(Modern) Classic Book Review: The Neverending Story

TITLE: The Neverending Story
AUTHOR: Michael Ende
PUBLISHED: 1979
CATEGORY: Middle-Grade
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: A boy finds a book that magically transports him to a magical land.
MY THOUGHTS: I have seen the Neverending Story movies a long time ago. I believe back in middle-school, actually. I enjoyed them well enough. That's kind of my reaction to the book: I enjoyed it well enough. It's not really life-changing or anything, though.
Probably if I had read this as a tween, it'd be a different story. If you have a tween into fantasy, give them this book. They will probably at least get a kick out of it. Me, I just can't give it more then a shrug. Part of it is that it's predictable. Nothing happens that isn't really unexpected. It follows typical fantasy quest rules. It's wish-fulfillment for boys, basically. It is also frankly...a little dated. Female characters don't really do anything, the one PoC character is a horrible stereotype. He...kind of does stuff, but is quickly pushed aside, once Bastian goes into the book. Which...I get it, it's a wish-fulfillment book. So naturally, everyone is going to be focused on making Bastian the best hero he can be. It was still kind of annoying though.
So...I get why it became a thing. It's a decent story and does the trick. There's some meta stuff in the beginning about reading that I really liked. For the age group it's aimed at, I recommend it. For older folks though...I suspect it might bore you. Especially if you're like me and have seen the movies, so you already know what happens.
WHO SHOULD READ: Tweens/Middle-school/early high school readers, fantasy fans

Book Review: If Beale Street Could Talk

TITLE: If Beale Street Could Talk
AUTHOR: James Baldwin
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: 1974
GENRE: Contemporary
PREMISE: A husband and wife try to figure out how to get him out of prison when she discovers she is pregnant.
MY THOUGHTS: This is the first James Baldwin book that I've read. I've been meaning to read him for years, but best laid plans and all. This was a random read. I had a few hours to kill at the library while waiting for someone, so I picked up a small book I could find and read it. This turned out to be that book. It is under two-hundred pages. You can read it in one sitting.
It is a short book that packs a powerful punch. As with most literature, it covers a lot of subjects: racism, prison, classism, family issues and so much. There is a lot in this under two hundred page book. As with most classics, the way it deals with women leaves something to be desired (there's a moment of abuse with a husband that basically gets dismissed by everyone. Which...no. Not okay). But other then that, this was a damn good book. I definitely get why Baldwin is a thing.
I'll probably be picking up more Baldwin in the future. I don't know when exactly. But it will be soon.
WHO SHOULD READ: James Baldwin fans, contemporary fiction fans

Reading Through the (Modern) Classics: Rubyfruit Jungle

TITLE: Rubyfruit Jungle
AUTHOR: Rita Mae Brown
PUBLISHED: 1973
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Contemporary
PREMISE: A woman goes through life figuring things out and being proud of who she is.
MY THOUGHTS: I have so many mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, there things in here that make me side-eye the author really hard (like some very judgmental comments about pretty much everyone who doesn't live the life the main character/author seems to think they should be living). On the other hand...it was written in the seventies.
On one hand....nothing really happened? I'm reminded a lot of On the Road, where the characters just go here, do stuff and then move on. I mean, this at least didn't have the sexism and whatnot of On the Road. I definitely liked the characters better in this book. But again: slow plot. But on the other hand, context is important when reading classics. This was a very bold book when it was written in the time it was in. On the other hand writing is....eh.
So...yeah. I don't know how to feel about this one you guys. I didn't hate it...but I didn't love it either...but I also get why it made the splash it did when it was published. Just...I have a lot of mixed feelings.
WHO SHOULD READ: those looking for more LGBTQA classics, Rita Mae Brown fans,

The DNF Club: January 2017

So while I do manage to get a lot of reading done, there are also just as many books I don't finish. These books, I don't rate or write reviews for because I feel one should read completely before one rates something. However, one person's bad book is another person's best book ever. So I thought this year, I'd switch it up and show you the books I started but wound up ditching.

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
Category: Adult fiction (some say it's true crime....I'm...not so sure about that)
Genre: Horror
Published: 1977

I picked this up because there's yet another Amityville movie out and I'm trying to read some of the book to movie adaptations this year. I hated the writing style with the power of a thousand burning suns. I quit after five chapters.

On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Category: YA
Genre: Magical Realism
Published: 2006

This was very much a case of it's not you, it's me. I'm sure this is a perfectly fine book. For people who actually like magical realism.

Love, Lies, and Spies by Cindy Anstay
Category: YA
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 2016

I wanted to like this one so bad, but it kept infantilizing its so-called super smart main character, demonizing everything feminine to show us how super special she was and so on and so forth. By her third damsel in distress moment, I was done.

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti
Category: YA
Genre: Mystery
Published: January 2017

The mystery game was strong in 2016 for YA. I read a lot of great twisty thrillers. A lot of them, this past week. I was hoping this debut this year would be a continuation of that. Alas...it was not. The main character sounded much younger then someone old enough to go off to college soon. The mystery part took forever to get too and the conclusion the MC makes about what could have happened to Lizzie was so out of left field, I just had to reread that part five times to make sure I was reading it right. I gave up ten chapters in when I realized I just didn't care anymore.

#Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
Category: Non-Fiction
Genre: Memoir/Self-Help
Published: 2014

Dear people who put this on feminist recommendation lists: you should have read that introduction first. You know, the one where she insists she's not a feminist and this like isn't a feminist memoir and like feminism isn't bad but like we don't need it, but like like...basically I kept wanting to belt out the Sorry Babe, You're a Feminist song from Broad Comedy at her. When I saw there was a chapter titled you are not a special snowflake, I knew right away this book wouldn't be for me.

For those wondering about the song I'm talking about, here:

Reading Through the Classics: Tuck Everlasting

TITLE: Tuck Everlasting
AUTHOR: Natalie Babbitt
PUBLISHED: 1975
CATEGORY: Childrens/Middle-Grade
GENRE: Historical Fiction, Magical Realism
PREMISE: A young girl meets a family who are blessed (or cursed) with eternal life.
MY THOUGHTS: Somehow my younger self has never gotten to this book. No, I don't know how that happened. I've seen the movie with Alexis Bledel, but I've never read the book. Since last year was the fortieth anniversary of it, I figured it was time to read it.
If you've seen the movie, the book is mostly the same story. The only major difference is, there's no romance between Winnie and the younger Tuck. Because Winnie is like, ten years old. I'm a little disappointed in the movie for forcing a romance into a story where there was no romance to begin with. Especially considering the story got on just fine without romance in the first place. The prose in this book are lovely. It's a very fast read due to it being less then two hundred pages, but the author manages to have a satisfying story within that short page count.
I definitely see why the popularity of this book has lasted. I'm not sure how well it would go over with today's youth (it's very slow paced compared to most of today's fiction), but it's definitely worth a look.

Book Review: Kindred

TITLE: Kindred
AUTHOR: Octavia Butler
PUBLISHED: 1979
CATEGORY: Adult/Modern Classic
GENRE: Sci-Fi/Time Travel
PREMISE: A black woman living in the seventies, with her white husband gets sent back in time to her ancestors who live on a slave plantation in the south.
MY THOUGHTS: Butler was an author who was around for quite awhile. She's what I call a quietly well known author. Meaning that in certain reader circles, her name is passed around like wildfire. When I did my search into old sci-fi to look into, her name was one that kept popping up on lists. However, if you talk to a casual/mainstream reader, chances are they'll say "who?". Never mind that she's won both Hugo and Nebula awards.
I wish she was more well known after reading this. This book was awesome. It's like a ten times better version of A Time Traveler's Wife. Some of you may recall, I loathed that book. Well, this book takes that premise of a person time traveling for random reasons and actually gives it a much better spin. Personally, I can't help but wonder if this is where Niffenger got her inspiration from in the first place.
I will warn: this is not a light-hearted book. It does not sugar-coat the south or what went on in that time period. Dana has some pretty horrific experiences while in the past. If you're looking for a romantic view of the past, this ain't it. This is not escapism sci-fi. It does however make you think. If anything, it kind of shows how far we haven't come. There are some attitudes in this book that have not gone away from both the history part and the present day era I'm sorry to say.
WHO SHOULD READ: Sci-Fi fans, Time Traveler's Wife fans, time travel plot fans, those looking for diversity in their sci-fi