70 Books

#25: Looking for Mary by Beverly Donofrio

Meh.

#24: How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

This book fell into my lap unexpectedly but I enjoyed it a lot. It’s funny and important and interesting. If you have a vagina and enjoy having control over your rights as a vagina-owning human, you’ll probably like this book.

#11: Bloom by Kelle Hampton

The wonderful people at HarperCollins sent me this amazing book and I loved it so, so much. I’ve been reading Kelle Hampton’s blog for a couple of years now and it’s one of my favorites. Hampton is such a wealth of genuine positivity and love; her blog and her book are just an extension of that. It’s all about recognizing the importance of the little things that eventually come together and create a big thing.

Bloom is her beautiful, seeringly honest memoir about falling in love with her youngest daughter, Nella, who has down syndrome. It’s also about being a woman, and a mother, and a daughter, and a human being with a huge heart.

You should read it and probably be prepared to cry a couple of times.

#37: Smashed by Koren Zailckas

I don’t like criticizing memoirs because I think it’s kind of an asshole move to talk about how you were bored over someone’s very personal and unfortunate story of alcoholism…but I was bored. I found it to be pedestrian and reminiscent of at least 5 other books I’ve read in the same vein as an addiction memoir. (I really wish it had been a memoir about heroin because “same vein” would have been an incredible accidental pun.)

#47: House Rules by Rachel Sontag

Wow. Initially, I didn’t have much to say about this book because I feel really uncomfortable saying very much about a memoir because, you know, it’s someone’s life story. Rachel Sontag suffered really unique and terrible verbal abuse by her father and the guy was crazy. But after googling the book, I stumbled upon a website the father made defending himself and producing “evidence” that his daughter is an evil liar. It did quite the opposite and only further proved everything she had written. The website is basically a testimonial that Steven Sontag is a sarcastic, cruel and sick person. I would have pulled my hair out and eaten it by age 10 if I had to deal with his dictatorship of nonsense. 

I love the internet because it just made a book feel 4D to me. I was sympathetic to the story and disdainful of the father but I was just able to SEE his insanity through purported evidence. Highly recommend the book, if only so you can have the experience that I did afterwards. 

#46: Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler

I’m not sure that I would read these books if I didn’t already love Chelsea Handler and I definitely wouldn’t say they are the most impressive of novels, but they’re honest and amusing. And she tells frequent and absurd lies, which is one of my favorite past times. What’s not to love?

#24: Are you there Vodka, it’s me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler

I sort of hate myself for missing years and YEARS of my life without Chelsea Handler to brighten it. I’ve sort of become a Handler fanatic. She’s such a genuinely hilarious bitch. Basically, I want her to be my best friend. I read this book over the span of two days and laughed out loud for at least 85% of it. I can’t wait to read the rest of her books!

“Even though I am not an extremely unkempt girl, I make it a personal rule to never allow others the displeasure of seeing my beaver in an unruly state. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Once we were all undressed, I realized the true meaning of “unruly.” There were women in there who clearly had never heard of a razor, never mind a bikini wax. Hedge trimmers would have been a more appropriate tool for the situations going on in between some of these women’s legs. One woman looked like she had Buckwheat stuck in a leglock.”

             - Chelsea Handler, Are you there, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea

#15: Night by Elie Wiesel

I finished this book on my birthday, right before leaving to get my puppies (!!!!!!) so this review is coming in a little late. I’m really surprised that this book isn’t required reading in high school and I wish that weren’t the case. It’s moving (obviously) and extremely sad. But actually not as sad as I thought it was going to be. I was afraid I’d be crying through the entire thing but it’s still very intense. 5 thousand stars. Jewish stars, even.

#14: A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs

This is the first Augusten Burroughs book that has made me cry and it was amazing. Just completely amazing. With each new Burroughs book I read, he opens another door of his life for his readers and stuns me every time. Of all the authors I regularly read, he is the one I want to meet the most. I hope he keeps writing until the day he dies.