So I'm here to talk about FOUR books today!!! Mini review style. Because I've had this bad habit lately of not blogging lately :( And instead of making excuses why I haven't been blogging, I'm just going to actually blog and review books because this is a review blog...sort of...not really. It's kind of a whatever I want it to be blog. But that's besides the point. What I'm going to give you here are my thoughts on four really excellent books that should have longer posts where I go into extreme detail on why I loved each of them, but honestly, it's either been too long now since I read them or I'm just too sick right now (I have a bad cold) to think clearly enough to write those thoughts out. So without further ado, I give you thoughts...sponsored by cold medicine:
Maybe it is best that I review
I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly in mini-review format, because not much needs to be said about it except for the fact that it's brilliant. It's a graphic novel that deals with the subject of trauma and how one girl, Barbara, deals with it. I posted my thoughts on my tumblr blog about why I think the graphic novel format is so perfect for this type of book, books that deal with psychological issues. I don't think I've read a better book on trauma...that portrayed it so accurately and conveyed the emotions so well...that made me feel the emotions of the character as well as Joe Kelly did with Barbara. The secondary characters in
I Kill Giants were just as wonderful as Barbara. I loved the counselor and her sister and her friend...everyone was so very human. And perhaps that was what made this very
fantastic story so very true and so very beautiful.
Next up is Shirley Jackson's
We Have Always Lived in the Castle which I'm currently hosting for
the
Classic Reads Book Club! And oh what fun it is to be hosting this book right now!!! This was my first Shirley Jackson novel. The only other thing I had read by her was "The Lottery", her short story which I've always loved. This book was wonderful despite a few lingering questions that I have that I'll leave to be discussed at the book club site. It follows two sisters and their uncle who hide themselves away in a house after their whole family has been poisoned by arsenic. They have been acquitted of the murder, but the town has not acquitted them in their minds. Jackson is SO good at setting up a perfectly atmospheric novel and creating this ominous feel to her tales. I just love it! And you always know while you're reading that there's just something "off" about things..the characters, the place, the situation. I just loved this book...though maybe I could've used another chapter to answer a few more questions for me....
By The Time You Read This I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters just knocked the wind out of me. I don't think I was expecting this book to be as emotional of a read as it was. But then again, it's Julie Anne Peters...I guess I should've seen it coming. It's an amazing book. So amazing. It follows a teenager named Daelyn who has attempted suicide several times in her past due to past bullying and traumatic events. But this time, she doesn't plan on living to tell the story. She's joined a suicide website where she's planned her final days and the novel follows her days as she counts down to her "day of determination". Daelyn can't talk for reasons that are eventually explained, yet she meets a boy named Santana who forms an interest in her along the way and we know from the beginning as the reader that he may be her only salvation...but is he even enough? This one is a big freaking punch in the gut, let me tell you...I warned you ahead of time. But it's one that's necessary, as are all of Peters' books that I've read so far. This is an author that I can't thank enough for coming into my life. Her books are just absolutely AMAZING!!! So far I've read about same sex parenting of a teenager, a book about a transgendered teen, and now one about bullying and teen suicide. She writes about things that need to be talked about and are not talked about enough. And she writes about them SO WELL. Read this book.
And finally there's a lovely surprise that I didn't even know existed until a few days ago!!!
The Night Bookmobile by Audrey
Niffenegger! It's a graphic novel that she's just released. It's short, but it's such a treasure. Picture walking into a library and perusing the shelves and realizing that what was on the shelves was everything you have ever read in your life. Like the EXACT copy of everything you've ever read from when you were a child. Even like the back of cereal boxes. Well that's what this book is about. A woman is walking the streets of Chicago one night and finds an old Winnebago on the side of the road and it turns out to be a bookmobile. When she steps inside, she finds that it is a library of every book she has ever read. But it is years before the bookmobile returns again and it becomes an obsession of hers to find the bookmobile again...reading becomes an obsession of hers...books become an obsession...but mostly, finding the bookmobile becomes an obsession. Oh, I really can't tell you much about it because it's so short. But it's so good! The art is so different, but I really liked it! Looks to me as if she did it all in watercolors. If you're a book lover (and we all are) I think you're sure to love this one. And she says in the afterword that it's part of a larger collection she hopes to do called "The Library"! Hooray!!!
Ok...all caught up now finally!!! YAY :D Now back to my current reads,
Fated by S.G. Brown,
The Armless Maiden and Other Tales For Childhood Survivors edited by Terri Windling,
The Stand by Stephen King and
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer. That should keep me busy, eh?
Maybe it is best that I review I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly in mini-review format, because not much needs to be said about it except for the fact that it's brilliant. It's a graphic novel that deals with the subject of trauma and how one girl, Barbara, deals with it. I posted my thoughts on my tumblr blog about why I think the graphic novel format is so perfect for this type of book, books that deal with psychological issues. I don't think I've read a better book on trauma...that portrayed it so accurately and conveyed the emotions so well...that made me feel the emotions of the character as well as Joe Kelly did with Barbara. The secondary characters in I Kill Giants were just as wonderful as Barbara. I loved the counselor and her sister and her friend...everyone was so very human. And perhaps that was what made this very fantastic story so very true and so very beautiful.
Next up is Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle which I'm currently hosting for 
the Classic Reads Book Club! And oh what fun it is to be hosting this book right now!!! This was my first Shirley Jackson novel. The only other thing I had read by her was "The Lottery", her short story which I've always loved. This book was wonderful despite a few lingering questions that I have that I'll leave to be discussed at the book club site. It follows two sisters and their uncle who hide themselves away in a house after their whole family has been poisoned by arsenic. They have been acquitted of the murder, but the town has not acquitted them in their minds. Jackson is SO good at setting up a perfectly atmospheric novel and creating this ominous feel to her tales. I just love it! And you always know while you're reading that there's just something "off" about things..the characters, the place, the situation. I just loved this book...though maybe I could've used another chapter to answer a few more questions for me....
By The Time You Read This I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters just knocked the wind out of me. I don't think I was expecting this book to be as emotional of a read as it was. But then again, it's Julie Anne Peters...I guess I should've seen it coming. It's an amazing book. So amazing. It follows a teenager named Daelyn who has attempted suicide several times in her past due to past bullying and traumatic events. But this time, she doesn't plan on living to tell the story. She's joined a suicide website where she's planned her final days and the novel follows her days as she counts down to her "day of determination". Daelyn can't talk for reasons that are eventually explained, yet she meets a boy named Santana who forms an interest in her along the way and we know from the beginning as the reader that he may be her only salvation...but is he even enough? This one is a big freaking punch in the gut, let me tell you...I warned you ahead of time. But it's one that's necessary, as are all of Peters' books that I've read so far. This is an author that I can't thank enough for coming into my life. Her books are just absolutely AMAZING!!! So far I've read about same sex parenting of a teenager, a book about a transgendered teen, and now one about bullying and teen suicide. She writes about things that need to be talked about and are not talked about enough. And she writes about them SO WELL. Read this book.
And finally there's a lovely surprise that I didn't even know existed until a few days ago!!! The Night Bookmobile by Audrey 
Niffenegger! It's a graphic novel that she's just released. It's short, but it's such a treasure. Picture walking into a library and perusing the shelves and realizing that what was on the shelves was everything you have ever read in your life. Like the EXACT copy of everything you've ever read from when you were a child. Even like the back of cereal boxes. Well that's what this book is about. A woman is walking the streets of Chicago one night and finds an old Winnebago on the side of the road and it turns out to be a bookmobile. When she steps inside, she finds that it is a library of every book she has ever read. But it is years before the bookmobile returns again and it becomes an obsession of hers to find the bookmobile again...reading becomes an obsession of hers...books become an obsession...but mostly, finding the bookmobile becomes an obsession. Oh, I really can't tell you much about it because it's so short. But it's so good! The art is so different, but I really liked it! Looks to me as if she did it all in watercolors. If you're a book lover (and we all are) I think you're sure to love this one. And she says in the afterword that it's part of a larger collection she hopes to do called "The Library"! Hooray!!!
Ok...all caught up now finally!!! YAY :D Now back to my current reads, Fated by S.G. Brown, The Armless Maiden and Other Tales For Childhood Survivors edited by Terri Windling, The Stand by Stephen King and My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer. That should keep me busy, eh?
