Have I told you that I love it in books when characters mishear each other? It’s one of my favorite things because it happens in life all the time and in books almost never. Here is a misheard conversation from somewhere in the middle of Make Your Home Among Strangers: I was just about to hang up on him when he asked, So you hear yet? –Omar, I told you I’ve been here, but I’m leaving. –No, I mean the thing at school. The investigation thing. What happened? –Oh that. Misunderstanding is central to this book about a first-generation college…
9 CommentsAuthor: Jenny Hamilton
That’s right, folks, we badgered Alice into hosting another readalong! And I confidently anticipate that we will badger her into more in 2016, but for now let’s focus on Matthew Gregory Lewis’s Gothic classic The Monk, because the Monkalong has officially begun! The titular MONK (an official readalong style guide has not yet been released, but I have to assume that it will stipulate the word MONK must appear in all caps when referring to the eponymous one) is Ambrosio, a man of mysterious background and flawless morals who is basically the One Direction of eighteenth-century Madrid, except he uses…
24 CommentsI am but human, friends. If you cut me, do I not bleed? If you design a supercool cover for a book about magical London, do I not eventually give in and get that book from the library? The protagonist of A Darker Shade of Magic, Kell, is a messenger between three separate Londons: In his own, Red London, where magic is common but his type of magic, Antari magic, is all too rare, he is something like a prince and something like a possession. In Grey London, he trades jokes with a mad king and meets a girl thief…
5 CommentsBecause this fall is exciting, I’m doing a joyous meme for you guys! The good people at The Broke and the Bookish have asked everyone to say what books they are looking forward to this fall, and I am looking forward to A LOT of things this fall. Onward! The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness – How many years has it been since I had a new Patrick Ness book to scream about? TOO MANY. TOO MANY IS THE ANSWER. This one is about all the high school kids who aren’t Chosen Ones, who are just trying…
27 CommentsNote: I received an ebook copy of The Scorpion Rules from the publisher, via NetGalley. This has not influenced the content of the review as I cannot be bought for a simple ebook and would require at least a comfy armchair before I would even consider compromising my integrity. Does the world need yet another story about a plucky white heroine in a dystopic future world and a love triangle? I might have said no before reading The Scorpion Rules, but I’d have missed out on a genuinely excellent book. Greta is a Child of the Peace: a hostage for…
21 CommentsSo I knew that Liberia was colonized by free black Americans in the early 1800s, and I knew the name “American Colonization Society,” but I also thought these groups were one and the same. I thought the American Colonization Society was a free black invention, like a sort of proto-Marcus-Garvey situation. What a silly, naive bunny I was to think that. The American Colonization Society was a bunch of white guys who came up with the great idea of sending all the free black people to Africa, which would serve the dual purpose of getting rid of black people the American government didn’t want, and maybe…
22 CommentsTrumpet came out in 1998 and that is surprising. Remember 1998, y’all? In 1998 the nation was having enormous arguments about Gay/Straight Alliances in high schools, and I was sitting in the backseat of my friend’s dad’s car and staring blankly at my friend because she had just said she didn’t approve of the gay lifestyle and I had not up to that point realized that humans of my acquaintance held views of this type. Also in 1998: Scottish poet and author Jackie Kay wrote a book called Trumpet about a non-tragic trans character. Way to go, 1998. You were…
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