Books Read in 2016

1. The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
2. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
3. Native Son by Richard Wright
4. Jane, the Fox, & Me by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault
5. The Bees by Laline Paull
6. Ms. Marvel: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona
7. Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson
8. Lumberjanes: Friendship to the Max by Noelle Stevenson
9. The Amulet: Prince of the Elves (#5) by Kazu Kibuishi *reread
10. The Amulet: Escape from Lucien (#6) by Kazu Kibuishi
11. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
12. I Work in a Public Library by Gina Sheridan (no review, 2 stars)
13. The Lost World by Michael Crichton
14. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
15. The Vegetarian by Han Kang
16. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chboskyy

* adding more as I go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lost World by Michael Crichton

I read Jurassic Park last summer and was completely enthralled in the world of dinosaurs. So, it was obvious that my choice this summer was to continue the adventure with its sequel, The Lost World.

The Lost World was actually written after Jurassic Park the film came out. It is set about 5 years after JP.

Let’s rewind a bit, shall we? For those who have no clue what JP is about, basically John Hammond, a really rich (we talkin’ billions) elderly man, and his group of scientists had gotten a hold of dinosaur DNA. What on earth was John doing with this strand of DNA, you ask? His plan was to clone several species of dinosaurs and open a dinosaur-themed amusement park where, for a fee, the public can enter and marvel and interact with the different species. You can guess how THAT turns out, right?

The Lost World features the same cast of characters more or less while introducing a few new ones. The main plot is that a bunch of strange carcasses are washing up onto Costa Rican shores and scientists are going nuts hypothesizing what this might mean. One scientist in particular, Richard Levine, is determined to go and solve this mystery.

I found the pacing of the novel to be slow and redundant. The majority of the book sets up the legalities and background of the first novel. The imagery was one of my favorite things because it built so much suspense and I could literally SEE what was going on inside my head; that was GREAT.

I do prefer the first over this second one. I gave The Lost World ♥♥♥

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

All the caricatures that have been drawn of me before have been blatantly wrong. This. This is me. This is my face.

Hyperbole and a Half stars Allie as she navigates through stories of her childhood, her two very strange dogs, her relationship with her mom, and her general anxiety in a smattering of hand-drawn pictures and text.

I’ve got to say, I wasn’t too smitten with the protagonist. I found her quirks to be incredibly annoying — this coming from a quirky person myself! Since ‘hyperbole’ is in the title, I had a difficult time discerning fact from fiction. I went through each chapter (they weren’t chronological, by the way) thinking, “ain’t no way! ain’t no way in hell…. oh. maybe it’s… exaggerated…?” Yet, there were some redeeming funny moments with her mom, which validates my decision of having 1 or less kids, and the drawings were perfection (see above).

I gave H and a Half  ♥♥ — not my favorite, but I see why people gravitate towards her humor.