From the Bookshelves of August 2014

I read a whole bunch of books this month! I didn’t even realize how many I read until putting together this post. As the month goes on, it always feels like I’m not reading enough, and then I get to the end and BAM I’ve read a whole lot more than I expected. It’s pretty great, y’know?

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

I read Wicked years ago and couldn’t remember if I even enjoyed it or not, so I figured there was no harm in giving another of Gregory Maguire’s books a chance. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister was okay, but I couldn’t really get into it. I felt like I was reading it just for the sake of finishing. It’s not that there was anything inherently wrong or bad about it, but I struggled to stay interested. The closer I would get to the end, the more I would say, “I’m not done yet but I just want to finish!” I’m definitely not writing off his books entirely; I plan on rereading Wicked when I find my copy and picking up some others from the library at some point. I just think this one was mostly a miss for me.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

This was easily my favorite book of the month. I read it in about a day, and even that didn’t feel fast enough; I just wanted to devour the whole thing. As usual, it was good ol’ quirky, witty Rainbow Rowell style, but it was cool because it was a change of pace for me. I haven’t read Attachments, so I had yet to read any of her adult work, and adult contemporary isn’t my typical game anyway, so this was a nice change. I know my mom will hate the end because it’s a bit open-ended, also as usual, but I enjoy it. I love getting to think about how things could go, and I like to look at it as a happy conclusion. Seriously, though: Landline was warm and fuzzy and stressful and heartbreaking all at once, and that is just how I like my books.

Different Seasons by Stephen King

I expect I’ve mentioned it before, but I love Stephen King. I love him as a person and I love him as an author and I love everything I’ve read by him so far, Different Seasons being no exception. I picked this up months ago with my first paycheck from work and for some reason decided that Bout of Books would be the perfect time to try to read it. I managed it, but I lost a lot of other time for reading other books. I’m not complaining, though, because this one was so enjoyable. I think my favorite story in it was “The Body,” partly because I love the movie Stand by Me. (Of course, “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” was fun, too, because I read the whole thing in Morgan Freeman’s voice.) I think if you want to read some Stephen  King but don’t necessarily want to commit to something gigantic, this is a good choice because the stories are kind of long, but you don’t have to read them all at once. Although, if you do, you might be more likely to catch when the stories reference each other and his other works, like the nod to Cujo in “The Body,” which made me laugh.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Confession: This was a reread. It had been so long since I read it that I figured I would go through it again before reading volume two, which I finally got a few weeks ago. I think what I love about this was the way it was so directly reflected by the movie. It just made me laugh because I could literally imagine the actors of the movie saying their exact lines from the book. But I do think I like book!Scott more than movie!Scott, even if they aren’t necessarily all that different at times. At least in volume one he doesn’t seem quite as pathetic as he does in the movie.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon vol. 1 by Naoko Takeuchi

Okay, come on, I mean obviously I loved this. I think I’ve got volumes one through seven, but for some reason I haven’t gotten through them all yet, so that’s been my new project lately. Kind of like Scott Pilgrim, I think I like Usagi even more in the manga than in the show. Honestly, she seems less whiny, which is funny because that’s supposed to be such a big thing. But I’m really glad I have so many volumes already because I won’t have to wait so long to continue reading, kind of like with…

Locke & Key vol. 3: Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez

Another excellent installment in Locke & Key, not that I’m surprised. I think this one might be my current favorite volume, and I really can’t wait to pick up the next one. The art was absolutely on point, which is no surprise. I absolutely loved all the shadow creature scenes, which were done almost entirely in art with minimal dialogue. The thing about those pages was that I had to actively slow down to appreciate them, and I like that the book made me do that. Sometimes I speed through graphic novels and comics because I focus so much on the words, but that’s nearly impossible with Locke & Key because the art is just so damn good.

What did you read this month? Anything I should check out?