KJ's Book Reviews

  The Shining Written by Stephen King About 560 pages (mass market paper back ed.) Originally published in 1977 Rate 4/5 This is the second book my Themes in Literature class is reading. So far we have only covered Carrie ( hover over this to check out my book review for Carrie ). Though this story has been referenced in the media many times throughout my existence, I tried to avoid it at all costs because I wasn't a fan of horror. Junior year of high school I took a film studies class. The "here's Johnny" scene was briefly mentioned and I was so scared. After reading the book, I now realize how exaggerated my feelings about this story were. I haven't watched the movie and maybe if I did then I would side with my younger self, but right now I feel a little embarrassed. The book wasn't that scary. What is The Shining about? Jack Torrance has recently been fired. One of his good friends gets him a job at The Outlook Hotel, his job is to look after the hotel for...

  Carrie Written by Stephen King About 290 pages Originally published in 1974 Rate 4.5/5 This is the first time I have ever finished reading a horror book. Back when I was in elementary school, my peers read "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark". When I tried to read a couple of the stories in that book, I felt terrified and I remembered the stories for too long after so I stopped reading.  This year I decided to take a course called 'Themes in Literature'. This course focuses on Stephen King's stories. I knew what the course was about before hand, and I knew that I had never felt great about reading ghost stories, but I wanted to read some of King's work. Carrie is the first book the class is reading. We have a set required list, nine books in total so there will be an abundance of Stephen King's books on here in the near future. I had, of course, seen clips from the 2013 Carrie movie on social media and was intrigued. I was planning on reading Carrie b...

  Ugly Love Written by Colleen Hoover About 330 pages Originally published in 2014 Rate: 2.5/5 If you are looking for a really spicy book with little to no romance, this book is for you. Tate is an 23 year old working part time as a nurse and going to university. Her older brother works as a pilot, so when she shows up to move in, he's not there, however, his friend Miles is. Miles is drunk and terribly sad so after a phone call to Corbin, Tate's older brother, she brings Miles inside. As if that wasn't the most romantic meet-cute; they end up sneaking around having casual sex majority of the book. My thoughts on Ugly Love Majority of this romance book contained red flags. The sweet romantic moments were short-lived. Even though both people agree to the 'no strings attached' policy both seem to want more. This might have been somehow passionate, however, Miles just used it as an excuse to be a jerk to Tate. In the end, we realize that he has a very dark past, but so...

  Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That A Movement Forgot Written by Mikki Kendall About 260 pages Originally published in 2020 Rate: 4.8/5 "While the oppressed can and do fight oppression, what happens when the people who are supposed to be your allies on one axis are your oppressors on another?" (244) Mikki Kendall does a deep dive on how intersectionality has shaped the feminist movement. Through essays Kendall argues that white mainstream feminism isn't as helpful as it sought out to be. Kendall shares how issues such as poverty, racism, hunger, homelessness, and so many other issues are being forgotten when it comes to feminism. This is an excellent book about intersectionality directed towards women who want to become a better feminist. My thoughts on Hood Feminism I agreed with and understood most everything that Mikki Kendall mentioned. Hood Feminism felt very draining to read. Most of the book is about how terrible people are being treated and there's no ...

  The 5th Wave Written by Rick Yancey About 460 pages Originally published in 2013 Rate 3/5 I'm not typically super into sci-fi, but this book had a really interesting concept.  One day, an alien space ship appears in the middle of the sky. Suddenly, all the power goes out, tsunamis strike, a pandemic starts, and suddenly the aliens decide to come down and kill people themselves.  Before the space ship appeared Cassie was a normal teenage girl worrying about normal teenage things, but now she's all alone. She wanders about the world trying to figure out what to do. Holding her younger brother's stuffed animal in her hand, she decides to find him. Ben used to be the coolest boy in the school before the space ship appeared. After his whole family dies, he ends up leading a group of kids into battle with the aliens. Evan stays hidden from the whole invasion at his cozy family farm until he sees Cassie. Sammy wonders if any promise can be kept as he waits for his sister to sa...

  Come As You Are:  The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Written by Emily Nagoski About 315 pages Originally published in 2015 Rate 4.5/5 One of my roommates recommend Come As You Are to me towards the beginning of the semester; I am really glad she did. Come As You Are focuses on women's experiences with sex, but I think everyone can learn something from reading it. Majority of the time, Emily Nagoski doesn't talk about the actual act of having sex, rather she talks about what goes into having good sex. Emily Nagoski starts off with a slightly brief anatomy lesson then she gets into the mental aspect of sex. Nagoski talks about the stress cycle, attachment styles, cultural views about sex, lube, desire, orgasm, and learning how to avoid judgment in the bedroom. The idea she pushes throughout the entire book is the fact that everyone is normal. We are all made of the same parts just arranged in different ways. "I am done living in a world where wo...

  Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity Written by Brenda J. Allen About 197 pages Originally published in 2004 Rate 4/5 I was introduced to Difference Matters in my Intercultural Communication Encounters class at Utah Valley University. Difference Matters corresponds with many subject matters within the classroom and in the real world. Difference Matters is formatted as a textbook, which might sound really dull to the majority of potential readers, but I assure you, it was not a waste of time. Brenda J. Allen brings her own life experiences into the textbook as well as other people's. As Allen communicates her experiences, she picks apart expects of the interactions and teaches us why difference(s) matters. In Difference Matters , we learn why power, gender, race, social class, sexuality, ability, and age matter when we are communicating social identities. "Humans engage in social processes to manufacture differences; they refer to dominant belief systems to co...