where books are always in season
In which I come back after two years (TWO YEARS) and review The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs and give it 4 stars because it was an “insightful and intimate portrait” of one man’s life and an all-around great read.
And then I review Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris and give it 3 stars because it was “interesting and clever” but not for everyone.
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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme was books that celebrate diversity/diverse characters.
I’m not sure that these ten books really “celebrate” diversity as much as they predominately feature non-white characters/poc without making a huge deal about said non-whiteness. Whether in the US or abroad, here are ten novels that at least let readers peak into what it’s like to not be the default standard for protagonists.
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
For the Win by Cory Doctorow
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme was Ten Books I’d Love to See as Movies/TV Shows.
I am too overwhelmed by the thought of these books becoming movies that I have no details beyond ‘give it to me now.’
Movies
Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Lady of the Butterflies by Fiona Mountain
TV Shows
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Blackout (& its sequel, All Clear) by Connie Willis
“Five Favorite” is a feature on thewasofshall where I lay out my five favorite “x”. Sometimes they’re relevant to a season or holiday, mostly they’re not. It’s an all-around fun excuse to give my 100% amazingly awesome opinion. To see previous (and future) topics, click here. To participate, scroll all the way down.
I never thought I liked reading non-fiction – let alone memoirs* – but most of my four- and five-star reviews are attached to the genre†. So, without further ado, here are my five favorite.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned” by Lena Dunham
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs.
* I always used to think that a memoir was just another word for autobiography – but alas! It can also mean biography.
† Is it a genre? Let’s call it a genre.
Have your own five favorite memoirs? Share them! Post them to your blog, link back to this post, and then comment letting me know!
I’ve been accidentally reading quite a bit of non-fiction in the past couple of months, so here are some thoughts on four newish real-life releases (and one not-so-new at all).
Jen Lancaster’s self-effacing wit and sardonic outlook on life might not be for everyone – but she’s pretty much my perfect kind of narrator. Lancaster’s written seven memoirs (with an eighth on the way), so start with Bitter Is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office before embarking on your reading binge. Either you’ll thank me for your new literary friend or hope I never give you a…
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