The Book Thief

After having this book recommended to me at least five times, I finally decided to read it. In the same way that The Fault in Our Stars manages to be a book about cancer without being a "cancer book," The Book Thief makes a story about the Holocaust be so much more than a retread of the all the books I've read before. I wouldn't say it is "LIFE CHANGING" the way that the quote on the front cover declares, but it is certainly a wonderful, harrowing book that will stay with me for a long time. 

The Girl's Guide to Hunting & Fishing

I kept seeing this book pop up on those "books you have to read in your 20s" lists, and I finally decided to give it a shot. It was fine, but definitely not going to be one of my favorites. I think my expectations were a bit too high. Some chapters/stories were better than others- I definitely preferred some of the later chapters. The last one was my absolute favorite, and the one that I found the most identifiable. Overall, it was a quick, good read, but I'm glad it was a library book and not a purchase.

The Fault in Our Stars

This book was beautiful. I read it all in one night, and the next day I had a book hangover from how good it was. It's extremely difficult to explain to people why it's so good- once I say "it's about two teenagers with cancer" the person's eyes glaze over and I know I've lost them. It is so much more than a "cancer book," though.

It's a love story, but not just the love story of the main character, Hazel, and her boyfriend, Augustus. The love that really got to me in this book was the love between Hazel and her parents. Hazel has terminal cancer, and her parents have lived for years not knowing if their daughter would live another day. There's a line where Hazel wonders about how her dad feels every day when he leaves for work- knowing that every morning could be the last time he sees her alive. And her mom has the full-time job of caring for Hazel, which leads Hazel to wonder what her mom will do when she's gone.

The Fault in Our Stars doesn't pull punches. What happens to the characters is sad, brutally sad, and I don't even know how many times I cried while reading it. But it doesn't try to make you cry- that's just the reality of their lives. And there are many happy, funny moments too. I'm not being very articulate about this book, and it's because it was so perfect that I don't know what to say beyond that. This is the kind of book where once you finish it, you want to go out and buy it for everyone you know so that they can experience it too (if only hardcovers weren't so expensive).

As Lev Grossman said in his review for TIME's Top 10 of the Year, "The Fault in Our Stars is a love story, one of the most genuine and moving ones in recent American fiction, but it’s also an existential tragedy of tremendous intelligence and courage and sadness."

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Bottom line: I am too old to be reading this book for the first time. I'm sure if I'd read it in high school I would have identified with it more, but at 25, it just didn't do anything for me.

The Magicians, by Lev Grossman

Last week, I read The Magicians. John Green mentioned it in his book recommendations video as being good for fans of Harry Potter, so I wanted to give it a try.

It centers around a boy named Quentin, a super genius who's never quite found his place. He is accepted to a school for magic called Brakebills. The magic in The Magicians is very different from HP- it's much more difficult, which is why it's treated as a collegiate education, and only accepts the best of the best.

Quentin also has an obsession with a fictional land called Fillory (clearly based on Narnia), which is part of why he wants to learn magic to begin with. I loved this aspect, because I have always adored the Narnia books and spent many hours of my childhood thinking about how I could get there.

The Magicians is much darker than I initially thought it would be, but that's not a bad thing. There were times where it felt very rushed because it's not a terribly long book, but spans a long period of time. And some of the characters were terribly frustrating, but they were all well-developed enough to still be engrossing even when I wanted to shake them. I ended up really enjoying it, and just checked out the sequel from the library.

Oddly enough, my dad was reading this at the same time I was- I don't know if he's finished it yet, but I thought it was funny that we both read it without having talked about it.