I picked up this book at our hotel in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. I couldn't have had a better book fall into my lap. This is an autobiography written by the successful writer, Jeannette Walls, who has quite an odd and rough upbringing. She has literally risen like a phoenix out of the ashes to become what she is today. Jeannette Wall's parents were "different"--- and even though her dad was a raging alcoholic, her parents stole money from her, she lived in a house that had no roof in some places, she and her siblings slept in boxes, and were constantly moving from one town to another sometimes only having a stick of butter to eat--- she never talked rudely of them or placed blame on them. She simply recalls the events of her childhood in a story-like manner that keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire book. You will cry, be completely pissed off, and laugh out loud during this book. Truly an amazing, well-written autobiography.
Another autobiography I scored at a hostel in San Jose, Costa Rica... this is written by the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony Kiedis, and is a striking, detailed account of their time before and during the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Since Anthony Kiedis is writing it, you learn a lot about his childhood and life that you don't get about the other band members. At the same time, it captures well what was going on with the band as a whole. If you don't like the Chili Peppers or don't know much about them--- this book will awe you. The Chili Peppers story is truly one of kids creating a scene and running with it, capturing the attention of the youth. However, their story is also a story of addiction. They lost their guitarist to heroin and Anthony was next... It is the story of him getting clean and overcoming many heartaches throughout life.
John Steinbeck... easily one of my favorite writers. I loved this short tale, but I'm not sure if I understood it completely. There were tons of lose ends for me, which I'm sure have some allegorical meaning, but it goes way over my head. The story is about a boy who is given a pony and a lot of crazy, random stuff happens that I don't want to reveal and ruin it. I think the point was that people have lost their ambition to explore or to "western" as John Steinbeck coins it. I love reading Steinbeck because it puts you in a time capsule. This book was set in Salinas, CA and we were around those parts when I was reading it so it fit very well: it talked of farm land and adobes, sending me back to Salinas in the 30s. All I've got to say about this book, is it is a great short story and I need you to read it and tell me what you got out of it, haha...
This is a book that I decided to revisit. I read it in high school, but remember it as being one of my favorites so I gave it another go. And I was glad I did. This book is written ingeniously!! I love the main character, Holden's, narration of events. He's so blunt and uses words like "phony" and "anyway" a bunch. It is exactly how you would think a teenager in the 50s would talk. Catcher in the Rye is the tale that every adolescent goes though, in my opinion: dissatisfaction with the status quo, fear of the future, depression/confusion... basically growing up. In Holden's case, he probably didn't handle it all too well, but I'll let you read about it.
This is a book I borrowed off our reader/writer extraordinaire, Avery's, bookshelf. I could literally read every single book he owns!! I settled for this book by Chuck Palahnuik (author of Fight Club), because I hadn't read a book by him and well... sex sells and it certainly caught my attention. Snuff is the story of a porn star, Cassie Wright, who is setting out to break the record of how many guys slept with consecutively, which is 600 guys!! That's a lot of sex in a row. The book is told from the perspectives of 3 random guys in the waiting room full of guys about to have sex with Cassie and her personal assistant, Shelia. There are tons of plot twists including Cassie's possible son and the baby daddy might be in the line of guys about to have sex with her and she could possibly die. Despite the overtly sexual topic of this book, it's not too graphic and an interesting take on porn culture.
This was by far my favorite book that I read on our trip. I love dystopian/apocalyptic literature and this one nails it on the head. Margaret Atwood must be very well-educated and creative because the science fiction stuff she comes up with is so crazy accurate, you feel like SHE'S the mad scientist. It's hard to explain what I'm talking about without revealing too much about the plot... I feel like I could write a dissertation on the book, there is just so much to it!! To put it as simple as possible, the story follows a boy named Jimmy as he grows up in a future world where unethical science begins to take over until he is the only "human" left on earth--- or is he? Seriously, read this book and find out all the crazy things that happen throughout it!!
This is another one in the apocalyptic genre. I have a love/hate relationship with this book. The setting is an ashen earth, but it never specifies what catastrophic event happened. I hate when books do that, 'cause I wanna know! The whole story follows a father and a son in the hardships that they face. McCarthy does a good job capturing the gruesome details of what people will resort to, cannibalism, suicide, thievery, and how hard it is to find food in a scavenged landscape that can no longer produce food. The ending is a little "eh" in my opinion. Another one of those times where I wished it had kept going just a little longer.
Now this was a weird book! One that I almost feel like I have to read again to fully grasp. I would say it's also in the apocalyptic genre because the world as the characters know it crumbles at the end of the book. It is about fraternal twins who are considered mentally retarded their whole life, but that is far from the case. When they put their heads together, they are one single, genius mind. However, they are separated and forced to live their lives apart. That's the best description I can give.
Please leave a comment below with some of your favorite books because I'll need some more to read this summer!
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