Category Archives: Book Corner

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green is just plain fun to read!

John Green does a great job with his characters and drawing a reader into the novel; Colin, a child prodigy now in his teens, could easily have been a stuck-up smartie pants unable to be truly accepted and understood by readers.

The novel follows Colin at the end of his relationship with the 19th Katherine he’s ever dated. Uninspired and struggling, Colin’s best friend Hassan suggests a road trip and the boys set off. They end up in Gutshot, Tennessee at the Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s burial site and the story really takes off from there.

Using his experience with Katherines, Colin is attempting to write a theorum to predict the length of any relationship! With a comedic best friend and a new friend & coworker Lindsey, Colin sets off on healing his broken heart.

This was an endearing YA novel that really had me laughing and smiling along the whole way through. I’m looking forward to reading more John Green. I would definitely suggest this book to others!

Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead was an enjoyable read!

I was mostly really impressed with Ayn Rand’s writing; the way it made everything seem simple and straight forward, but was really attending to deeper motives and musings regarding society.

It almost has a book within the book with it’s multitude of protagonists and antagonists, all struggling to be real in a world ruled by the superficial. Each character has been expertly crafted with realistic flaws and bad decision making skills. I feel as if every time I started to get close to a character, a giant looming flaw was presented to squash any good feelings I had toward them. Noone is safe from Rand’s scrutiny of the human condition and what drives us.

That being said, I think her agenda behind the book really holds up even today. People are still sacrificing their souls for a higher place in societal circles; trying to overshadow their ignorance with opinions. In a world where darkness is overwhelming, it is nice to see even a flawed character, such as Roark, stay true to who they are on the most basic & complex of levels.

I could not put this novel down! I wish I had known about it as a child, but we never read it in school. 

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is reminiscent of the Narnia chronicles, Cinder, and even a bit of Hunger Games. Something you could call a children’s novel, but which really carries loads of adult topics and struggles throughout. It was a magical and fun adventure book.

The characters were original; I doubt I’ve ever heard of many of the types of creatures and characteristics called out in this novel. The writing really added to the imagery of every instance and I found myself lost in L’Engle’s world of tesseracting and IT.

To make it all that much more enjoyable, this novel is a part of a series of Christian novels. It makes me want to re-read The Narnia Chronicles, too!

Cinder by Marissa Meyer is an excellent and downright FUN novel!

It’s The Hunger Games meets a modern retelling of Cinderella as a cyborg!

A dystopia of sorts where androids, cyborgs, humans, and Lunars are living and dying. An incurable disease causes the commonwealth of New Beijing to struggle together to avoid death, war, and an evil Lunar queen.

The characters were well-rounded and interesting and the plot was just plain fun. I sped through the novel and found myself sad when I reached the end!

Can’t wait to read the next novel in the series, it’s called Scarlet!

At first I feared that Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner was just a novel which repeatedly allowed the same story to be told between snippets of “current life” for the characters. This is somewhat an accurate viewpoint, but the novel is so much more than that.

The backdrop is The Civil War, in the South, though the war is not the central focus of the novel. Faulkner has us fixated on Thomas Sutpen, a man who comes seemingly from nowhere to the small town of Jefferson Mississippi. ‘He was a man, Faulkner said, “who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him.”’ What a poignant way to sum up the novel.

I really enjoyed it. It takes a bit to sift through the southern accents and it can be a bit tough to get into the story at first, but once you’re in, you are HOOKED.

Would definitely recommend this novel!

WOW. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky really spoke to me as a reader, a writer, a human being.

Perks is a coming-of-age novel following Charlie, a high school freshman who has never had much luck with friends. His only true friend commited suicide in 8th grade. This daunting shadow over his life thus far, he begins high school apprehensively.

Through his unlikely friendship with Patrick and Sam, we begin to see Charlie open up and become comfortable with himself. Without giving any spoilers, all I can say is that this novel is incredibly heartrending.

I really recognized with Charlie, as someone who was considered a nerd and uncool in high school. Also, as someone who has gone through some pretty scarring past experiences, I can say that Chbosky hits the nail on the head!