Friday Book Review

Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The blurb for this book is very misleading- read it and you think you are going to get a horror story about zombies on the level of Stephen King. Instead, you get a well-written book that has a compelling story, albeit one that leaves you with unanswered questions. Why do the dead (called reliving in the book) come back? What caused the headaches and power surges in the living? Does the living's desire to never let their loved ones go cause the deceased to suffer in a sort of netherworld? At first I wasn't sure I was going to like this book but I found myself drawn into the book and the philosophical questions that were posed. If you go into this book with no expectations you will enjoy it but if you are looking for a King-ish horror story, look somewhere else.


Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a SmartMouth Goddess by Susan Jane Gilman

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I really wanted to like this book. I was a fan of Gilman's book Hypocrite in a Poufy White Dress and the premise of Kiss My Tiara is a good one: empowering women to be the best they can be. Well, apparently no one told Gilman that women come in all shapes and sizes and political leanings because this book is geared towards women who think exactly like her. I thought the feminist movement gave women many choices in what they could do in their lives and news flash Gilman- even Conservative women can be feminists. I am pretty open-minded, socially liberal and fiscally conservative but this book just angered me because it tried so hard to be politically correct while actively working to denigrate and ignore an entire subset of people. Reading this book is like sitting next to that bore at a party who thinks everything coming out of their mouth is gold, that their opinion is the only one that matters and they won't let anyone else talk. This is ironic as Gilman urges the reader to step out of their comfort zone and befriend people they normally wouldn't, even Republicans! *gasp*! How kind of her! In trying to debunk the idea of what a feminist should be she completely catered to every feminist sterotype. In keeping with the style of this book, praise the Goddesses that I warned you that this book is a waste of time and energy. If you want to learn to be a strong woman, look somewhere else.

Happy reading!