the book bum

     Hey guys!      So my English teacher assigned the book Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko for homework over spring break.  The book is set in the American Southwest, which by chance is where my family spent this break.  Specifically, we are in Arizona.  Reading Ceremony while exploring its setting was an enlightening experience - I've never had my reading material fit my location so well, except for the occasional NYC-based novel. Visiting Native American ruins and museums was especially helpful because the book's protagonist is  a young Pueblo World War II veteran.      From now on, I think I'll make an effort to match my travel novels to my travel destinations.  Here are a few ideas:      - The Dubliners by James Joyce in Dublin, Ireland      - Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov on an American road trip      - The Odyssey by Homer in Greece      - Carpe ...

     Seeing as I am re-reading Beloved and thus have no new books to review for you, and seeing as the school year is (wahh) about to start again, I thought I'd share a list of my favorite assigned books from this past school year, if only to give me hope for this year... Why I hate school... I mean really 1.  A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - You already know . 2. Dispatches by Michael Herr -  The Vietnam War veteran experience, as reported in stream-of-consciousness style by an Esquire magazine journalist.   3. Paradise Lost by John Milton - Antiquated perception of women's role in society aside, the writing is beautiful and the characterization of enigmatic figures such as the Devil is daring. 4. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien - The Vietnam War veteran experience, expressed in short story form. 5. The Secret Life of Pronouns by James W. Pennebaker - I can't recommend this book highly enough! You'll learn all kinds ...

Snooze break at GovBall       I went to GovBall a few weeks ago!  It was my first music festival and I had a blast.  I saw so many amazing artists - Florence + the Machine, Kate Tempest, Marina and the Diamonds, Angus and Julia Stone, Drake, et cetera.  I could go on forever but I'm probably boring you all, so I'll just say that I've had music on the brain since GovBall, and this reading list is a result of that. 1.  Elenor and Park by Rainbow Rowell: This cute YA romance is made interesting because it dares to break several conventions of the YA romance genre.  For example, the girl is not drop-dead gorgeous.  Anyway, the couple, Elenor and Park (durr), connect through music - Park brings his Walkman on the school bus every morning, and they share earbuds on the ride to school. 2.  Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist  by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan: Another romance in which the characters are united by their love of musi...

     Is this post relevant to this season?  No.  But do I care?  Again, no.      Below you will find a list of personality types and books that might make good gifts for each.  I don't pretend to address all or even most of the personality types on Earth with this list, and I can't guarantee that the recipient of your gift will enjoy the books that I recommend, but hey, I'm trying. NERD: This one's easy - wrap up a science fiction classic!  I suggest Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card, or The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.  The His Dark Materials trilogy is great too, although it's more fantasy than science fiction. That Person Who Loves Inspirational Quotes: A Chicken Soup for the Soul book is definitely a safe bet here.   Traveler: 1000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz is perfect for someone who is constantly planning their gap ye...

     I was going to title this post "Best War Books" or something like that, but then I realized it would be really, really arrogant to assume that my little slapped-together list actually contained the very best books on a subject that has been so well covered by so many authors.  So I only hope to share a few of my favorite books about war with you; I can't promise they are the best.        War is terrible, but it sure inspires some wonderful books. 1. Dispatches by Michael Herr - I've never read a book like this before - it's very stream-of-consciousness and studded with historical and musical allusions (I actually made a playlist out of all the songs and artists that Herr mentions).  It's a mash-up of poetry, journalism (Herr was reporting on the Vietnam War), and novel that captures the chaos of war in a way that no standard narrative could. 2. Exodus by Leon Uris - Reading Exodus , which in simplest terms explores the history...

Resolution: Will attempt to finish the O. Henry Prize Stories of 2003      Ahaha, sorry I haven't updated in so long.  I have no excuse other than that this month, once I was done with a frenetic school day plus homework and studying, I wanted to do something mind-numbing like watch Skins and documentaries rather than blog.  But I feel disciplined today, so I am suggesting a New Years' Resolution to you all: Read more short stories!        This is a resolution for me too because I read far more novels than short pieces.  But I have read some really awesome short stories in the past and I feel like I should seek out more this year.  A good short story is the bridge between a poem and a novel: it is as concentrated, delicate, and detailed as a poem, but allows for more story, more character development, and more drawn-out exploration of themes.  Short stories deserve more love than the word is inclined to give them.  He...

Dalat Central Market in Vietnam       I have recently fallen in love with the idea of taking a gap year after I graduate from high school.  I think knowing that there is a spectacular backpacking trip to Southeast Asia at the end of the nightmarish, sleepless tunnel of high school will make it easier to endure :D  But while I am still trapped in the United States, I intend to travel vicariously through books instead.   1. Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell - An unspontaneous, bookish 16-year-old girl (ohmigod, that's me!) is "kidnapped" by her bohemian grandmother and dragged through Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.   2.  City of Beasts  by Isabel Allende - The story of another uptight young person - male, in this case - whose eccentric grandmother takes him adventuring - in the Amazon, in this case.  Allende tackles environmental issues and the persecution of native peoples by Westerners, all the while describing the jungle in ethereal d...

     Most people have sappy days.  Most of my friends will tell me that they have days when all they want to do is switch on Netflix and find a movie that makes them cry.  But, you know, sometimes the Internets are not working or all that blue light is making your eyes bleed.  To remedy such crises, I have created this list as an alternative for people who would like to read a book that will make them cry.  Some of them are romantic-sad, some of them are tragic-sad, some of them are beautiful-sad. And I guarantee that all of them are good as well as tear-jerking.   My cat is having One Of Those Days 1. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - Whoa, whoa, wait .  Is this really a YA romance in which the girl isn't gorgeous and flawless???  Yes.  Yes it is.  You're welcome. 2. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Di Camillo - An arrogant porcelain rabbit doll is lost by a little girl and learns what love is by l...

          It's been way to long since I posted some yammerings here!  Sorry.  School started again and things got crazy.           I should be going to bed right now so this will have to be a short post.  I guess, since I am feeling very excited about the arrival of fall (Every time the seasons change I hyperventilate with joy! It's exhausting), I should make a list of cozy fall books.  Do you know what kind of books I mean?  Comforting, heart-melting ones.  I would not, for example, recommend The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or 1984 specifically for a list like this - the former is so ridiculous that it sort of stretches your mind out of shape like a very old T-shirt, and the latter makes you question EVERYTHING and wake up in cold sweats as you question the very nature of human nature.  Not that they are not phenomenal books; they just don't belong on this list.   Hitchhiker's Guide is OBVI...

          The summer has officially begun!           And not because classes are finally, finally over.  No.  The summer has begun because my co-blogger Grace and I went to our annual library sale this weekend!            This tradition, in which I force Grace to take me to her country house (which was built in the 1700s'!) so we can go to the Stone Ridge Library sale, is quite central to our friendship and, furthermore, provides me with a security net of books that I can dip into at any time for the rest of the year.  It's MUUUCH cheaper than going to Barnes and Nobles every time I finish a book, that's all I can say.           So this is a list of what I picked up this year! 1. From Rockaway by Jill Eisenstadt - Rockaway is my beach!  I spend pretty much all summer there, so I had to read this. 2. Handbook of Short Story Writing: Volume II , edited by Je...

      So, I have been a very happy camper in English class this month because we have just started the POETRY UNIT!!!! Yay!!  And what makes a sophomore English poetry unit so wonderful is that we don't even have to write poems for it.  Now, you might think that I would be upset by such a restriction, but actually I couldn't be happier with it.  After all, high school is full of kids who are full of feelings and lacking in experience. What I'm trying to say is that a poetry-WRITING unit would have resulted in a slew of terrible, TMI-inducing poems.      (I must say that none of the above sarcasm means that I am exempt from the crummy-teenage-poetry-writing crew of America.  I just, you know, keep my poems in a file where no one will ever see them :P)      But all of that aside, we were asked to pick a poem to memorize for this unit, and I chose "February" by Margaret Atwood.  And thus I became aware of the wonde...

     What an excellent question, people!  Magical realism is a type of fiction that goes along like any average realistic/historical novel until suddenly the character starts talking to her mother's ghost or bursts into flames at the sight of her one true love.  This kind of book has scenes of magic that highlight the book's themes and heighten the drama of the story, without completely turning it into a work of fantasy.  I started reading a magical realism memoir recently and it's reminded me of how much I love the genre, so here is a list of my favorites! Just to give you an idea of how many Post-Its I need to keep up with  Woman Warrior 1. Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston- This book is the inspiration for this post.  The writer interspersed stories from her life with stories from her family past, Chinese legends, warped oral histories, and allegories.  It's super confusing and trippy, but with...

    My personal kind of beat-up copy      I read this book for the first time a few years ago in middle school, when I got it as a birthday present from  an adult who had heard I liked to write stories.  At that time I was in this phase where I believed that the more adjectives and the bigger words I used, the more authoritative I sounded.  So when William Zinsser popped out and started telling me to Simplify, simplify, simply,  my first impulse was to slam the book shut. But soon I saw the value of his advice, and that is how On Writing Well  changed my life and my perspective on writing.      What really convinced me to listen to him was how well he wrote.  Zinsser has this awe-inspiringly simple voice when he writes.  Reading his book was like sitting in an English class.  It was like listening to a soft-spoken but amicable relative talk.  True to his own teachings, there was not a single unnec...

    So, recently I was doing a spot of (mandatory) community service for my gym teacher when I experienced a rare instance of karmic payoff.      Me and a bunch of other temporary bond-slaves were unloading this huge file cabinet onto the gym floor, sorting everything from Dance Revolution DVDs to pamphlets on Your First Visit to the Ob-Gyn! into neat piles, when I uncovered quite by chance a crumbling copy of Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.  Elated, I carried it around for the remainder of the period until my teacher took pity on me and offered to let me borrow it. It's falling apart before my very eyes I swear...      I fell in love with this book the moment I heard its title quite a while ago - Naked Lunch ?  What the hell kind of weird awesome twisted name is that?  I am only now realizing how twisted it really is.  The book is a compilation of notes that Burroughs took while under the sick influence of heroin. ...