Book Review: The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
Ever wonder what happens after we die? It’s a heavy question, and one that I choose not to think about all too often for the simple reason that we can never really know the answer until we die. Maybe we are just gone, maybe our spirits live on, or maybe the devout believers in God will at last reach that →
Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Remember watching Dawson’s Creek back in the day and thinking, what 16 year old honestly talks like that? Armed with prodigious vocabularies (I am allowed to use the word prodigious as I am 26 and not 16), they philosophized about the metaphysical, the meaning of life, and so forth as casually as if they were discussing what they had for →
Book Review: The Time in Between by María Dueñas
I’ve had my share of rough times while abroad in Spain – tearfully attempting to explain my vivid yellow diarrhea to doctors who openly mocked me after spending a horrific night hallucinating on the toilet; being guilted into eating ham that was sliced off a pig leg in our pantry – a pig leg that that was still covered in →
Book Review: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
I admit that I might be somewhat to blame for my personal dislike for Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City. After all, I began reading it under the pretense that the book was a work of fiction loosely based on the story of a serial killer who used Chicago’s World Fair to lure unsuspecting women into his arms, and →
Book Review: Monster by A. Lee Martinez
The word monster makes me think of the three things. First, of dancing along to the monster mash as my classmates and I scampered around the Halloween themed obstacle course constructed out of mats, ropes, and scooters in my elementary school gym. The day when the gym lights were turned off, ghoulish music blasted, and the obstacle course stood fully →
Book Review: The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
I’ve read a lot of disappointing books as of late, but this story captured nearly every element of what I consider a great book, reminding me of why I love to read in the first place. It was deeply moving, incredibly powerful, heartbreaking, at times disturbing, and best of all, it had a conclusive ending… in other words, I hated →
Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
This is my spoiler free review of our latest book club installment: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Stay tuned for our in-depth discussion of the novel which will be posted soon! In the unnervingly near future, Ernest Cline describes Earth as a world that has been seemingly drained of any semblance of beauty by its inhabitants. Blue skies are replaced →
Audio Book Review: The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman (Read by Gary Chapman)
I know I know... Many of you are thinking. Really? This loser is going to review a self-help book about LOVE on this site??? I can just skip this (and you can, if you really want to)! But bear with me! My next review will be on Ready Player One, a book which will suit many of your tastes far →
Audio Book Review: How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper (Read by Amanda Ronconi)
It is beyond me why people with annoying voices decide that it is their calling to narrate audio books. Enter Amanda Ronconi, narrator of Molly Harper’s book. She manages to make an already poorly written book even more horrible, especially every time she did her “man” voice. Her rendition of all male characters sounded like a 100 year old crotchety →
Book Review: Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
There must be something wrong with me. It usually takes me upwards of eight hours to write a short three page story based on my own life. Hans Fallada, on the other hand, wrote Every Man Dies Alone (a rather lengthy novel) in just 24 days, shortly after being released from a Nazi insane asylum. The novel is based on →
Book Review: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
Our last book club selection was Robopocalypse. If you have already read the book, definitely read the discussion between Lauren, Zach , and I. However, I wanted to give a spoiler-free review of the book for those of you who have not yet read it and are thinking about it. Robopocalypse is a book unlike any I have read before, which →
Audio Book Review: American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson (Read by Craig Ferguson)
I usually love reading books written by comedians. Even if they are telling what would ordinarily be a boring story, they often manage bring a witticism to it that allows the story to transcend its boring nature and become enjoyable. I was hoping from the same from Craig Ferguson, but was utterly disappointed. I probably could have predicted that there →
Book Review: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons, is a hilariously witty, tongue-in-cheek parody of the melodramatic novels published before and around the 1930’s which featured rural life at its finest: laden with the ever-present promise of impending doom and imminent despair (usually featuring a heroine prone to hysteria and fainting spells). Gibbons' story begins with our recently orphaned heroine, Flora Poste, deciding →
Audio Book Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? (And Other Concerns) By Mindy Kaling (Read by Mindy Kaling)
Before listening to Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, I knew Mindy Kaling only as the self-obsessed and sometimes annoying Kelly Kapoor from NBC’s The Office. I didn’t know that she also coproduces the show, and additionally has written some of its most hilarious episodes (anyone remember the episode where Michael accidentally grills his foot in a George Foreman? That →
Book Club in Session – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Heather: My sister, boyfriend, and I have recently started up a book club (if you can even call a meager three people who happen to be reading the same book a club). Unfortunately for me, they share much the same taste in the fantasy/horror genres (a far cry from my beloved Chelsea Handler and Jodi Picoult), which leaves me searching →
