Hello, Friends! I have been remiss in my updating duties and for that I apologize. I have been nose-deep in 10-20 books for school but have only read portions and not completed a single one! But it occurred to me that I never did post my final summary for the last few books of 2015, which I shall amend right this very moment.
For the play category I read Waiting for Godot. Most people have heard this phrase or have a vague knowledge of this play’s existence, but if you “don’t get it,” that’s ok. No one else does either. It is so odd and open-ended that the theorizing never stops, and nothing is extrememly conclusive, either. I saw it performed as an undergrad and thought it was funny, silly, odd. I read it this December, hoping to have some light shed on a deeper meaning. I was out of luck. I made up some theories of my own, such as: the characters represent different body parts! The characters are actually all dead! But whatever you decide is “really” going on, you’re probably just as right or wrong as everybody else.
To finish out my trilogy category, I finished Dreams of Gods and Monsters. You guys, if you have not read this trilogy by Laini Taylor, please drop everything and do so. Like, for really real. It is AWESOME. I have been reading and writing all my life and I consider myself a person of rather refined tastes. In fact I can be downright snobby if I feel a book or film is particularly lazy in the writing department. LAINI TAYLOR GOES IN MY TOP FIVE BEST WRITERS WRITING TODAY!!! She is a master storyteller of the highest level. Her language is beautiful, her stories are rich and deep, her world building boggles my mind, her characters are beautifully flawed and strong and real. I cannot recommend her highly enough. Please run out to your nearest bookstore or library right this minute and fall in love with her just like I did.
My final book for the year and my final category was a Christmas book. I wasn’t terribly excited about the category and I figured it was a good one to save til last and read around the same time as the actual holiday. The book I picked was Let It Snow, which I sarcastically referred to as a book written by John Green and some other guys. Dang, don’t you hate it when you’re a jerk and then it bites you in the butt? I am such a dufus for dragging my feet to get started on this. This book was good, and I was a dummy for thinking it wouldn’t be. Damn my grinch-y outlook! First, it was YA romance, which, distinct from adult romance, I like. Second, it was three short stories (novellas?) written by three authors, John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle, which I knew from the cover, but I didn’t know I was in for linked stories that were intertwined and had us get to know a range of the cast of characters that featured in each story! I love stuff like that!! So that was a really cool discovery, too. And–wait for it–the writing was really high quality. Can I be done apologizing for my pride-before-a-fall ways, now? It was good and I liked it and I would gladly read more by all three of these authors. And yes, someday someone will refer to me as “and some other guys” and I will just cry because I deserve it. >.<
Jobe
eating humble pie
❤
J. Jobe 