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theresidentbookworm's reviews
3261 reviews
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
2.0
I didn't like it that much when I was reading it, but now that I know it was written by a local author (whom I always strive to support because it always seems to me not enough people write books in or about Michigan unless we're dissecting Detroit) I will have to give it another shot. Recommendation to be determined.
Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
5.0
I love the book. I love the movie. I love Channing Tatum. You really can't go wrong if you want a romantic story. Read it, watch it, or do both. Actually, do both. Recommended. Done!
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
5.0
Say what you will about Sarah Dessen, but I think she has the greatest range of any YA writer. Actually, don't say anything bad about Sarah Dessen. I love Sarah Dessen. I love all of her books, but more importantly I love that she has the capability to write swoony-worthy romances like This Lullaby and Along for the Ride and still tackle serious issues like rape (Just Listen) and domestic abuse in Dreamland. Throughout all of her books, Dessen manages to keep her signature writing style, offering up great insights and maintaining her thrown as Queen of YA.
Dreamland is definitely one of the best Dessen books, but I would also say that it is the best book I've ever read about domestic abuse. Dessen is not afraid to delve into this topic. We get to know Caitlin before Rogerson Biscoe. She feels inferior and eternally in the shadow of her dazzling older sister Cass. Cass, however, has ditched college to be with an older boyfriend and thrown their family into chaos. Caitlin copes by trying to fill the hole Cass left behind. She becomes a cheerleader, and more importantly she meets Rogerson Biscoe.
“It's so easy to get caught up in what people expect of you. Sometimes, you can just lose yourself.”
What is important (and wonderful) about Dreamland is that it shows Caitlin and Rogerson's relationship at every stage: their first meeting, their first conversation, the first time Rogerson hits Caitlin, and how she reacts to it. Rogerson isn't painted as a simple villain because it isn't that simple. When love is involved, it is never that simple. Caitlin does love him, and that's what makes the story feel so real. You can understand why she stays silent, why she hides her bruises and makes excuses for Rogerson, even as you are waiting for the shoe to drop. I actually cried the first time I read the novel when Caitlin's family finds out. It just was so sad, and I felt my heart break. This could happen to any girl. It could happen to me. It's a terrifying thought, but Dessen manages to turn it into one of compassion for her main character. Caitlin didn't do anything wrong. She didn't cause Rogerson to hit her. She is a victim and eventually a survivor.
“If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go.”
I recommend all of Sarah Dessen's books, but I especially recommend this one.
Dreamland is definitely one of the best Dessen books, but I would also say that it is the best book I've ever read about domestic abuse. Dessen is not afraid to delve into this topic. We get to know Caitlin before Rogerson Biscoe. She feels inferior and eternally in the shadow of her dazzling older sister Cass. Cass, however, has ditched college to be with an older boyfriend and thrown their family into chaos. Caitlin copes by trying to fill the hole Cass left behind. She becomes a cheerleader, and more importantly she meets Rogerson Biscoe.
“It's so easy to get caught up in what people expect of you. Sometimes, you can just lose yourself.”
What is important (and wonderful) about Dreamland is that it shows Caitlin and Rogerson's relationship at every stage: their first meeting, their first conversation, the first time Rogerson hits Caitlin, and how she reacts to it. Rogerson isn't painted as a simple villain because it isn't that simple. When love is involved, it is never that simple. Caitlin does love him, and that's what makes the story feel so real. You can understand why she stays silent, why she hides her bruises and makes excuses for Rogerson, even as you are waiting for the shoe to drop. I actually cried the first time I read the novel when Caitlin's family finds out. It just was so sad, and I felt my heart break. This could happen to any girl. It could happen to me. It's a terrifying thought, but Dessen manages to turn it into one of compassion for her main character. Caitlin didn't do anything wrong. She didn't cause Rogerson to hit her. She is a victim and eventually a survivor.
“If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go.”
I recommend all of Sarah Dessen's books, but I especially recommend this one.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
4.0
Sometimes I shoot myself in the foot when it comes to books. I've had a copy of Me Before You for a while, but I lacked the right mood for a sad romance. Of course, someone had to decide to make Me Before You into a film and cast Sam Calflin (aka the love of my life) as Will Traynor. I was sold from that moment on. I saw the movie with my dad (great company for a romance movie, am I right folks?) and loved it, and I went home that night and devoured the book.
The problem with seeing the movie first is that there are few surprises in the novel. In fact, I felt that the film made some changes for the better. Jojo Moyes's writing is excellent, and I appreciated the depth and attention she gave her subject matter. I also enjoyed the different points of view (Will's mother, Treena, Nathan) and the perspective they gave the story. If I had read the book first, it would have probably been a five star read.
“All I can say is that you make me... you make me into someone I couldn't even imagine. You make me happy, even when you're awful. I would rather be with you - even the you that you seem to think is diminished - than with anyone else in the world.”
Recommended!
The problem with seeing the movie first is that there are few surprises in the novel. In fact, I felt that the film made some changes for the better. Jojo Moyes's writing is excellent, and I appreciated the depth and attention she gave her subject matter. I also enjoyed the different points of view (Will's mother, Treena, Nathan) and the perspective they gave the story. If I had read the book first, it would have probably been a five star read.
“All I can say is that you make me... you make me into someone I couldn't even imagine. You make me happy, even when you're awful. I would rather be with you - even the you that you seem to think is diminished - than with anyone else in the world.”
Recommended!
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
3.0
My friend Katie told me I absolutely had to read Catch-22. It's the funniest book I've ever read, she said. You won't regret it, she said. I borrowed it from a friend who had it but hadn't read it, and then life started moving faster. I've been reading Catch-22 in very small increments, my least favorite way to read a book, and I finally finished yesterday.
Katie was right in a way. Catch-22 is funny. Sometimes it is laugh-out-loud, ridiculously funny, but mostly it is sad, desperately funny;. Catch-22 is a slew of contradictions and paradoxes, and nothing in this world makes sense. At first, I did laugh, but then I realized what I was laughing at. I was laughing at a war that did not make sense to the men fighting it, a world that does not care about individuals. I stopped laughing, and I started to be scared because nothing in Catch-22 is unfamiliar. Yossarian cannot comprehend why he should die for his country while his commanding officers assign more and more missions to fly. Everyone says Yossarian is crazy because he thinks everyone is trying to kill him, but he might actually be right. As Yossarian points out, the military system he is supposed trust keeps sending him out on missions, and strangers try to shoot down his plane. It's hard for me to see Yossarian as anything other than sane.
I have some problems with Catch-22. The way the novel is structured is confusing. A character might be dead in one chapter and alive in another. The second half of the novel was more cohesive, but sometimes it got tedious. Heller clearly enjoys his paradoxes and contradictions to the point of exhaustion. Yossarian, while my favorite character, clearly has serious issues with women that actually frighten me a little. The supporting characters, especially the ones only briefly mentioned and then brought back, got jumbled in my head. Overall, these things make Catch-22 feel disjointed and cluttered.
Despite its problems, Catch-22 is darkly humorous and thought-provoking. Heller fearlessly explores the conflicting complexities and paradoxes of war and dares to ask just what a life is worth. When I think of this novel, I will always think of Yossarian having tell Nately's whore he's dead and him trying to comfort Snowden as he dies, Snowden unrelentingly repeating, "I'm cold". I will think of the betrayal of Milo and how he is able twist everything to be in favor of his country's national security. It is not a perfect novel, but it a novel that asks very necessary questions about the way we view war and our country.
I'd like to end this review with this: "Someone had to do something sometime. Every victim was a culprit, every culprit a victim, and somebody had to stand up sometime to try to break the lousy chain of inherited habit that was imperiling them all". Thank you, Joseph Heller, for attempting to break the chain. I'd recommend Catch-22 to fans of Kurt Vonnegut and George Orwell or just anyone looking for a thorough examination of the military-industrial-complex, the war we fight, and why we fight them,
Katie was right in a way. Catch-22 is funny. Sometimes it is laugh-out-loud, ridiculously funny, but mostly it is sad, desperately funny;. Catch-22 is a slew of contradictions and paradoxes, and nothing in this world makes sense. At first, I did laugh, but then I realized what I was laughing at. I was laughing at a war that did not make sense to the men fighting it, a world that does not care about individuals. I stopped laughing, and I started to be scared because nothing in Catch-22 is unfamiliar. Yossarian cannot comprehend why he should die for his country while his commanding officers assign more and more missions to fly. Everyone says Yossarian is crazy because he thinks everyone is trying to kill him, but he might actually be right. As Yossarian points out, the military system he is supposed trust keeps sending him out on missions, and strangers try to shoot down his plane. It's hard for me to see Yossarian as anything other than sane.
I have some problems with Catch-22. The way the novel is structured is confusing. A character might be dead in one chapter and alive in another. The second half of the novel was more cohesive, but sometimes it got tedious. Heller clearly enjoys his paradoxes and contradictions to the point of exhaustion. Yossarian, while my favorite character, clearly has serious issues with women that actually frighten me a little. The supporting characters, especially the ones only briefly mentioned and then brought back, got jumbled in my head. Overall, these things make Catch-22 feel disjointed and cluttered.
Despite its problems, Catch-22 is darkly humorous and thought-provoking. Heller fearlessly explores the conflicting complexities and paradoxes of war and dares to ask just what a life is worth. When I think of this novel, I will always think of Yossarian having tell Nately's whore he's dead and him trying to comfort Snowden as he dies, Snowden unrelentingly repeating, "I'm cold". I will think of the betrayal of Milo and how he is able twist everything to be in favor of his country's national security. It is not a perfect novel, but it a novel that asks very necessary questions about the way we view war and our country.
I'd like to end this review with this: "Someone had to do something sometime. Every victim was a culprit, every culprit a victim, and somebody had to stand up sometime to try to break the lousy chain of inherited habit that was imperiling them all". Thank you, Joseph Heller, for attempting to break the chain. I'd recommend Catch-22 to fans of Kurt Vonnegut and George Orwell or just anyone looking for a thorough examination of the military-industrial-complex, the war we fight, and why we fight them,
Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary
2.0
I was never really reading the books for my age level so it was hard for me to enjoy books like Henry and Beezus. This was the only Beverly Cleary book I ever read, and I was okay with that. There's nothing wrong with the series; I was just beyond the reading level. Recommended for younger readers, I guess.
So Far From Home: the Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847 by Barry Denenberg
3.0
I've read so many of the Dear America books I'm not sure which ones I haven't read. I don't know I have read this one or not. If I haven't, I'm sure it's very good. The Dear America series is usually very good.
A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska, Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 1896 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
3.0
Okay, I definitely read this one. I remember Anetka and her struggles and the ending, which I'm not going to write about because this is a spoiler free review. Recommended!
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
1.0
I don't think I have been fair to Middlesex. I attempted to read it in middle school, before I could appreciate or understand the subject manor. I may attempt to read it again because it is a story rooted in my hometown, and that always interests me. Tentatively recommended based off of other's recommendations until I get a chance to read it again.