Wrenegade

This didn't do it for me. But I think...it's not you, it's me. 

I think that if I'd read this a few years ago, in the midst of dating/breaking up/having new and old partners on the brain, that I would have liked it a lot more. It just doesn't resonate with me right now.

It's an awesome premise. The story is one that is frustrating but realistic. But in the end it wasn't worth finishing when I have so many other books whispering sweet nothings in my ear.

I can't for the life of me recall what made me just stop reading this last time I tried. Falling for Mercy and Adam all over again. Unf.

So far, not terribly impressed, but willing to give it a chance.

Besides the fact that the writing was blah and I couldn't connect with any of the characters and the too-nice fae and when terrible things happened I gave so few fucks...

...she lost me the moment she said "Christmas tree farm in SE Washington". Have you been there? There are cows. And tumbleweed.

I read this when it first came out and really enjoyed it, so thought I'd re-read in preparation for the sequel that just came out.

Hrm. Sadly, it's much less good than I remember it being. Still an awesome concept, but the execution is poor. There's so little about breaking the actual curse, and so much about I don't even know what. This book is over 300 pages long and I couldn't tell you why it takes up that much space. 

It's still fun, just somewhat disappointing as I remember loving this five years ago.

Meh. I was expecting something more akin to Northern Exposure, which is one of my favorite shows. Instead it was more like: "...and in this chapter, this person died. And I visited the family. And it was sad."

Why didn't I read this years ago????

Beats the hell out of me. I LOVED it. Way more than I expected to love it. I'm not a fan of zombies, or history books, but this was just...agdhah. I have no words.

I would definitely say it's not for everyone. The format, fact that it's told by survivors, and the similarity of character voices could all be turn offs. I didn't find them to be so, personally...the suspense of how humanity would survive kept me going.

I did think, given that this was written by Max Brooks, that is would be humorous, but it's not really. Not a big loss though, as I don't find zombies particularly amusing anyway.

DNF for now...not because it's bad or anything (it's actually really, really good), but because I'm going to pick it up later in the year when I'm more in the mood for details of WWII Berlin.

DNF. I tried. I went into this with very low expectations (aka I wanted them to do it on a motorcycle and that was basically it).

It bothered me when the hero referred to every woman as "bitch" from page one, but I stuck with it. It got better when he was trying to help the heroine figure her life out. And then this made me ragequit:

“I fuck and do it hard. I take what I want and if the bitch gets off, golden.” 

Sigh. Can't do it.

This is lovely, with descriptions of nature, the tidepools, and the clouds that make me flail with joy. After reading this I want to move to Alaska now, please, or whichever far flung place I can find. I found myself researching build your own yurts, kayaks, and plotting how to convince S that we need to flee the city.

My only complaint (and this feels weird because it's someone's life and not fiction) is that it often felt like this was a book about the disintegration of her relationship disguised as a book about Alaska. I could have done with fewer "my boyfriend is enthused about living here and that makes me feel so incompetent" monologues that went on for pages.

She's coming to town in March. I guess I should get caught up...

#6 River Marked

#7 Frost Burned

#8 Night Broken

So far, moving to Alaska seems like a viable life plan.

This was, overall, a meh read for me. I really disliked the first 50 pages or so, and then it got better, and then it had an anticlimactic ending. It didn't send me into a feminist rage, but I can't really recommend it either. 

Sam seems like an okay guy. He tries to understand his mother leaving, although he is understandably upset about it. He's interested in masturbation (as teenagers are). He's disgusted by his brother's crude comments. He really pissed me off exactly twice:

1. When he gets mad at his mom for acquiring friends.

2. For the first 30 pages we listen to Sam talking about women, staring at women, thinking about women, thinking about getting laid, talking about boobs and beauty and all that...and then when a woman touches him for a split second to long (in his mind) he is "creeped out", "weirded out", "suspicious", and "nervous". WTF. This could have been turned into a commentary on objectification, but instead it was just sort of there. 

Jeff is a misogynistic jerk. He gets slightly better when he gets "tangled in the pussy web" aka liking a woman long enough to treat her like a human being and not a piece of ass. 

We're told DeeDee is special, but never really shown that she is special. I did like her bit on the Bible because I think it highlighted how women are portrayed in the Bible. I didn't take it to mean that she actually thought Lilith etc. were hoes (is that the proper plural?)

Taffany seemed awesome. Kristle...we were all set up with her to learn magical lessons about how it's not okay to slut shame...and then that fizzled out or wandered off or something.

One thing I thought this book did well was show how complex relationships and people's emotions can be. It's absolutely possible to be angry at someone and still love them, to want to see them and hope they don't show up at the same time. It showed lots of shades of gray in all the relationships in the book, which was nice.

Annnnnnd it turns out the curse is different from what we've thought this whole time. Or not. We're not really sure. It could be anything, actually. Surprise!

In the end though, I couldn't really figure out what the book had been about or what it was trying to say. Was it about manhood? Family? Mermaids? Feminism? First love? Losing your virginity? Curses? Boners? Slut shaming? Magic? Ponies? I feel like it was about all of the above, but didn't wrap any of them up in a particularly conclusive way. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel at the end, or what the book is trying to say, so instead I feel like there are worse ways to spend a couple hours than reading this book, but there are probably better ways too.

First: Edward Abbey is undeniably an egotistical, hypocritical ass. If I met him I don't know whether I would punch him in the face or shake his hand or both (yes, I know he's dead and this is all theoretical).

That said...Desert Solitaire is a lovely book. There are descriptions of the desert and the wilderness that took my breath away, and made me long to go somewhere, anywhere, as long as it was deep into the wild. 

Abbey's ideas will probably never happen, but I agree with many of them, including not making every single part of wilderness easily accessible to everyone. Not everything should be paved. Some things should still be sacred.

A favorite quote:

"This is the most beautiful place on earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary."