Read Header Roc: A ReRead

This month’s two Read Harder reading categories were A Book about Poetry Written in Translation on a Theme Other than Love and A Book You’ve Read Before. This post is about the rereads. This was considered an "easy" task and based on the group, we were right! 

Three on a Theme: 3 Rereads of Old Classics

I don't need to tell you AGAIN how awesome audiobooks are, right? Well, I have been using audiobooks to reacquaint myself with some old favorites. I'd like to remind you that re-reading books you have loved from different times in your life can backfire. I'm looking at you, Hunger Games. It's not that I don't still love HG. But I was surprised at how much I didn't love it compared to the first time around.

These three are actually my top three favorites from childhood, so it was pretty risky to do a re-read. But, they were obvious places to start what I am sure to be an ongoing quest. 

What I've Been Reading (Outbox and BIP)

It feels like it's been forever since I did an Outbox post. But, it was only two weeks ago... click here if you want to see it. :)

Let's jump to it, shall we?

Outbox: New Stuff I've Read So Far This Month (Feb 20, 2016)

It's been a bit of a slow (print) reading month, but my audiobook game has been strong, y'all. I can't think of why I've been so busy, but I'm sure it was work related! Oh! And I had a show. Duh. I might be able to sit down and do full reviews for a couple of these but I doubt it, so I'll just do a quick mini-review highlight thing. You know how I do it!

I'm going to do a separate post for the children's lit rereads I did this month. There were four of them. A little teaser: A Wrinkle in Time is crazy.

Half- Resurrection Blues by Daniel Jose Older 

Mr. Older is one of my favorite Twitter presences. He gets excited about things, he talks shit, he loves his wife. The whole thing is gold. I read his first YA offering last year, Shadowshaper, which was a definite must- read for 2015. I didn't realize that it was his first YA novel; I just assumed that's what he does. So, enter this little gem. HRB is an urban fiction novel about a man who is mostly dead who hunts down spirit- bad guys, who stumbles into a hot mess when he's sent to kill another half-dead person and then falls in love with that halfie's Halfie sister. Then, crazy stuff starts happening.

Outbox: Recap for December and the whole damn year (2015)

OK. This is my last post specifically about 2015. I had a couple of different "2015 summary" posts in mind but I've decided this is just going to be it. Last one. I'm done with 2015; It's the 10th for sobbing out loud. So this one's is really two posts in one: the December Outbox (which includes four weeks of reading) and 2015 reflection crap. Enjoy. Or whatever.

THE WHOLE DAMN YEAR -
RECAP AND SELF -PATS ON THE BACK

Outbox (October 2015): Rereads and people die all over the place... I won't tell you who.

September kind of felt like a light reading month for me. Looking at my Goodreads for the month, I noticed that the majority of the books I read were audiobooks and books that I've read before. I also read a few books that were shorter than my usual (e.g., Coal, The Great Gatsby, and Animal Farm). Sometimes, it feels like adding these smaller books to my read list is cheating (which is why I count comics, trades, and graphic novels separately), even though I know that's ridiculous. More pages doesn't legitimize a book. But that's a topic for a different post.. and likely a different blogger.

Anywho. Here's my Outbox post for September:

I've already posted about the books about books that I read in September. Yes, I did!! So, I won't repeat my gushing about those in this post, as tempting as that might be.

THE REREADS

Re- reading the Classics: You'll notice a theme below. Re-reading a book, which I have never done before, is interesting. You think you know what's going to happen. And sometimes you do. But sometimes you've really changed the events in the book to match your overall impression of the book, you know what I mean. I think with these classics, I had an idea of the story that was all mashed up with pop culture references. I enjoyed rereading each of these, unlike the disaster that was me trying to read Wuthering Heights which actually took 10 years off the end of my life. I did a thing I rarely do: I quit reading it with only 3 hours left of the audiobook. Just couldn't do it. 

Thoughts while re-reading the Classics: 

To Kill a Mockingbird - Have I ever read this all the way through? Why are people always talking about Boo Radley, he's only in it for four seconds. Scout is an idiot; Oh, wait, she's only 8 years old. Ugh, I hate that this is still relevant in 2015

Animal Farm - Have I read this before? Oh, I can see how this might be used in a high school. Nuh uh! They are changing the rules! Pigs... heh, I get it. 

The Great Gatsby: OK. Maybe I've never read this. I have no recollection of that happening... What!?

Harry Potter: Yes, I know these aren't classics. But they will be. I loved them just as much this time as the first time. I had to skip book 2 because there was such a long wait time for the Overdrive edition. But, it was a reread, so I felt ok about that. Still love Lupin. 

THE NEWBIES:

Tell the Wolves I'm Home: This books has been on several Must Read book lists that I have seen. It's the story of a geeky teenage girl who loses her uncle to AIDS. The loss of her favorite uncle and primary emotional support pretty much rocks her world and forces her to figure out what she thinks is important in life. I didn't cry, but I'm kind of a robot.

Pretty is: This book's summary was interesting, as is the idea for the story. Two adult women revisit the two month period when they were kidnapped and held in the woods. I actually really liked the view of the girls and their connection to the time and the man over the course of their lives. It had a few too many layers (a movie, based on a book, based on the story of the girls from one perspective with the view point of the other folks thrown in). The "thriller" stalker part was unnecessary and wrapped up too quickly. And other lines didn't wrap up very satisfactorily at all. The psychology of the unloved/ unlovable post trauma thing was interesting.

Purple Hibiscus: This was my Book Club pick for one of my discussion groups. Every member actually finished the book, which is not usual, and several people "didn't know what the think of it." The discussion was a good one and it's one of those books where you find yourself trying to understand the perspectives of each of the characters. Discussion considerations: is what makes a good person a good person and the different faces we put on at home and in public.