book review: the princess diarist by carrie fisher.

*I'm playing around with a new format for book reviews! Let me know what you think!*

The Princess Diarist
by Carrie Fisher
Blue Rider Press, 11/22/16
4.5/5 stars

From the publisher:

The Princess Diarist is Carrie Fisher’s intimate, hilarious and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time, the first Star Wars movie. 

When Carrie Fisher recently discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved—plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Today, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon is indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a regular teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.

With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time—and what developed behind the scenes. And today, as she reprises her most iconic role for the latest Star Wars trilogy, Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.

With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time—and what developed behind the scenes.  Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.

With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time—and what developed behind the scenes.  Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.

When Carrie Fisher recently discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved—plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Today, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon is indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford. 

With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time—and what developed behind the scenes.  Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.

I finally finished reading The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher, and I'm so glad I did. The timing could not have been more, well, timely, with her recent passing. I had begun the book before she passed away, and finished it after the fact. It certainly brought a whole different perspective to my reading of the book.


The Good:

• I just plain enjoyed reading this book. I went into it knowing who I was dealing with, meaning I had certain expectations for a bit of craziness, rawness, brashness, and even lewdness, and maybe I encountered more of some of those parts and less of others than I expected. It was an excusably jumbled collection of funny, often well-written, yet sometimes foggy memories and feelings. It was emotional and revealing and sad. Much more sad than I expected. Perhaps made more sad by Carrie's passing. 
• Overall, it was something I came away from glad I had read. I feel like I understand the enigma that was Carrie Fisher just a bit more from having read it. I am going to have to read her other memoirs at some point, now.
• Some parts were so funny and witty! Carrie may have had a sharp tongue in interviews, but she had an even more honed wit with the pen. 

The Bad:

• I don't feel like I have any major criticisms of this. It's not a work of fiction. It is a piece of her heart. Sometimes it read like a confused, contradictory, jumbled mess, but I felt like that only reflected Carrie's clouded memories and feelings about that portion of her life. 
• If there was anything truly bad, it's that the focus of this book sort of lasered in on the lead-up to her casting in Star Wars, the affair, the diary pages themselves, and then a meandering sort of wrap-up that brought us into the present. I wanted more details on life during Episodes V and VI. How were things between Carrie and Harrison then, when their affair had broken off but they were still working together? I wanted more details on other parts of her life, too, but I realize those parts have been covered in other memoirs and were too much to pack in here, again. It's not necessarily a bad thing that I came away wanting to read her other memoirs, though!

The Unexpected:

• I expected more of the book to be her diaries from during the filming of Star Wars, and less her unpacking the situation before, during, and after for the reader.
• I was surprised by how Carrie's writing voice was less reflective of her wild, brash public persona, and more introspective and thoughtful (all the while as wry and witty as you'd expect from her). If I had read any of her previous works, I'm sure I would have expected that. But it made the narrative all the more raw and sad when you realized she was a bit more down-to-earth than you thought she was.
• Sure, it was her telling of the affair she had with then-married, much older Harrison Ford. But it was told in MUCH less racy detail and much more emotional detail than I expected.
• I had no idea so much of the diary portion was written in the form of poetry! It was fascinating to digest nineteen-year-old-Carrie's feelings through the vehicle of her verse. 

The Takeaway:

There's no better time to read this book and get a glimpse into Carrie Fisher's last emotional, funny, witty, revealing memoir. I highly recommend it!

SPOILER-FREE book review: harry potter and the cursed child!

Part of me kind of can't believe that I'm sitting here writing a book review on a new Harry Potter book. It's crazy. It's amazeballs. Dare I say it's...magical?

Ha. Sorry. I couldn't resist.

I have to say I wasn't totally bummed when I learned Harry Potter and the Cursed Child would be in play format, but not totally on board either. I was just a smidge hesitant, I guess. It turned out that that didn't have a huge impact on my enjoyment of the story. I was still able to digest it and sort of translate it pretty smoothly into non-play, regular story format in my head. That's how I chose to read it, anyway. I just sort of translated the stage directions into the sorts of visuals the more traditional narratives in the rest of the HP books would have evoked for me. My biggest complaint on the script topic is that I wish I could have read it without having seen the actors cast in the roles first--not because I have any problems whatsoever with the casting, because I don't, AT ALL. I'll be the first to defend the Hermione casting, for instance. But I would've just preferred to not have that confusion of two different versions of my favorite characters kind of competing with the flow of the story. I'd have been able to just skip the confusion of whom to picture in my mind for the characters.

Moving on...

I will keep this brief and spoiler-free. I just have to say that at first, I wasn't sold. It started out a bit slow and a bit depressing. Then it got even more depressing and darker. But then...it turned a corner and it all came together gloriously. And I loved it. I loved it and I am now once again depressed because Harry Potter came back for a minute just to end again! How cruel! 

Anyway. I have to say my favorite characters in this were good old Ron Weasley--I don't know what people are complaining about because to me, he was 100% Ron except BETTER--and Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius was perhaps the most well-written new character, and his one liners and personality were so great. I want a new series of seven books that focus on Scorpius. To tell you more would just spoil it if you haven't read it. Just go read it and be prepared to love Scorpius.

A couple of criticisms: the story actually didn't 100% make sense to me. And Ron, Hermione, and Harry all felt a little out of character for themselves. Draco, too. Some of their lines just didn't sound like them. Those sound like big problems, really, but when I quickly read through this in the format it's in, they didn't really seem like problems that impacted my overall impression or enjoyment, I guess. I suppose that was all part of taking into account while I was reading that this was going to play out a little differently than a HP novel by JK. If that makes sense?

Okay, that's where I am going to end this, because if I don't shut up now, I will continue to blab on about this forever. Just go read it. It's amazing that it even exists and it's pretty great in and of itself. Yay!

book review: miss peregrine's home for peculiar children by ransom riggs.

I know I was supposed to read another classic for my Classics Catch-Up next, but I went ahead and hopped into Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs because I've been meaning to for awhile, and I wanted to make sure I knew what was up since the movie is coming out in September. I'm sure glad I picked this one up! So good!

It wasn't quite what I expected. I was imagining a much more horror-heavy, stylized, Victorian-esque dark horror fantasy. It was nothing of the sort, really. It was more like a good episode of Doctor Who (think Tennant) mixed with Series of Unfortunate Events (sort of) and the X-men, with a splash of Neil Gaiman, perhaps? But the narrative was pretty unfussy and straightforward. It read like a lot of YA I've read in that sense.

The concept of this story being built around all these eerie old photos is pretty novel and intriguing, but I think the thing that really drew me in was the story. It had its moments and parts were a bit underdeveloped, but in all it was just a good story that drew me in. I liked Jacob, the main character, and found his narrative to be well-paced and easy to get drawn into. The story of a boy discovering his grandfather's tall tales were true, and that he was a part of a time travel / WWII / dark fantasy / monster fairy tale type story in ways he couldn't have even imagined, kept me interested.

The story follows Jacob as he tracks clues left by his grandfather, who died a disturbing death, to discover the home for "peculiar children" he told tales of through Jacob's childhood was real. Then Jacob gets caught up in friendship, romance, adventure, danger, and makes shocking discoveries about himself and the world around him. Vague, I know, but to explain it in more detail would ruin it! The plot has enough twists and turns that you'll want to see for yourself.

I liked the vibe--dark, but not too dark, more historical fantasy fiction than anything. My biggest complaint is, again, that some of the story's threads seemed a little thin, and could have strengthened the story if they had been woven a big tighter and fleshed out more.

But, yeah, I really enjoyed it! Enough that I had to pick up the next book, Hollow City, right away. Looking forward to the movie this fall!

double book review: smile and sisters by raina telgemeier.

Double graphic novel book review time! I devoured both of these graphic novels by Raina Telgemeier so quickly, and they were so closely tied together, there was no reason not to combine their reviews. Kind of how sisters get stuck sharing a bedroom? Ha.

I read both of these children's / YA (depends on where your library shelves it) graphic novels for my reader's advisory goal at work. I have seen so many young girls pick up copies of these two, I thought I should see what the fuss was about. I'm so glad I did!

Smile is the autobiographical story of Raina's pre-teen and early-teen years, centering around the ordeals she went through with her teeth and orthodontic work. Sounds like kind of odd, mundane subject matter, but it was far from it. On the contrary--Raina went through a lot of harrowing drama when it came to her teeth, which had a huge impact on her coming-of-age in that awkward stage of life we all go through. We follow her ups and downs, as she faces troubles and learns more about herself in the process. It's really a well-told story, the art is great, and the '90s references are the icing on the cake!

Sisters is the follow-up to Smile, illustrating Raina's relationship with her younger sister Amara through a series of flashbacks laced throughout a particularly dramatic episode in their lives as they braved a family trip together. Smile was my favorite of the two, but Sisters makes a great companion read and adds more background and depth to supplement the story you just didn't want to end in Smile.

These were both great reads! I'm pretty new to graphic novels, and these two were a great place to get my feet wet. I will certainly be recommending them to library patrons, and anyone looking for a good coming-of-age story!

book review: hello, bicycle by anna brones.

I have loved bike-riding since I was a kid. I've never been a great cyclist, but I do love riding casually for fun and for exercise. It's one of those few physical activities I don't see as a chore! I haven't had the time or means to ride my bike much in the last few years, but I've had it on my mind for awhile to get my bike back in working order and get back into riding. Cue Hello, Bicycle by Anna Brones! The quirky, cute cover art and subject matter quickly caught my eye, so I had to grab a copy. Just glancing at the cover and at the illustrations throughout made visions of being a cute little hipster bike lady cycle through my head. ;)

Brones' book is dense and comprehensive, but well-organized and very readable. It stirred up my excitement to get back in the saddle. It covers everything from the rules of the road and safety, bicycle purchasing and maintenance, history, gear and accessories, information for cyclists with all sorts of levels of enthusiasm and purposes for riding in mind, bike culture, and even recipes for snacks to take along and some nifty bike DIYs. Again, this is a fairly intense and information-packed book, but there's something for every kind of cyclist in there, and I think just about anyone could skip around and find useful info in there. My only wish is that there was more extensive info and tips for riding with small children or pets in a bike trailer--I'm interested in purchasing one, but would like to research more before making that plunge. My area is growing up quickly and becoming more urban, so riding with my kiddo in tow to run an errand or do something fun is looking like more of a possibility for the future. But, regardless of the lack of info on towing a tot, there's plenty of other good stuff to dig into here.

For more on Anna Brones and her new book, check out the following links:

• Anna Brones
• Hello, Bicycle

Happy riding & reading!

**Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. However, all opinions are my own!

book review: vinegar girl by anne tyler.

I usually don't stray too far from my favorites: kid lit, fantasy, sci-fi. But I decided I should start diversifying a bit. Enter: Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler! I caught the NPR review and was intrigued, especially by the comparison to Jane Austen. The idea of a fresh take on a Shakespeare classic by an acclaimed author piqued my interest, as well. And the pretty cover didn't hurt, either!

So, basically, Vinegar Girl is a modern take on The Taming of the Shrew. It follows Kate Battista, the April Ludgate-esque daughter of scientist Louis Battista, whose treasured lab assistant Pyotr faces impending deportation. Hijinks ensues, as you might imagine. To go into further detail would spoil the fun of this brief novel, so, go read it yourself!

This one took awhile to win me over, in spite of its brevity. I felt like Kate started out a bit disappointingly two-dimensional, and took awhile to feel like a fleshed-out character. The dialogue was also a bit old-fashioned and off for a modern 29-year-old and those around her. If you took out the cell phones, the novel could've easily taken place in the '60s or '70s. 

All that said...Vinegar Girl took awhile to draw me in, but draw me in it did. I don't know, I guess what seemed like sloppy threads at first sort of sorted themselves out and were woven into a compelling arc that ended up totally hooking me. By the end, my biggest complaint was that the last act ended well, but not in the way I wanted. I wanted a satisfying spelling-out of some of what Tyler employed as negative space instead. She did the less-is-more thing with tying things up, which I can respect, but by then I was emotionally invested enough to want more juicy details! Good problem to have, though, no?

So. This was a good one! Yay for reading a grown up book with no magic or spaceships and liking it! 

For more on Vinegar Girl and Anne Tyler:

• Anne Tyler
• Vinegar Girl

**Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. However, all opinions are my own!

classics catch-up: sense & sensibility.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am starting to catch up on some classics that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. And, let me tell you, there are a lot of them I've missed. It's the curse of the incurable re-reader with a short attention span...

Anywho. I figure I'll start alternating my new/newer reads with these classics. So, first up on the Classics Catch-Up list: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

I guess I kind of figured I'd start off small. I'm a huge Pride & Prejudice fan (and re-reader), so it's not such a huge leap for me to tackle other Austen. I had heard that none of her other works compare to P&P, though, so I have always been a bit hesitant to give them a shot. But I went ahead and gave Sense and Sensibility a try.

The rundown: basically, it's a story about two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, and the ups and downs they experience through disappointed love and some pretty dramatic shakeups. The themes seem to be that love never goes as smoothly as you expect and pretty often veers off the course it seems to be taking you along; and, also, this book makes the case for dealing with the dramas of life and love with reserve, calm, and a level head. Elinor is the level-headed, outwardly poised sister ("sense") and Marianne is the romantic one, an open book who feels everything large and loud ("sensibility").

Being a big Pride & Prejudice fan, I just can't help but frame my impressions of any other Austen book by comparison to P&P. I mean, you could compare just about any romantic comedy to Pride & Prejudice. It's kind of the basis on which they're all built, right?

As far as the side by side goes with S&S and P&P...there are a lot, lot, lot of familiar themes, situations, tropes, and characters. But yet the characters are different, and I think a bit more three dimensional, in Sense and Sensibility. I also think the arcs the characters follow as they grow and evolve throughout the story are more nuanced and realistic. That said, I think the overall story of Pride & Prejudice is better-written and a tighter narrative with a tidier flow.

My favorite thing about Sense and Sensibility was the characters. I know that you are pretty much intended to admire Elinor and see her as the no-nonsense, feet on the ground sort of girl who demands respect and preference, but I can't help but see her as stodgy and too worried with appearances. That said, she's still someone I can relate to. I can also relate quite a lot to Marianne, whose romantic, frank, intensely feeling personality is probably more similar to my own and also perhaps a more modern silhouette than Elinor's. Elinor and Marianne still don't hold a candle to Elizabeth Bennet, mind you, but I think Austen threw some of their better qualities into the mix when she was creating the definitely more captivating heroine of Pride & Prejudice.

So the Dashwood sisters were pretty good, but the side characters were a hoot. I loved Colonel Brandon, Mrs. Jennings, and Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, as well as Edward, to perhaps a lesser extent. Even the intentionally dislikable and antagonizing characters were good ones, most especially the more-than-meets-the-eye heartbreaker who shall remained unnamed for those who haven't read it. ;)

My main complaints are that the story has a lot of hurry-up-and-wait which feels a little clunky, and that the end (I won't spoil it) gets tied up a little sloppily. I would have gotten a lot more satisfaction from having the end less rushed and more elaborated on, rather than getting some quick explanations to sum up a couple of events that could have been a lot more emotionally rewarding had they been shown instead of just quickly told. It almost took some of the believability out of some of the ways things were tied up, to be honest. I think Austen worked that kink out to a T with Pride & Prejudice, because you get to that moment you'd been waiting for, and your heart can't help but pound in anticipation right along with Elizabeth's. The end of Sense and Sensibility is, much like Elinor, a little too tidy and businesslike.

I could go on and on, I really could, but to come down to it, I really do heart Jane Austen's writing voice, style, and characterizations, and I can be convinced to hang on to her plots and see them through to the end. Where the stories lack in modern relatability--no one has jobs, they all base their lives solely around who they're going to marry and how much money potential spouses possess, and they all just sit around or take walks and talk and do very little--they make up in Austen's snappy, witty, often tongue-in-cheek prose. If you're going to tackle classic lit, you can do much worse and much more boring than Jane Austen.

a little Jane Austen sketch I did awhile back

Yay, Sense and Sensibility! I'm definitely inspired to include much, much more Jane Austen on my to-read list after this gem. I truly enjoyed it, in spite of my criticisms, and couldn't put it down.

What is your favorite Jane Austen book? Which one should I tackle next?

classics catch-up!

I am on a mission, folks...a mission I'm calling the Classics Catch-Up!

I can't be the only one this happens to: I have hit a few of the classics here and there, especially when I was younger and forced to read them in school, but I've missed the boat on a LOT of them. And, being the bookish bookworm and library faerie that I am, I feel a deep sense of needing to make amends for that. So, here I am, embarking on a mission to stretch myself a little and choose classics to catch up on in between my usual fare of mostly kid lit, sci-fi, fantasy, or combinations of those three.

Soon I will be posting my first Classics Catch-Up review, which I guess is a little redundant or unnecessary, to share reviews of books that so, so many other people have read and discussed before. But, they're new to me, and maybe someone else out there will stumble on a review of mine that will convince them one way or the other that a particular classic is, or isn't, worth going back and snagging? At the very least, whether anyone sees my reviews or not, I am enjoying getting them out there into the world for posterity's sake.

So! Check back soon for my very first Classics Catch-Up review. Want a hint at which one of the above stack of beauties it will be? Here's a clue...

Happy reading! And let me know if you have any suggestions for classics I should add to my to-read list!!

book review: star wars: jedi academy by jeffrey brown.

Graphic novel time! I just finished reading Star Wars: Jedi Academy, which is book one in a graphic novel series by Jeffrey Brown. You may know his other books, like Goodnight, Darth Vader, Darth Vader and Son, or Vader's Little Princess. We own all of the above at my house!

Not only did I have a reader's advisory goal for work to read some children's graphic novels, but I also wanted to read this one in particular because it seemed like a great option for lovers of the Origami Yoda series (myself included) and I wanted to check it out to see if it's suggest-worthy to my library kiddos who love those books. Newsflash: it is! And to boot, I'd recommend it to any adults who are into Star Wars and love reading children's books for the humor and light touch.

A brief rundown: this quick read is part one of the story of Roan Novachez, a young boy from Tatooine who wants to go to Pilot Academy Middle School (ha) but ends up at the Jedi Academy instead. Adventures, mishaps, laughs, and triumphs ensue.

I would totally recommend this one to kids of any age--this would be the perfect read for a young reader who is advanced in reading ability but needs the content to be younger-kid appropriate. I'd also recommend it, as I said, to big "kids" like me who love Star Wars and enjoy reading humorous kid lit.

On that same note, I'd also recommend the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger to both of those crowds, too! Hilarious, adorable, nerdy, fun, light, quick reads.

I'll definitely read the follow-ups in the Jedi Academy series at some point. And now I'm excited to try another children's graphic novel. Any suggestions? (No Pokemon, please! Ack!)

book review: armada by ernest cline.

I know I'm a little late to the game, but I've finally gotten around to reading Armada by Ernest Cline!

I loved-loved-LOVED his first book, Ready, Player One, which grabbed me with the tone, sense of humor, and plot, and intrigued me with its pop culture references. I mean, big nerd here, lover of video games, watcher of '80s movies, and sometimes-player of DnD, all of which were vital parts to the plot of RPO. Some of the references in RPO were probably 5-10 years before my time, but though the book was heavy with them, it still worked for me. So, maybe it's not fair to judge Cline's second book on the merits of his first one, but...I did anyway. I went into Armada expecting something at least somewhat in the same vein--great plot and dense with nerd culture references but not enough to bog it down too much. For the most part, I was not disappointed.

To give you a brief run-down without spoiling it for you...basically, this is the story of Zack Lightman, a high school senior whose love of sci-fi alien butt-kicking video games turns out to be useful in a real-deal alien invasion that is suspiciously just like those in his favorite movies and video games. It turns out there is way more going on than meets the eye, and different things at stake than anyone realizes.

Awesome:

--Cline's narrative was more focused and tighter in Armada than in Ready, Player One. I guess that's a positive and a negative for me, though; I felt like the story flowed better, but I actually missed some of the layers and texture RPO seemed to possess through the heavy plot.

--The nerd references were present, as in RPO, but they were better-executed. Less unnecessary description and more in line with the narrative instead of extraneous to it. And, bonus for me, the video games and sci-fi movies referenced were ones I was much more familiar with.

--Decent characters, fun plot, overall a pretty great and enjoyable story. It was an approachable sci-fi story that fans of the genre and those not as hardcore about it could appreciate and enjoy.

Less awesome:

--I felt like most of the supporting characters were underdeveloped. They were great, but I was left wanting more of them! The focused narrative meant that the details kind of suffered. I felt like Cline sort of overcorrected a little bit after many complained he overdid the descriptive tangents in RPO.

--I guess the same could be said for some of the plot and action throughout the book, as well--I was left wishing it had dug deeper into everything. It just felt a little rushed.

--Things tied up a little too quickly and too neatly in the end. There was a crucial, emotional scene that hit me in the appropriate feels, but it almost took me by surprise and then ended almost too abruptly. Again, a little rushed.


All that said, I really enjoyed this second outing from Ernest Cline! I can't wait to read whatever he writes next. Tone and sense of humor are probably the biggest things I read for and judge on, and he hits those RIGHT on the head for me.

For more on Armada and Ernest Cline, check out these links:

• More Info
• Author Bio

**Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. However, all opinions are my own!