Books and Sensibility

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5 Star

The Golem and The Jinni by Helene Wecker

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  • Release Date: April 23 , 2013
  • Pages: 496
  • Genre: Historical Urban Fantasy
  • Publisher: Harper

Hey, did you read Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus?  Did you fall all over the magical aspects, charming side characters and nonlinear narrative? Well, I did and if you need something to fill that hole I highly suggest TheGolem and The Jinni. I grabbed this off my library’s Overdrive after seeing so many people reading it on vacation and it was just my kind of book.

Drenched in Kabbalah and Arabic folklore Wecker’s debut novel  is the unlikely story of two creatures believed to exist only folklore finding their way in the immigrant neighborhoods of 1890’s  New York. 

The  Golem is a newborn woman made of earth, who is quickly abandoned as soon as she is bought to  life. Hiding out in the Jewish populated Lower East Side, her only solace is trying to meet the wants of others without revealing herself first.

Once free to roam the deserts of Syria, the Jinni is now selfish, arrogant creature made of fire and smoke, who is bound to human flesh, and has inexplicably awoken in New York City’s  Little Syria.

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A Matter of Fate: If I Stay by Gayle Foreman & Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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At first these two books seem worlds away, one a much-praised modern literary classic the other a backlist YA contemporary climbing its way up the NYT bestsellers list with a film release weeks away.  

I found myself reading both books at around the same time and the more I thought about writing the individual reviews, the more I realized these books have a lot in common. Both main characters, Kathy  H. in Never Let Me Go and Mia in If I Stay, are young women trying to figure out their future. While Kathy’s path has been laid out  since  birth Mia gets the opportunity to decide hers.

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At first these two books seem worlds away, one a much-praised modern literary classic the other a backlist YA contemporary climbing its way up the NYT bestsellers list with a film release weeks away.  

I found myself reading both books at around the same time and the more I thought about writing the individual reviews, the more I realized these books have a lot in common. Both main characters, Kathy  H. in Never Let Me Go and Mia in If I Stay, are young women trying to figure out their future. While Kathy’s path has been laid out  since  birth Mia gets the opportunity to decide hers.

…

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This Star Won’t Go Out by Esther Earl with Lori and Wayne Earl

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  • Release Date: January 28th 2014
  • Genre: YA Nonfiction / Memoir
  • Pages: 428
  • Publisher: Dutton (Penguin)

Synopsis: In full color and illustrated with art and photographs, this is a collection of the journals, fiction, letters, and sketches of the late Esther Grace Earl, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 16. Essays by family and friends help to tell Esther’s story along with an introduction by award-winning author John Green who dedicated his #1 bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars to her.

This book debuted around the time I finished Fault in Our Stars (I know… super late to the party) but I had no intention of reading it. Then  I saw it on the shelf at the library and decided why not? I had seen some of Esther’s videos on YouTube, visited her family’s foundation website when she first passed, and I thought I knew most of  Esther Earl’s story. 



Well, that turned out to be completely wrong.…

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Book Review: Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

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  • Release Date: December 2, 2010
  • Publisher: Dutton (Penguin)
  • Pages: 372
  • Genre: Contemporary

This book has been on my to-read list since I saw this video where John Green practically gushed about it. I finally bought it in 2012 and its one of those books that sat on my shelf for  so long I forgot about. I ended up picking this out of the TBR book jarand I figured it was about time, especially since book three in this series comes out later this year. 

The titular Anna is the daughter of a Nicholas Sparks expy who decides that for Anna’s senior year she is going  to The School of America in Paris, an American boarding school right in the city of love. There she joins up with a close knit group of friends and Étienne St. Clair, the American boy with a French name and English accent. Yes, you read that right.

Now, I’ve read a lot of contemporary YAs and Anna and The French Kiss hits all the usual marks:

Girl who is pretty, but doesn’t see it ? Check

Nice, hot guy, everyone likes ? Check

Mean girl ? Check

References to literature and philosophical concepts that call back to the plot ? Check

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Audiobook Reviews: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. and The Raven Boys By Maggie Stiefvater

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The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

I’ve reviewed a few sequels this year and though I usually have a pretty good idea of what to expect but Maggie Stiefvater really surprised me with her approach to The Raven Boys sequel.

The Dream Thieves is the sequel that’s not trying to be a sequel (and I guess it’s not since it’s the second book in a four book series.)  It wasn’t trying to set up for an overarching plot or wrap up loose ends from book one, it just told a story. The complicated and dark story of The Raven Boys resident bad boy  Ronan Lynch.

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Audiobook Review: Will Garyson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

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Join Kat as she reads and reviews the works of David Levithanfrom his debut novel to his National Book Award shortlisted novel, Two Boys Kissing

“It’s hard to believe in coincidence, but it’s even harder to believe in anything else.” 

― John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“I think the idea of a ‘mental health day’ is something completely invented by people who have no clue what it’s like to have bad mental health. the idea that your mind can be aired out in twenty-four hours is kind of like saying heart disease can be cured if you eat the right breakfast cereal. mental health days only exist for people who have the luxury of saying ‘i don’t want to deal with things today’ and then can take the whole day off, while the rest of us are stuck fighting the fights we always fight, with no one really caring one way or another, unless we choose to bring a gun to school or ruin the morning announcements with a suicide.

 

― David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson

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  • Release Date: April 6th 2010
  • Pages: 304
  • Genre: Realistic Fiction
  • Publisher: Dutton’s Children (Penguin)

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is probably David Levithan’s most well-known co-authorship and served as my introduction to David Levithan 2 years ago. I’d liked John Green’s vlogbrothers channel and decided to start reading his books. I got what I expected from Green’s writing, but Levithan’s just blew me away. It reminded me of how unique and diverse the voices in  YA writing can be. For Days of David Levithan, I did a re-read of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but decided to switch it up with the audiobook

Will Grayson,Will Grayson  is told in the alternating perspective of two 16-year-olds named WillGrayson,each leading separate lives unknown to each other. Until faith and a little bit of bad luck has them cross paths. From that moment the story unravels as each Will Grayson is forced to examine everything they thought they knew about love, relationships and coincidence….

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