This book could be a good choice for readers who are into dark YA, or I guess just anyone who’s interested in depressing themselves for a day or two on purpose.
Continue readingThe Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Category: Book Reviews
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
This is a good choice for anyone who’s looking for something a little darker to read as we approach Halloween — and it’s short, too, so it’s not too much of a commitment if you’re really just looking for a little fun-sized candy for your brain.
Continue readingA Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Practically every review I’ve seen online for this book raves about it, and nearly everyone I’ve talked to about it IRL, too. I guess I’m a bit of an outlier for just feeling kind of meh about it.
Continue readingThe Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat
The Blind Owl is one of those rare works that so effectively depicts a person’s descent into dark madness that it threatens to drag the reader under, too. It reminded me a bit of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, albeit much more violent.
Continue readingFeminist Cross-Stitch by Stephanie Rohr
I’d recommend this book to cross-stitchers who’d like something message-focused to work on, particularly to beginners who are uninterested in the typical kits offered by big-box crafting supply stores, as well as crafters who just prefer physical patterns to a digital ones.
Continue readingA Contract With God and Other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner
I think this is well worth tracking down for anyone who is interested in adding an atypical classic work to their to-read list, but especially for modern graphic novel readers who want to get a taste of what the form was like at its inception.
Continue readingIncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
It’s a story that should be required reading for any student of the history of our country, personalizing as it does the horrors of slavery — but it’s also the kind of book that a reader has to brace for before jumping in.
Continue readingHawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen by Lili’uokalani
This is a fairly remarkable book in that it is a story told from the viewpoint of a loser in a political struggle; many losers in history have been censored or entirely silenced.
Continue readingI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
This is the sort of book that sticks with you even long after you’re done reading it. If you have room in your reading life for a memoir and haven’t picked this one up yet, I highly recommend that you put it on your list.
Continue readingThe Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
I have to be honest here; I could barely finish the book.
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