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finallyfinnian's reviews
72 reviews
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
5.0
It's not often that I read a book and wish someone else was reading it at the same time as me so I can look at them and say, "Did you feel that?"
It took me 37 pages to realize I loved this book. Before that, I couldn't get into the prose, I found Oskar's POV too jarring, somewhat annoying. I dragged through the first 37 pages because someone I trust implored me to read this book. I'm glad I kept going because from that page on, the book is a masterpiece of life and all the odd, frenetic, messy, complicated people in it.
It's heart-achingly real and even the things that seem fantastical don't really seem unbelievable because the people in this world are so very very strange.
I love odd and compelling books. If you do, as well, you'll probably love this.
It took me 37 pages to realize I loved this book. Before that, I couldn't get into the prose, I found Oskar's POV too jarring, somewhat annoying. I dragged through the first 37 pages because someone I trust implored me to read this book. I'm glad I kept going because from that page on, the book is a masterpiece of life and all the odd, frenetic, messy, complicated people in it.
It's heart-achingly real and even the things that seem fantastical don't really seem unbelievable because the people in this world are so very very strange.
I love odd and compelling books. If you do, as well, you'll probably love this.
The Martian by Andy Weir
4.0
For most of the first part of the book, I found it interesting but not compelling. The first-person personal log narration of Mark was interesting because of the challenges of surviving on Mars, but the style was dry. When the book shifted over to NASA and their first inclination that Mark was alive, I started getting more interested. After that, the book kept my attention and ended up being a fantastic story.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
4.0
I recently reread this for a class on satirical books and the saddest part about it is how little the things Twain was railing against have changed. Like 1984 or Herland, this book is worth a reread if only to see how far we have *not* come.
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
5.0
This is probably the most painful book I've read in years. Gay's writing is clear and honest - raw, one might even say. The subject matter, both on the size of her body and the rape she experienced as a child struck my own life experiences, maybe not in every way, but enough to make this so painfully real.
I would say to anyone who has not lived as a fat person in this world, please read this book. And to anyone who has or does live as a fat person in this world, please read this book. We need this.
I would say to anyone who has not lived as a fat person in this world, please read this book. And to anyone who has or does live as a fat person in this world, please read this book. We need this.
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Yvette Jackson, Zaretta Lynn Hammond
5.0
I find most teaching books to be kind of dry and lofty - not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. It's nice, however, to read an educational book that is also accessible and interesting. Like any how-to book, there are things in here that will work for me and things that won't. But for the most part, I found this book an important manual on how to be a culturally responsive educator, something that has always been important and is even more so now.
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
5.0
I read this for a class I took on Baldwin's novels in times of crisis. (An excellent class, by the way.) The beauty of Baldwin's lyrical prose is that he can craft a novel in which none of the characters are actually likable and still make it compelling enough to keep reading. There are so many layers to this book, it's almost impossible to touch on them all. The love affair between David and Giovanni is just a surface layer. The book didn't leave me feeling satisfied - instead, it left me feeling as if I needed to reread it to try to dig out everything I missed in the first reading.
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
5.0
This is my favorite Baldwin book - maybe because of the magical language, maybe because of the miracle of the love between Tish and Fonny, maybe because of the beautiful insight into each character as told through Tish and her unflinching eye... but mostly it's because of the obvious warmth, respect, and love Tish and her family share. Though tragedy strikes in several ways, the love in this family is palpable. Could Tish have had such unconditional love for Fonny if she hadn't been loved so deeply by her family?
It's also important to view this book as an indictment of the racism in this county - with issues and injustices that are still perpetrated against Black people in this country today. I recommend this book on so many levels.
It's also important to view this book as an indictment of the racism in this county - with issues and injustices that are still perpetrated against Black people in this country today. I recommend this book on so many levels.
Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias
5.0
Wow. Seriously, skip this review and just read this book.
Damn this book. It’s not a just a horror book. It’s not just a crime novel. It’s not just a deep dive into insanity and a chilling horror. It’s not just about the way grief, violence, and lifelong oppression live on bodies. It’s not just insight into what makes people do the horrific things they do. It’s not just an invitation to look at your own life and realize your comfort is because of the luck of place of birth and nothing else. It’s all these things and my brain barely had time to rest from one chapter before moving onto the next. Iglesias captures the inner lives of so many different people in various stages of life, grief, desolation, and shame and he does it so deftly, I believe each character as much as the last. Some scenes almost broke me. “La Bruja” was always bone-chilling and brutal. I stopped for a break after each appearance, but I was too involved to stay away.
I spent this entire book either saying, “Holy sh*t!” or “What the f*ck just happened?” and being torn between wanting to slam the book down because it was so evocatively written, it made me physically uncomfortable, and unable to slam the book down because it was evocatively written, I couldn’t stop reading.
I read some sections with my mouth hanging open the entire time and some I read holding my breath. Reading some scenes made my fingers hurt.
The reader gets to occasionally float through the book on the lyrical language before being stabbed in the face with reality over again – it’s a hard read because it’s so real and also unreal. It’s an easy read because it is so beautifully written.
What the hell with the ending? How could it end there? How could it not? It was perfect and horrible all at once. But… Some things ended so badly. And some things left me with more questions than answers. And why did the author allow me the briefest hope that something might turn out okay for that one character before slamming the door on me. The injustice of it all sucks so bad. Just like life sometimes.
Listen. It’s that good. It’s really that good. I can’t pin down exactly what I want to say about this book because it’s not like anything I’ve read before. I don’t know how else to describe it. I loved it and hated it like you would love and hate someone who wrecked you to the soul and made you thank them for it after. I want everyone I know to read it, even the ones who can’t possibly appreciate it as much as I did.
If you do read this, and I highly recommend you do, please let me know what you thought. I’ll probably still be processing it.
Damn this book. It’s not a just a horror book. It’s not just a crime novel. It’s not just a deep dive into insanity and a chilling horror. It’s not just about the way grief, violence, and lifelong oppression live on bodies. It’s not just insight into what makes people do the horrific things they do. It’s not just an invitation to look at your own life and realize your comfort is because of the luck of place of birth and nothing else. It’s all these things and my brain barely had time to rest from one chapter before moving onto the next. Iglesias captures the inner lives of so many different people in various stages of life, grief, desolation, and shame and he does it so deftly, I believe each character as much as the last. Some scenes almost broke me. “La Bruja” was always bone-chilling and brutal. I stopped for a break after each appearance, but I was too involved to stay away.
I spent this entire book either saying, “Holy sh*t!” or “What the f*ck just happened?” and being torn between wanting to slam the book down because it was so evocatively written, it made me physically uncomfortable, and unable to slam the book down because it was evocatively written, I couldn’t stop reading.
I read some sections with my mouth hanging open the entire time and some I read holding my breath. Reading some scenes made my fingers hurt.
The reader gets to occasionally float through the book on the lyrical language before being stabbed in the face with reality over again – it’s a hard read because it’s so real and also unreal. It’s an easy read because it is so beautifully written.
What the hell with the ending? How could it end there? How could it not? It was perfect and horrible all at once. But… Some things ended so badly. And some things left me with more questions than answers. And why did the author allow me the briefest hope that something might turn out okay for that one character before slamming the door on me. The injustice of it all sucks so bad. Just like life sometimes.
Listen. It’s that good. It’s really that good. I can’t pin down exactly what I want to say about this book because it’s not like anything I’ve read before. I don’t know how else to describe it. I loved it and hated it like you would love and hate someone who wrecked you to the soul and made you thank them for it after. I want everyone I know to read it, even the ones who can’t possibly appreciate it as much as I did.
If you do read this, and I highly recommend you do, please let me know what you thought. I’ll probably still be processing it.