dreaminwithopeneyes

[dreaminwithopeneyes]

I’m not sure if any librarians read this blog, but if they do—thank you for everything, librarians!!

Libraries remain magical spaces with no barriers, where everyone is truly welcome to partake.

And they couldn’t exist without the librarians.

We’re grateful to you.

[dreaminwithopeneyes]

Check out my NEW book review podcast on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/athenauem

[dreaminwithopeneyes]

might fuck around and read a 600 page physical published book in one sitting like it’s 2006 and I’m being bullied in middle school so I take refuge in the library and inhale books at a frightening speed that I have not been able to replicate since

[dreaminwithopeneyes]

I'm trying to find a good science fiction book to start reading next do you have any recommendations that you feel would be a good choice? Maybe something that has to do with space travel or aliens?

Oh gosh, I haven’t been able to read anything for fun in forever (thx grad school) and the sci-fi I do read is usually confined to this planet. Hmm… Chloe, any suggestions?

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Check out my new representation-focused bookstore!

[dreaminwithopeneyes]

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

3 stars; 257 pages

This book was not at all what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be very light-hearted and funny. In some places it was. but it also got very dark for a while. I related FAR too much to her teenage feelings to be comfortable. I guess I expected her to be better than the average person, cause she’s freaking Princess Leia, and that’s basically all I knew about her. Well. Actors are human, too, this certainly proved that.

I wonder how Harrison Ford would feel, reading about himself from her perspective. It seems like their time together was a very dark portion of Fisher’s life and I know I would feel shitty about being the cause of that.

This book definitely reminded me of the saying, “never meet your heroes”. That being said, it also made me take a step back and look at the expectations I had for people just because they have a certain day-job.

[dreaminwithopeneyes]

Thanks!

Thanks so much for your support! I’m so excited and honored to have any sort of following this fast. Sorry for being MIA, I’ll try to go back to regular posts. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make this book blog better?

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5 stars; 276 pages

This was the kind of essay collection I want to discuss with the people I admire. The essays were nicely varied; obviously rooted in personal experience without giving an uncomfortable level of personal details. Hurley’s awareness of her own privilege and it’s effects on her life and others’ is admirable. She was refreshingly frank about her own mistakes and the way she handled them.

Hurley’s analysis, criticism, and perspective was both interesting and eye-opening. Several essays made me think deeply or confront my own assumptions, and others helped me analyze why I enjoy certain genres and how they can be politically or socially motivated.

The final essay in this volume was so powerful I don’t even have words to describe it. That essay alone makes the whole book worth purchasing so you can read it over and over again.

Overall- It was cutting, poignant, and eye-opening. I think it’s a must-read for anyone with a fondness for geekdom and a belief in equality.

[dreaminwithopeneyes]

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

5 stars; 329 pages

I couldn’t stop recommending this book even before I’d finished it. It is seriously THAT good from the get-go. Even on one of my worst days, Lawson’s writing is laugh-out-loud funny. Legitimately, I threw my head back and laughed and I’m usually really good at hiding that sort of reaction in public.

Lawson writes about things that would ordinarily make me want to cry (so a little bit trigger-warning), but she does it in such a great sense of humor that I can’t help but laugh... with empathy, somehow. Her words about mental illness cut to the quick; she is incredibly aware of the dangers of giving into the compulsions of your illness and brutally honest about how it affects her personally.

At the same time that it’s eye-opening, it’s also uplifting. Many of her points are easy to forget while you face struggles, but so so so important to remember. Lawson is the kind of person I wish I could meet and look to for guidance.

Overall- A year after I’ve read it I still remember how AWESOME this book is.

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5 stars; 464 pages

This is a great high fantasy book without the difficult Tolkein-style writing. It had a very LOTR feel, but was also really funny. There was never a dull moment; the whole thing was thoroughly entertaining. Several of the characters were also very likable, which is a nice change of pace from many modern books. 

The culture-building was fantastic and so intricate that it makes you want to learn more about the world, especially in Hartman’s sequel, Shadow Scale.

[dreaminwithopeneyes]

Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov

4 stars; 223 pages

This was definitely a trippy novel- which is just what I wanted from it. Nabokov’s voice is enticing, even in the portions of the novel that are confusing. I never got so confused that I wanted to put it down.

I’m sure that there’s a lot of symbolism that the reader can interpret, so I would recommend a second read to anyone who wants do do so.

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5 stars; 247 pages

I HIGHLY recommend this book to any fan of The Princess Bride movie. I learned so much about the film and the actors that I had no clue about beforehand. Most of the stories are hysterical. Others are heart-warming. All of them brought me a richer understanding of a movie I already adored.

I could clearly follow along with each mention of the scene, as I’ve seen the movie so many times. If you’re fuzzy on the movie, though, maybe rewatch it before reading it to get a better enjoyment. And you’ll absolutely want to rewatch the movie after finishing the book, just because it’s so great! Elwes and Layden’s writing is simple but fun, and the addition of the other cast members’ memories was great.

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The Sawbones Book by Justin and Dr. Sydnee McElroy

4 stars; 216 pages

This book was hysterical! I got it in the hopes that I might make a good preview for the accompanying podcast and it surely did!

I actually learned so much from this and even laughed out loud. I appreciated the warnings they provided, but I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. Sure, a lot of it was gross and awful, but laughing at people’s stupidity was fun!

I would certainly not recommend it to the faint of heart or delicate of stomach, but I think science-y and medical types would get a kick out of it. I also definitely want to listen to the Sawbones podcast.

[dreaminwithopeneyes]

5 stars; 309 pages

Wow. What a stellar book. It definitely had a dream-like quality that echoed the feeling of the plot. Benjamin’s capacity to make the reader feel anxiety and tension is really excellent. The characters were all so complex and interesting- not particularly likable (Sylvia’s paranoia made me avoid trying to relate too much) but definitely intriguing.

The story definitely lingered with me and I want to read Benjamin’s other book, The Immortalists.

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Child of a Mad God by R. A. Salvatore

3 stars; 496 pages

The writing in the prologue was excellent and it made me really excited for the book. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

Aoelyn seemed to never mature throughout the novel. And, frankly, none of Talmadge’s maturing seemed to stick, either. Overall, there was a significant lack of character development. Additionally, I felt that the major conflict was never given finality; the book ended with no real plan on how to address it.

I enjoyed the concept of magic being tapped into through the use of crystals. The crystal magic was one of the few times Salvatore really developed a plot device and while there was more he could have done with it, where he left it was satisfactory. There were several other concepts that were interesting to me, but again and again Salvatore failed to flesh them out, despite their great potential, instead leaving them to be mediocre.

This book had a lot of potential in many different ways, but he did not come through. If he could have continued the evocative writing style seen in the prologue and peeked through in certain scenes, I would have enjoyed the book more and overlooked the faults in the plot.

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Up to 5 stars; 397 pages

My love for Philip K. Dick has yet to disappoint me. All of his stories are poignant and his messages are made very clear- but in an interesting way. I will say this, some of Dick’s writing is hard to get into. It can be slow or dense, depending on the world he is trying to portray. But he never fails to be interesting, enlightening, shocking, and/or thrilling.

In some ways, some of his plots are predictable sci-fi moves, but I can’t tell if he’s the one being predictable or if more recent authors have learned from his work, or if I just read too much sci-fi. All that said, Dick also has some really original ideas that I haven’t seen anywhere else and can’t predict.

This collection was entertaining and diverse. There were few (if any) stories that I simply didn’t like.

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Timeline by Michael Crichton

Up to 5 stars, 444 pages

This was a really good introduction to Crichton’s work. It had been a long time since I’d read anything set in a Medieval era, so it was a good refresher. But, even cooler was the perspective the reader sees that era from! Seeing the 14th century through the eyes of someone who had studied it was fascinating.

I felt that the quantum theory explanation for the multiverse travel was original. It’s very different from many other time travel stories that try to explain the “science” behind the concept. The whole book was gripping.