Tiny (Text)Books for School

Okay, so....yes, I confess...that title is slightly misleading because although some of these books may be tiny (compared to...say, the world, perhaps), they aren't the tiny you're thinking about. By tiny, I mean....my reviews for them are tiny and lackluster, and....who am I kidding...it feels like the blurb is longer than my review! Aaah! That's...just....depressing. Maybe I've grown out of writing reviews....I'm running out of things to say...and....maybe...maybe...maybe it's time for me to just give up on writing reviews altogether?! Anyways....this post isn't about that....so....I don't know....here ya go...some TINY REVIEWS....

Review: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Wow...can we all just point at me and sigh (or mock and laugh at me derisively) because my reviews are so behind?  Like...months behind?  Heart of Darkness....I read this last year!  

 

Actually, scratch that...my reviews aren't behind.  Well, they are...but the only reason why they're behind is because I've been procrastinating on the other posts?  And I like to alternate them?  The posts just take so much time....ugh.  Well, summer is here!  I've got time!  Plenty of time!

Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Read: November 8-17, 2016
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Format: hardcover, 172 pages

Publication: June 1996 by Scribner Classics

Genres: classics, historical, romance

Blurb from Goodreads:

"The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when, The New York Times remarked, "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale America in the 1920s that resonates with the power of myth. A novel of lyrical beauty yet brutal realism, of magic, romance, and mysticism, The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth century literature."

I had....super duper high hopes for this one.....and maybe that's why my rating is so low. I had friends who never read books read it, and tell me that it's a beautiful book. And the romance in this book was lovely. I. Got. None. Of. That.

Two Really Short Reviews

Peoples, I have here, two very short reviews.  Why am I choosing to combine two reviews, you ask?

Because they are very short.  That's why.  Don't think too much of it.

This first one was a classic, and kinda short....not that interesting...so...short review.  The next one....I really only thouroughly read a few pages of, so...also, short review.

Let's begin.

Review: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Read: Sept. 23-Oct. 13, 2016
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publication: December 1992 by Everyman's Library
Genres: Classic, historical fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation.

Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity." Although the theme of marital infidelity no longer shocks, few novels have plumbed the psychology of a woman involved in an illicit relationship with the perception, artistry, and honesty that Kate Chopin brought to The Awakening."

Review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Read: Sept. 14-21, 2016
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Format: Paperback, 459 pages
Publication: February 2012 by Doubleday Canada
Genres: Romance, Sci-fi, romance, fantasy (dystopia), action, adventure

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba's unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization."

Welp.

Two star ratings are rare for me.....and I don't like giving them out...but....I couldn't help it?

Review: Ru by Kim Thúy

Read: Feb 12-15, 2016
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Pages: 141
Genres: Canada, historical fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Ru. In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow--of tears, blood, money. Kim Thúy's Ru is literature at its most crystalline: the flow of a life on the tides of unrest and on to more peaceful waters. In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec. There, the young girl feels the embrace of a new community, and revels in the chance to be part of the American Dream. As an adult, the waters become rough again: now a mother of two sons, she must learn to shape her love around the younger boy's autism. Moving seamlessly from past to present, from history to memory and back again, Ru is a book that celebrates life in all its wonder: its moments of beauty and sensuality, brutality and sorrow, comfort and comedy."

Another book I had to read for English...this being one of the shorter ones...but...frankly...not the most interesting.
 

Review: The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons

Read: Oct. 22-27, 2015
Rating: 2 of 5 stars
Pages: 336
Genres: Dystopia, romance

Synopsis from Goodreads:

"The Handmaid’s Tale meets Blood Red Road in Glass Arrow, the story of Aya, who lives with a small group of women on the run from the men who hunt them, men who want to auction off breeding rights to the highest bidder.

In a world where females are scarce and are hunted, then bought and sold at market for their breeding rights, 15-year old Aya has learned how to hide. With a ragtag bunch of other women and girls, she has successfully avoided capture and eked out a nomadic but free existence in the mountains. But when Aya’s luck runs out and she’s caught by a group of businessmen on a hunting expedition, fighting to survive takes on a whole new meaning."

Review: Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun

Read: Feb. 3, 2014-Oct. 18, 2015
Rating: 2 of 5 stars
Pages: 277
Genres: Science Fiction, fantasy, apocalyptic, dystopia                  

Synopsis from Goodreads:

"Insomnia has claimed everyone Biggs knows.  Even his beloved wife, Carolyn, has succumbed to the telltale red-rimmed eyes, slurred speech and cloudy mind before disappearing into the quickly collapsing world.  Yet Biggs can still sleep, and dream, so he sets out to find her.

He ventures out into a world ransacked by mass confusion and desperation, where he meets others struggling against the tide of sleeplessness.  Chase and his buddy Jordan are devising a scheme to live off their drug-store lootings; Lila is a high school student wandering the streets in an owl mask, no longer safe with her insomniac parents; Felicia abandons the sanctuary of a sleep research center to try to protect her family and perhaps reunite with Chase, an ex-boyfriend.  All around, sleep has become an infinitely precious commodity. Money can’t buy it, no drug can touch it, and there are those who would kill to have it. However, Biggs persists in his quest for Carolyn, finding a resolve and inner strength that he never knew he had."     

Review

I won this book through a giveaway on Read it Forward, a year ago, I think. I was so excited when I knew I won, because the synopsis sounded so interesting. When the book came, I tried reading it, and it didn't work out. A year later, I decided it was way past time I read it.