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aliciaclarereads's Reviews (1.25k)
read for Popsugar 2017 challenge: a book about an interesting woman
read for Popsugar 2017 challenge: a book set in two different time periods
Helen Oyeyemi's prose is really gorgeous. This woman knows how to string a sentence together. The ending came so fast and out of nowhere, and I was a bit unsatisfied, but I know there's a lot I'll spend mulling over.
Two particular moments that really struck me: how no one but Boy recognizes Bird's costume. Alice in Wonderland is such an iconic costume, but for it to be unrecognizable due to Bird's skin color hit me hard. I also recently went through a hashtag of black cosplayers on twitter, and I hope these are biases we're moving away from. Secondly, the mention of Emmett Till given how it has come out that the white woman made up the story of the whistling. I know that scene strikes hard, but it strikes even harder knowing what we do now.
Helen Oyeyemi's prose is really gorgeous. This woman knows how to string a sentence together. The ending came so fast and out of nowhere, and I was a bit unsatisfied, but I know there's a lot I'll spend mulling over.
Two particular moments that really struck me: how no one but Boy recognizes Bird's costume. Alice in Wonderland is such an iconic costume, but for it to be unrecognizable due to Bird's skin color hit me hard. I also recently went through a hashtag of black cosplayers on twitter, and I hope these are biases we're moving away from. Secondly, the mention of Emmett Till given how it has come out that the white woman made up the story of the whistling. I know that scene strikes hard, but it strikes even harder knowing what we do now.
read for Popsugar 2017 challenge: a book with a month of a day of the week in the title
(okay this is a bit of a stretch/cheat but oh well!)
(okay this is a bit of a stretch/cheat but oh well!)
read for Popsugar 2017 challenge: a book written by someone you admire
read for Popsugar 2017 challenge: a book that's becoming a movie in 2017
This is technically a dnf because I got 70% through and could not push myself to listen to anymore. I looked up how it ends, and a friend who had finished it told me about it (she also did not like this book).
I've read a decent amount of dystopia due to its YA boom and my junior seminar for the English major was Utopia/dystopia themed. The first time I heard about this book was from that class. I got this on audiobook, and I did like the narrator, although his voice reminded me of the man who does the advertisements on NPR's podcasts.
This book fell so flat. Nothing about it was new or inventive. It was 1984 for the modern age, but it really just felt like a retelling, which frankly, we don't need. Mae was the DULLEST character ever who did not have a single original thought in her body. She literally never questioned anyone. I'm not saying she needed to be leading the revolution, but she just so blandly accepted everything. I read another review that so much of Mae's dialogue was responding to questions from others, and these questions were all essentially leading questions; frankly, I could not agree more.
Maybe I just can't imagine a world where privacy is so undervalued (this could be influenced by listening to a podcast interview with Edward Snowden over the weekend, so I think there will always be a fight to maintain privacy). This morning, I listened to Bailey's conversation with Mae and how he believe's access to everyone's personal experiences is a basic human right. I literally yelled, "healthcare isn't even a basic right yet!" This book didn't even touch at all on other inequalities we face in regards to race, gender, sexuality, religion, class, etc. There's was no depth to this novel for me.
I was also deeply uncomfortable bythe sex scenes. Perhaps I'm spoiled by reading so much romance in the past couple years all by female authors. Something felt off about Eggers' writing. I couldn't stop cringing. I have listened to sex scenes before in audio format, so I know it was the writing and not the format. Also Kalden being Ty was SO PREDICTABLE.
I typically try to power through books just to finish them, but in this case it wasn't going to happen. The movie adaptation is getting horrible reviews, which is a shame because it had a great cast of actors. Oh well.
This is technically a dnf because I got 70% through and could not push myself to listen to anymore. I looked up how it ends, and a friend who had finished it told me about it (she also did not like this book).
I've read a decent amount of dystopia due to its YA boom and my junior seminar for the English major was Utopia/dystopia themed. The first time I heard about this book was from that class. I got this on audiobook, and I did like the narrator, although his voice reminded me of the man who does the advertisements on NPR's podcasts.
This book fell so flat. Nothing about it was new or inventive. It was 1984 for the modern age, but it really just felt like a retelling, which frankly, we don't need. Mae was the DULLEST character ever who did not have a single original thought in her body. She literally never questioned anyone. I'm not saying she needed to be leading the revolution, but she just so blandly accepted everything. I read another review that so much of Mae's dialogue was responding to questions from others, and these questions were all essentially leading questions; frankly, I could not agree more.
Maybe I just can't imagine a world where privacy is so undervalued (this could be influenced by listening to a podcast interview with Edward Snowden over the weekend, so I think there will always be a fight to maintain privacy). This morning, I listened to Bailey's conversation with Mae and how he believe's access to everyone's personal experiences is a basic human right. I literally yelled, "healthcare isn't even a basic right yet!" This book didn't even touch at all on other inequalities we face in regards to race, gender, sexuality, religion, class, etc. There's was no depth to this novel for me.
I was also deeply uncomfortable by
I typically try to power through books just to finish them, but in this case it wasn't going to happen. The movie adaptation is getting horrible reviews, which is a shame because it had a great cast of actors. Oh well.
read for Popsugar 2017 challenge: a book set around a holiday other than Christmas
Between this and Big Little Lies, I can sense a similar structure to Moriarty's work, one that I quite like. This was not quite suspenseful, especially because I guessed what the husband's secret was rather early on. But it was a really solid story with a great ending, the epilogue in particular!
Between this and Big Little Lies, I can sense a similar structure to Moriarty's work, one that I quite like. This was not quite suspenseful, especially because I guessed what the husband's secret was rather early on. But it was a really solid story with a great ending, the epilogue in particular!
read for Popsugar 2017 challenge: a book you bought on a trip
Third time's the charm, and I've finally finished this book! While McEwan has a gorgeous way with words, this book is agonizingly slow. I think I'll be adding this to the short stack of books where I prefer the movie.
Third time's the charm, and I've finally finished this book! While McEwan has a gorgeous way with words, this book is agonizingly slow. I think I'll be adding this to the short stack of books where I prefer the movie.
read for Popsugar 2017 advanced challenge: a book recommended by an author you love (Sarah Dessen)
I started this book knowing I'd 100% love it. Listening to the audiobook was just like carrying Lorelai Gilmore around with me. I really loved listening to her describe the Gilmore Girls revival, because I have such complicated feelings towards it, and her describing it as a frantic, emotional, surreal experience... really made a lot of sense.
And yes Lauren, those last four words were a cliffhanger!
I started this book knowing I'd 100% love it. Listening to the audiobook was just like carrying Lorelai Gilmore around with me. I really loved listening to her describe the Gilmore Girls revival, because I have such complicated feelings towards it, and her describing it as a frantic, emotional, surreal experience... really made a lot of sense.
And yes Lauren, those last four words were a cliffhanger!
read for Popsugar 2017 advanced challenge: a bestseller from 2016