Tag: review

Review: Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton

Review: Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton

by Anne ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The HP kids are alright 😌

Despite the whirlwind of being a child actor growing up onscreen as part of a globally famous film franchise, Tom Felton aka Draco Malfoy has a down-to-earth perspective on life and a good, humble head on his shoulders.

I devoured this book – as a fan of memoirs and as a huge Harry Potter nerd of the same generation as Felton and the Golden Trio. Beyond the Wand (with a very sweet forward by Emma Watson) spills the HP tea in a fun, respectful way.

We get stories of Felton/Draco and the Death Eaters accidentally stepping on Alan Rickman’s robes 😱, 13-year-old Emma slapping the crap out of Tom to practice for Hermione’s onscreen Draco punch, and the healthy one-sided competition Felton felt with Daniel Radcliffe to grow as an actor at the same pace.

Plus, it’s interesting to hear about his life outside of the films and learn about his other projects and interests (golf?! being a beach bum in Venice, CA 😎, fishing).

Tom is a reflective writer, and I could tell from the thought he put into each sentence that it was heartfelt and more than just a “celebrity writing a book” cash grab.

Would recommend to all HP fans ⚡️

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

“The only true currency we have in life is the effect we have on those around us.”

—Tom Felton, Beyond the Wand
Review: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Review: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

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So, stage parents are the actual worst.

I was too old for Jennette McCurdy’s Nickelodeon shows iCarly and Sam & Cat when they aired, but despite not being familiar with her work I was intrigued to hear about her child-star life from the slap in the face that is this book title and cover.

A modern Mama Rose/Gypsy story, Jennette’s childhood and young adulthood were monitored and controlled by her narcissistic stage mother, who never fulfilled her showbiz dreams and so thrust them upon her (unwilling) daughter.

Jennette’s mother wanted her to stay a young, castable girl forever, so she taught her eleven-year-old daughter calorie restriction — only one of the many ways she manipulated her child, along with forcing her into acting classes and auditions, guilt trips, gaslighting: the whole trauma package.

But this is a memoir of catharsis. Of reflection, coming to painful realizations, and moving on.

Jennette McCurdy is a good writer with a strong voice and perspective. Not to mention a wonderful sense of dark humor. The best memoir I read in 2022.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Review: Goosebumps by R. L. Stine

Review: Goosebumps by R. L. Stine

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These get an extra star for ✨️nostalgia✨️

I dug these bad boys up at my parents’ house over the summer when they were going through some of my brother’s and my childhood stuff, and I figured I’d save them to read during the spookiest time of year 😱

R.L. Stine knows how to tell a creepy tale! And, I can say reading these as an adult for the first time, he knows how to write kids well.

Haunted houses, undead neighbors, living ventriloquist dummies…all the creepy, unsettling stuff that goes down in these books are really just metaphors for the turmoil the kids in the books are experiencing—like the anxiety of moving to a new neighborhood, a new house, or the stress of competing with a sibling.

In Welcome to Dead House, a family moves into a new (old, and suspiciously inexpensive) home, and the children start to notice that the neighbors aren’t exactly what they seem 👻

And the creepy af dummy book (the cover used to give me nightmares as a kid!) is about a rivalry between twin sisters that manifests in their toy dummies. The girls use the dummies to play tricks on each other, only to discover the little wooden men have come to life 🤡😨

Goosebumps is like Are You Afraid of the Dark? in book form. They hold up! Recommend for a fun, quick read 📚

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Review: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Review: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

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This book should be called A Farewell to Commas, because holy run-on sentences.

(Just working on my literature-based standup. But really, sometimes it’s too much; there’s one sentence in this book that uses “and” 22 TIMES 😵‍💫)

I got this book at the Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West last year and am only just getting around to reading it—which kind of worked out great, because I read War and Peace last year, and this was like War and Peace Lite.

All the war, one-fifth the page count.

A bleak tale about war and loss, this novel is based on Hemingway’s real-life experience as an ambulance driver and medic in the Italian army during WWI.

It’s also based on his real-life experience falling in love with an English nurse during the war. And, as I learned on my tour of the Hemingway home, IRL his nurse left him for another man, so he got revenge the best way writers know how: he killed her off in his book.

(Sorry, are spoilers a thing for 93-year-old novels? 😬)

A Farewell to Arms is an unflinching depiction of the horrors of war that likely was much needed in 1929 when people couldn’t see the harsh realities of it daily on TV. And Hemingway’s writing is almost timeless, because his language is too clear, straightforward, and simple to be dated.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5

If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.

—Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Review: Working on a Song by Anaïs Mitchell

Review: Working on a Song by Anaïs Mitchell

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Love!!! ❤️

Imagine the stories of Greek mythology set in a Great Depression Era-inspired, post-apocalyptic world, where the seasons are out of tune, there’s a train to hell, people swig wine out of tin cups, and they hope for spring despite the cold and dark 🌱

Hadestown is a bittersweet and refreshingly original musical written by folk singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell that won the 2019 Tony for Best Musical. It’s my favorite new musical since Hamilton, and I actually like it more — it’s more elusive and poetic, and I feel more things about it every time I see or listen to it.

This is my second time reading this book by Mitchell about her journey writing the music, specifically the lyrics, for the show, and it’s a true masterclass in storytelling through song.

Hadestown started as a folk concept album, and over 10+ years of workshops, feedback, and a few divine jolts of inspiration, the final polished Broadway musical was born. But it was messy along the way; Mitchell had to learn to adapt her folk-writing approach to a dramatic story with characters and plot. She had to make cuts. She had to rearrange. And rewrite. Again. And again. She had to work to balance the poetry with the practical.

And she did it beautifully ✨️

I find Mitchell’s writing journey so inspiring, because when you’re frustrated with your creative output it can be easy to give up — why bang your head against the wall trying to get it right when it seems like you never will?

Hadestown is the answer 🌹

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

What is seen and heard onstage is the blooming flower, but most of the plant is underground. Every line, verse, or chorus—every idea any of us who worked on it ever had, even the ones that never saw the light of day—they’re down there. They’re the roots of the plant, and the flower wouldn’t exist without them.

—Anais Mitchell, Working on a Song
Review: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Review: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

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The genre: Historical, epic

The gist: Oh boy. Lots of stuff happens to lots of Russians during Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia. It’s big, endearing, and human.

The background: The musical Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 brought me here. It’s based on only a small section of War and Peace, but I loved the characters so much I wanted more of their story.

1,300 pages later, here we are.

The review: My first Tolstoy!

Finished this bad boy back in October but held off on posting because I have a lot of ~thoughts~ and ~feelings~ …

But first — look how pretty and minimalist this Oxford edition is ✨️📚

So, Seinfeld was kind of right when he joked that Tolstoy’s original title for War and Peace was War…What Is It Good For? Because that’s pretty much the point of this novel. War is bad. War is dumb. War is started by countless random events accumulating, and it rewards the worst traits in people, like ruthlessness and blind loyalty. Everything is backwards in war: brother killing brother when they otherwise might be friends.

This is a rich tapestry of a tale. Challenging at times, with blocky, philosophy-packed paragraphs and painstaking battle details, but mostly it’s charming and heart-wrenching.

The characters, though ❤️ The characters were the highlight for me. Everyone in War and Peace is so human and multi-faceted, I was sad to be done hanging out with them when I finished reading. I loved Pierre’s constant existential crises, Natasha’s bright, enduring spirit, Nikolai’s earnestness, Marya’s reflective tranquility.

I don’t know that I’ll ever read it in its entirety again—life is just too short 😂—but I know I’ll page through to revisit some of the beautiful writing 📖

The rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

They had evidently both formed the same resolution, the eyes of both shone with satisfaction and a confession that besides its sorrow, life also has joy.

—Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

by Anne ♥ 1 Comment

The genre: Contemporary fiction, romance-ish

The gist: A marriage on the rocks gets a second chance thanks to the help of a magic phone.

The review: Far-fetched but charming 💛

Georgie and Neal fell in love in college, got married, had two kids, and somewhere along the way lost sight of what made their relationship work.

Just when things seem irreparably bad, Georgie finds that her old landline phone at her mother’s house can magically get a hold of Neal in the 1990s, when they were first falling for each other. These calls help her remember her love for her now-husband, and ultimately save their marriage with a little time-traveling weirdness.

As a kid who grew up with landlines and VCRs, I like the idea of finding some elusive magic in analog technology. Because, like, there was something different and more special about a long landline phone chat—where you stood or sat or paced twirling the cord in your fingers, solely focused on the conversation because you were literally tethered to it—than the constant access we have to each other now.

I love Rainbow Rowell’s characters and writing. Their charm and endearment make this wild plot point work.

The rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Neal didn’t take Georgie’s breath away. Maybe the opposite. But that was okay—that was really good, actually, to be near someone who filled your lungs with air.

—Rainbow Rowell, Landline
Review: Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

Review: Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

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©Balzer + Bray

The genre: YA

The gist: Prequel to The Hate U Give about Maverick, Starr’s dad, as a seventeen year-old.

The review: Just as good as The Hate U Give 👌

This prequel is the origin story of Maverick, Starr from The Hate U Give‘s dad, and it shows everything he went through to become the outstanding husband and father he is in THUG.

Concrete Rose is about a young Black man who faces obstacle after obstacle but keeps pushing, who makes mistakes but bravely owns up to them. He faces the pressures of gang life, poverty, he struggles to keep up at school when he has heavy responsibilities at home. He often feels hopeless and lost, but he never stops trying to be a good person.

Seventeen-year-old Maverick exemplifies what his future wife Lisa says in THUG: No matter what the world throws at you, “the key is to never stop doing right.”

The wrap-up: Everyone should read Angie Thomas’s books.

The rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Roses can bloom in the hardest conditions.

—Angie Thomas Concrete Rose
Review: On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Review: On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

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©Balzer + Bray

The genre: YA

The gist: A high schooler who loves to rap ultimately tries to make it as a rapper to help save her family.

The tea: I love Angie Thomas’s writing.

So far, I’ve only read The Hate U Give and this one, but Concrete Rose is up next, and I’m excited to read anything else she puts out.

Her characters and dialogue are so real that you feel like you’re popping in on actual conversations. Not only that, but her stories show an American experience that not everyone shares, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot from her books.

In On the Come Up, high schooler Bri loves to rap. She deals with racism at school, family drama, and eventually the threat of extreme poverty that causes her to try to make it as a rapper to help her family. On top of that, she’s got normal teenager stuff going on, like crushes on boys and the pressure of getting into college.

Something I really liked was getting to see the thought process behind Bri’s freestyles, seeing her quickly transform her scattered thoughts into the sick burns she throws at her opponent.

The wrap-up: Great author, great book. Read all her stuff.

The rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 /5

I’m starting to think it doesn’t matter what I do. I’ll still be whatever people think I am.

—Angie Thomas, On the Come Up
Review: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

Review: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

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©Penguin Books

The genre: Contemporary fiction, suspense

The gist: In 1964, Eileen works at a prison office at a male juvenile detention center, is daughter to an alcoholic ex-cop, and has lots of opinions on both.

The background: My brother used to work at the airport, and in the break room they had what they called their “library,” which was the was the stacks upon stacks of books that got left at the airport on a daily basis accumulated by the employees. Sometimes he’d send me photos and I’d ask him to grab specific titles for me; other times he’d just grab me a random book or two. This was one of the random ones. It’s been sitting on my shelf for years, and it was the perfect read last month during a snowstorm in Chicago!

The tea: I’m really glad this book fell into my lap.

It’s dark in a Gillian Flynn way, and I love Gillian Flynn. It reminded me a bit of Psycho by Robert Bloch, too. The writing in both is shrewd and to the point, and both Norman Bates and Eileen are calmly tortured introverts, who crave social interaction but react kind of…intensely when they really like someone.

Eileen is judgy, resentful, insecure, and slightly delusional. And that’s what makes her such a joy to read. Her humor is dark, witty, often harsh. She reads the people around her to filth in her head every second of every day, but only to avoid facing her own self-disgust.

Again, a joy.

She can be a frustrating contradiction, but so are most humans. We stan a flawed protagonist over a boring one.

I only wish this book were longer! Definitely going to be reading more of this author.

The wrap-up: If you like dark humor and writing that unapologetically explores the morbid side of human thoughts, this book is for you.

The rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

I hid my shameful perversions under a facade of prudishness. Of course I did. It’s easy to tell the dirtiest minds—look for the cleanest fingernails.

—Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen