Tag: literary

My Awesome New #Author T-Shirt

A few weeks ago I shared a great new website (https://literarybookgifts.com) that offers gifts for book lovers, as well as a promo code (SHANNONHOLLINGER20) to help you save 20% off your order. I couldn’t resist using the promo code and ordering a t-shirt for myself.

I love my new shirt!

Between the quality image and the soft fabric, what’s not to love! Since the website said that the shirts run a bit small, I ordered an x-large because I’m tall and hate anything too tight. It fits perfectly, which is great, because I’m planning on wearing this shirt all the time!

If you haven’t been yet, head on over to the website and check out what they have to offer! Feel free to share the promo code far and wide! If you order something, I’d love to know what and how you feel about it (I’m trying to pare down my Christmas wish list 😉 )!

 

 

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Gifts for #BookLovers, #Readers & #Writers

Anne of Green Gables Hoodie (Women's)The Jungle Book BackpackAs a book lover, reader, and writer, I love literary themed gifts. Every holiday I scour the internet for literary gift ideas. To that effect, there’s a great new website that I wanted to share with everyone. They not only have a great selection of T-shirts, but also book and tote bags to carry all your reading material around this summer.

Alice in Wonderland Tote BagOrigin of Species Charles Darwin T-Shirt (Women's)Even better, I have a coupon code that allows you to save 20% on your order – no minimum purchase, no maximum savings, and you can use it unlimited times! Simply go to the website https://literarybookgifts.com and use the promo code: SHANNONHOLLINGER20  (They say that sharing is caring, so feel free to share the love and pass this code along far and wide!)

Gray's Anatomy T-Shirt (Women's)Dracula Tote BagThe website is easy to navigate, and features a TON of fantastic images from some of my favorite books! I’ve selected some of my favorites to share, but there are many, many more on the site itself!

Our National Parks BackpackEdgar Allan Poe Hoodie (Women's)Despite the awesome discount code, I am in no way affiliated with this site, and will make no money off your purchase. I’m a big proponent of supporting small businesses, especially when they sell exactly the Frankenstein T-Shirt (Women's)kind of stuff I like to buy, and the proprietress was cool enough to offer a 20% discount code (SHANNONHOLLINGER20), so head on over to https://literarybookgifts.com  and show some love! They have so many different colors and styles, you’re bound to find something you or a friend will love!

(I just placed my first order, and it was incredibly easy!)

 

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When I’m Gone by Emily Bleeker ~ #Literary #Mystery #BookReview

27401883This story was a bit of a literary mystery. A wife dies, and her husband receives letters from her, pages from the journal she kept during her sickness. He doesn’t know who’s sending the letters, and over the course of receiving them, finds mysterious and sometimes upsetting information in them.

I hate giving spoilers, so I’ll stop the exposition here. Suffice to say, he does a little detective work while also juggling the loss of his wife and the care of his three now mother-less children.

This isn’t my normal type of book, but it was quite nicely done. Fueled by the author’s own experience with cancer, there’s plenty to be learned and enjoyed on these pages. It was a lovely pallet cleanser between darker mysteries. 5 stars!

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The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurty ~ Fiction Book Review

2116376I have some mixed feelings about this book by Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurty. On the one hand, it’s a powerful coming of age story. Raw and real and blunt. Probably a little scandalous, too. How do you resist that?

On the other hand, I wasn’t a fan of the writing. Parts just didn’t read well. There was an underlying awkwardness that was perhaps intentional. Regardless, when a sentence isn’t grammatically correct (incomplete is fine by me, especially as an agent of effect), but when it reads like a conversation you hear at Walmart and it’s narration, not dialogue, I get an itchy feeling under my skin where I just can’t scratch and make it go away.

So . . . on the scales of literary justice, the love and hate evens out to about a 4. A quick read good for a laugh, a gasp, and a WTF? I love books that reveal that depravity isn’t a recently grown branch on the tree of humanity. 4 stars.

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All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld ~ Fiction Book Review

18142324This book! Powerful prose oozing with ominousness, the pages practically sticky with sinisterness! The timeline was a little jumpy, disconcerting at first, but the pattern is quickly established and I soon developed a strange appreciation for it. The chapters alternate present and past, with the present moving forward, the past lapsing deeper and deeper into days gone by.

The reader is filled with anticipation while being unable to pinpoint the cause of suspense, knowing only that menace lurks somewhere in the shadows nearby. It was literary without being dull or boring, the refined edges sharp enough to cut yourself on. I can’t say I understood all of the slang, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the main character, an Aussie living on a remote island off the coast of Britain. A quick read that portrays a perfect example of how to break the rules of grammar the right way. Impactful writing, eloquent imagery, a beautiful work of art. 5 stars!

 

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Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami ~Fiction Book Review

3646541This was by far the strangest book that I’ve ever read. I’m not even sure how to describe it. The best I can come up with is a book burrito with the works – part LSD trip, part existentialism, with some sci-fi, horror, romance, tragedy, and comedy, all wrapped up in tortilla that is deep and insightful.

Parts I loved, parts I hated, but by the last page it was clear that this is a book that will stay with you long after reading it. A haunting story, murky yet at the same time crystal clear. Translated from Japanese, I can’t hep but wonder how powerful it must be if read in its native language.

The writing is at times excessively detailed,  reading like a grocery list. The author leaves no stone un-turned or action unmentioned. At the same time, this book made me think in a way that few books have done, and none in a very long time. For that I give it 5 stars!

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Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff ~ Fiction Book Review

wpb9.jpgI loved this book in the beginning. I found the prose artful and engaging, abstract in that it tended more toward train of thought than adhering to the rules of proper grammar, which I really liked. (It wasn’t Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway train of thought – more like when you jot down ideas to get them on paper and don’t go back to edit them.) It was entertaining, insightful, well-paced . . . and then I entered Part 2.

The book is sectioned into Part 1, Fates, and Part 2, Furies. Both are the tale of a marriage, the first as seen through the eyes of the husband, the second through the eyes of the wife. I didn’t like the wife’s perspective as much. It seemed more focused on the way she viewed herself, the real her, versus the way her husband saw her, the way she wanted to be.

This book is very different from what I usually read. It was written in a different style, had a different subject matter, and was told in a different manner. I didn’t like the characters, but I liked the writing so much it didn’t matter. (I often don’t like the characters in books.) If the second half failed to please me as much as the first, it may have been due to the fact that it was a complete departure from what I was expecting. 4.5-5 stars.

 

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