Tag Archives: lit

The Love Wife by Gish Jen

The Love Wife by Gish Jen Took me quite a long time to get through. Didn’t connect with these characters as much as I did in Typical American or Mona in the Promised Land. Still good. In a lot of ways this book is more about a well-meaning white lady trying to best care forContinue reading “The Love Wife by Gish Jen”

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay So… confession. I also read her book An Untamed State and was not impressed. I wanted to be. I follow Gay on Twitter and tumblr and am an all-around fan, so I scooped up that novel with enthusiasm, but for me it just fell flat. Another confession: I read thisContinue reading “Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay”

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson I really loved the beginning of this book. It felt raw and real and dealt with adult-type things in a teen-like way. It was great. The language was sharp and funny and insightful. Once you get about a quarter of the way in it starts becoming moreContinue reading “I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson”

A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain by Adrianne Harun

A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain by Adrianne Harun This was one weird book. Basically a tale of good vs. evil with a little bit of poverty and race politics. It was OK. I didn’t feel compelled enough the unfurling evil to put up with the flowery, detailed language and endedContinue reading “A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain by Adrianne Harun”

The Circle by Dave Eggers

The Circle by Dave Eggers This book made me super tense the way an all-night HTML-fixing session or internet black hole does. It’s basically 1984 (George Orwell) with a female protagonist and the internet as your enemy. I simultaneously wanted to delete all of my internet profiles and check my Twitter followers. Read this ifContinue reading “The Circle by Dave Eggers”

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler I’ll be honest, even though I read the back, I quickly forgot that this was a book about a girl who lived her life with a chimp. This is an easy-read, fun-to-read, easy-to-empathize with book. It also made me want to deeply research animals. IContinue reading “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler”

Vida by Patricia Engel

Vida by Patricia Engel Not much to say about this book, which is not to say I didn’t like it. It’s a series of short stories about the same main female character at different stages. Rough and tumble and a little gritty. Really pleasant to get through, strong strong descriptions. I’d call it the femaleContinue reading “Vida by Patricia Engel”

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo This is a really gorgeous book. I think my only criticism is I could have easily spent a few hundred more pages with the main character. I wanted to more time spend with her coming to her own in America, the challenges that presents.  There’s a lot goingContinue reading “We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo”

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara This was kind of a weird read for me. Pleasant, seriously interesting premise (low-brow scientist ends up discovering a turtle that keeps people alive for hundreds of years past their natural expiration date). It’s a little mysterious and long-winded. It took me a while to get throughContinue reading “The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara”