe emotional journey while sitting on my couch in my nice, warm house, but I can empathize and feel like I got to know someone and go on their journey with them, but also get to use my oven and my shower and see my friends and family.  

It's like babysitting. Everything's all great and you're playing with a baby and then it gets poopy or starts to cry and you give it back. 

Jill Greenberg.

protip: do NOT google image search "poopy baby"...cannot unsee...

Anywho. The book is beautiful and funny and wonderful and you should probably read it. I would not recommend it to anyone who recently lost someone, if I read it any early in my healing process I would probably have been bawling my eyes out for the entire book. Everyone else should read it. Though, if you're a hard core hiker you will probably laugh a lot at Strayed's absolute inexperience at the start of the book. 

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (5)

I desperately want to see this play. Like with many plays, much is lost in translation when you merely read it. How different to see Sigourney Weaver as aging star Masha lamenting being cast as a grandmother and getting paid less than she did in her glory days then to read a faceless character you are somewhat ambivalent towards. I never connect as well to a play I'm reading unless there's a character I desperately want to play that I am imagining myself being.

Cassandra

And yet, it is funny. It is both current, three aging siblings considering their lives, and the state of global warming and the world in general, and ancient, with Cassandra, their maid, a modern version of The Cassandra, from Agamemnon touting prophesies at each turn of the page. Spike is the only character firmly routed in the current world while Vanya, Sonia, Masha, and Nina are all Chekhovian. I would love to hear reactions from someone with less knowledge of classic theatre, and also the reaction of someone who understood EVERYTHING. Who knows The Sea-Gull and The Cherry Orchard and The Three Sister like I know The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and A Game of Thrones.

Did I give it five stars because it's a Tony Award winner, and who am I to argue with the pros? Probably. But it also gave this 25-year-old a glimpse into the minds of those older than me. It did what all great art should do: it helped me understand a person different then myself. It may be funnier to someone who understands more Chekhov, but it made me want to dive back in and read Chekhov, and how many works can state that?

Most of all, I loved how beautifully Christopher Durang discussed the idea of a shared memory between the generations. How does a grandparent converse with a texting, tweeting teenager? What do they have in common? There are thousands of shows and everyone has their own tastes and opinions firmly staked, what can we all discuss?

"The Ed Sullivan Show was on...Richard Burton and Julie Andrews would sing songs from Camelot. It was wonderful. It helped theatre be part of the national consciousness, which it isn't anymore."

And yet, NBC aired a live television broadcast of The Sound of Music this year. Maybe it was in response to the production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and perhaps it wasn't, but it was so popular that they are absolutely doing it again next year. Please, please do NBC! But maybe cast Audra as the lead this time? Or at least Lea Michele. Pretty please?  

Hyperbole and a Half (5)

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened.
By Allie Brosch

I think at this point in time there are two kinds of people: people that like Hyperbole and a Half (the blog) and people who have yet to read Hyperbole and a Half. I started my journey through Brosch's blog somewhere around here:"How Fish Almost Destroyed My Childhood" and then promptly spent the rest of my night reading her previous two years of blog posts. TWO YEARS. I think it actually took me more then one day.

Allie reminds us all of the beauty of humanity, or at least those of us who haven't quite mastered the art of adulthood but are still, for some reason, allowed to wander around the world doing jobs and renting homes and adopting pets. Either this book will make you feel like a really, really responsible adult, or it'll make you feel less alone in your utter confusion about the "real world," either way, you should get a healthy chuckle or two out of it. I personally read the first half in one sitting and started laughing so hard I couldn't breathe at least once.

This pictures sealed it for me though

I just can't stop laughing, and I need everyone to read this essay/cartoon so that I can use it in every day conversation because who HASN'T had a random feeling of, like, "there's a spider in my house, better just burn the damn thing down" and has had to repress that feeling?

If you aren't sure if this is the thing for you, definitely go check out her blog, and then decide. It won Best Humor book on Goodreads so if you're into that kind of thing, go read it. Immediately.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane (5)

"Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but aren’t." 

This book was beautiful. I listened to the audiobook, read by Neil Gaiman himself, which made it even better. Driving home from rehearsal every day I would turn it on, and Gaiman would tell me my bedtime story.

This is one of those beautiful stories where Gaiman puts you in the head of a child and opens up the world as seen by a seven year old boy. Everything he said was a quote I wanted to write down and live my life by. Every description of person, place, or thing was poetry, and I was absolutely in love.

The boy's parents have become lost some wealth and have had to take in borders to help make ends meet. The Hempstock farm down the road is home to the grandmother, mother, and daughter Hempstock. Something about them is both strange and comforting, and when the boy befriends young Lettie Hempstock (who has been twelve for a long, long time) he begins a journey which will shake the framework of a world he couldn't imagine.

 

Rob Woodcox

Enter Ursula Monkton, who is tall, thin, and pretty and everyone likes her, except the little boy, our unnamed narrator. He knows that there is something wrong with Ursula Monkton. Lettie Hempstock could help him, if only he would be allowed to go visit the farmhouse down the road and let her know what has happened. Is it the little boys fault that Ursula Monkton came to his home? Is it his fault that Ursula Monkton has been allowed to enter the world at all?

Gaiman does a masterful job of writing a book much like Alice in Wonderland, but writing it for adults. I don't even know what to tell you, but you should probably go read it right now. It was my first Neil Gaiman, so I'm not sure how it stacks up with his very large body of work, but if you like a bit of lyric fantasy, this book is definitely for you.

If you like to remain fully immersed in the real world, then this book is not for you. Otherwise, read it. It's short and sweet and scary and lovely, and if you're into audiobooks I'd definitely recommend it.

Someday, Someday Maybe (5)

Why do we read books? Is it to learn something? Is it to go on an adventure? Is it to get to know somebody who may not be real but to you are more real than anyone on earth? Or is it something else?

Someday, Someday, Maybe is a new novel by actress Lauren Graham, best known for her roles as Lorelai Gilmore in Gilmore Girls and Sarah Braverman in Parenthood, the first of which is my favorite show that has ever been made in the entire world. Seriously, Freshman year of college I was basically like “this is what you need to know about me: I love coffee, the color pink, Harry Potter, and Gilmore Girls,” that was the sum of my personality in four items. Later it became clear that there was one thing that far surpassed my love of any of these four things...acting. What is this book about? A young actress trying to make it in New York City.

Now there are two ways that me reading this book can go: either it’s amazing, and so inspirational I immediately want to move to New York OR I want to quit acting forever because she gets something that I don’t. In reality, Lauren Graham peered into my soul and wrote a book about all my insecurities and why they are ridiculous.

Franny Banks is a struggling actress trying to make it in New York City in the 90s. She gave herself three years to move to New York and make it as an actress before she would give up and return home…to face the fact that she has no actual skills to enter the job force. We follow her on the adventures and misadventures of trying to balance a job, class, and the bloodthirsty world of auditions.

My favorite parts are when something good happens to Franny and it sends her into a pit of despair because that one good thing is still not the thing that was needed so that she could become a working actress. Yes, it moved her in the right direction, but that can get lost in the shuffle when you’re concerned about your audition and the shoot you wrapped and if you’re ever going to get cast in anything ever again because, face it, your agent probably already forgot about you. And of course, by favorite I mean I think I was actually worrying about Franny’s plight when I left home.

Don’t worry, there’s also a love story. It’s pretty satisfying.

I hated the ending because it meant the book was over. I actually had a hard time starting the next one because I was so involved in Franny’s world

maybe someday I'll end up on a wall like this

Atonement (5)

          I mentioned before that I have a hoarding problem, with my stacks of books everywhere, some cracked open, others half-finished, some laying there for years, possibly forever because I bought it on a whim thinking the subject was interesting. I read it eagerly for 10 pages and then went back to Harry Potter.

Once I have heard of a book and “mean” to read it, it probably goes on a list somewhere (thank God for Goodreads). One of these books is Atonement, which has been on my to-read list since the movie came out in 2007. I am not the biggest fan of Kiera Knightly so casting her in Atonement was basically a death sentence to the book for me, but I heard it was amazing and if that were the case then I could just read the book and I wouldn’t have to bother with Kiera at all!

But I didn’t get it right away, and the longer a book is on my list, the less likely I am to read it. There’s always something new and shiny to catch my attention, and the book grows stale on my shelf. The only way for it to re-gain my attention is if someone mentions it. Fortunately for me, Atonement is one of my friend’s favorite books. So I finally read it.  

            Atonement is simply a work of art. It starts on a summer day in 1934 as we follow 13-year-old Briony Tallis worry about her cousins coming to stay, her newest play, and what exactly her sister is doing in the garden with the servant’s son.

mostly moping

            Briony’s descriptions of everything are fabulous. McEwan crafts a brilliant story around this very young girl and whose misunderstanding of the adult world leads to disaster. After the first half, we see a first-hand view of World War II first through the eyes of a soldier, then a nurse. McEwan moves from a slow summer’s day into the middle of a retreating army and into a busy wartime hospital with effortless prose. Each could be a story unto itself. But altogether, the finished piece is perfect. I don’t know what to tell you except if you haven’t read it yet you should.

Ah, Briony. I love you. I hate you. I want to be you.

             

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (5)

 Well I just started my free trial of Audible. So far I’m pretty excited. Also, so far I haven’t paid for anything so that makes it extra exciting.

What is Audible?

Basically Audible is like Netflix, but for audiobooks. And you keep the book. And you only get (X) number amount (I chose one). So basically you’re just buying audiobooks at a steeply discounted rate because you’re signing on to buy one (or whatever you choose) a month.

I would think it was even cooler if it was more like Netflix/the library and you get one at a time. I realize that the library has this through OverDrive, but I’ve never gotten overdrive to work with audiobooks so either a) I’m an idiot or b) it’s a bad service. (Now I feel my bi-annual need to try it again.)

What I like about it is that you deal in terms of credits. So I’m signed up for one credit a month, 1 audiobook is 1 credit, so if it takes me a little over a month to listen to the audiobook, I still have my 1 saved up. If I don’t listen to audiobooks for a month after that, now I have 2, and then if it gets cold and I sit around knitting and binge-listening to audiobooks, I can blow through those two I have saved up.

Why are you such a geek, Jana?

I have a really hard time running. I get so bored. And I saw this little graphic about people who listen to audiobooks and it reminded me that I should try running with an audiobook. I figured I would probably like it because I loved running with Zombies, Run! but then I realized I was running out of episodes and stopped using it because I wanted to save it for an extra special run (read: I stopped running). So, naturally, the audiobook I chose was World War Z, in sticking with the running-from zombies theme.

I come here to read reviews, not have you try to sell me things

Right, right, sorry. World War Z is written as a history of the zombie war, with many short stories loosely strung together by the researcher, Max Brooks.

And I am loving this in audiobook style. I feel that this is the only way to read this book, actually. The full title is World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. It is meant to be listened to. The voice actors are great, and there’s a teensy bit of soundtrack between chapters.

Normally, I have a hard time with the short story format (as you heard from my This is How You Lose Her review). I just can’t read a string of short stories the same way I can marathon-read a book. It feels weird dipping in and out of characters like that. So I’ll try and set up a system for how to read them, like at bedtime, but it generally falls apart if I haven’t finished it by the end of a week. What’s great about this is I have a system set up, I can listen to it while I’m running or in the car. Hopefully I will run often enough that this works, and the biggest problem is that when I’m done running I want to keep listening to it. And there are so many things you can do while listening to audiobooks! Cleaning! Cooking! All of these things I am pretty bad at doing because you can’t do them while your nose is shoved in a book.

It also helps keep me away from my major vice of sitting and reading the entirety of facebook, which I do a lot, but less when I have a good book to shove my nose into. You can’t read and listen at the same time, though lord knows I’ve tried.

RUN. FASTER.

What I really love about World War Z is that you get the adventure of zombies without that really horrifying apocalyptic moments that you get in most zombie movies. The “oh god, they’re going to win, we’re all going to die, and even if we live what’s the point since all we’re going to do for the rest of our miserable existence is keep fighting,” moment. I hate that moment. It is too depressing and stressful. This book is written after the zombie war, telling stories of the survivors. So the voices you hear are people who lived. They’ve seen some really horrifying things, so it’s still kind of terrifying and depressing (I was almost crying during one of my runs), but at least you know that your narrators have survived, and soon you will find out how the zombies were eradicated and humanity was rebuilt. Or whatever happened. I’m only ¼ of the way through the book. You’re right, I shouldn’t write a review on ¼ of a book. Sue me. 

UPDATE: Ok, I didn't actually post this before I finished the audiobook, but I liked what I wrote so I'm just going to post it anyway. All I have to add is that I wish I had binge-listened to it because whenever I "save" something and try not to burn through it even though I want to, I basically stop listening to it or reading it. Also I got OverDrive to work. The library app on my phone is my new best friend. Except if I try to check out an e-book it gives me the stupid non-kindle version which I can't read on my kindle which defeats the whole purpose. But audiobooks work fine. 

Yay! library your technology has caught up with the rest of the world. 

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend (5) - Matthew Dicks

If I really, really like a book I find myself still thinking like the narrator after I've finished their story. Which sounds crazy, but I'm an actor, remember? I loved the narrator, Budo, and I devoured this book fast enough that he totally got into my head.

Budo is Max’s imaginary friend. He’s real, but invisible to everyone but Max, and the other imaginary friends he meets. But he has his own emotions, his own thoughts, he can even leave the house and go on his own adventures. He is also the oldest imaginary friend he’s ever met, because Max needs him more than other kids.

I loved this book. It was beautiful and arresting, I loved the characters and I simply couldn’t put this book down.

Budo is obsessed with death. Mostly his own death, because if Max ever stops believing in him, Budo will die. He will fade away until he disappears completely. The novel revolves around this idea, of reality, and of death. Budo is lucky because he can walk through doors, and Max lets him roam around the school. Budo has his own best friend, an imaginary girl named Graham. Budo is also lucky that he looks so much more human than some imaginary friends: such as Puppy, the dim-witted imaginary friend of a kindergartener, Wooly, who looks a lot like Flat Stanley and can’t walk, or Klute, who looks like a bobble head. It is sweet, and funny, and sad, and beautiful.

There is also a thrilling bit after Max gets kidnapped and Budo has to figure out how to save him before Max is taken away forever.

This book has been compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which I also loved and remember reading in approximately one sitting.