Read and Dream: My Book Life

Mini-Reviews: Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist, Without You, There is No Us, and A Thousand Splendid Suns

So I've been pretty inactive recently, and I apologize :( School really is a burden, and I have such respect for bloggers who somehow manage to do both at the same time. The good news is, I have been reading A TON lately.

So to give you short snippets of my thoughts on these three INCREDIBLE novels, I have started this Mini Reviews series to make sure I get straight to the point.

Hi everyone! I'm honored to bring author Andrew Joyce onto the blog to talk about his newest book, Yellow Hair. I was intrigued by its premise of the Sioux Nation and Wounded Knee, all topics that I feel like there isn't enough popular literature about. I truly believe taking the time to explore these untold stories is incredibly rewarding, and I hope you enjoy our brief conversation!

Title: Catch-22
Author: Joseph Heller
Genre: Classics

Blurb: Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—novels of all time. Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

Me:

" There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to."

This was a wild, wild ride. Filled with humor, quirky characters, and bitter satire- captures how ridiculous and absurd war is. It's certainly dense, and a little difficult to get into, but it's definitely worth it.

Let me share some quotes with you that capture the essence of this novel better than I ever could.

Title: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Author: Jack Thorne (+ J.K. Rowling)
Publisher: Little, Brown
Genre: Play, HARRY POTTER (it's its own genre)

Blurb: It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Me: First of all, can I say: HELLOOO!! I've missed being on here! I'm overwhelmed and school is wild, but I do think I need to come back to one of the places I love the most- blogging! And what better book to kick off my return with than the last Harry Potter?

I have to say, I never thought this day would come. I started blogging in 2014, and I never imagined people would want to read Harry Potter reviews more than a decade after the books came out. But I get my chance! It's here, I've read it, you should too...CURSED CHILD!

Title: The Wrath and the Dawn
Author: Renee Ahdieh
Publisher: Putnam
Genre: Fantasy, Retellings, YA\

Blurb:One Life to One Dawn.

Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

Me: Such a beautifully woven story that tells a tale unlike any other.

Title: The 100-year old man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared
Author: Jonas Jonasson
Publisher: Harper Collins
Genre: Humor, Contemporary

Blurb: It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan’s earlier life in which – remarkably – he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century.

Me: Hilarious! Came to me during a reading slump, and completely cured it. Such a nice change to a lot of the dramatic books I've been reading lately.

Hello everyone, and I'm sorry for the long absence! (I feel like I'm saying that a lot) But this time there is (sort-of) a legitimate excuse. SUMMER STARTED! Here in the States, summer break starts around the beginning of June for me, and as soon as school let out, I planned to read a book a day, write blog posts all the time, and watch a lot of movies.

Until I realized I was almost never home for the next two months or so.