Devouring Stephen King: Just After Sunset

I finished Just After Sunset all the way back in (early) February, so I wouldn't expect this review to have anything substantial or interesting to it at all, if I was you. I know, I know, I'm being overwhelmingly positive here, but I'm just warning you, this is going to be a collection of vaguely remembered thoughts rather than anything else.

As if I have ever written in any other way...

Anyway! Just After Sunset is a collection of Stephen King short stories, and yay! We like those! I don't know if it was just because I hadn't read any for a while and had forgotten the quality of King's shorter work, but this collection really seemed especially good, with the exception of A Very Tight Place*, the final and most seriously disgusting story in the collection. And not even scary disgusting just, you know, disgusting.

Apart from that though, there's really just some stellar work going on here. There's a longer short story (but not quite a novella!) called N in this collection that kind of links mental illness and demonic happenings and it all seems very symbolic as well as genuinely freaking me the hell out. The first story in the book, Willa, is the one King credits with getting him back into short story writing again, and he praises it for that fact whilst also suggesting that it's not-so-great. Predictably, because I always disagree when he says stuff like this, I feel differently. Willa perfectly touched all of my happy places (ooer!)- a mysterious beginning, creepy happenings, all building to the only possible explanation, that's still one you're kind of surprised by. I liked it a lot, is what I'm saying.

This collection also sees King's first engagement with 9/11, and he takes the interesting angle of not even trying to imagine the human terror, but the potential supernatural power of The Things They Left Behind (which is also, clearly, the title of the story). It's not one of my favourites of the collection, but it is interesting to see King engage with one of the most important events of recent times and try and make something out of it that has a kind of renewing quality (as the end of this story does).

There are quite a few really short stories in this book, and they have at least as much of an impact, if not more, than some of the longer ones. I think talking about these in any sense is slightly redundant, in that if you talk about it a little, you've really given away the entire story, but the one that stands out in my mind concerns a girl who is just about to graduate from high school, ruminating about her future, but then sees her future being wiped out in a matter of seconds. If that one's not a little bit about 9/11 too, then I don't even know how to read anymore.** But for it to have stuck with me for longer than any of the other stories in the book says something about it's impact when compared to the longer works.

So there you have it. I still have no idea if this was actually any better than his other short story collections, but I definitely enjoyed it a lot either way. There are 13 stories in this book, and I can only think of one that I really didn't like, and two others that were kind of meh. I will take a 75% success rate for a book of short stories, and I will take it with pleasure. You probably should too.

*Wikipedia is saving my life here, you guys.
** And, believe me, I still know how to read.

Things I Read in March

Happy April, friends and internet peoples! Did I blog at all in March? I did, but only once and yes I am terrible still. But do I return once a month to talk about books a little bit? I certainly do, and I am here for that very purpose right now.

Firstly, some life things: I have been not-eating chocolate for all of March and it has been preeetty challenging (especially because it's been lent too so I've been coming up against people who say 'well I'm not eating chocolate for 40 days, sooooo...) and I'm so glad it's over. I may have already had some oreos and also some chocolate this morning and the day is still so incredibly young. The point, anyway, is that you can in fact sponsor me for my epic achievement if you so wish and you can do that riiiiight here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraisi…/dechox2017laurarowsell

Other March things: Actually, it hasn't been super eventful. I got an unlimited cinema pass in, let's say, February (I have no idea) so I mostly just go to the movies (don't see Power Rangers, it is trash) and see my gentleman friend on the weekends (it's so great). Japanese classes have finished for Easter break so you would think that would give me more time, but honestly I'm struggling to do all the things I need to do, let alone the things I would like to do (like blogging). I did, however, go to my first burlesque show (so great), bought a new bed, went to birdworld and generally had a pretty nice month, lack of chocolate aside.

But what did I read, I hear you cry? Well, these books:

I did in fact only finish three books this month, but MAN these books. I loved every one of them and actually (optimistically) may even actually write reviews of them I know I say that all the time but seriously just woah. Let's go through them briefly though:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Well, obviously I already knew this one was good. I hadn't realised that I actually hadn't reread this book all the way through since it came out (I think I'd read the first 100 pages or so a couple more times) and well. I knew I loved it but I had forgotten how much and all the reasons why I loved Levi and just SIGH you guys. It was a really good book to read interspersed between the next book I read this month which was, may I just say, FUCKING INTENSE.

Under the Dome by Stephen King
Because honestly, when your town is enclosed in an invisible, seemingly unbreakable dome and is run by a psychopath, things turn pretty ugly pretty quickly. I've been excited to read this one ('that Stephen King book that's basically The Simpsons Movie') for a long time and I wasn't disappointed. I'll say more in real review, but this was honestly so good for Uncle Steve- so tightly contained and all loose ends tied up, all of the many many characters were kept track of and it was just stylistically so great even if I have a few reservations about stuff that I will save for a longer form review (*crosses fingers and hopes for the best*). But anyway, yes. Very good stuff.

Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class by Owen Jones
THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. I really want to review it in a massive way because I have so much to say about it (mostly rants) but it's basically about the way that the working class has come to be viewed in Britain today, and how most people now consider themselves middle class rather than working class because they don't want to be associated with 'those people'. The book completely tears apart the idea that poor people are poor because of their own failures, instead pointing out the systemic and consistent government policies that have meant that the poor get poorer whilst the rich get richer (I'm sure you're familiar). It's an excellent look at Thatcher's politics, and the long lasting effects they have had on British society. I can't possibly comment on whether any of this book would mean anything to a non-British reader, but everything is explained so thoroughly  and written so clearly and accessibly that I can't imagine anyone not engaging with it, and getting mighty pissed off.

Annnnd that's what I read. I'm pretty impressed that I read anything other than the giant 880 pages of Under the Dome so I can't be mad that it was only three books. ONWARDS into April! I have the first 10 days (!!!) of the month off so plenty of time to read and eat chocolate and do all the fun, non-work things that my life desperately needs! Hope you have all had an excellent March, and let's do this April thing.

Things I Read in February

Oh heyyyyy everyone! Did you all see that one review I posted in February where it seemed like I might become a functioning blogger again and then I.. failed to do that? Yeah. Sorry. Or something. 

February felt both incredibly long and incredibly short, which is to say that the weekends flew by in mere seconds whereas the weeks were just... Incredibly long. Work has become a bit (more) insane and even though I don't get paid nearly enough to worry about work in the slightest, I forgot my general policy of go in>do a good job>get paid>don't stress for a little while last month and worked many extra hours and maybe burnt out a little bit.

I'm trying to do better now, in that it's the first of the month, I left work as early as is allowed and I have spent my evening doing yoga and washing my hair and cooking and and and all the things I usually don't have time to do (like blogging!) and it has been excellent AND I have a whole day off in lieu for all the extra time worked last month so yeah. I'm doing ok.

A thing I am doing less ok at is the not buying books thing. SO I was doing so well and then... The bookshop crawl happened and it was excellent and I should have blogged about it but obviously didn't and now it's now, but let's just say that I bought 10 books in February and not even all at the bookshop crawl because I got on a bit of a roll. Another way of saying that is that this month I bought more books than I have read all year and OH DEAR WHOOPSIE.

But what did I read this month, I hear you cry?

These things! Photo unfortunately taken in the morning with the curtains drawn cause I'm stupid and anyway moving on...

The Outsiders by S E Hinton
I have already reviewed this one, extremely surprisingly, but if reviews are a little bit TL:DR for you then this was even better than I was expecting and insightful and interesting and sensitive and kept me occupied all the way from Loughborough to London which is a really good thing. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Just After Sunset by Stephen King
As this is a Stephen King, I will definitely be reviewing it at some point because that's how I roll but this was short stories and I don't know if I just haven't read his short stories in a while or if these were especially good but they really did seem especially good! Scary and moving and excellent and yes. Yes.

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
O.M.G. You guys. Do you know Rupi Kaur? I found her on instagram somehow, and was totally charmed by her excellence and awesomeness and poetry and feminism and omfg, how do I like this so much when I don't even like poetry? Anyway, my papa bought me this after I had my operation last year cause he likes stalking my amazon wishlist and then my best friend got it for (I think) her birthday and kept sending me photos of it which totally inspired me to read it and IT IS SO GOOD OMG. I just... It made me cry and nod in agreement and also quote it to my best friend so that she could go 'I KNOW' and yes. Just yes.

Did I mention that I don't even like poetry and this is still my favourite? Yea. That's right.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang
This was a weeeeeird book. Weird weird weird. I don't know how to process how I feel about it, but I do think it's a very good book, if that's any help to anyone. The story centres around a woman who decides to become a vegetarian because of a, frankly, terrifying sounding dream she has, but when I say 'centres around' I really do mean that because we don't really get the viewpoint of the vegetarian at all in this book. Instead, the book is in three parts, each narrated (in the third person) by a character who is affected by this woman's choices, and her story is told via them. Narratively it's awesome and it's so interesting and also it's fucking weird as fuck and I don't even know how to cope with it, to be honest.

But it's good! I think. Give it a try, we'll compare notes. (*whispers* I clearly don't have any notes...)

Soppy by Philippa Rice
Philippa Rice is an illustrator who I also discovered on the internet and she is excellent, as is this book. Soppy is formed by the sometimes adorable and sometimes waaaaay too real moments that make up relationships, and it is basically the cutest book I've read. It's not really narrative based, although it follows Rice through meeting and moving in with her boyfriend, but it's more centred around all the tiny everyday moments that make up a life together like who's going to make the tea and cooking together and sleeping together and and all the cute and real things (have I said cute enough times yet, let me just add one more... CUTE!)

Basically I loved it and am so happy to own it. If you want to throw up, then I would like to let you know that I read this whilst cuddling my very own boyfriend, and if you think that's why I like it so much then you are at least partially correct, but it is really rather excellent by itself, I promise.

TA-DA! I know it seems like a lot of books, but if we're being realistic then Milk and Honey and Soppy each took about an hour to read (if that) so I really spent a negligible time reading this month. I'm trying to be a better human this month and spend at least a little bit of time at night and in the mornings reading, but usually my brain is too lazy so my eyes just look at instagram for hours instead. But I'll do better, I tell myself. Maybe.

Devouring Books: The Outsiders by S E Hinton

I always thought of The Outsiders as a book I knew a lot about but had just never gotten around to reading yet. I know it is referenced in Fangirl, I thought it was referenced in Donnie Darko (it is not) and I know Rob Lowe was in the film version because I read his (actually surprisingly good) memoir. From this really sketchy evidence,, I thought I had a super clear idea about the storyline of The Outsiders, but as the structure of this sentence suggests I actually had no idea.

In its most basic details, The Outsiders was the book I expected. Ponyboy Curtis (the actual name of our narrator) is one of a gang of Greasers, sworn enemies of the Sons, and in a really simplistic sense, this sets up tension and danger and badness between poor and rich, and have-nots  and haves (respectively). It's what Hinton does from this jumping off point though, that keeps The Outsiders from being cliched and dull, and makes it a novel that deserves attention and analysis.

Here's a thing, for instance: Ponyboy is a reader. This makes him so much more interesting than a general hoodlum, because it means that he things about the world around him in a different way to his brothers and his buddies and makes him a really engaging character to hang out with. Although Ponyboy has come to see being tough and fighting as a part of life that he has to deal with, it is made clear that really he prefers reading and art and watching sunsets to fighting and violence and being shitty to people. He's really a pretty great kid.

As a result of Ponyboy being a great kid, the novel gains the majority of its depth. My very favourite thing about The Outsiders is that, as a result of Ponyboy seeing the world differently, he starts to see that everyone thinks of themselves as outsiders, and that everyone has a hard time, regardless of social class. As a result of this, Ponyboy begins to see people as individuals rather than as a part of their group, and so he begins to understand that 'socs' are actually individual people, as diverse in character as all the members of his own friendship group. THIS is my actual favourite thing for people to start to understand about the world, because I think that basically all problems arise from seeing entire groups of people as sharing the exact same beliefs and lifestyles and using that as a way to subjugate that whole group and just aghhhhh no. Ponyboy comes to understand that people are individuals, and should be treated as such, rather than immediately dismissed because of (in the case of this book) their social class.

That's really the good stuff in this book, and even though the storyline is also pretty engaging and exciting and kept me entertained on a train journey, I'm really all about the understanding that literally everyone has individual experiences and ideas and can't be treated as a mass idea. So, come for the cult novel, stay for the engaging story, appreciate the awesome world view and be grateful that I told you it's totally ok to read The Outsiders. You're so very welcome.

Things I Read in January

Diiiiid I fail at blogging in January? Of course I did. But did I read some things? Well sure, a few. I actually only finished three books all month, about which I will only say that getting a boyfriend is really really good for happiness, but pretty terrible for reading. Actually, I'm going to say more things because he can't be held fully responsible- I have also had a terrible cold/flu type thing that meant I had to have all of last week off work, and just, you know, life things and stuff.

I also may only have finished three books, but I also read the majority of my next Stephen King, I just couldn't quite finish the last story in it, so that totally counts, right? Of course it does.

Anyway. The books!

Such a tiny pile... But anyway! Reading yay! Have some descriptions:

Real Artists Have Day Jobs by Sara Benincasa

Sara Benincasa is really just such a delight, and I asked for this book for Christmas immediately after finishing Agorafabulous. I got it on Christmas day and started reading it not long after, and it is pretty great. It's essentially 52 essays about being an artist, and life, and ways you can live well and think about yourself and your actions and basically just generally ways to be a better human, or to deal with other humans better. It's Benincasa so there is of course some autobiographical stuff, but it's mostly all good life advice from someone who definitely sounds like she knows what she's talking about. I wouldn't say that every single essay was a killer but there's a lot more good than bad, and I really want to give this book to everyone I know to make them feel better about the world and life and stuff.

Man Walks into a Room by Nicole Krauss

I think Nicole Krauss is a beautiful writer, but I also have a thing where I remember enjoying her books as I consume them, but can't remember much about them if I try to think back. This is pretty ironic considering the narrative of this novel, which involves a man who has complete memory loss post age 12. It's an interesting book because it's told entirely from the amnesiac's perspective, so there's no sense of his wife's loss and sadness, and that means the novel can really focus on the nature of memory, and what it means for a person's place in the world and sense of context about the world. Very interesting stuff that is already fading in my memory I AM SORRY NICOLE.

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

This book is great. This is a Japanese love story, which to me essentially means that two fairly lonely and sort of strange people work through their feelings and manage to somehow get it together, all whilst eating amazing sounding food and going to markets and mushroom hunting and just generally having a fairly whimsical time. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that I like Japanese literature, and this was no exception- it's much weirder than it needs to be, and as a result is much more interesting. I would say short and sweet, but it's much more odd than it is sweet, and that is probably why I liked it so much.

So yeah. It wasn't a huge reading month, but I enjoyed all the things I read AND I have a 100% female reading record so far this year which, for me, is obviously a giant win. Onwards through the year, my friends.

Whose Birthday? My Birthday

Or, to be more precise, my blog birthday!

Yeah, that's right, I've been blogging with various degrees of, you know, effort, for SIX WHOLE YEARS now. Even I'm pretty impressed with myself, even if the way I blog has changed so drastically over the last six years. For instance, I'm writing this in literally a stolen 15 minutes before work at 6:45am, whereas for my first blog birthdays I baked actual treats for an inanimate internet thing.

I would say oh how the mighty have fallen, but really I think it's probably a good thing that I didn't at all have time to make the above cake. But shit, I wish I had made it, because it looks freaking delicious...

Anyway. I probably say it every year (I definitely do) but there are so many wonderful things in my life that just wouldn't have happened without blogging. I had so many wonderful experiences last year, which were topped by going to Haworth with Nahree and Bex (ultimate readers trip!) but also included two bookshop crawls, an actually really important heart to heart with Katie, and one little night where I was in a hospital and pretty freaked out and couldn't sleep even the tiniest bit but I had friends on both other sides of the world to comfort and distract me, and really who could ask for more than that?

And this year is bringing even more blogging goodness, with another bookshop crawl in mere weeks and I believe some more foreign visitors at some point of the year, and oh man, who knew being depressed and aimless and wanting to write about how bad the last season of Brothers and Sisters was (so bad I didn't even finish it, and I realise I have not even thought about that programme for YEARS other than to mention it every year on this day) could lead to such wonderful, off internet things? Definitely not me.

In summary (because, you know, work and stuff)- if you have been here, in any capacity whatsoever, then thank you. I love you and I kiss you and Imma try to write about books for as long as it's fun, which, no matter how infrequently I do it, it does continue to be. Y'all are fabulous, keep being you.

Things I Read in December

Oy vey is this late or what..? Something something life and trying to catch up on stuff and also other stuff going on and ok look at the time, let's talk about the things I read in December!

(text only because seriously, look at the time!)

Agorafabulous by Sara Benincasa

I loved Agorafabulous so much that immediately after finishing it I requested another of her books (Real Artists Have Day Jobs) for Christmas, and it looks set to be the first book I finish in 2017. Agorafabulous actually is fabulous in many ways, not least because it gives Benincasa a platform to look at herself and her past and her struggles with mental illness in a funny but frank way. The entire book, even though it covers the lowest points of Benincasa's life, is hopeful in tone in a kind of 'I got through this, so can you get through anything' kind of way, and it's also really well written. Did I mention yet that I really liked it? Ok, good.

Wallflower at the Orgy by Nora Ephron

Oh, Nora. Is there anyone more wonderful? Probably not. This is a collection of articles and whatnot that Ephron wrote in the sixties, and even if some (ok all) of the subject matter is somewhat outdated now, Ephron's writing definitely isn't. I would literally read anything the woman wrote, and I'm really trying to read all of it. This is a pretty good place to start, especially if you're interested in Helen Gurley-Brown, Ayn Rand, the celebrity chef culture of the 60s (including a Julia Child mention, sooo many years before Julie and Julia!) or the work of Mike Nichols, and a must read if you care about Nora like I do.

Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

After I read Never Let Me Go, I started collected Ishiguro books that I ended up never reading. This is a pretty common theme for me with most authors, but I'm pretty sure I have owned When We Were Orphans for about 10 years now and still haven't touched it. I did read Nocturnes though, and it's a pretty charming set of short stories, all based around music in very different ways, and all kind of excellent. It was the perfect thing to read in a ridiculously hectic December, and brightened up many a dull bus ride through Christmas shopping traffic.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Before this December, I had only read Landline in the middle of summer, outside in my back garden. I always meant to read it at Christmas, and this one finally seemed like the right time. This reading reminded me why I've only read it once before, not because it's not good (as if Rainbow could write a bad book) but because it's really kind of stressful. It's stressful not knowing what's going on with the main character's marriage, or her TV show, or the fact that she has a magic phone, and I felt kind of frustrated throughout the book, and not in a good way. Having said all of that, reading the end (the end is SO good) on Christmas morning before everyone was up was pretty excellent and magical itself, so there's that.

And that was December! I had limited time to read things, but I think I still did pretty well! Of course, it's practically February so who can care what I read in December, but you know what? I CARE SO THERE.