Books – Page 3 – takes two to book review

Review: The Terrible by Yrsa Daley-Ward

August 13, 2020 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Trigger warnings for sexual assault, drug and alcohol addiction, and domestic and physical abuse

“They are not ours, the stars/and have never been.”

Anna: Let me just say that when I bought this in the $1 section of Strand, I didn’t know that it was a memoir told through poetry. I am not a huge fan of poetry, but The Terrible blew me away. Most of it is told through narrative style poems, which helped make it less scary for newbies like me. But there were some really beautiful poems in here that were much more experimental in form than I was not expecting to enjoy.

Yrsa grew up with her ultra religious grandparents in Northwest England. We follow Yrsa’s childhood, her troubled relationship with her mother, her love for little brother, and her journey into adulthood and ultimately finding herself as a poet and a person. Be warned–this is extremely dark and in some ways is largely the story of Yrs’s struggle with drug addiction. I could not stop reading and flew through it. I especially loved her relationship with her little brother. My only complaint is that I think the final poem tied everything together a little too nicely.

Maybe I’ll read more poetry now?

VERDICT: 4 out of 5 books

Review: City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

October 20, 2019October 20, 2019 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Anna: If you’re looking for a spooky middle-grade read this fall, City of Ghosts is the book for you! Cassidy Blake isn’t a normal girl: after a near-death experience, she can see ghosts and move between the ghost and human world.

I really liked Cassidy as a protagonist, though I did think her relationship with her parents was a little lacking and hope it is developed more in the sequel. Edinburgh is also the perfect ghostly backdrop to this story. Honestly, this would have terrified me as a kid.

VERDICT: 4 stars

Review: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

October 5, 2019 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Anna: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls is the best memoir I’ve read since Educated. If you haven’t read it yet, you should stop everything you’re doing and read it right now.

Jeanette grows up in extreme poverty in Appalachia with an alcoholic father and neglectful mother. Jeanette and her siblings were horribly abused, but the book also details glimpses of beauty and love throughout her life. The book shows how her past and her family continually follow her even when she leaves West Virginia for New York. Most astonishing is Walls’s power of forgiveness.

I also watched the movie, which I’m happy to report is just as good as the book!

Anna’s September Reading Wrap up

September 30, 2019January 26, 2024 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Anna: It’s the end of September! The leaves are officially starting to change, and it was cool enough today to break out my boots! It’s supposed to be 90 degrees on Wednesday, but I’m still embracing fall to its fullest! Here’s what I read this month:

5 stars:

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

4 stars:

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Bloomland by John Enlehardt

3.5 stars

California by Edan Lepucki

3 stars:

Eden by Andrea Kleine

The take away from this month’s wrap up is that if you haven’t read The Glass Castle, you need to. There will be a review coming soon! What did you read this month?

Library/Library Sale Haul

September 28, 2019September 28, 2019 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Anna: Happy Saturday, bookish friends! Here’s my library/library sale haul from this morning. My currently reading pile is about to get a whole lot bigger!

Disappearing Earth and Mostly Dead Things are long-awaited, very-anticipated holds. I have high expectations!

I’m stocking up for My Harry Potter re-read. I grew up reading my family’s copy of Order of the Pheonix which is completely falling apart and now bound together by tape. I snagged this copy for 50 cents!

One of my current reads is The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, so when I saw another book by her I couldn’t resist. I’m captivated by her writing and excited to try some of her fiction!

Have you read any of these? Check them out!

Review: The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

I have a love/hate relationship with this book, and series.

The first 400 pages of The Wise Man’s Fear is long-winded and unnecessary. On the other hand, the second half is plot driven, exciting, and plays a huge part in Kvothe’s growth as a character. But it takes a certain amount of determination to get there!

What bothers me most about this series are Rothfus’s misogynistic, sexualized, and unrealistic portrayals of women. All the female characters are frustratingly one-dimensional, and even the women who are strong in different ways end up being sex symbols.

However, I loved the character development and world building in book 2. The many different places and cultures in this book blew me out of the water. Kvothe grows and matures significantly as a character. He experiences different cultures, meet new people, and proves himself as a multifaceted and complicated character who is more than just full of himself.

Despite my differences with this book, I’m honestly so excited for book 3, if it is ever published!

VERDICT: 4 stars

Currently reading: Late Summer

August 19, 2019 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Anna: Happy Monday from my two current reads!

I’m finally getting to the second book in the Kingkiller Chronicles series. I’m 300 pages in and completely swept up once again into Kvothe’s story! I’m finding that it mimics the first book maybe a little too closely so far, but I’m excited to see the direction it goes. Will Patrick Rothfuss ever finish the third book?

I’m also loving We Are Okay, a novel that’s deep, character-driven, and introspective in a way that YA novels sometimes aren’t. I’m finding the slow pacing a great contrast to an action-packed fantasy.

5 star review: The Witch Elm by Tana French

August 15, 2019 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Anna: New favorite book (and author?) alert! VERDICT: 5 stars

Toby is the kind of guy who has always had it easy. He’s always been fairly popular, successful at his job, and has never had to worry about money. Until one night, when he’s beaten so badly in his apartment that he nearly dies. Afterwards, he experiences amnesia and some brain trauma. Following his accident, Toby learns that his Uncle Hugo is dying of brain cancer. Toby and his cousins return to Uncle Hugo’s Ivy House, where they spent their summers growing up. When they find a dead body in the Witch Elm on the property, everyone in the family is a suspect–and Toby, it seems might be suspect number one.

I couldn’t put this down. The Witch Elm is the kind of book that rewards you the more you read, as the events in the beginning seem unrelated at first and slowly become more and more a part of the larger plot. What I really love about this book is that French’s characterization is fantastic. Toby is an often unlikable and undeniably realistic character who I’m pretty sure I would hate in real life. After Toby’s accident, he’s forced to examine how he’s treated others over the course of his life.

There’s also the murder aspect of the book, which twists and turns the more you read. Because of Toby’s amnesia and other evidence, Toby is immediately one of the top suspects in the murder, and he graps at nothing as he tries to remember what he might have done. On top of it being a who-done-it-book, at its core The Witch Elm is a complicated family drama about the secrets families keep together and the ones they keep from each other.

I’ve already put In the Woods, at hold at the library, the first book in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series. I can’t wait to read her backlist!

Review: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

August 9, 2019 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Anna: Three Women is hands-down the most original book I’ve read all year. Inspired by the stories of three real women, Lisa Taddeo explores how women are blamed and othered for showing any kind of sexuality that goes against the norm.

My favorite story to read was Maggie’s, who had an inappropriate relationship with her teacher when she was in high school. Looking back on it years later she realizes that she was taken advantage of, but when she presses charges no one wants to see the truth.

This is a slow but explosive book that shows how women are systematically shamed and repressed. It’s not exactly hopeful, but it’s important, and something I’m going to be thinking about for a long time.

VERDICT: 4 books

How Many Books is Too Many Books?

August 6, 2019 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Anna: How many books do you read at once? I’m always going between two or three–one audiobook and one or two physical books!

Though I prefer physical books, audiobooks are an easy and enjoyable way for me to read while I’m at work, working out, or doing chores. I often listen to crime fiction, nonfiction, and long books that I find difficult to read in their physical form. I’m actually listening to a fiction book now, though, The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray.

At home I’m currently switching between a memoir, My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul, and Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, which I’ve almost finished and I’m loving!

Check out what I’m currently reading: