The Fault in Our Stars is the first John Green novel I ever read. It is also the only John Green novel I ever enjoyed. After finishing it, I hunted down his other books and was soundly disappointed. They all had some variation of a dull male protagonist, his quirky unobtainable love interest, his far more interesting friends, and his oddly lenient parents. I couldn’t take it anymore after Paper Towns. But that was a year ago, long enough for me to recover, and I am so happy I gave this […]
Spoiler: She dies at the end.
“It is not difficult to understand why Caesar became history, Cleopatra a legend.” I heard of this book thanks to The Daily Show. I love bios about royal women and the author is obviously super-smart. So I went out and bought the book, and I promptly left it unread for a couple of years. (That’s a bad habit of mine.) The whole kerfuffle over Sony’s film adaptation brought it back to my attention. Stacy Schiff gleefully debunks everything you thought you knew about Cleopatra. No, she wasn’t Egyptian. Not only was she Greek, she came from the same Macedonian stock […]
“Every person has their own color.”
I am an avowed fan of Haruki Murakami. I look forward to his new books like they’re Harry Potter sequels. But besides my usual excitement, I had especially good feelings about this one. I loved the title. I loved the cover art. And best of all: It’s about a third the size of 1Q84. Domo arigato, Murakami-san. While I liked 1Q84, at 925 pages it did feel a little flabby. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki went the opposite route in that it left me wanting more. At […]
Pusheen is my spirit animal.
If you’ve been on the internet at all, you’ve probably seen Pusheen in one form or another. She has a blog, a set of Facebook stickers, and a bunch of merch at online indie shops. If you’re already a fan, you will get most of your favorite comics in one book. And if you’re a newbie, hopefully you will be inspired to check out her tumblr. My darling BFF and I had a belated Christmas gift exchange. This is what she got me, minus the chocolate. I’ve already eaten that. I have one cat, and […]