Book Reviews 2017

Here is a list of bookings I've read in 2017 followed by a few quick thoughts. 

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
This is a post apocalyptic-ish book about a traveling theater company going through the upper midwest after a flu wipes out the majority of the population. It also checks in with other people outside of the theater company who are all connected by the people they know. It's absolutely fascinating and it touches up on things a lot of shows like The Walking Dead ignore - that eventually gasoline goes bad and you can't use cars anymore. - A

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Man, the story is so interesting but so poorly executed. Literally half of this book is an 80's pop culture circle jerk. I'm not sure who the target audience for this book was supposed to be, but damn, I get what you're talking about. I don't need 10 pages explaining it. For what it's worth, this will probably make a decent movie because they can eliminate all the tedious pop culture knowledge. D

It - Stephen King
I decided that it was kind of ridiculous that I've read two Joe Hill books but never read anything from Stephen King. I now realize that Hill does not have his own voice and he took a lot of inspiration for Nos4ra2 from this novel. Overall, I liked It. It's not perfect, I didn't like the catalyst to ending the children's story and there's way too much filler. (The book clocks in at over 1100 pages) but the story is good. 
B

The Circle - Dave Eggers
This book was fascinating. I couldn't relate to the lead character, Mae at all because nearly everything she does is so ridiculous but it makes you think. It's a shame that Emma Watson was cast as the lead in the film adaption. She'll probably ruin it.
B

The Color Purple - Alice Walker
This movie was one of my favorites when I was young. I haven't seen it in years, but while browsing the shelves I came across it and decided it was time to read it. I'm glad I did. The book is very frank. It's written in letter form, much like We Need To Talk About Kevin. From my memories of the movie, it was adapted fairly well. I enjoyed reading it.
A 

Dolores Claiborne - Stephen King
This book is only 300 pages yet it felt like the longest 300 pages I've ever read. It takes 100 pages for you to find out why Dolores killed her husband, 100 more to explain why she did it, then I expected some grand twist with the last pages and nothing happened. To be fair, It wasn't a terrible book, and I bet the movie version is really good, but it's not something I'd ever read again.
C-

The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
Having watched a trainwreck of a family (that I won't name because they don't need attention) who spectacularly fail at homesteading and unschooling, I took a suggestion to better understand how a child would view this type of lifestyle and picked up this book. I was completely fascinated and horrified by all that Jeannette went through. I'm legitimately surprised she still talks to her parents. I wouldn't.
A

The Handmaind's Tale - Margaret Atwood
After all the buzz surrounding the mini series, I picked up this book until I could binge this with a friend that has HULU. I liked the book well enough, but the series was so much better as it expanded on more. Atwood's book, while beautifully written and interesting has a habit of being quite vague. I appreciated more insight.
B

11/22/63 - Stephen King
Man, I love Stephen King's stories but his writing style drives me crazy. There's so much junk. This book is 800 pages long (or in my case, over 1000 because my library only had large print available) and it didn't need to be. Ultimately, having to dig for interesting plot points wasn't worth it.
C

The Vagina Monolouges - Eve Ensler
I finally got around to reading this book and I was long overdue. The stories in here are all so unique. They're funny, sad, inspiring, I can't recommend this enough.
A+

Thrawn - Timothy Zahn
After watching Star Wars Rebels I was curious to know why everyone was so hyped for him. This did a good job of showing his backstory but it was a bit long. I hate to say it, but a Wikipedia page would've sufficed. 
C

The Snowman - Jo Nesbø
I love mysteries but this one took m forever to get into then once I did, I just didn't care. I just wanted this to be better than it actually was. I read it because I wanted to see the film, and after this, I ended up skipping that to.
C-

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life - Samantha Irby
This is hands down my favorite thing I read in 2017. I am a full on Samantha Irby stan after this. This book is a collection of essays and she's so funny and sincere and I could relate so much. I plan on reading this over and over again.
A+

War for the Planet of the Apes - Reveations - Gregory Keyes
You all know how much I love the Planet of the Ape reboots. After enjoying the prequel novel that came before this, Firestorm, I picked this one up as well. It offered a lot of insight to characters we don't normally hear from, like Blue Eyes, Cornelia, and Rocket. (Making the film all the more tragic) Like the other novel, the chapters from the human point of views weren't very interesting, but I loved reading what the apes had to say.
A

Persepolis- Marjane Satrapi
When I went to check this out at the library, someone had misplaced it. I spent a good 20 minutes searching for it before I eventually found it and it was worth the effort. This graphic novel was fascinating, and I'd love to see the documentary on it as well. 
A+