The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars
I liked this book. I really truly did. Holden Caufield is definitely a very interesting character to follow. The only problem is that I don’t really know why I liked it. The story didn’t make sense to me, it wasn’t what I expected. Everyone talks of the Catcher in the Rye as a life changing book, but I don’t see what was so life changing about it. It’s about a kid who got kicked out of boarding school blowing his money in New York because he doesn’t want to go home quite yet. It didn’t change my life.
Nevertheless, Salinger definitely has a gift because his book was very compelling. I had a hard time putting it down, and like I said, I really did like it. I think its something everyone should read once.
King Dork by Frank Portman
I’m not gonna lie, I liked this book before I read it. Something about the title really caught my eye. That or maybe it was the beat up look of the cover art. Nonetheless this book was nothing short of amazing.
It’s written in the POV of a fifteen year old boy named Tom (aka Chi-Mo, Sheepie, Father Tom, King Dork, etc) who has just started his second year of high school. He suspects this year will be nothing short that nearly tolerable just as any other year of school has been. He still only has one friend (Sam) and the coolest thing they’ve got going for them is their band with the ever changing title. I’m not joking, they seem to change it once a week, sometimes more. It kinda makes the book more entertaining.
Anyways, Tom is at the rebellious age and the fact that he gets teased in school doesn’t help his attitude. His father had been killed in a car accident when he was eight and his mother (Carol) has remarried (and much to his own dismay his step father’s name is also Tom so to ease the confusion they just call him Big Tom) into a very seemingly awkward relationship. Neither of them like to use the terms “husband” or “wife” but rather use the term “partner”. The way I look at this novel is sorta like The Catcher in the Rye for modern times. On that same note, the book is referenced several times throughout King Dork.
If you like angsty teen novels with the bildungsroman feel then you will love King Dork. By all means, read this book.
Good Omens the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
I had to read this book for my Modern Literature class, and I cannot express my love for this book. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are a literary team made by the Heavens! This book is a work of satire. For those of you that don’t know what satire is, it pretty much makes fun of something in society. It isn’t meant to be exactly funny, but witty. Satire uses both irony and sarcasm to make its points. This alone increased my appeal for the book because satire, irony, and sarcasm are some of my favorite things.
This book is satirical from the first page, and the Dramatis Personae (character list) at the beginning is hilarious. For example: Crowley (An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards). There is further hilarity with the names of some characters Anathema Device. For those who don’t know an anathema is a formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication. The name is ironic because the book is based on religion. Another character is Sister Mary Loquacious (A Satanic Nun of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl). I feel like a vocabulary teacher…Loquacious means talkative. Talkative-Chattering Order-get it? Yes? Okay, moving on.
The book’s main characters are Crowley (formerly Crawly, the serpent who made Eve take the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge), and Aziraphale, an angel who tries to do all the right things. They have lived on Earth for a very long time, and the Devil decides that he wants to try to bring around the Apocalypse, and the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness (aka the Anti-Christ) is born. There is a mix up at the hospital, and the Anti-Christ ends up in the wrong home, leading to hilarity later on in the book.
I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, or anything satirical. You will absolutely LOVE this book!
Review by: sookeh-is-mine.tumblr.com
Calling all Harry Potter fans
departmentofmuggleartifacts:
In celebration of the upcoming release of Deathly Hallows Part 2, I thought it would be a good idea for the large Harry Potter family to unite under the same avatar for the week.
If you love Harry Potter, put this as your display picture.
Reblog and pass on the message.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Warning: There are no dragons in this book, to save the disappointment.
I tried and tried so hard to NOT read this book, but the hipster and me made me give in eventually. That, and I had found out they’re making a movie based off this book. I’ll tell you, this book is AMAZING. However, this book isn’t for the faint hearted or anyone overly sensitives. Even me, being the cold hearted person I am had to take breaks from the text simply because it was getting a far little too grim and intense for me.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s Prologue features an unnamed man (who we soon learn is Henrik Vanger) getting a framed, pressed Australian flower in the mail on his birthday, November 1st. He calls Detective Superintendant Morrell and tells him about the flower. Henrik gets one of these flowers every year on his birthday. He has a total of 44 now. But he and the detective can’t solve the mystery of who exactly keeps sending them. This thought makes Henrik cry.
After the Prologue, a copy of the Vanger family tree is provided for the readers. The rest of the novel is divided into four parts plus an Epilogue. It moves from December 20, 2002 to December 30, 2003.
The first 50 pages of the book, or so is background stuff you need to know but even so I found myself infatuated with the writing style of Stieg Larsson. He went into great depth with his descriptions and wrote things I wouldn’t think anyone could find it within themselves to write.
Within a few moments of finishing this novel I was curious for the rest of the series and sought them out immediately. I am currently reading The Girl Who Played With Fire and that review is next.
Deadly by Julie Chibbaro
New York City, early 1900s. Prudence Galewski is sixteen and starting her senior year of her vocational preparatory school. With her brother Benny dead, her father MIA from the Spanish/American war, and her mother content to stay in the apartment, Prudence spends much of her day imagining of being anywhere but where she is. As girls at her school are expected to work in the afternoon, Prudence begins sending letters to potential employers asking for consideration for a position. After being called in for an interview by a sanitation engineer (epidemiologist) for the Department of Health and Sanitation, she begins inquiring about what she truly questions; Why to people get sick? What causes that to happen? Can we stop it? Intrigued by her questions, Mr. Soper agrees to have her come and work for him. After much trial and tribulation, she quits her vocational school and begins work with Mr. Soper and starts immediately on a case about typhoid. Taking notes with dedication and soaking in the information, they eventually find a potential cause; Mary Mallon. After much trial and tribulation, they capture her (not understanding the scientific theory that one can carry the disease yet not get it, she would not comply with testing) and discover that she did test positive for the typhoid bacteria. They quarantine her, and still not understanding that she is harming people, she petitions the court for her release. The press gets wind of the story, dubs her “Typhoid Mary”, and alters the story. The actual historical story out of the way, at the end of the book Prudence finally gets closure on the type of life she is to have (she decides to try to get into medical school!), closure on the disappearance of her father in the war (dies of Yellow Fever), and she and her mother finally begin to live again. A girl power story, I think this book is great and it isn’t too hard to get into.
Family by Micol Ostow
The star of this book is Melinda (a.k.a. Mel), who runs away from home and finds herself in San Francisco with no money, just riding the bus for several days. On her third day of bus tour, a young man sits next to her and gives her a coffee. His name is Henry, and he invites her to join his family. Completely wooed by Henry, and longing for the family she never had at home with her mom and “uncle” Jack (who I believe did some nasty things to her from what she talks about in the book), she agrees to join him in his van and drive off to his family’s ranch. On her first day at the communistic/socialistic (you’ll see why) ranch, a young girl named Leila meets her at the gate, taking her driver’s license, wallet (with the $3 she had in it), and other personal belongings. After dinner at the campfire, Junior and Shelly go off to the barn. Later Henry and Mel catch up, and Mel has fun (if you know what I mean) with both Junior and Shelly. But Mel absorbs this love, wants it all, and wants Henry’s approval. She reguards Henry as the highest authority and cannot see her old way of life. All family members love on each other and love each other equally, sleep in the same bedroom, and see Henry as the supreme leader. He has a television, his own room, and the like. Each is honored when they get to spend the night and have fun (once again, if you know what I mean) with Henry. The family rummages for food in alleyways in town, and they are all satisfied with their lives. Henry wants to spread the message of his way of life, however. So he arranges for a man to come from a record label. When the man never shows up, Henry sends off Junior, Shelly, Leila and Mel to go on a killing spree, spreading the love. On the killing spree in Los Angeles, where they hit the record label guy’s house first, Mel realizes that nothing lasts forever. Nothing is infinite. And if I’m not mistaken, she realizes that Henry’s way off life might not be the greatest thing in the world either.
“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
~ Shakespeare, via Romeo Montague
Looking For Alaska by John Green
Miles “Pudge” Halter moves from Florida to go to a boarding school in Alabama “to seek the great perhaps” (the last words of Francois Rabelais; Pudge is obsessed with memorizing last words of famous people). He meets Alaska Young, whom he finds very beautiful and interesting, yet she already has a boyfriend. Pudge and his friends near the end of the book must find their way out of the labyrinth of suffering and find out what it is: life or death.
This might seem like the typical boy-chases-girl cliche story, but there’s a twist (John Green never meant it to be a secret what happens, but I won’t spoil it just in case). The before/after layout of the book is genius and reflects the way we generally see the world as in how we were before *significant event* and after *significant event*. Plus, the book is narrated brilliantly with lots of nerdy humor (which, in my opinion, is the best humor).
