a bookish blog by twins Anna & Alexis
Anna: I’m excited to share my April wrap up! This month included not one, but TWO five star books for me! Im currently finishing up three books that didn’t make it into this wrap up (classic). I’m also still loving memoir and middle grade!
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren: 4 books
George by Alex Gino: 3.5 books
The Goldfinch by Donna Tart: 5 books
Normal People by Sally Rooney: 5 books
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker: 3 books
What books did you love this month?
Anna: I love apocalyptic fiction, but I heard so many conflicting opinions about this author’s recent release, The Dreamers, that I decided to start with her previous novel.
The Age of Miracles has a lot of potential. At surface level, this book sounds like something I should love. It’s a character drive coming-of-age apocalyptic novel with a young and likable female protagonist, Julia. When earth’s days begin to slow and lengthen, society is split into people who follow the new system of “clock time” and people who abide by the sun and follow “real time”. Those who chose to follow real time are alienated, and the mainstream clock timers begin to exhibit symptoms of a gravity-driven disease.
This book scratches at the surface of something, and then fails to focus on the right things. When something interesting involving the end of the world happened I kept thinking, “we’ll get to that soon” but over and over again, we don’t. The societal division between clock time and real time is such an interesting idea, for example, but it is hardly explored. So much of this book feels like it’s on the surface of something but instead of diving deeper turns away and continues to explore the mundane and expected.
Another big problem I had is that many of the characters just don’t feel believable, besides Julia, who is about only thing about this book that feels real. Julia’s parents are poor stereotypes of a heterosexual marriage. Julia’s mom is always worried, anxious, and nagging her father, while her father is factual and completely robotic. I found it absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable that Julia’s father is completely unworried by the end of the world. HELLO, who wouldn’t be freaking out if Earth’s gravity shifted, people began to get sick, and the days unexplainably lengthened. The fact that he isn’t concerned at all about any of these things drove me insane. The author continually makes Julia’s mom out to be crazy for her anxieties, but since she’s the only character who seems scared by the impending doom, she’s one of the only characters I feel I can trust.
Don’t get me started on Seth. Walker just couldn’t decide what kind of character she wanted him to be. For such a character-driven novel, I expected more dynamic and complicated characters, and this isn’t the case. Both the plot and the characterization fall short.
VERDICT: 3 out of 5 books
Normal People by Sally Rooney is a book that one hundred percent deserves all the hype! I read Conversations with Friends last year, and it was one of my favorite books of 2018. I couldn’t wait for this one to come out, and I preordered my copy from a local independent bookstore.
Normal People lived up to all my expectations and maybe even exceeded them. Sally Rooney has such a literary talent, and I love her writing style. Her characters are unique but–dare I say it–original. Set in Ireland, this novel captures the joy, anxieties and difficulties of college life perfectly.
This follows Marianne and Connell’s relationship over many years, beginning in the Irish equivalent of high school and continuing through the end of college or university. Marianne and Connell have an intense and complicated relationship that began in secret because Connell was popular in high school and Marianne was not. This dynamic shifted when they went to university, creating an undertone of shame, jealousy, and insecurity that they must continually grapple with.
A prevailing theme in Rooney’s writing is the role that miscommunication plays in relationships. She also frequently writes about how differences in social class, the presence of mental illness, and time abroad and apart affect and change relationships. It’s difficult to describe what happens in this book, because it’s kind of about everything. I love how Rooney writes about everyday life so simply but beautifully, and I loved, loved, loved these two quirky central characters.
I cannot wait until her next book!
VERDICT: 5 books
Today I’m introducing a new favorite book! Check out my full spoiler-free review on our blog (link in bio!) My mom read this years ago and tried to get me to read it at the beach, but The Goldfinch is so incredibly detail-heavy that I couldn’t get into it. After reading The Secret History last year, I decided to give The Goldfinch another try.
I’m glad I did! This book is quite a feat to get through, but it’s worth the journey a hundred times over (and it made me miss New York so much!) If you like long and sweeping coming-of-age stories, this is the book for you. Like The Secret History, The Goldfinch is especially drug-heavy and most certainly not any easy read. I knew vaguely it was about art history when I started, but I never imagined the twists and turns this would take, or the impression it would leave!
What I love most about The Goldfinch is our protagonist, Theodore (Theo) Decker. Struck by tragedy in the first chapter (and then again, and again) some would say that he has an incredibly unlucky life. He makes someone bad choices that oftentimes you want to hit him over the head and scream, “What are you doing?” It’s his own difficult life and the messy relationships with the other characters–especially Boris, Pippa, Hobie, and even Popper–that give this book such a spark of life. When it was over, I’d spent so much time getting to know the characters that I didn’t want it to end!
The Goldfinch explores fate, grief and loss, the complexities of friendship, loyalty, and morality, the price of freedom, and the importance of fine art and historical objects of meaning. By the end I felt exhausted, but in the best way.
However, this book is A BRICK, which is why I found it easier to listen to on audio. The narrator did an incredible job making each character sound unique. I never would have been able to imagine Boris’s accent if I’d read this on my own.
VERDICT: 5 books!
Alexis: Read 4/18/19
I was hesitant to read this. I put it on hold at the library so I would have time to think about it for a while, and a month later, I got an email that I could pick it up. And I decided, you know what? Why not!
For those of you who don’t know, last year, my lung spontaneously partially collapsed twice, a couple months apart. After the second one, I had surgery to adhere my lung to my chest wall so that it won’t ever happen again. But because of this, Five Feet Apart was super relatable for me. I found myself knowing how horrible it is not to be able to breathe, to literally feel your lung keep you from taking a deep breath as it fills your body with pain.
That being said, I do not have cystic fibrosis, and I can’t begin to know what it feels like to have a terminal illness. But this book brought back a lot of memories and feelings, and I identified with parts of Stella and Will’s ordeal.
Now, onto the review. I don’t have much to stay about the book other than well done. This is definitely this generation’s The Fault In Our Stars. The story is told from two different perspectives: Stella’s and Will’s. I love alternating POV’s and I found it worked really well for the story. And while I wasn’t a huge fan of Stella or Will’s characters at the beginning, I really enjoyed their journeys and their full character arcs by the end.
The writing style is very conversational. I enjoyed how the authors had the characters use so much modern technology because it felt very true to people/teenagers in real life. I will say that yes, parts of this book are cheesy, and yes, I guessed the ending halfway through. But Stella and Will’s relationship moves at an appropriate pace. I liked all of the characters’ backstories and motivations.
All in all, I think this is a solid YA read that achieves awareness of cystic fibrosis while telling a good story. I’m excited to watch the movie!
VERDICT: 4 ½ stars
Alexis: Happy Friday, everyone!
Yesterday, I got an email that two of my requested library book were ready to be picked up: Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry, and Tobias Iaconis, and Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi.
These are two of my most highly-anticipated reads, and I waited over a month for them.
I sat down and binged all of Five Feet Apart yesterday, so look out for a review tomorrow.
I can’t wait to dig into Gingerbread, because I have a feeling I’m going to love it!
Alexis:
A bookstore where everything is $3 or under? Yes, please! I picked up four books, the max I should probably put in my suitcase, from Lucky Dog Books in Dallas, Texas. My boyfriend, who reads nonfiction/business books, found 5 books!
Anna: I’m DNFing Milkman by Anna Burns. I read 100 pages and I just can’t keep going. I’m finding the writing too lofty. I don’t like how the characters are just called “sister in law” and “maybe boyfriend” seemingly for the sake of sounding literary. And I’m getting slogged down by all the detail. Maybe I would keep reading if I were in a different mood, but I need something more straightforward right now.
I would love to hear your thoughts on Milkman!
🌺Alexis’ April #tbr stack🌺
Did March fly by for anyone else? I kind of wanted winter to be longer; I’m not ready for all this pollen.
FYI: All of these books are secondhand!
This was the perfect light read as I adjusted to my new job–one that I could pick up after a long day of work before bed. A mix of Gilmore Girls and Mama Mia, I enjoyed following the adventures of Ave Maria, the “town spinster” in her mid-30s in the rural mountain town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. After the recent passing of her mother, Ave Maria is the only Italian left. Like any other small town, everyone in Big Stone Gap know everyone else’s business. So when Ave Maria discovers some long-buried secrets about her own identity, the rest of the town is quick to find out.
Parts of this book are downright hilarious. The part when Elizabeth Taylor comes to town actually had me laughing out loud. The same goes for the dog incident and the chicken bone incident. Classic.
I love the Bookmobile, and the fact that Ave Maria loves books. I love her devotion to her town and her mother, despite their faults. I love that Ave Maria is named after a prayer. I love that, because she’s an Italian in the mountains of Virginia, no one can pronounce her name. (My name is Anna-Marie–I can relate.)
Ave Maria does get a little annoying in her stubbornness to remain single,This would have been fine if she truly didn’t want a partner, but her actions tell otherwise. Sadly, she seems more jealous and vindictive toward love more than anything else. She turns men away and insists she’s happy, only to get jealous when those men turn to other women. There are parts of her character that I like and identify with, as I mentioned above, and then there are aspects to her that get really annoying, like her inability to notice what is literally in front of her nose.
Though I enjoyed Big Stone Gap overall, there are some things I can’t get past, which I’ll call here Early 2000’s Problems. It’s kind of like when you watch Gilmore Girls or an old rom com and you’re shocked at how something that you used to regard as so wholesome is actually filled with culturally insensitive, racist, and homophobic jokes. It’s not okay, but you have to approach these things in the context of time and how far we’ve come as a society in accepting people, even since the 2000s (and Big Stone Gap takes place in the late 70s).
Also very 2000’s is Trigani’s assumption that men and women live like species from different planets. There are literally lines such as, “this is how all men are,” and likewise, “ this is how all women are,” this just isn’t the case! Again, I think that this has to be attributed to the time period (either that, or I just haven’t read a romance in a long time). There’s also an undertone in here that men are objects to be won by women and vice versa, which presents a big problem.
Despite the outdatedness, I still did enjoy reading Big Stone Gap, and I would recommend it if you’re looking for a small town southern romance.
VERDICT: 3 out of 5 books
Now for some very specific things that really irked me (spoilers below)–
The fact that Jack essentially bought Ave Maria’s heart when he paid for all her Italian relatives to visit.
The fact that when the family showed up Ave Maria’s own plans were completely pushed aside.
The fact that as soon as Ave Maria cemented her love to Jack, Jack’s mom IMMEDIATELY died, because she knew Jack was in love and didn’t need her anymore.
I totally thought the best friend and band director was going to come out as gay. Maybe he still does later in the series…?
I love Pearl, except that she is the token fat smart girl who discovered makeup and it made her life better.
takes two to book review 