The hype gets it right yet again. I avoided reading Angie Thomas’s debut novel until two days before it was the borrow expired (despite waiting over three months for my turn in the queue). I had heard great things about the book, but some days I’m not up for taking a book-driven tour through the dark places. And the blurb of this one is dark. Just in case you don’t know the plot summary: Starr Carter is a typical high school junior. She plays on her […]
Am I out of breath from laughing or running?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that nothing good can come from reading. Let us observe Joel Cohen. Cohen, a writer for The Simpsons and noted couch potato, found himself under the spell of Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run (reviewed by Halbs) and decided to take up running. When running didn’t kill him, he decided to run a marathon. See where reading leads you, dear reader? But it seems the damage is done for you and I, and if one must read, I can wholeheartedly […]
Parker does it again (needs more Richard)
Despite the generally positive reviews, I avoided Lucy Parker’s follow-up to the delightful Act Like It for fear that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. Big shock: the book is excellent. (Though Act Like It will probably remain my favorite.) Pretty Face has an additional 100 pages which Parker uses well. Lily and Luc are both three-dimensional characters. Lily is a vampy soap actress with her first role in a big ticket West End production. Professionally, her overblown Marilyn Monroe-esque features and breathy, sex kitten […]
Su Yi’s dying, who’s got the will?
The short, short review: YESSSSSSS! The short review: the Youngs of Tyersall Park are back in fine form in the last entry in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy. If you enjoyed either of the first two books, you’re going to want to read this one. The long review: from the end of Crazy Rich Asians, readers had to know this book was coming. With Nick, the long-presumed heir of Tyersall Park, disinherited, who was going to get the estate and all that fabulous wealth? Ethereal […]