Station Eleven

So, if you've read other posts of mine you may know that I tend to read books without actually knowing what the book is going to be about. Sometimes this goes well, and sometimes it goes really badly, like when I thought 50 Shades of Grey was about a werewolf. For this book, it went well, but it was weird. I knew it was about a troupe of actors. And it starts out during a swanky production of King Lear when a famous actor collapses while playing the titular role. And then the apocalypse happens. And I was like, "whoah I didn't see that coming," because I thought it was going to be normal theatre drama not actors meet the cast of Revolution. The book jumps around between pre-apocalypse and fifteen-years after, following the collapsed actor's wife, a young actress that had worked with him, and the doctor that rushed on stage to help him when he collapsed.

I have to say, I love books like this. not necessarily the post-apocalyptic whatever, but the non-linear mashing up of characters with different timelines, playing with how they intersect. It was fun. I could have done with more theatre and less apocalypse, but I think that was more my fault than the books...

The Fault in Our Stars

Oh my god, this book. I mean if you haven't heard of this book, I don't know what rock you've been hiding under because it's definitely a movie. It's not even cool anymore it was so big so long ago. But ok, let's pretend you don't know what this book is about. Hazel was diagnosed  with terminal cancer awhile ago. She's a ticking time bomb and tries to guard those she can from liking her so that they won't be hurt when her inevitable end comes. Her parents can't be helped, but no one else. But Augustus Walters has other plans. They meet at a cancer kid support group, and Augustus breaks through Hazel's shell.

You'd think, given that story, that this would be some sort of whiny YA drivel, but it is so not. This is YA because it's about teenagers but they are real and wonderful and the book is so beautiful. I read this book near the end of summer. I stayed up till some ungodly hour of the morning finishing a big assignment for my correspondence course and then was so hyped up on stress and red bull I couldn't sleep. So I read the second half of this book and cried myself to sleep. This is how I deal with stress.

Speaking of which, it's the season where people are announcing that they got into grad school and half of me is like

and half of me is like

"IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO SAY NO! Turn back before it's too late!!!" Winter quarter was really rough and I think I'm still recovering. And now I'm an intern which is it's own special type of stress because I'm never quite sure what my cooperating teacher is thinking or what I'm really supposed to be doing. But I feel like I should.

The Valley of Amazement (4), Amy Tan

This is another audiobook that I listened to to fall asleep after a long, stressful day of grad school. That being said, I don't know that I have a lot of profound thoughts about this book. This book is a beautiful tapestry of life in Shanghai courtesan houses, a remote Chinese mountain village, and nineteenth-century San Francisco. It is a tale of mothers and daughters, of loss, and ultimately, of love. It's a little sexy, a little tear jerk-y, a little

Yep. Go read it if you're into pretty, expansive historical fiction. It was one of those books I listened to over the course of a couple months, falling asleep pretty easily a half hour at a time...until I got to the end and was like "ugh why does the narrator sound so annoying if I try to speed it up? I need to know what happens!"

But it's definitely one of those books that if you want to throw across the room. Like the time Umbridge locked up Harry Potter's broomstick in Order of the Pheonix.

Oh the feels...

...How did I link Amy Tan with Harry Potter? Because Harry Potter is the most universal way to describe feelings and if you don't know what I'm talking about...

Speaking of which, our landlord came over to sign some paperwork because we're getting another roommate, who also came with a cat, so now my house has TWO CATS. The point of this segue is that my cat is named Hermione, which the landlord thought was cool, he was all, "I could be friends with you guys." Which, if he was not my landlord I would totally be cool with. I then muttered, "her name is actually Princess Hermione Everdeen...so...you can see how seriously I take my life," or something like that. To which he replied, "I love all those movies." And I smiled back, because I am a good person. But inside I was screaming, "THEY ARE BOOKS, SIR! BOOKS!"

Hermione trying to hide.
At 1 year old, Hermione is not taking after her namesake. Maybe by 11?

And at this point I would like to add that I somehow have friends, but I'm aware you probably think this is a lie. In this post I have talked more about Harry Potter and my cat than the actual, beautiful, book I read.

Most of my friends DO like Harry Potter. And cats.

I swear my friends are real, human people. I swear. 

The Girl with All the Gifts (4), M. R. Carey

Update: You guys! I finally did the .2 second google search to figure out how to add a spoiler button. Welcome to 2015, blog. Or 2000. Whatever. I am awkwardly slogging through my backlog of books that I never wrote blog posts about because I'm reading a really "good" book that is too long ("good" = beautiful/intriguing/incapable of holding my attention with the surplus of shiny unicorns surrounding my tiny brain). So things may be minimalist for awhile. 

ALSO: Apologies to the 10-12 people who have been clicking on my blog post when it comes up for the last TWO MONTHS. I like to believe its the same 10 people who desperately crave my book reviews, who click each time. To you ten, I apologize. I thought if I scheduled a post for every week it would mean that I would actually write the posts, at last. Instead I wrote papers. Lots of papers. I also read lots of books. So I still had a couple weeks of empty blog posts when I stopped it today. And I read like 20 more books. The Stack of blog posts is looking as insurmountable as The Stack of to read books I have on my shelf. 

Today, I am recovered and may write more posts. I may also do the things I should be doing, the jury's still out on that one. If I ever catch up it will be a Christmas miracle. I assume, if it happens, it will be around Christmas time. 

I got really excited about this book when I stumbled upon it on Goodreads and read the entire 5+ chapters excerpt in one sitting. But then I didn't buy the book for awhile because I was poor and in the middle of eight books and I think I was in finals.

Melanie is the brightest girl in her class. Every day soldiers come to her room to escort her to her classroom. Some days her teacher is one person, some days another. The best days are the Miss. Justineau days.

It's more fun if you discover what this book is about as you read it, but if you're not that kind of person, I will talk more about what's going on at the end of this post. So skip that if you want to read the book with a fresh outlook.


Click below if you want the first couple chapters of the book spoiled for you. It's more fun if you don't know...

Melanie and the other children are zombies. They are locked into wheelchairs so they cannot attack the humans. They shower in chemicals and eat maggots once a week. The humans that work with them get sprayed down with chemicals to block their scent so the zombie children don't want to attack them

Reading this book from a self-aware zombie's perspective was fascinating. Having a zombie/human student/teacher relationship to discuss the love we have for each other was so great. I devoured this book.

Pretentiousness, Thy Name is Me (Or, Why I Don't Like Orange is the New Black, the TV Show)

Pretentiousness, Thy Name is Me 

Or, Why I Don't Like Orange is the New Black, the TV Show

Has anyone actually read Orange is the New Black and still like the Netflix show? Ok, better question, has anyone read the memoir? No? Just me? Ok well they are both about a blonde woman named Piper who delivered a suitcase full of drug money for her girlfriend Nora. Ten years later Nora turns her in and Piper ends up in jail.

Here's a problem I have. I listened to this on an audiobook and talked to someone who read the book and watched the show and while I said that an episode one plot point did not happen in the book, she argued that it absolutely had happened. I'm not sure that my listening skills were top notch while I listened to this book, so take that grain of salt and read my opinion.

The major theme I took away form the memoir was how normal everyone was, how boring prison (jail?) was, and I questioned the needs of  those in prison and how well those needs are being met.

For example, going into this book I thought "oh, white collar prison is not so bad. They have cable! They have everything!"
But the beauty of Orange is the New Black (the book) is that you see the agony of boredom and the beauty of the community that is created by the women of the prison. I felt like Piper made friends and while bad things happened, people generally looked after each other.
But maybe I spaced out while running and wasn't listening during the bad parts.

Doll Bones (5), Holly Black

Zach loves two things: playing basketball and playing in an imaginary world he has created with his two best friends Poppy and Alice. Using dolls and action figures, this game has developed into an epic story, full of complex characters, plot twists, and the Queen, an antique porcelain doll Poppy's mother keeps locked in a glass case.

Zach's father, on the other hand, thinks that Zach is too old to play with dolls. After an argument with is father, Zach decides his only course of action will be to tell the girls that he no longer wants to play the game with them. Then, Poppy informs him that the Queen came to him in a dream and told her that she is the spirit of a murdered girl, whose bones were ground up and put in this doll. Now all three of them are cursed unless lay the doll, and the dead girl's remains, to rest in the girl's hometown. The final chapter of their game begins as Zach, Poppy, and Alice embark on an adventure to lay the Queen to rest.

Author Holly Black, cocreator of The Spiderwick Chronicles, weaves a magnificent story melding the real, the gothic, and the paranormal. This is a wonderful book about growing up meant for 10 to 14-year old readers. It walks the line between the fantasy and innocence of childhood and the cynicism and reality of adolescence to tell a story so specific but universal. When do we have to leave the toys of our youth behind? As an adult, and an educator, I raged against the father who wouldn't understand his sons relationship with his friends and the creativity involved in their game.

I read this book in the middle of summer and actually had to put it down at one point because I was a little creeped out. I mean, it was 1am and I should have been asleep anyway but still. I'm trying to read more middle reader books so that I have some idea about what the kid's are reading when I am teaching next year. I was inspired by Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer last year as I was working on my grad school applications, and in my dream world I would be able to craft my Language Arts curriculum based on some of her ideas. Now, being in my second quarter of grad school and actually studying Literacy and curriculum development, it seems like a dream world but also a movement that schools are working towards. Most of the schools that I have been in have developed programs around student's reading a lot of books. What was special about Miller's curriculum was that she gave the students time to talk to each other about the books that they are reading and have loved. As a voracious reader, this feels like the missing piece in many schools. Yes, obviously we need to teach children how to read, but its also important to help them find joy in reading to create lifelong readers.

Wow, that was a long soapbox rant wasn't it? And I just promised you all I'd write shorter posts. *sigh* the lies I tell myself.

Grown Up Gothic

Let's Talk Love Story

More MR fantasy

lighter MR

 

2015: All the Books, None of the Time

Have you ever fallen so very, very far behind that you realize you will never catch up? And you get really, really stressed out and want to curl up in a ball in your bed and...read a book? 

I have read six books since my last post.

I was seven books behind at that point. 

And people keep handing me books. Lovely, lovely people who say, "you like reading. Here, read this thing. I loved this thing. I think you'll like it," and half of me says, "WOW, you are so wonderful! I DO love books, and I do love YOU and I'm sure this will be fantastic!" while the other, saner, less nice half of me goes, "NO THANK YOU. I love you BUT I have a to read list that is literally a mile long and I don't think I will ever read this book." 

I have so many, many books I want to tell you about. And so many homework assignments I should be writing instead. And as much as I dearly love procrastinating, I just can't bring myself to write other things when I have such important items I actually need to write. 

But I so desperately want to tell you about some of these books I've been reading. So I might start posting some very short posts. 

For now, I will leave you with this oh-so-delightfully depressing thing I found on Pinterest.