Books that don’t match their descriptions are extremely annoying, and this one especially so. The book jacket says, “It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.” And the beach scene really is exceedingly horrific. Unfortunately, the comic relief I was led to expect never followed. I failed to be even slightly amused by this story of Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, whose life becomes entangled with a vacationing English couple.
Undiscovered Gyrl is the blog of a young woman who has decided not to go to college directly after high school. Her life as a drifting HS graduate is confused and not a little sordid. She becomes involved with three different men, and eventually becomes pregnant and has no idea which man might be the father. ****Spoiler Alert **** As her blog comes to a close, we learn that her entries are largely fabricated, and her whereabouts unknown. Her large and oftentimes disapproving readership makes the ending a gut-puncher, and leaves more questions than answers.
Although Williams is primarily a triathlete, her book is really for anyone looking for inspiration on their journey to fitness. According to her, this book is for “real people with jobs and kids and love handles”. As a plus-sized athlete, she advocates concepts like abandoning self-consciousness, being slow, embracing bodily fluids, and becoming an active wear advocate. She asks her readers to examine their motivations for losing weight and to change their focus to being fit.
Over the mountains from the land of Graceling is the Dells, an equally enchanting land. Fire's life has been very sheltered, and for good reason, she is a monster. With a wild beauty and hair the color of flame, her namesake, Fire has the unique ability to control the minds of humans and animals. But Fire guards her power, afraid to misuse it like her father, Castrel, the monster adviser to the previous King who used his powers to almost destroy the kingdom.
Jessica is looking forward to her senior year of high school in small town Pa. This is supposed to be the best year of her life, hang out with friends, get into a good college, and possibly get her first kiss. But everything goes horribly wrong on the first day of school when she is surprised by a creepy guy hanging out at the bus stop, crazy hippie parents won't give her a car. She swears she can hear him whisper her name before she gets on the bus, but it isn't the name Jessica, it is Antastasia, the name she was given as a baby by her birth parents.
Two reviews ago I declared Sherman Alexie’s The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian a must read. So I fear readers might deem me as too generous is declaring The Photographer a must read so soon afterward. But alas, it’s a risk I will have to take.
Kuffel offers interesting insight into her weight loss, different from a how-to diet book or even an account of how she did it. Her focus in on why she did it, and how her own journey transformed her relationships and her life is an engaging read about one woman’s struggle to overcome a lifelong addiction.
I have been watching quite a bit of anime lately to get ready for the anime festival coming up on November 7th (mark your calendars). There was one anime which I loved but just didn't seem to fit the festival, so you won't get to see it on the big screen but I would recommend checking it out from the library and watching it at home. Makoto is having a bad day. She woke up late, and just barely made it to school on time.
The character of Charles Strickland, an eccentric painter who deserted his family to paint, is based on the Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin. The narrator, after a knowing Strickland intermittently over a period of years shares what he knew of the man. The book was published in 1919, so the language took a little getting used to. But what makes the book a gem, are the generalizations about women that were assumedly accepted during that time.
Tally is painfully aware that she is hideously ugly. But she is about to turn the much anticipated 16, and where Tally lives your 16th birthday marks the day you get full body plastic surgery. This is surgery unheard of in modern science, it isn't just some botox and a face-lift. This alters you forever. The doctors can change you hair, eye and skin colors, your bone structure, your curves, your muscles, your teeth, and more. It is a full body overhaul. Tally is looking forward to her 16th birthday and imagining how pretty she will be once the surgery is over.
