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mrs_a_is_a_book_nerd's reviews
456 reviews
The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens
4.0
Not AS good as The Life We Bury, but VERY good!
Great twists and turns, and just when you think you've figured it out... well, maybe not so much. Fantastic, dynamic characters, and tremendously well-written prose!
I enjoy Eskens work so much! I have passed his books on to some of my students, and they are enjoying them as well! VICTORY!
Great twists and turns, and just when you think you've figured it out... well, maybe not so much. Fantastic, dynamic characters, and tremendously well-written prose!
I enjoy Eskens work so much! I have passed his books on to some of my students, and they are enjoying them as well! VICTORY!
Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena María Viramontes
3.0
This is a difficult book to rate. On the one hand, it is beautifully written, and I was so captured by some of the prose that I frequently stopped and re-read portions, just so I could let it wash over me again.
The characters are real and so poignant. Perfecto, a man who sees the end of his life approaching, who has lived and labored invisibly, picking produce and fixing things, everything imaginable, but unable to fix the reality of his life; feeling the pull to go "home"--but also grappling with the guilt that doing so will mean abandoning the family that depends on him. Petra, a mother of 5, just 33 years old but whose body betrays her age with stiff joints and painful varicose veins, desperate to support and protect her family--and the new life growing inside her. Alejo and Estrella, teen laborers who find love they can't hang on to in the impossible life they live, whose futures seem destined to land them in the same fates as Perfecto and Petra.
On the other hand, the book is more sweeping and impressionistic, and therefore plot-light. There are storylines, but ultimately, the story doesn't really GO anywhere.
Maybe that's part of the point in a book about people whose lives don't really GO anywhere...
The characters are real and so poignant. Perfecto, a man who sees the end of his life approaching, who has lived and labored invisibly, picking produce and fixing things, everything imaginable, but unable to fix the reality of his life; feeling the pull to go "home"--but also grappling with the guilt that doing so will mean abandoning the family that depends on him. Petra, a mother of 5, just 33 years old but whose body betrays her age with stiff joints and painful varicose veins, desperate to support and protect her family--and the new life growing inside her. Alejo and Estrella, teen laborers who find love they can't hang on to in the impossible life they live, whose futures seem destined to land them in the same fates as Perfecto and Petra.
On the other hand, the book is more sweeping and impressionistic, and therefore plot-light. There are storylines, but ultimately, the story doesn't really GO anywhere.
Maybe that's part of the point in a book about people whose lives don't really GO anywhere...
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser
3.0
Interesting, shocking, repulsive, and infuriating. This book is nothing if not comprehensive. From 50's hot dog stands and drive-ins to modern mega-conglomerates, from (corporate) farm to bacteria-covered table--and everywhere/everyone in between--FFN tells the whole, not-so-appetizing story of the founders, the franchisers, the farmers and ranchers, the meat-packers, the unions, the workers, the customers, and the towns shaped and often trampled by one of our country's biggest industries. FFN looks at the industry from every angle: urban planning, politics, economics, sociology, psychology, ecology, biology, chemistry, disease, and more. Sometimes an overly-detailed slog, sometimes engrossing in the most cringe-y ways, do not read this book if you don't want to be haunted whenever you think of eating fast food.
Diary of a Witness by Catherine Ryan Hyde
3.0
Another title in the emerging "school violence" genre... I liked Will and Ernie; they were real, funny, endearing. Witness illustrates the slow, painful process to the desperation caused by the berating of bullies, family dysfunction, and the disintegration of hope; it also shows the courage to do what's right, even when doing so means the possibility of losing everything that makes you feel safe.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
4.0
I had mixed feelings about this novel. It is extremely well written: the characters are real, like next door neighbors. The reviews were so gushing that I kept expecting this momentous event to leave me breathless. That moment never came, and at first I was disappointed, but then I considered: maybe the point was that the events were clearly evolving, that none of them should come as a surprise...
I saw this as a book about judgement. In a planned community, where life is made "perfect" by rules--guidelines, expectations, and roles, we perceive threat to that equilibrium when others don't follow those rules. When others don't conform, when they question, when they make their own rules... we hate them for it. We judge them, we dissect them, we wait in anticipation for their own "self-created" destruction. We need it. Because if it doesn't happen, it calls into question all the sacrifices we've made to "live right".
I saw this as a book about judgement. In a planned community, where life is made "perfect" by rules--guidelines, expectations, and roles, we perceive threat to that equilibrium when others don't follow those rules. When others don't conform, when they question, when they make their own rules... we hate them for it. We judge them, we dissect them, we wait in anticipation for their own "self-created" destruction. We need it. Because if it doesn't happen, it calls into question all the sacrifices we've made to "live right".
The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith
5.0
This is a haunting book that will stay with me for a long, long, time. I'm already thinking about some of those "mean girls" I have known and wondering, "What if...?" The story of Edy McCrory is raw and honest and painful. I could barely read it, and at the same time, I could not. stop. reading.
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
4.0
This novel in verse is a quick read, but lingers with you; it is beautiful, authentic, and haunting.
Will's brother was just killed in the street. He knows The Rules: No crying, No snitching, Get revenge. So, with his brother's gun--one bullet missing--he boards the elevator to ride down 7 floors from his apartment to go kill the person he *knows* killed his brother. He must follow The Rules. But the elevator stops on each floor down, and he is joined by another rider on each floor that will throw into question The Rules and everything he *knows*.
Will's brother was just killed in the street. He knows The Rules: No crying, No snitching, Get revenge. So, with his brother's gun--one bullet missing--he boards the elevator to ride down 7 floors from his apartment to go kill the person he *knows* killed his brother. He must follow The Rules. But the elevator stops on each floor down, and he is joined by another rider on each floor that will throw into question The Rules and everything he *knows*.