Top Ten Tuesday #13: Top Ten DysTrumpian* Novels if Trump Becomes President

 What the Actual Fascism, America?!

We are living in a surreal point in time where Donald Trump/ Drumph could actually become president. I was all reared up to go on a rant about how Trump’s success is the result of the American government ignoring their lacklustre school system (resulting in churning out politically ignorant voters???) plus the general negative political climate in their country where people are feeling powerless and consequently supporting an ignorant, bigoted, megalomaniac bully for the Republican nominee.

But then I watched a segment on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee [click here] wherein she interviews a group of “multi-ethnic” “bi-partisan” “college educated” “Trump supporters” and I was left speechless. And with a sick feeling in my stomach, similar, I'm sure, to what the countries bordering Germany and Italy felt like a few years before WWII. (I’m writing this from Canada, btw.) 

What does this have to do with The Broke and Bookish’s weekly meme: Top Ten Tuesday? Well, dear reader, because of this American craziness, all of a sudden those of us that majored in History, English, or even Political Theory (totally a thing!) finally feel relevant in today’s society, and can actually use our over-priced knowledge-base(s) in everyday conversation! THEREFORE, as this week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a freebie, and I'm a fan of The Dystopian Novel, I choose to vent about Donald Trump [and his supporters], using my strengths of being an über-reader and professional metaphorist.*

Extended Review: Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's definitely a fascinating read! I would like to research more about Burroughs, as his story is so fantastic it borders on the absurd!! Not even "borders" but it is fully emerged in the absurd.

Couldn't put it down. About every 20 pages or so I kept thinking: they made this into a movie?! How did this become a movie? Was THIS in the movie?! Wasn't the trailer for the movie sort-of light-hearted? Basically I need to see the movie. [Edit: apparently the movie was crap.]

Running with Scissors is an amazing memoir, and will leave you feeling incredulous that someone survived such a tumultuous time in their lives!
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After reading this article in Vanity Fair: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/0...
I'm disheartened to find that when "Burroughs" published this memoir he didn't tell the "Finches" until they saw it on a best-seller list. Needless to say they were upset, so-much-so that they sued Burroughs and the publisher for defamation.

As someone interested in writing a memoir-type book, it was pointed out to me that not everyone will be happy, and that you have to begin/ preempt your story with something like: "This is the truth as I know it." Maybe Running with Scissors is the truth as Burroughs remembers it?

It's interesting that in the Vanity Fair article the family claims to only have offered love and a family for Augusten, which actually does come across in the memoir. At the end of the article, Burroughs claims he was having recurring nightmares about being back in that house (which only stopped once he wrote the book), which ironically does NOT come across in the memoir.

I guess there needs to be a check and balance between writing what you believe YOUR LIFE was, versus taking down people in the process? Bottom line: it was shitty that Burroughs didn't even let the Finches know he was writing a book, which that in itself seems suspect...

A sad story that opens more wounds than finds closure for the families.

View all my reviews

Top Ten Tuesday #12: Top 7 Books on My Spring TBR List!

The weekly meme "Top Ten Tuesday" is brought to you by the awesome blog The Broke and the Bookish. This week we're geeking out about our Top 10 new spring releases! So, in order of release date, (and including books released at the beginning of March to make my list more substantial and exciting) let's shall get started, shall'st we?

The Passage (Again!): Review

Title: The Passage

Author: Justin Cronin

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2010 (that's SIX YEARS AGO for those keeping count)

Genres: horror, sci-fi, fantasy, apocalyptic 

Synopsis (via goodreads.com):

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, turned to hell. All that remains is the long fight ahead for the stunned survivors faced with a future ruled by fear--of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization crumbles, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old oprhan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project, and Brad is determined to protect her. But, for young Amy, escaping is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey--spanning miles and decades--toward the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun in the first place.

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Disclaimer: I only re-read a book under the same extremely rare situation(s) that I exercise because either: 1) it’s been so long that I forget that I DON’T re-read/ exercise on purpose, or, 2) there’s company staying with us and I’m trying not to look like an ignorant slug. (The second one is really just for exercising…)

Waiting on Wednesday #9: Down with the Shine

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, wherein us book-types share our barely concealed excitement regarding certain books that have yet to be released...

This week: I'm pretty sure it's an historical fact that moonshine always makes a social gathering into a PARTY!