This is my SHINY SHINY SHINY book While I really enjoyed Echo’s Sister by Paul Moiser, the writing is in a “debut author” style (meaning it can be a little “unsmooth” at times) even though this is his second book. It is also overly optimistic and “sweet” while dealing with a tough subject. With all that said, it is aimed perfectly at the audience of ages (high reader or concept understanding) 8 or 9-year-old up to about 10 years old. However, a slightly older […]
A Seemingly Moderate Take on Terminal Illness
Best for: People who enjoy memoirs such as When Breath Becomes Air. In a nutshell: Now-deceased writer Nina Riggs documents her illness from diagnosis onward. Line that sticks with me: “These are the things we all say at the end of book club now: ‘I love you.’ Of course we do. Why haven’t we been saying that all along?” Why I chose it: Memoir + death = A Lollygagger staple. Review: Author Nina Riggs gives us a gift with this book, in that it isn’t […]
Finally, an unreliable narrator who isn’t horrible
I’ve written fairly extensively about how much I dislike unreliable narrators, and how books written to damage the psyche are, I think, grotesque and antithetical to everything I want in a book. The narrator here is struggling through a fairly difficult time in her life, and therefore can’t always be relied on to objectively perceive her reality – but I think it’s handled in a way that is fair to the characters, and it’s done in service to the story, not as some cheap ploy […]
Throwing a kitten out a window was only a warning shot.
Halfway through Moonglow, I caught myself with my hand over my mouth, trying to keep my breath inside my body because the prose was so exceptionally beautiful. I had my worries before reading this book. I have only recently discovered Chabon, and have only otherwise read The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, which was so stunning that it made me want to punch something. There is a lot of hype surrounding Moonglow, and even I only got it by accident from the library on a strict, one […]