Rated The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia 8/10
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Rated Bernice Summerfield: Road Trip 8/10
Very much enjoyed this. Looking forward to the final installment in this particular trilogy of stories.
Rated Shadowshaper 8/10
<div>I've had this book hanging around forever, and just finally got to it. A really great YA fantasy that uses metaphor without beating readers about the head with it.</div>
Rated Self Portraits: Fictions [Hardcover] 6/10
I’m not going to lie — This book went a bit over my head. Though I did not feel dumb while reading it, I spent the entire time feeling as though I did not have the right points of reference. Filled with allusions to art and literature, Frederic Tuten’s Self Portraits: Fictions would likely be loved by a reader on the same mental trip, but that reader, despite some effort, was not me. <br><br>(Read the full review over on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/12/self-portraits-fictions.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Wants to read The Making of the Tudor Dynasty
Rated On Revision: The Only Writing That Counts 5/10
Edited 46d ago
Wants to read When Christ and His Saints Slept
Wants to read Role Models by John Waters
Rated What Stalks Among Us: A Creepy and Atmospheric YA Thriller About Teens Trapped in a Haunted Corn Maze 10/10
<div>Absolutely LOVED this. I'm not a regular reader of YA — not for any snobby reasons; it's just not where my attention usually takes me — but I'd read and enjoyed Sarah Hollowell's previous book (A Dark And Starless Forest), so I knew I was in for a good time. Well... a tense time! <br><br>And WOW does Hollowell keep up the tension! Two high school seniors encounter a mysterious corn maze in springtime Indiana and soon find themselves trapped, unsure of the new rules for their environment, and also... is that a dead body that looks just like one of them? What a beginning! <br><br>The story also deals with the lingering effects of emotional abuse and other toxic relationships in a way that intertwines with their current circumstances, but never feels predictable or cliché. I genuinely did not know how the story would shake out until the main characters did. I also very much appreciated that the main characters are just friends. No shoehorned romance here! There's too much to deal with!<br><br>If you enjoy psychological horror with characters who feel very true to life, do pick this up.</div>
Wants to read The History of the Rebellion: A New Selection
Wants to read The Hundred Years War: A People's History
Rated Same Bed Different Dreams 9/10
<div>At first I wasn't sure this was for me, or that maybe I was just reading it at the wrong time in my life, but I was interested enough to keep going, and I'm so glad I did. This book is so inventive and interesting. Instead of trying to fully describe what this book is — a many layered, complex alternate-but-not history of Korea, but also the U.S.— I'll quote Alexander Chee from a recent edition of his newsletter:<br><br></div><blockquote>I made note of the many tiny connections at first thinking to use them in the review but of course not only are those spoilers, but such an effort would end up with me looking like someone in front of a murder wall, insisting on a theory held together by string and tacks and photos of people you can almost make out.</blockquote><div><br>I am sure this is a book that rewards rereading. New things to notice, new connections to be made. I can see why Park took his time writing it. What a feat.</div>
Rated Selections from the writings of Kierkegaard 5/10
<div>I am loosely trying a few reading challenges this year again (though they don't entirely dictate what I've been reading), and one of the categories in more than one of them was "A Favorite Writer's Favorite" or something along those lines. And even though I know plenty of writers and read interviews with plenty of others, of course I immediately blanked out on every book any of them had ever suggested (even though I've probably read some of those books!). So I decided to google what influenced Patricia Highsmith, and apparently (though not surprisingly), she liked a lot of existentialists and related writers, including Kierkegaard. You'd think I would've remembered this from reading a biography about her, but no! I have read a little of Kierkegaard in various classes way back when, and I knew he was readable enough, so off to Project Gutenberg I went to see what was available.<br><br>And this is... fine. Not the BEST thing you'd want to read sometimes before falling asleep, tbh, but that's on me. The man manages some breathtaking misogyny in one section, which, given that this was written over 100 years ago, makes it loop back around and is almost funny in how assertive it is? WOMAN UNSERIOUS CREATURE. MAN SO SO SERIOUS. etc.<br><br>The rest deals with Christian ethics, and he picks it apart in a way that I imagine drove some religious people up the wall, but also bolstered the arguments against organized religion among the atheists (which is perhaps what Highsmith got out of it, since she wasn't religious).<br><br>It's sort of ridiculous to give something like this a star rating because even though I wasn't overly into much of it (and the introduction written by someone else is VERY dry), I also see how other writers and thinkers took this and either said, "Yes, and..." or "This is some hot bullshit, and here's why." Existentialists! Your individual mileage often varies! Best of luck!</div>
Wants to read The Murder of Charles the Good