the book bum

     Little libraries are so damn cute!  The books inside are usually kind of eh, but I still love them and whenever I see one, I stop to take a picture. These pictures have been accumulating on my phone for quite a while now, so I thought I'd share them with y'all.      You're welcome!  Unless you had your heart set on reading a nice book review.  In that case, sorry? Spotted at Harvard University We found a Book of Mormon at this one. I think this was by Prospect Park? Admirably tidy. My bookshelves don't look this nice. Awww, they painted it      - Carly

     The best part of this book was its structure.  I've never read a book whose structure served its message so perfectly. The narrative of  Bluest Eye  is built around Pecola Breedlove, a young African-American girl living in Ohio in the late '30s, early '40s.  The story is never told from Pecola's perspective, however.  It is told from the perspectives of the people around her who destroy her.  I won't say how she is destroyed or what these people do to her.  But I will say that they are ordinary people, neighbors and friends and family members, whose acts of racism eventually tear her apart. Many of these acts are not drastic or unusual, and their very ordinariness forces the reader to reflect on the effects of his or her own actions and prejudices.       Morrison chose to write each chapter from the point of view of a different character.  Only one narrator, one of Pecola's friends, recurs in multiple chapte...

Starring aliens, cow inseminators, and children named for ancient scholars!      I know this book is good because I shook with silent laughter while reading it on the subway.  I was so enraptured that I did not mind the silent judgments of my fellow passengers - all that mattered to me was the madness I was reading.        Quesadillas  is called  Quesadillas  because that is all that the protagonist, Orestes, and his impoverished family can afford to eat.  The setting is Mexico during the 1980s', a time of economic and political turmoil for the country.  The endless inflation, corruption, and poverty which Orestes's family is forced to endure is so extreme (though true) that it seems absurd.  But instead of trying to piece together a traditional narrative with this absurdity as a backdrop, Villalobos gives the absurdity free reign and allows it to run the story.  UFOs, hysterical pilgrims, a Polish cow inse...