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Hi and welcome to my blog! I'm Laura Ashlee and this is where I tell you what I think about books and bookish things. I occassionally throw in some personal updates as well. I hope you'll take a moment to subscribe for updates by choosing one of the options in the "Subscribe" drop down in the navigation.

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“Every book has a soul, the soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and dream about it.”
--Carlos Ruiz Zafón

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
--Theodor Seuss Geisel

Filed under: Weekly Recap - | 110 words | Permalink

This is a weekly round that includes info about my life, the blog, my reading, bookish news, and awesome blog posts I read. It’s inspired by the many weekly posts out there such as It’s Monday! What are you reading?,Sunday Post, and Clock Rewinders.

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I missed the last spin and I’ve really fallen behind with my classics club list so I thought I should participate in this one. I didn’t really pick from every category. I basically picked a few I’m dreading and mostly books that I already have copies of on my shelf. Wish me luck! You can read more about the classics spin at The Classics Club Blog.

  1. Atwood, Margaret: A Handmaid’s Tale
  2. Baldwin, James: Giovanni’s Room
  3. Bronte, Charlotte: Vilette
  4. Burnett, Frances Hodgson: A Little Princess
  5. Carroll, Lewis: Through the Looking Glass
  6. Dante: Inferno
  7. Dickens, Charles: A Tale of Two Cities
  8. Faulkner, William: The Sound and the Fury
  9. Fitzgerald, F. Scott: This Side of Paradise
  10. Gaskell, Elizabeth: Wives & Daughters
  11. Hardy: Thomas: Tess of the D’Urbervilles
  12. Hesse, Hermann: Steppenwolf
  13. Hugo, Victor: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  14. Kerouac, Jack: On the Road
  15. Milton, John: Paradise Lost
  16. Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Green Gables
  17. Pyle, Howard: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
  18. Salinger, J.D.: The Catcher in the Rye
  19. Salten, Felix: Bambi
  20. Wilde, Oscar: The Importance of Being Earnest


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Necessary Noise was assigned to me for my YA class. I’ve actually already read it once, but I had so much trouble writing a review, that I decided to reread it so I could review every story individually. That’s why I’m now participating in Short Story Saturday, created by Lauren at 365 Days of Reading. I plan to keep participating after I finish working through this book so I can get exposed to more short stories and more authors.

I want to take a moment to explain this anthology a bit, as Michael Cart does in his introduction. When we think of family, sometimes our view is skewed by what we have or what we think is normal. Family used to mean something very different to most people: a husband, a wife, 2.5 children, and a dog. In Necessary Noise, this idea of family is thrown out to make room for the reality of families today, whether that means a single parent family, a child with homosexual parents, or a family found in friends. Families come in different shapes and sizes and this book does its best to celebrate that.

Story: “A Family Illness”
Author: Joyce Carol Thomas
Anthology: Necessary Noise: stories about our families as they really are

Summary: This is a dialogue between mother and son about his mental illness.

My thoughts: What a haunting story! Most of it keeps a good pace and sense of suspense. It’s what I think any good short story needs. There’s full character development, which is crucial in so few pages. The ending, however, felt too much like an ad for schizophrenia awareness and I the pop-culture references are dated. I think those would hit the mark with the intended audience, unless they had a thing for 80s music. Still, it’s a powerful story and great abstract prose.

Disclosure: I borrowed this book from the library.

Book Information

Joanna Cotler Books, 2003
Hardcover, $15.99
ISBN 9780060274993

Also in this series

Hardware
Siskiyou Sloan and the Eye of the Giraffe
Necessary Noise
The Throwaway
Visit
A Woman’s Touch
Sailing Away
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Snowbound



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Top Ten Tuesday

This is what I’m talking about! Tough topics are what I’m all about. They’re so much more realistic that way. I can definitely come up with a list for this. In fact, my problem was narrowing it down to ten. Here’s what I came up with. I included some classic tough topic books. There’s a few books on cancer because I got weirdly masochistic when my father was sick and read every book about cancer I could get my hands on.

ttt514131

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen

ttt514132

Don’t Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Wake by Abria Mattina
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson



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Black Bird, Volume 13 by Kanoko Sakurakoji

I can’t tell if things are winding down with this series or if it’s just moving toward a new conflict. I have two more volumes to read of what has already been released, and I know another volume is coming out soon or has come out recently. I guess I’ll just keep reading and see. It’s nice to know I’m catching up though. In the previous volume, Hoki was on his way to challenge Sho after he tried to take down the Daitengu. Of course, that’s basically a suicide mission so Kyo is pitching a fit, but he’s still injured from his face off with the uncontrolled Zenki. Misao is trying to heal him as quickly as she can. Hoki ends up facing Sho, but neither attacks the other. Hoki finds this strange and speculates that there may be something wrong with Sho. Meanwhile, Misao and Kyo are having some cute flirty time when she opens a door and suddenly finds herself thrust into Sho’s hideout with no way back to the village. There’s some good development for Sho in this one. I’m never sure what to think of him. One moment he’s sweet to Misao, the next he’s trying to kill her or use her as bait to get to Kyo. Misao seems to think he deserves her pity. She’s just too sweet and it gets her into trouble all the time. She’s so trusting. It’s nice to see that she has some resolve where Kyo is concerned though. The ending was a little crazy. I don’t think I’ve come across a cliffhanger that intense in this series yet. It was a good volume. A few more weeks and I’ll be caught up on this series.

Disclosure: I borrowed this book from my local library.

Book Information

VIZ Media, 2007
200 pages
ISBN 9781421541778

Also in this series

Volume 1Volume 2Volume 3Volume 4Volume 5Volume 6Volume 7Volume 8Volume 9Volume 10Volume 11Volume 12

 

Manga Mondays is hosted by Alison Can Read.



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