A semi-classic

Lucky Jim

My fake aunt gave me this book (a novel from the 50's by Kingsley Amis) for my graduation because it's her favorite. It's a British book about a slacker named Jim who is trying to please his boring boss in order to keep his job as a history professor. Things get a bit more complicated when he takes in interest in his boss's son's girlfriend. Madness ensues.

For the first chapter or so, I thought this book seemed kind of boring, but after a while I got a lot more into it. It's quite witty and funny. It kind of reminds me of "The Importance of Being Earnest," but they're not that similar. I think it's just the whole British comedy with an entertaining character taking interest in a girl thing. In the end, I really enjoyed it. I give it 8.5 pretzel bites!

KAY

A brief post from Paris

The Book Thief

This novel by Markus Zusak was passed along to me after everyone in my family read and enjoyed it. It takes place in Nazi Germany and features a young German girl named Liesel Meminger. It follows Liesel throughout her childhood, looking at her brother's death, her foster family, her friendship with a boy named Rudy, her friendship with a Jew being hidden in her basement, and, of course, her book thievery. It's narrated by Death.

I loved this book! It's categorized as a young adult book, but I think it reads well for people of all ages. I thought it was interesting to look at World War II from a German perspective. It's funny at times and heartbreaking at times. The imagery is wonderful. The characters are complex. There are so many beautiful lines. Overall, it was just generally amazing. 9.5 pretzel bites!

KAY

After all the hype

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

For months, I've been hearing about this novel by Junot Diaz and how great it is. The main character, Oscar, is a Dominican, overweight sci-fi obsessive who wants nothing more than to find love. The book follows Oscar throughout his brief life, and also tells the story of some of his other family members, like his sister and his mom. It also continually ties back to the Dominican Republic and Dominican culture.

After all the hype, I was expecting this to be one of the greatest books I'd ever read. At first, I wasn't really interested in it at all. I thought maybe I wasn't smart or patient enough to understand the greatness, or that maybe I needed to be more well-versed in sci-fi or Dominican culture. After a while, I started to enjoy it more. It was kind of funny/engrossing at some parts. In fact, a lot of times it reminded me of the book "One Hundred Years of Solitude," but I'm not entirely sure why, because I wouldn't really classify it as magic realism. Anyway, I didn't find it as amazing as the rest of the world seems to have. I also think the ending would have been better if the last chapter wasn't there. I give it 7 pretzel bites.

KAY

Finding Amazingness

Looking for Alaska

This was the only book that I hadn't yet read by John Green (see reviews of his other books here and here), and it was definitely my favorite. The book is about a boy named Miles (nicknamed Pudge) who goes off to boarding school and makes mischief and new friends, specifically the girl who becomes his new obsession, Alaska. The book is divided into "before" and "after." Now, you may ask, "Before and after what?" Well, you'll just have to read the book and find out.

And you should. Read the book, I mean. It's funny, it's touching, and the characters are great. You'll learn lots of famous last words. John Green never underestimates the intelligence of his readers, which I greatly appreciate. He writes books that are enjoyable and easy to read, but still carry a lot of meaning. I loved this novel! An enthusiastic 9 pretzel bites.

KAY

Already excited for Oberlin!

Await Your Reply

Summer time is finally here and I'm so excited to be reading again! I picked up this book, by Dan Chaon, because I'm going to Oberlin College in the fall where I want to study creative writing, and Dan Chaon is one of the creative writing professors there. Plus, oddly enough, he is good friends with one of my favorite high school teachers. I hope he doesn't leave before I get to have him as a professor because I was very impressed by this novel.

There are three separate story lines in this novel that eventually connect: Ryan, a college kid who just found out a big secret that's been kept from him his whole life, Lucy, a high school graduate who runs off with her former history teacher, and Miles, who has been looking for his missing and slightly insane twin brother Hayden for 10 years. Over the course of the book, the stories start to connect. At first, it is just in subtle ways, such as theme (the exploration of identity is a big one), but by the end, they are completely intertwined, and it's fun to find the clues along the way.

I suppose this is a suspense novel, but normally when I think of suspense novels, I think of a really exciting plot with lots of twists, but then characters and writing that are a bit shallow and underdeveloped. However, even through the plot twists, I feel like at it's core, "Await Your Reply" is still an excellent piece of literature. The characters feel real, and the prose is beautiful. I was very excited by this book, and I give it a solid 8 pretzel bites.

KAY

Let the summer reading begin

Atlas of Unknows

I finally finished my first book of the summer! It's a novel by Tania James about two sisters from India. The eldest, Linno, is an excellent artist, but her life hasn't exactly followed the traditional path, and she is haunted by her mother's death. The younger sister, Anju, is incredibly intelligent and wins a scholarship to study in New York, where things don't go exactly as planned.

I liked this book alright. It was written in a very slow and descriptive style, and I kept expecting to get more into it as the plot picked up and I began to connect more with the characters, but it never really happened. Plus, the ending wasn't as satisfying as I would have liked. I'm completely fine with loose ends, I just wish the whole story was given a little more meaning. I give it 7 pretzel bites.

KAY

Light reading with substance

The Man of My Dreams

I first picked up this book because I read Curtis Sittenfeld's book "Prep" and really enjoyed it. Overall, I think I liked "Prep" better than this one, but this was still a good read. I know that from the title, it sounds all, "OMG I had a turbulent romantic history but true love will prevail!" but it's not really like that. I thought the characters came across as very real, complex, and relatable. What I really like about Sittenfeld's books is that they're really addicting and easy to read, but at the end I still feel like she has something of substance to say, which I really appreciate.

This is a book about a girl named Hannah and her ideas about love. It follows her from her junior high days up through her late twenties. I don't know how to easily sum up the plot, but I guess I'll just say it's about broken families, feeling abnormal, waiting, loneliness, and things not going according to plan. In the beginning, I thought I wasn't going to like it, because the junior high part feels a little... well, distant, I suppose, but after that it really picks up. Also, I thought the ending could have been stretched out a bit more. Everything was just wrapped up in letter form, which I didn't really like. But! These are just minor complaints. 7.5 pretzel bites.

KAY