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Short list today, because I actually managed to do this two weeks in a row, instead of forgetting for months at a time.
Kendall Hailey The Day I Became an Autodidact
A recommendation I picked up off of Chicklit. Chicklit is always good to me. This is an autobiography of a girl who decides not to go to college, but instead to stay home and read her way through the classics, teaching herself. Such a fun book - like peering over someone's shoulder as they read, and I loved her writing style (although I thought the ending didn't really match with the rest of the book). I'm still trying to think of a way to convince my parents to support me while I sit at home and read. Maybe if I offered to do all the housework, too?
John McWhorter Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Music and Language and Why We Should, Like, Care
I still can't decide how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I think the author is a fabulous writer, and you can feel his enthusiasm and love for his subject. On the other hand, the book smacked a little too much of "why things used to be better", and the parts about music, although great, felt very tacked on, like he was really just looking for a place to rant about how Andrew Lloyd Webber can't write more than 8 bars of melody. Not that I have any objection to people sticking musical theatre stories in wherever they want, and anyone who disses Frank Wildhorn is ok by me, but still. Plus he doesn't like William Finn and Jason Robert Brown. Buh?
Tamora Pierce Alanna: The First Adventure
Have you ever noticed how first books (or series) by fantasy authors often tend to be darker than later works? Or maybe it's my imagination. Anyway, this is Pierce's first book, as far as I could tell, and it had a much darker tone, although still within the confines of YA lit. Alanna, destined for a religious life, disguises herself as a boy and takes her brother's place in training to become a knight. Very enjoyable and I'm just ignoring the fact that the Amazon page I'm looking at right now says reading level ages 9-12.
Kendall Hailey The Day I Became an Autodidact
A recommendation I picked up off of Chicklit. Chicklit is always good to me. This is an autobiography of a girl who decides not to go to college, but instead to stay home and read her way through the classics, teaching herself. Such a fun book - like peering over someone's shoulder as they read, and I loved her writing style (although I thought the ending didn't really match with the rest of the book). I'm still trying to think of a way to convince my parents to support me while I sit at home and read. Maybe if I offered to do all the housework, too?
John McWhorter Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Music and Language and Why We Should, Like, Care
I still can't decide how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I think the author is a fabulous writer, and you can feel his enthusiasm and love for his subject. On the other hand, the book smacked a little too much of "why things used to be better", and the parts about music, although great, felt very tacked on, like he was really just looking for a place to rant about how Andrew Lloyd Webber can't write more than 8 bars of melody. Not that I have any objection to people sticking musical theatre stories in wherever they want, and anyone who disses Frank Wildhorn is ok by me, but still. Plus he doesn't like William Finn and Jason Robert Brown. Buh?
Tamora Pierce Alanna: The First Adventure
Have you ever noticed how first books (or series) by fantasy authors often tend to be darker than later works? Or maybe it's my imagination. Anyway, this is Pierce's first book, as far as I could tell, and it had a much darker tone, although still within the confines of YA lit. Alanna, destined for a religious life, disguises herself as a boy and takes her brother's place in training to become a knight. Very enjoyable and I'm just ignoring the fact that the Amazon page I'm looking at right now says reading level ages 9-12.