Bookish Thoughts

There are only three stories: someone goes on a journey a stranger comes to town boy meets girl But, really, those first two are the same, it's just a matter a perspective. And the last one is just an emotional journey rather than a physical one. So there's only one story: someone goes on a journey. All stories come down to this, and they're all the same story. Of course, if that were true, it would be a boring old world. In actuality, all stories are different. The details make each journey unique and even if a story has been told a thousand or a million times before, there is still a new way to tell it that makes it feel fresh and interesting. This is the paradox that The Starless Sea deals with: there is only one story and that story is infinite. Morgenstern takes her time exploring this theme, setting up all her pieces and pulling them together or letting them drift. She makes the dangling threads that prevent a story from feeling complete literal. She makes ...

This is still one of my favorite books. I still wish I could live inside of it. Re-reading it every year has become a tradition, and there's not that much more to say. If you haven't read it yet, you should.

This is the fourth time I've read The Night Circus  and I still love it just as much as the first time. It is so lush and romantic. The descriptions are absolutely perfect. Precise enough to transport me to the circus and vague enough to make me feel like there's still so much to discover. The romance breaks and heals my heart every time. Tsukiko keeps on getting better and Chandresh gets more tragic and Alexander gets more sinister. I've started fantasizing about trying to recreate the circus in my backyard someday. Maybe I can convince my kid to do it as a themed birthday party. Maybe I'll do it as my own themed-party. And give out copies of the book as party favors. I have ideas for the tents that don't require actual magic but would seem magical. I just want this book to be real. Every time I read it I want it to last forever. And then I end up staying up too late to finish it anyway. The good news is that I can always pick it up and read it again.

I still want to live in this book. I suppose I'll just have to settle for re-visiting it once a year or so. The Night Circus is a fantastic, romantic story with just enough magic to intrigue and just enough description to let the reader's imagination run wild. It's a comfortable book, and it's perfect to take on vacation. I liked it even better the second time through. I knew what was going to happen, so I was able to meander through the book a little more. I took my time and stretched out, and I caught a bunch of things I skipped right by on the first time when I just wanted to know how it all ended up. I still read it in essentially one sitting, but that's just because I happened to be at an airport and on a plane without much else to do. The story felt richer this time around, as I picked up on some thematic background that I'd missed the first time through. Most notably the fear of ending up along that gets threaded through the story and ultimately pu...

This book was perfect. If I could leave my life behind and live out the rest of my days inside of a book, it would be  The Night Circus . I'll try to parse this, to explain what I loved so much about this book. To start with, as always, the characters were phenomenal. The love story between Celia and Marco was electric and passionate. Isobel's role was tragic, but understandable. Same with Tsukiko. The children, Poppet and Widget and Bailey, were exactly the bright future I wanted. The shadowy puppet masters were perfectly aloof and manipulative. All I wanted was for everyone to get along and have their happily ever after. The structure also played right into all of my weaknesses. I've come to realize recently that this format, short vignettes from various view points, is, if not my favorite, then one of my favorites. The story jumps in time, circling back on itself to look at events from another angle. It includes a wealth of characters, bringing them all to life. It...