End of Year Book Survey

Guys! It's the end of the year! Even though I sort of disapprove of the furore over there being a new year, and the pressure to make it the best one ever ever ever, I have absolutely no problem with looking back over the books I've read this year and remembering how awesome they were. That's just me.

I'm in what I think is a unique position for me for the first time in three years, in that, I'm writing this on the 27th December (not at all unique) and I MIGHT FINISH A BOOK BEFORE THE 31st AND OMG. I wouldn't even care about this SO much, but said book is The Goldfinch and I already love it so so much and I don't want to miss it out of anything but it's also 700-something pages long and, realistically I'm probably not going to finish it.

So, actually, I'll just tell you now: The Goldfinch is really good and I love it. You'll see when I write a million word review of it when it's finally done.

ONTO THE SURVEY:

1. Best book you read in 2013?
This question is completely brutal. Let's see. Excluding re-reads (HARRY POTTER), I would say...
Tell The Wolves I'm Home- Carol Rifka Brunt
Ready Player One- Ernest Cline
Wild- Cheryl Strayed
Kitchen- Banana Yoshimoto
My Life in France- Julia Child
Fangirl- Rainbow Rowell
I don't even... I LOVE ALL THE BOOKS.

2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more, but didn't?
I thought I'd like The Newlyweds more than I did (based on nothing but the cover) and I also thought Tolstoy and the Purple Chair would be my jam, but it kind of... wasn't. Bad books.

3. Most surprising (in a good way) book of 2013?
I'm going to say The Outsider by Camus- because I was kind of expecting it to go over my head, but I turned out actually being sort of riveted by/agreeing emphatically with it. It was awesome, anyway.

4. Book you read in 2013 that you recommended to people most in 2013?
This is going to have to be Ready Player One (which, by the way, I can't even believe I read this year, it seems like forever ago) because I've literally shoved my copy into people's hands because it NEEDS TO BE READ. So awesome.

5. Best series you discovered in 2013?
Um... I think the only series other than Harry Potter I read in 2013 was The Girl Who Had Stuff And Did Stuff Trilogy, and I wouldn't really describe that as the best anything. So, um, Harry Potter?

6. Favourite new author you discovered in 2013?
I actually read a lot of new-to-me authors this year, but I think I'm going to have to say that my favourite is Banana Yoshimoto, purely because Kitchen was SO amazing, and I love her so much that I've been hoarding her books to read 'later' because I don't want to gobble them all up at once.

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or a new genre for you?
Ehrrrrrm... I always want to say that graphic novels are out of my comfort zone, so in that case, Persepolis would be the best of that (SO good). But, I usually read a couple of graphic novels a year so it's not really true, even. So, let's say True Grit because Westerns? WUT?

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2013?
Dare I say Ready Player One again? I do dare, but I also had a hard time putting down Where'd You Go Bernadette and Rosemary's Baby because they were AWESOME.

9. Book you read in 2013 that you're most likely to re-read next year?
This isn't going to happen, obviously, but if anything I'd re-read Ready Player One (YAWN) and also probably parts of Tiny Beautiful Things because daaaaaamn, that's some moving advice.

10. Favourite cover of a book you read in 2013?
Can I say Fangirl even though I read it on the Kindle? I'm going to say Fangirl.

11. Most memorable character in 2013?
I seem to have forgotten all the names of all the characters in the books I've read this year, but thingy from Tell The Wolves I'm Home was pretty memorable (apart from her name, apparently. Wait! June! That's it) oh oh and Mattie Ross from True Grit OF COURSE. - Genuinely just had to come back to this question because MY GOD I love Levi in Fangirl so incredibly much. Like, I would MARRY him, much. He's the best character.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2013?
This one's tricky because I almost want to say The Goldfinch, but as mentioned above, totally haven't finished it. So, let's say Kitchen OR possibly Tiny Beautiful Things, because MY GOD it's beautiful. Hey, why haven't you read it yet, again?

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2013?
I think On Writing might have a future-y knock on impact on me, but I'm going to say Tell The Wolves I'm Home for right now because my GOD the crying. Endless.

14. Book you can't believe you waited until 2013 to read?
Hmmm, this is a tricky one because, looking back at what I've read this year, I've leaned heavily towards fairly new books (I can't even believe this!) and re-reads, which means that books that have been on my shelves for ages haven't really had a look-in. Regardless, I'm going to say The Little Prince,  because it seems like I should have definitely read that years ago.

15. Favourite passage/quote from a book you read in 2013?

16. Shortest and Longest book you read in 2013?(finally, my book spreadsheet comes into play!)
Shortest: Cymbeline by William Shakespeare (76 pages in my complete works)
Longest: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1201 pages. OF COURSE THIS WAS THE LONGEST)

17. Book that had a scene in it that had you reeling and dying to talk to somebody about it?
This isn't really a thing that happens with the kinds of books I read (do I sound like a book snob? Shit.) but, just to borrow Alley's answer, I was VERY upset/alarmed by certain parts of Harry Potter and had to sometimes demand hugs from twitter because OMG. The crying.

18. Favourite relationship from a book you read in 2013 (be it friendship, romantic, etc)
I'm going to have to say Levi and Cath in Fangirl, aren't I? Although actually I wanted Levi to be MY boyfriend instead so... yeah. Instead, let's say Melly and Scarlett in Gone With The Wind because THAT deserves a mention and who knows when I'm going to read GWTW again and write about it here?

19. Favourite book you read in 2013 from an author you've read previously.
Oh, do I read by author more than by book description? I do? Well, shit, how am I supposed to answer this one? Let's say Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King, because maaaaan, I really enjoyed that. (Although did I enjoy On Writing more? Difficult to say...)

20. Best book you read in 2013 that you read based SOLELY on a recommendation from someone else?
Um, um, um, tie between Tell The Wolves I'm Home and Ready Player One? Yeah, that.

21. Genre you read most from in 2013? 
My spreadsheet (yay, spreadsheet!) tells me it was... Non Fiction. Which is mental and has only happened because I lumped memoirs/food/travel non fiction all together. But non-fiction it is, apparently. Which isn't even really a genre, is it?

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2013?
DID I MENTION THAT I LOVE LEVI?

23. Best debut book you read.
Tell The Wolves I'm Home or Ready Player One? Where'd You Go Bernadette wasn't half bad, either.

24. Most vivid world/imagery in a book you read in 2013?
Ready Player One was wonderfully vivid, but it has to be Harry Potter, definitely. Just... there's a reason I can't watch the films, you know!

25. Book that was the most fun to read in 2013?
Who's going to smack me if I say Ready Player One again? *ducks*

26. Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2013?
I'm just going to give you them in order... Harry Potter (most of them), Desperation, Eleanor and Park, Wild, Les Miserables, Gone With The Wind, Bag of Bones, Tiny Beautiful Things, Tell The Wolves I'm Home. Damn.

27. Book you read in 2013 that you think got overlooked this year or when it came out?
*shrug* I don't really know how to answer this one. I read a couple that I think should have been overlooked but weren't! (The Millennium Trilogy, The Fault In Our Stars).

28. Did you complete any reading challenges you set for yourself at the beginning of the year?
I quite deliberately didn't set any reading challenges at the start of this year, because they stressed me out too much last year! I've been plugging away at reading Stephen King, though, so there's that. (Don't talk to me about The Classics Club. The classics and I haven't really been friends this year.)

29. Bookish events on your blog in 2013?
I'm just thinking and I didn't actually host anything this year, did I? Well, I suck! But, the most important thing that happened was the HARRY POTTER READALONG (I will never get over how amazing that was) and also there was The Corrections readalong, which involved a lot more complaining than the HP one. Because we're awesome.

30. One book you didn't get to in 2013 but will be your top priority in 2014?
I actually don't have an answer to this- I'm a bit all over the place with what I'm reading/want to read at the moment, and I think a shelf-reorganisation needs to happen early in the new year so I can actually see the books I haven't read a lot better. Oh, but I know I want to re-read I Capture The Castle soon-ish. There you go.

31. Book you are most anticipating in 2014?
Um. There are new books coming out that I have to think about? I don't know, let's just go with Landline (Rainbow Rowell) and be done with this question.

32. One thing you hope to accomplish in your reading/blogging in 2014?
Like I said above, I want to reorganise my shelves properly, and just generally have a more solid reading plan. Ever since I've moved, I've kind of just been grabbing the nearest/newest book, and I don't want to forget, you know, ALL THE BOOKS I own. I'm on it, though, it's fine.

Extra bits because this post wasn't long enough already

• So this year, I had not one, but two outings with people from the internet and it was the BEST THING EVER. I am absolutely like a broken record when I say this, but I honestly never imagined in the slightest that when I started writing down the things I thought about books, I would end up meeting other human people in the flesh to talk with our mouths and I've just ruined this by making it sound really weird. But it's still true and it's amazing and many more meet-ups to come, I hope.
• I did some readathons this year and they only drove home to me how much I bloody love just laying down and reading and whatnot. I'm going to try and make this happen more in the next year because ever since I moved, I haven't really set aside enough time to read at all. 
• I'm sure there were more, extremely important things I wanted to say, but who can remember things? Not me! Finally, some stats:

Books Read: 75

Fiction/Non-Fiction Books Read: 58/17

Male/Female Authors Read: 35/40 (yaaaaaaaay, I won with the wimmins!) 

Rereads/New Reads: 15/60

Translated/Not Translated: 11/64 (I kept track of which books were translated cause there was a translation challenge of some sort happening and I was curious about how many translated books I read. Not that many, was the answer!)

Books read that I actually owned before this year: 42

Total Page Count: 27,965 (not including bits of other books)

Ah, stats. You were worth tracking my reading completely for a whole year. And I'll be doing the same again next year!

Devouring Books: The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

"No one was entitled to anything in this life, not the least of all love."

The Middlesteins is one of those books that I enjoyed plenty while I was reading it, but it hasn't lingered in the mind enough for me to really have much to say about it *notes sighs of relief that this is going to be short*. It's also the kind of book that I'd happily send on to anyone who wanted it, because I liked it but probably won't read it again, but I read it on my Kindle and probably shouldn't have even brought that up as an option. Whoops?

Anyway. The Middlesteins is basically a book about family, about a family, even (can you guess their surname?) and, honestly, it's a pretty accurate family. All viewpoints are taken into account, and everyone seems reasonable to themselves, which I think is really the way people are- we act the way we do because we're fairly convinced that it's the right thing to do, or just the only thing we can do, even though, to other people, it seems selfish, or awful, or some other bad thing.

So. Pretty much everyone in The Middlesteins is sympathetic, and even if you don't like them, you can still appreciate their point of view, and understand why they hold it. But what do their points of view all centre around, I hear you cry? Well, the matriarch of The Middlesteins, Edie, is addicted to food and essentially eating herself to death, her husband, Richard, has left her, and their children and child-in-law are left picking up the pieces, or trying to ignore that things are even in pieces. 

And, I mean, that's pretty much it. This book relies very much on its characters, so it's fortunate that they're good and, more importantly, honest ones; and there are very much moments of comedy interspersed with all the worry and troubles that come along with being in a family (I found the daughter-in-law especially amusing, but I can't really deal with people who take themselves too seriously). 

In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, the main thing that I was sort of underwhelmed by with The Middlesteins was that it didn't have a huge amount of story, but that's not the book's fault since it's not really trying to be anything but character driven, and family-drama-esque. I think the problem, actually, probably lies with me- I haven't been reading enough books where THINGS HAPPEN of late, I feel, and sometimes that can mean that all the Literary Fiction kind of bleeds into each other. I feel a reading resolution coming on...

So. There is nothing wrong with The Middlesteins! I liked it a lot while I was reading it, even if I have found it sort of forgettable, but regardless, it has left me with a general feeling of 'awww' about it, and not a general feeling of 'ewwww'. So, I have decided to allow you to read this, and you can do what you will with that recommendation.

P.S. While I was writing this, I stumbled across this review that is both so succinct, and so perfect that I almost gave up on this one and just posted a link to that. So here it is. Oh oh, and take Kayleigh's review too, since it's the one that made me want to read it. Nice one, Kayleigh!

Sunday Sundries: Kindles and the Like

Guys! It's the last Sunday Sundries before Christmas, can you even believe it? (Probably, yes). Despite being in the Christmas spirit riiight at the start of December, I seem to have lost it now, so that's very fun for me (I lie. It's not at all fun for me), but still- 3 days off work and also presents and stuff? How bad can it be?

So anyway, since Christmas approaches and I've asked for more books than can possibly be healthy, I figured it was time to talk about the Kindle that I got the last time people got me presents (i.e. my birthday) and the way I feel about it. Because what could be Christmassier than that? (Probably a lot of things, tbh).

But anyway. My Kindle! I like it a lot. It travels well (obviously its biggest plus point) I can read it in a dark room without disturbing anyone else in the room (not really an issue now I have my own room, but never mind) and, maybe best of all, I can have a book delivered to it in about 3 seconds flat. This doesn't mean that I'm always in desperate need of a book that I must read straight away, of course, but it was really nice on the 10th September to wake up and be able to start reading Fangirl straight away, you know? (Yes, I memorised the date Fangirl came out. Didn't we all?)

So it's all good and hunkydory and so far I've only broken one Kindle and had to send it back to Amazon (This actually happened. It didn't survive the move, I'm afraid). Have I ever broken a book and had to send it back? No. But, some pages have fallen out of books and so on, so I think we can call that one evens.

I think the main problem I have with my Kindle is one that I'm particularly susceptible to, and not at all the fault of an electronic device. The thing with it is, I have quite a few books on there (I'm completely assuming everyone goes download crazy when they get one) but I never remember what they are, and I'm not sure I want to read them. So, at any given time, I'll probably have my Kindle AND a book with me, and I'm almost always going to pick up the book. It's not a planned thing, it just happens and I know I'm probably going to end up with a hunchback because of it, but I just... I still really like paper books.

This isn't even a book snob thing so much as a thing where I have SO many physical books to read that it almost makes me feel guilty to read anything on my Kindle. I still do, of course, but still, guilty. Having said that, when I was moving this year and had to get rid of some books or risk serious injury (or, ok, maybe a bit of a bad back) my Kindle was awesome in that there were a few books that I owned, hadn't read, wanted to read, but didn't care so much about having physical copies of, and those I downloaded (mostly for free) onto my Kindle. I still haven't read those, of course, but hey, I'm not the one on trial here!

So. Overall conclusions, I do not have. But I would say that I'd rather have my Kindle than not-have it, and when I am into a book, it doesn't matter if it's on paper, an ebook, or written on stone tablets, because all the important stuff is happening in my head anyway. THAT is where the real magic happens (and not a shred of modesty. None of that in my head).

If that has just convinced you you want a Kindle for Christmas but it's too late, then I'm really sorry. But, hey, how about if I let you help me name mine instead? I always forget that I want to give my Kindle a name until I see someone else calling theirs by name (looking at Charlotte and her Colin, here) but I really do, and I lack creativity in this area. HELP ME IN THE COMMENTS.

And, just before I let you go for your Christmas holiday, please accept these links with my deepest love and good Christmas wishes (all of them are excellent):

• Here are 29 books to get you through your quarter life crisis. I'm not saying I'm having one of these, but I'm also not saying I'm not having one of these, so. Either way, it seems like a pretty solid book list!
• Also on Buzzfeed, here are the 34 most important things Alexander Skarsgard has done this year. You probably don't know that he walked to the South Pole for charity, but he did because he's awesome and also he did a lot of other things. Worth it for the pictures, tbh.
• And, finally, if you only read one thing from this whole post, let it be this review of Love Actually by Lindy West. Best best best best best best best thing ever. (Sample quotes: 'everyone in this movie is a fucking creep.' 'Colin Firth falls in "love" with Aurelia at first sight, establishing Love Actually's central moral lesson: the less a woman talks, the more loveable she is.' 'LOVE ACTUALLY SEES NO PROBLEM WITH TREATING ITS FEMALE CHARACTERS LIKE GIANT BIPEDAL VAGINAS IN SWEATER VESTS.' I mean, best, right?)

And now I'll really leave you alone. Have a very merry Christmas, everyone!

Devouring Books: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

"My experiences slowly flattened and blended together until it became obvious that there's a huge difference between not giving a fuck and not being able to give a fuck."

Sometimes it feels like Hyperbole and a Half (the blog) was written exclusively for me. I say this, not because I think I'm so amazing and hilarious that this entire blog is like my spirit animal, but more because, it was there when I needed it really badly, and continues to pop up at trying times in my life. 

Here's my story with the blog: nearly three years ago, I was having some really really bad anxiety and depression issues (actually, at that point more anxiety than depression) and I couldn't settle down or do anything or feel anything except freaked out and it was a truly truly awful time. It was also during this time that I started this blog, which makes me feel like I should be kind of grateful for being mentally ill, but... Even with how awesome this all is, I still would give it all up never to feel that way again.* But anyway, in this time, I found Hyperbole and a Half, and for the first time in about a month, I laughed myself silly, and actually thought about other things than feeling like shit.

It was amazing, and I've never forgotten that Hyperbole and a Half is SO FUNNY that it can actually drag you out of your own miserable head for at least some of the day and make you feel better. When Brosh disappeared from her blog for a looooong time, and then returned with a post about depression, I was kind of stunned, but also I felt the most understood I had ever been in my whole life. I think it's an almost impossible sensation to understand unless you've actually been there yourself (and that's ok. You don't want to go there), but Brosh does the best job I've ever seen at explaining what depression actually feels like. And so she is the best at being funny AND the best at being serious and this is why I love her the most.

So, she wrote a book! It's definitely a mixture of stories that had already been on her blog (The God of Cake couldn't not be there, right?), like the aforementioned posts on depression, as well as some entirely new stuff. I ate it allllll up- I basically finished this book in one sitting, and it didn't really bother me that some of the stuff I'd already read before, because when I read her entire blog over a weekend like my life depended on it (which, not to be dramatic, but it sort of did) I didn't exactly commit everything on there to memory. If you've read her blog before, obviously you need this book, and if you haven't then you should probably start right now and not stop until you're done. I mean, if it can make a horribly anxious person laugh out loud, then imagine what it could do to you? You might die of laughter!**

I realise this isn't even a review so much as a 'This is what Hyperbole and a Half means to me' post, but you know, it's not that often you get to show your appreciation for a website and this one really deserves it. I really mean it when I say you need this in some form in your life, and even if you don't buy the book, you have to go and read some blog posts. I recommend this one, and this one, and also this one. Happy reading!

*Not that that's what I'm going to do, and also I LOVE YOU ALLLLLL.

**Note: You will probably not die of laughter. Also, please don't die of laughter. 

Devouring Films: Good Will Hunting

I had never seen Good Will Hunting until the other week. When I told my housemates that I'd watched it, my friend Becci was shocked that I hadn't already seen it, because it's kind of the epitome of a film that I would have seen. She was right to be shocked- after I'd seen it, I wondered exactly what the hell had taken me so long, and also some other things that we'll discuss in this review.

One of the main reasons I think I hadn't seen it was because I got slightly confused about exactly what film it was. I thought it was that one where the guy is autistic* or something but is really good at maths, but it turns out I was thinking of (we think) A Beautiful Mind? But anyway- the point is that I was not at all prepared for what I was going to get out of Good Will Hunting, and that's a beautiful thing in itself.

Good Will Hunting is the story of (Good) Will Hunting (Matt Damon) and his generally fucked up life. An actual genius (as in, a genius without even having to try), Will is working as a janitor at MIT when we first meet him, and he solves a mathematical problem in about 5 minutes that took Papa Skarsgard FOUR YEARS to figure out (Papa Skarsgard being a maths professor but not an actual genius). When Will's talent is discovered, rather than running towards the opportunities this creates for him, he shies away from having to do anything at all meaningful with his life. Enter Robin Williams, therapist extraordinaire, Papa Skarsgard's old roommate, and all round good guy. Does he fix Will? You're obviously going to have to watch it to find out.

What I want to talk about, really, are a few key scenes from the movie that really really touched me in a number of different ways. I honestly feel like I learnt a lot about myself watching this film, and that doesn't happen too often, especially when I'm not expecting it. It disarmed me, and kind of made me cry a bit, because, well, you'll see. Let's discuss (mild spoilers here, I guess? But not massively bad):

• There's this scene where Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are talking about Will's future, and Will's all like 'well, I could do this job or this job, but fuck it, I want to stay here with you guys.' And it's heartbreaking because Ben Affleck and all his other friends are the only family he's ever known, and are the most important part of the only life he's ever known, and of course he wants to stay with them. What happened next, though, surprised me more than anything. Ben Affleck says to him, that if he stays there, if at 50, he's still working in construction and isn't doing anything with his life, or his brain, then he'll kill him. I was so massively expecting him to just be like 'yeah dude, that's cool, you just stay here with us' that it was alarming that he actually had his friend's best interests at heart rather than his own selfish ones. This was actually probably my favourite scene in the movie because wow. Just, wow. 
• There's another part where Matt Damon and Robin Williams are discussing Matt's (Will's... Whatever)** future job prospects, and Will says he doesn't want to work for the government because what if he cracks a code or something and people get killed and he inadvertently starts a war and it all just goes horribly wrong and GAH? And Robin Williams tells him that he'll never get anything done "in a world where you're afraid to take the first step because all you're seeing are the negative things that might happen ten miles down the road." And SHIT. That set off all kinds of synapses in my brain because of course that's something I do. Of course it is. Not that all these high risk places are begging me to come and work for them, but I think there are definitely things I've avoided doing because something might go wrong in the long run. And, you know, I should probably do something about that.*** 
• Here's maybe the most important thing Good Will Hunting has taught me. It's not that, damn, I really love a Bawston accent (although I do) or that I really want an opportunity in life to use 'You like apples? Well, [thing I have done that the other person wants], how do you like them apples?' (but that's true too). No, I think it's that success isn't defined by what other people think it is, but merely by you believing that you have lived, or are living, well. It might be more important to you to find love than to be at the top of your chosen field, or the opposite might be true, but either way, figuring out what's important to you and then doing that thing is sort of what we should all be doing. Or, at least I think that's so. 

So, yeah. Life lessons aplenty, and really just a very very good film even if you don't need a good stern talking to via film. You've probably seen it already since it's about a million years old (or... 16?) but I think that for me, it's always going to be one of those things I've seen in the right place at the right time. And I'm really glad I did. 

*Excuse me, IMDb tells me that Russell Crowe's character in A Beautiful Mind was actually schizophrenic. So there we go.
**I realise I am doing this all wrong, but I really can't be bothered to look up all the character names, and I only know Will's because, you know, it's the title.
***After typing this paragraph, I genuinely started looking for a new job. The power of film, people.

Devouring Books: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood

"I had broken out; from what, or into what, I didn't know. Though I wasn't at all certain why I had been acting this way, I had at least acted."

It's weird how sometimes you wait for a book for ages, only to be disappointed by it; and then sometimes you don't even care that much about a book, but it's cheap and you forgot to bring one with you (I know) and it turns out to be amazing.

You can probably guess where I'm going with this.

So. I got Maddaddam out of the library and accrued massive late fees because someone reserved it and I hadn't read it, and I didn't even like it that much. I mean, it was ok, but in no way deserved the build up I gave it, and it wasn't worth the late fees.* One of the reasons I couldn't really be bothered to read it was because, at around the same time, I found The Edible Woman in a charity shop and, because there are a few authors who I automatically buy the books of when I see them, straight into my hands it went. It was much more portable than the massive hardback of Maddaddam, but it was also a lot more interesting. At least to me.

The Edible Woman is Atwood's first published novel (although, according to the foreword, not the first one she wrote) and in some ways it shows. The symbolism is a tiny bit heavy handed, and there were parts where I thought she could probably have said the same thing with less words, but overall, it's still a better debut novel than, you know, most people could write, and I liked it so much that I'm completely willing to overlook any slight stylistic issues. Because, really, this book was so interesting.

So. The Edible Woman is about Marian, a 20-something woman living in Toronto, paying her own way and living away from her parents (gee, I can't guess why I liked it...) and all other independent woman things like that. Since this is the 1960s, it seems like kind of a radical thing to be doing, and of course it is, only it's** the kind of situation women live in when they're waiting for a man to marry them. Marian isn't really like that- she doesn't really know what she's doing with her life, and she supposes she loves her boyfriend, but he doesn't want to get married and she doesn't think she does either.

So, of course, the two of them get engaged. (I know, spoiler, but I can't really talk about anything I liked about the book without you knowing that). What's really interesting about their engagement is that  it splits the book in two, with everything before and everything after, and in the first part, Marian's narration is in the first person, and in the second part it's in the third person. I realise that this sounds kind of gimmicky, and also a thing I think I have genuinely complained about in the past, but for some reason, in The Edible Woman this reaaaaally worked for me. Here you have a woman who is independent and thinks what she thinks about herself, until she agrees to marry a man and suddenly starts seeing herself as distant even from herself, almost as an object the world sees (a wife) as opposed to the subject and master of her own desires.

This isn't me saying that marriage is evil, or wrong, of course, but only that marrying a man because you feel like you might as well probably isn't the best way to make life choices. BUT I COULD BE WRONG.

I feel like I probably like the things this book made me consider more than I liked the actual story (it did take quiiite a while to read, I have to admit) but when a story makes you consider as many things as this one did, it has to be worth a read, right? And it's not that the story in itself is bad, it's just slightly less interesting than my own brain thoughts (I know) but still pretty awesome, and, you know, Atwood.

*However, I will probably still buy it when I see it cheap somewhere, cause I have the other two in the series and I like completeness. Also I'm INSANE.
**Or was, I guess. Or probably still is. I don't know!

Top Ten Tuesday: A Triumphant Return

Guys! Remember how Top Ten Tuesday is a thing? Me too! *Shifty eyes*. No but seriously, long gone are the days I'd wake up early on a Tuesday to try and get my link up early, and when I'd get so so excited by my stats on that day because visitors! Yay!* I don't even remember the last time I did one of these, and I wouldn't have been doing it today but I saw Sarah's this morning, and I thought yes. I like this topic. Because, the thing is, I read a LOT of authors that I already know because I'm pretty sure I know what I'm getting with them, so I appreciate the opportunity to show some new-to-me authors some love.

Top Ten New To Me Authors of 2013

1. Cheryl Strayed- This is very very technically a lie, because I've been reading Strayed's Dear Sugar column for years now, BUT this year was the first I read actual books with her words in, and I loved them both so much. Also I just wanted to try and get everyone to read Strayed. Again.

2. Albert Camus- Camus is one of those writers that I'd always heard of but had never really read anything by. This year I read The Outsider/The Stranger (same book, different titles) and it really pushed a lot of my happy/interested buttons.

3. Carol Rifka Brunt- So far, Rifka Brunt has only written one novel, but Tell The Wolves I'm Home is so amazing that I would honestly read anything she's got. Anything. I love her so much that I sort of want to go to Devon and stalk her a bit, but I'll try not to...

4. Ira Levin- For the RIP challenge this year, I read both The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby, and I was really impressed by both. It's not often that a story you feel like you know really well is still interesting to read, but somehow with Levin, it is.

5. Maria Semple- Where'd You Go Bernadette. 'Nuff said.

6. Piper Kerman- I don't know that I think Kerman is the most supreme writer ever, or whether I just really really liked Orange is the New Black, but either way, I would probably read more things that she's written, yes.

7. Ernest Cline- Ready Player One was so much fun (even if I can't believe it was only this year that I read it) that if Cline's next novel is even half as good, it'll be great.

8. Banana Yoshimoto- I also can't believe that I only discovered Yoshimoto this year, or that I've only read one book by her even though I keep buying more (They're so teeny that I don't want to run out of them!) I was truly really impressed by Kitchen, and excited to read more.

9. Lauren Groff- I read Arcadia near the start of the year, and even though I've found it to be sort of forgettable, I know that, when I was reading it, it was beautiful. Would definitely look out for more of her books.

10. Charles Portis- TRUE GRIT. It's amazing. I don't even know what other books Portis has written, but I know that I would give them a try any day.

There! Wasn't that fun for us all? Mostly I was impressed by how many new-to-me authors I've read this year, and I'm going to try and keep that up in the new year, too.

*I wish I was kidding about this, but nope. This was my life for a little while.