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January was IN-sane for books, man

I rocked January, you guys. I don't mean to brag, except I TOTALLY DO.


Because the end of last year was so reading slumpy! And then I read ten books in January. TEN. And they weren't even YA books! 

I know that some people read ridiculous numbers of books all the time, but I usually average 3-6 a month, so this was WELL above my quota and I am so happy about it. Especially because I finished some books on my TBR challenge list, and that makes me happy because SHELF SPACE.

1. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, bell hooks. Totes already reviewed this. Essentially: Listen to everybody's opinion and don't be a dick. 

2. Rent Girl, Michelle Tea. OMG Michelle Tea. Why aren't we besties? I mean, sure, you'd probably find me annoying, but I want to sit at your feet and have you write things and then throw them down to me. Rent Girl takes the time when she was a prostitute and graphic...novel..izes it. It is QUITE good. 

3. The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd. Already reviewed it. Abolitionist ladies in South Carolina in 1810. Excellent book.

4. One Summer: America, 1927, Bill Bryson. BILL BRYSON I LIKE YOUR FACT BOOKS.

5. Behind the Candelabra, Scott Thorson. Liberace was gay and this guy dated him. Essentially.

6. Wigs on the Green, Nancy Mitford. This was my first Mitfooord. And I read about them and they're the weirdest family. As in two-of-the-sisters-were-Nazis weird. Nazis in the 1930s. Which was one of the worst times to be a Nazi. Retrospectively speaking. But this book was fairly awesome and I shall review it later.

7. What Was She Thinking? (Notes on a Scandal), Zoe Heller. I've owned this for forever and I finally read it and I have THINGS TO SAY (mostly about loneliness) but that is for later.

8. World War Z, Max Brooks. Hah. This was so good.

9. Annie on My Mind, Nancy Garden. I was actually surprised to find this gay YA lit (ok I read ONE YA book) from the 1980s to be really good and not stupid. Because I was totally expecting it to be stupid.

10. Astray, Emma Donoghue. Emma Donoghue is awesome. Especially at short stories. Which is what these are. HISTORICAL short stories, which I'm way more fond of than her modern day ones. As is almost always the case with her, each story is based on some random historical fact she found, usually while looking at a newspaper from 1901. Emma Donoghue is a history nerd, and I highly respect her for this.

The ONLY one of those I gave 5/5 to was World War Z, because hot damn, that book was good. Now I'm working on Bleak House (obvs), The Visionist (it's about Shakers! and there might be lesbians in it but I SWEAR I DID NOT KNOW), and KIND of Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century. That shit's messed up. 

me throughout the book

OH, and I checked out The Shining from the library, but then my voice teacher was like DON'T read it, because it's really dark and I am super-easily influenced by dark things. But I kind of want to because it's really famous and I like being culturally knowledgeable. AGH dilemmas.

Thursday's a pretty spiffy day. Just sayin'. LET US LEARN FROM ALICE FEY.

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