The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo

I don't really know what to say on this book. My feelings for it were wishy-washy. I was gifted this book for Christmas by my sister-in-law as a joke, my family always chides me for the clutter in my room. The truth is, I'm pretty depressed, I'm pretty busy, and I prioritize a great many other things over cleaning my room. With that being said, I recently did a deep clean of my room and took 3 bags worth of stuff to my local Goodwill, which really mad me feel better.

Ms. Kondo goes through her surefire method of helping her clients clean their houses and it sounds like it works. She highlights the importance of removing things from your house first and then organizing the stuff left over. 

As I said before, it is very difficult for me to keep up the motivation to clean because most of the time I just want to lie in bed and sleep/ ignore my surroundings. On the other hand, I feel like if I ever have a spurt of energy long enough to employ this method, it would probably be wildly successful..

3/5 for me, just reading this book made me pretty tired. 

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl- Carrie Brownstein

It's rare that I have the chance to read an entire book in one sitting (unless it's less than 50 pages and filled with illustrations) but Carrie's memoir grabbed me from the very beginning- hell, even before the prologue I've been lusting after this book. I had never heard of Sleater-Kinney before I heard this book came out and man am I glad I asked for this for Christmas.

Carrie's book feels to me, historical. She outlines and timelines the 90's progression of the indie/riot grrl/post-riot grrl/ alternative scene dropping (today's) major names as they were still developing, still coming onto the scene. Carrie gives beautiful(?), gritty insight into what it's really like to be in a band, to be surrounded by an adaptive changing environment, and how bands famous and infamous both experience their lives as musicians.

I don't know.. I have always been completely absorbed in music and Carrie's book makes me want to get out there and do something in the music world again which I haven't been a part of in many years. This book really touched my soul, my kinship to her anxiety and depression as well as her need for some way to fill the void spoke to me on a very deep level.

Currently listening to every SK album on Spotify. I have a feeling I have a lot of horizon-development to do.
5/5 for me. Thanks, Carrie.

New year, new post....The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot

I got soo behind last year it seemed impossible to catch up on the list of things I wanted to do on this blog so I'm just accepting the losses of imagined posts and moving on to new posts!
My Goodreads challenge of 2015 was far from met- and that's okay. We don't always reach our goals.
This year I've lowered the bar a little from last year, giving myself a little more slack in the reading department by setting my challenge at 60 books. It's a whole 15 less than last year, and since I only read 31 last year if I double my efforts, I can make it!

SO! On that note, here's my first book review of 2016 (it's still weird to write..)

I'm writing this review while the book is still very fresh in my mind, I only finished it a couple minutes ago. The story follows (for the most part) Maggie Tulliver from childhood to early adulthood and all the struggles a young woman faces in the early to mid 1800s. She struggles mostly with her relationship to her brother Tom Tulliver, and in the end (no spoilers but) they are reconciled.

Okay now for my thoughts--
The first couple hundred pages were rough. It took me a little over a month to finish this one since it was hard to immerse yourself into. The beginning introduces you to the entire Tulliver family and it was just honestly, a little boring. The real plot doesn't really start to begin until Tom Tulliver goes away to school and even then reading about his struggles with Latin wasn't the most engrossing thing.
I enjoyed this book immensely. I liked the brief romances, the strong familial ties represented in the book, but I think I loved the lush descriptions of the scenery the best. This would have been a great read for a scenic vacation, I think. It would be a nice location read too, if someone was planning a trip to the Lincolnshire English countryside.
4/5 stars for me on this one. A nice almost-600 page read to start the year off!!       C

The Man in the Tree- Damon Knight

This guy was hanging in out in the back of my current bookshelf and I had no idea I even owned it. It looked interesting as an in-between read from Dracula to Room, by Emma Donoghue, which I knew was going to be a heavy read for me. 

This was an interesting little sci-fi break. The book centers on Gene Anderson who is a giant with powers. It touches on a lot of philosophical issues and even gets a little into religion at the end. I laughed, I teared up, and some parts made me irrationally angry, but all in all, I thought it was really well written. A little tragic, but good. 5/5 stars again.

Dracula- Bram Stoker

This was my challenge book for October. I LOVED this book. It really takes you for a ride with the characters and mysterious plot. I brought this book with me on the train to Chicago- I read this book on Halloween. I even finished it before the month was over.
Let me be completely honest here, I was expecting this to be like Twilight meets Nancy Drew or something. I had no idea what to expect. This book kept me up at night! It gave me the chills! It was as literarily (is that a word?) involving as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I loved it- what a great fall read. 5/5 stars on Goodreads.

Holler if You Hear Me-- Gregory Michie

Wow, long time no post, huh? I was reading I swear. But I also fell into a depressive slump and got busy with work- so a few excuses (and months) later here I am, again!
I think the last book I finished that I didn't write about was this guy- Holler if You Hear Me by Gregory Michie.

Bear with me, it's been a couple months since I've finished this one. It was a required reading for my English class and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Michie writes about teaching in urban areas and the kids' stories he learns along the way. I really enjoyed this book for the rawness Michie writes with. He doesn't sugar-coat any of his teaching experiences and he doesn't write off all of this student's stories with happy endings. He tells it like it is. I really appreciated that. I gave it 5/5 on Goodreads.

The Feminist Movement- Nick Treanor

Just finished this one up this morning! An easy 200 page or so read. It is basically a collection of essays and writings from feminists throughout the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd waves. I thought the collection was really well done. It even motivated me to buff up on my "to-read" shelf on Goodreads, which I hope will influence my recommendations a bit. I like that some of the works were issues that are still under controversy, many of these things we're still dealing with today. And it was funny to see names like Hillary Clinton pop up since we're still seeing her in our daily news coverage as well. There's even a section on androgyny and veganism. Anyway, I would recommend this to anyone. It gives a well-developed overview and insight into what women have been struggling with for hundreds of years.