A is for “Margaret Atwood”

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day in April (except Sundays), I’ll be sharing a short bookish memory with you.

I read my first Margaret Atwood book when I was a teenager. The book was The Handmaid’s Tale, and it completely blew my little bookworm mind. I immediately wanted more Margaret Atwood books, and then I wanted more and more and more. I started with Atwood's novels and moved on to her short stories and poetry.

In high school, we had to memorize lists of literary devices, and I was okay at analyzing books for essays, but I couldn’t explain my love for Atwood’s writing. I didn’t have the vocabulary to explain it. Her characters and settings felt so real to me that I sometimes wondered if I was really reading fiction. Her books made me feel things and think things that no other book had before.

“She’d scoop us up and sit us on the white enamel kitchen table, alongside the pie dough she was rolling out or the chicken she was cutting up or the fish she was gutting, and give us a lump of brown sugar to get us to close our mouths. Tell me where it hurts, she’d say. Stop howling. Just calm down and show me where.

But some people can’t tell where it hurts. They can’t calm down. They can’t ever stop howling.” – Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

When I went on my first solo camping trip, I brought Margaret Atwood’s books with me. I remember sitting on a boulder by a lake with a notebook and The Handmaid’s Tale. Determined to figure out what made this story tick, I examined everything from verb choices to scene transitions to major themes. I filled pages of a notebook with everything that interested me about The Handmaid’s Tale.

I didn’t know it at the time, but those were the seeds of me becoming a book blogger.  

Me reading The Handmaid's Tale in a campground.

If you have a blog, what made you decide to become a blogger?

  

March Wrap-Up

March Overview

1. Soup of every day. I started March with a three-day soup cleanse. According to someone on the Internet, if I ate vegetable soup for every meal for three days, I’d lose weight and feel great. All I felt after three days was sick of vegetable soup. I guess I shouldn’t take dieting advice from Internet advertisements.

2. My organizational skills stun the world. I wrote a post about how I manage my TBR pile and reading life. I kinda expected everyone to roll their eyes and move on to a blog written by a saner person, but I got tons of nice emails and Twitter messages. I’m glad the post was helpful. I’m not used to being helpful. I’m usually more of a hindrance, like a refrigerator that you need to get down a staircase.

3. My wall of immense fanciness. My grad school diploma finally came! I immediately stuck all my diplomas on the wall and took a photo. Please don’t judge my picture-hanging skills. My degrees are in literature, not proper hammer usage.

4. Another year closer to death. It was my birthday in March. I spent the day eating chocolate-chocolate cake and writing strongly worded letters to the government. Trump’s proposed budget came out on my birthday. Mr. Trump was like, “Hey, what’s up, AJ? Happy birthday! I’m eliminating your job and using your salary to build a Mexico wall. Surprise!” Yeah. Not one of my favorite birthday presents.

5. Trump’s wall of immense fanciness. If I’m paying for the Mexico wall, can I hang my diplomas on it?

6. Disregard everything I said about not taking diet advice from Internet ads. My parents got me 10 days of Nutrisystem for my birthday. I’ve wanted to try this diet for years, but I couldn’t because it costs $10 a day + the cost of fruit and vegetables. I’m not the type of person who has “fruit and vegetable” money. I’m more of a one-dollar-mystery-meat-TV-dinner type of girl. Nutrisystem was pretty awesome, though. It’s very easy, and I got to eat chocolate. I give it my stamp of approval.

7. Everything you never wanted to know about me. I’m going to be doing the Blogging from A to Z Challenge in April. Honestly, I’ve been feeling stuck in a rut with this blog lately. I’m hoping the challenge will force me to harness my wayward brain-meats and make them do something new. For 26 days in April, I’ll be writing short personal posts. Don’t worry, they’ll mostly be book-related. Basically, if you like what you’re reading right now, then you’re in luck! I’m going to shove a whole month of my life at you. If you’re cringing right now, then you should probably avoid me until May 1. We’ll see what happens. 

Books I Read

So . . . I was a bad bookworm. I only read 5 books in March. One was a reread. I blame the A to Z Challenge. Almost all of my free time was spent planning and blogging instead of reading.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Elizabeth George Speare

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – JK Rowling (reread)

IT – Stephen King

Sex with the Queen: Nine Hundred Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics – Eleanor Herman

Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology – Leah Remini

Best Books Of March

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – JK Rowling (reread)

2. Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology – Leah Remini

3. Sex with the Queen: Nine Hundred Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics – Eleanor Herman

Most-Viewed March Reviews

1. The Wave – Morton Rhue

2. Revolver – Marcus Sedgwick (featuring dog photos)

3. This Savage Song – Victoria Schwab

Most-Viewed March Non-Reviews

1. Discussion: My Reading Process

2. Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’m Reading This Spring

3. February Wrap-Up

All The Things!

I was spoiled on my birthday and got a lot of books. My TBR shelf is almost full now.

All The Things! (AKA number of books on my TBR shelf) = 38 books.

I’m currently reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.

What did you do in March?

Review: Slasher Girls & Monster Boys – April Genevieve Tucholke

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys – April Genevieve Tucholke (Editor)

A host of the sharpest young adult authors come together in this collection of terrifying tales and psychological thrillers. Each story draws from a mix of literature, film, television, or even music to offer something new and fresh and unsettling. Even better? After you’ve teased out each tale’s references, satisfy your curiosity at the end, where the inspiration is revealed. There are no superficial scares here. These are stories that will make you think even as they keep you on the edge of your seat. From bloody horror, to the supernatural, to unnerving, all-too-possible realism, this collection has something for anyone looking for an absolute thrill.

Review: In this anthology, popular young adult authors retell classic horror stories. It’s like a return to my childhood! I grew up on a steady diet of horror anthologies. Some of them were entertaining. Most were cheesy. I was curious to see how I’d feel about this one.

For the most part, I liked it. It’s an anthology, so not every story is spectacular, but some of them are. Quite a few of the stories include twists that I didn’t see coming.

These are my three favorites:

Carrie Ryan’s “In the Forest Dark and Deep” is an Alice in Wonderland retelling. The Hare is sinister, but he may not be the real monster in this tale. The story is just plain creepy.

“Not all monsters are filled with darkness.” – Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

My favorite story is “Sleepless” by Jay Kristoff. A teenage Internet romance goes very, very wrong. It’s easy to recognize which horror story this one is retelling, but there are so many twists that it kept catching me off-guard. A bizarre and well-written story.

"Sometimes I wonder if the right girl is out there. Sometimes I wonder if Momma isn't right about all of them." – Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

“Stitches” by A.G. Howard has the strongest voice and the best imagery in the anthology. A rural teen supports her family by amputating parts of her father’s body and selling them to a mysterious man. You probably shouldn’t read this one if you’re bothered by blood and guts, but I absolutely love its uniqueness.  

"The first time the wrens sang at night was three years ago, when I used a rusty saw to cut off Pa's left foot." – Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

One of the reasons I don’t like retellings is because they’re predictable. That was definitely the case with some of the stories in this anthology. Once I figured out which classic tale was being retold, I could sometimes predict what would happen next. Then I’d start losing interest in the story.

I didn’t find any of these stories particularly scary. Some of them are weird or creepy, but I never felt scared. If you’re looking for terrifying horror, you should probably look elsewhere. (And then tell me where you’re looking because I have trouble finding truly scary horror books.)

This is one of the most entertaining YA anthologies I’ve ever read, but it didn’t completely live up to my expectations of horror stories. 

Review: Round Ireland With A Fridge – Tony Hawks

Round Ireland With A Fridge – Tony Hawks

Have you ever made a drunken bet? Worse still, have you ever tried to win one? In attempting to hitchhike round Ireland with a fridge, Tony Hawks did both, and his foolhardiness led him to one of the best experiences of his life. Joined by his trusty traveling companion/domestic appliance, he made his way from Dublin to Donegal, from Sligo through Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Wexford, Wicklow—and back again to Dublin. In their month of madness, Tony and his fridge met a real prince, a bogus king, and the fridge got christened. They surfed together, entered a bachelor festival, and one of them had sex without the other knowing. And unexpectedly, the fridge itself became a momentary focus for the people of Ireland.

Review: You know that tiny voice in your head that tells you to DNF a book? The voice that constantly reminds you that life’s too short to read bad stories? I really need to learn to listen to that voice.

Round Ireland with a Fridge is the memoir of British comedian Tony Hawks. I’d never heard of Tony Hawks (maybe because I’m not British), but the book sounded delightfully pointless. I’m always up for a good idiotic adventure. Also, I’d love to go to Ireland someday. I thought I could live vicariously through the book.

“The more foolish, illogical or surreal one's actions were perceived to be (and mine surely fell into one of these categories), the wider the arms of hospitality were opened in salutation.” – Round Ireland with a Fridge

The story starts with Tony waking up hungover and discovering a note from his friend. While they were drunk the night before, the friend bet Tony 100 Pounds that he couldn’t hitchhike around the circumference of Ireland with a refrigerator. Tony didn’t want to lose a bet that he didn’t remember making, so he bought a mini fridge (which cost 130 Pounds), and set off around Ireland. I assumed that hilarity would ensue.

It didn’t. The memoir is extremely slow and repetitive. It’s about a guy with a bad hangover who spends a month dragging a fridge from pub to pub in Ireland. In the process, he goes surfing and has sex in a doghouse. That’s it. At first the adventure is amusing, but there are only so many stories of Stupid Things Drunk Strangers Do In Bars that I can take. I quickly stopped caring about Tony and his fridge. I know that the point of his journey was to be pointless, but I just got angry at him. He gets to spend a month in Ireland. He chooses to spend it getting drunk. You can get drunk anywhere in the world. At least do something mildly interesting on your trip!

I didn’t click with Tony’s personality. He’s a comedian, but I didn’t find him funny. He’s condescending to the Irish people, and it’s a blow to his ego when they don’t recognize him as the “Fridge Man.” Most of his rides are the result of being on a radio show. He complains when he actually has to hitchhike. He also likes to pick out his “favorite” girl at a pub and hit on her relentlessly, even if she’s there with a date. Tony is probably nice in real life, but in the book, he comes across as an entitled, conceited person. I didn’t understand his humor. Maybe he’s trying to be self-deprecating?

I do completely agree with this quote, though:

“I'm against the death penalty. I believe that it is a mistake to show that killing people is wrong by killing people. However I'm not against the random killing of people who snore.” – Round Ireland with a Fridge

This book wasn’t for me. I would have saved myself a lot of disappointment if I had listened to my instincts and taken it back to the used bookstore instead of forcing myself to finish it.