The Fault in Our Stars

I love, love, love this book! The first John Green Book I read, and still my favorite, I decided to read it on a whim when I noticed on Amazon that a number of people who enjoyed The Book Thief had also purchased TFiOS. Basically this book is about a sixteen year old girl with terminal cancer who can theoretically keep on living due to an experimental drug she’s taking. She goes to a cancer support group, meets this one-legged cancer survivor named Augusts Waters, and cute/romantic/hilarious/tragic things follow. It sounds like a simple, perhaps even childish story, but it’s so heartfelt and moving, and the characters are just so stinking loveable, that I found this book impossible not to like. Every so often you find a book that is such a surprise to read, such a beautiful humanizing experience, that you become almost evangelical in your zeal to get others to read it. For me, that book is TFiOS. Whether you have to buy, borrow, beg, or steal a copy, everyone owes it to themselves to read this book.

Score: 10/10

Read this book if: You're a human being.

Don't read this book if: You have no soul (JK, Robby!) (But seriously...)

P.S. If you like the books of John Green, I recommend checking out his YouTube Channel, Vlogbrothers.

The Art of Fielding

I just finished reading The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. When I picked up this book I hadn't the slightest idea what it would be about; I knew only that John Green had mentioned it in his vlog. I started reading, and was drawn in pretty quickly. The funny thing about it is that I was drawn in inexplicably. Essentially this book is about college baseball, but it's also about friendship, trust, betrayal, Moby Dick, romance, self-image, one's purpose in life, and the shaky foundations on which we so often build our lives. I'm not a sports fan, yet I found that characters to be lovable, hatable, despicable, and altogether human. It's been said that the best literature examines the human condition in all its beauty and ugliness. This book certainly does that. Even though you realize the characters are ruining their lives, you can't help but sympathize with, and maybe even like, them. My biggest complaint is the "maturity" of the content. The language and subject matter are both very explicit, and I therefore wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is squeamish about that sort of thing. If I'd known what I was in for before reading the book, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. That said, if you do choose to read it you'll be witness to an engaging story with raw, real, relatable characters, and you'll emerge with a deeper understanding of what it means to partake in this thing called life.

Score: 7/10
Read this book if: You like baseball, are curious about mankind's self-destructive impulses, or are just looking for something that's deeper than Twilight but more accessible than Tolstoy.
Don't read this book if: You have an aversion to coarse language or content.

Update 8/19/2014

Although I only gave this book a 7/10, this is a novel that has weight. More than any other book on this entire list (excepting perhaps Crossing to Safety) this book has stayed with me. I think about it all the time. I think about the characters and their wonderful, tragic lives. I think about the choices they made, the choices I make, and how sometimes our lives seem to be playing out before us independent of our desires. This is an amazing book, and although everything I wrote is still true, I wasn't prepared for the huge impact this book would have on me.

Why I'm Blogging Again

Hello Internet!
Or more appropriately, hello myself (and maybe Robby). This Blog (is Blog a proper noun? Should it be capitalized?) exists with only one purpose. I realized that I never keep track of all the books I read. Sure, I've tried Goodreads. It's okay, but it just isn't working for me. So I figure I'll just start this little blog. Every time I read a book I'll make a blog post. It might only be a sentence, it might be huge (unlikely). The plan is to keep a log of what I read and how I like it. Nothing more, nothing less. Fair warning, this Blog probably won't be terribly interesting. Quick note, I just discovered that blog is not a proper noun, and therefore should not be capitalized. Does that mean I'm going to go back and change all the capitalized "Blog" words in this post? Nope! That's the level of literary excellence you can count on here at Spratt Books! Happy reading:)