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Democracy in America (Alexis de Tocqueville) Hello! I have returned! Because I am just so considerate and sensible, I have split up my veritable treatise on Stephen Breyer books into two parts. You do not want to read everything I have to say about Democracy in America tacked on to everything I have to say about The Plague and In Search of Lost Time .  (You may have already read my review of this book on goodreads, in which case you should skip to the subheading "judging stephen breyer for liking this book" if you are interested in hearing even more  of my opinions). Democracy in America is a 900 page political treatise about, well, democracy in America. I don't think you should read it. I liked it a lot, but I don't recommend it. The target audience is so specific. The conditions under which you should read this book are the following: you are so interested in politics. You love American political culture (or learning about it, anyway) so much. You would like to read...

Reading Pretentious Books By Frenchmen Hello, and welcome to the terror dome (my Supreme Court obsession).  A  youtuber I enjoy  habitually reads books recommended by celebrities, and although it may be a stretch to call Stephen Breyer (or indeed any of the public figures I admire) "celebrities," I am doing more or less the same thing here. I found  this article where Stephen Breyer talks about five books he thinks everyone should read. It's a lot of Frenchmen. This does make sense for an individual who pretended to be French for the duration of the DC Shakespeare Theater Company's Camelot mock trial . the plague by albert camus rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ This was the second book recommended by Stephen Breyer that I read. The first one was Democracy in America , but that's in part two because my review is upwards of 3000 words so far. I am going to extensively spoil this book both in terms of plot points and broad themes, but I am going to first explain the sorts of people th...

 I'm Thinking of Ending Things (a review) rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (prospective readers should be aware that this review contains spoilers) This book was crazy. I started reading it at night, and I didn't want to put it down, but I had to, because I thought it would be a bad idea to finish it in the middle of the night. It was just too creepy. I finished it in the morning, and it was still very spooky, so I think this was a good call. I'm Thinking of Ending Things follows a woman and her boyfriend as they visit the boyfriend's parents, acquire lemonade from Dairy Queen, and get trapped in an abandoned school with some guy that you would not want to be trapped in a school with. There are several interludes between chapters in which random people recount the events of a gruesome murder that has recently occurred in said abandoned school. Except (and this is a major spoiler) those interludes are the only part of the book that actually happened, and the book itself is meant to be writt...

 Class Action (a review) rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (prospective readers should be aware that this review contains spoilers) THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING. I LOVED IT. IT WAS AS IF IT WAS WRITTEN SPECIFICALLY FOR ME. OR POSSIBLY AS SATIRE OF ME. THIS IS GOING TO BE AN EXTREMELY EXHAUSTIVE AND IN DEPTH REVIEW OF A MIDDLE GRADE NOVEL THAT I HIGHLY DOUBT ANY OF YOU WILL EVER READ. YOU ARE ALL GOING TO WISH YOU HAD NEVER MET ME. The premise of Class Action is epic and god-tier. Our adolescent protagonist, Sam, is not a fan of homework. I can relate to this, and you probably can, too. Although he is ordinarily an upstanding public school student, Sam eventually becomes fed up with homework (same) and exercises his first amendment rights by leading an impromptu anti-homework protest, for which he is suspended. He then learns from his neighbor (a retired lawyer) that he has a right to an education and cannot be suspended without a hearing pursuant to Goss v. Lopez . He starts advocating for himself and his con...

 My Sister, the Serial Killer (a review) rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ My Sister, the Serial Killer is an exceedingly fun book about crime sisters who do crime together. The crime is serial murder. It's not quite as fun of a relationship as one would think, but the girlboss energy is immense, and at least one sister is living her best life. Korede's sister Ayoola has an interesting habit of killing her boyfriends, possibly in self defense, but maybe not. It's sketchy, to say the least. Korede acts as Ayoola's accomplice, helping her dispose of the bodies and whatnot, until Ayoola becomes romantically involved with Korede's love interest, Tade (a doctor and her colleague). Korede becomes both jealous and concerned for Tade's safety because, you know, love interest, and is unsure how much she will do to protect her sister.  My Sister, the Serial Killer , is satire, although I didn't get it. Then I looked it up on the internet, and the joke is that men are bad listeners and do ...

 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (a review) rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I'm sorry, Bella. I'm not going to ask for your forgiveness (for reading another book by Haruki Murakami) because I don't deserve it.  It's an interesting experience to read a novel by Haruki Murakami and not be desperately confused and waiting for an epiphany that never comes, or, more accurately, is about half as enlightening as you were expecting. While I was reading Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World , which is, by the way, an excellent title, I was rather disappointed by how much I understood what was going on. I thought to myself, if I have predicted the plot twist from 250 pages away, I'm quitting, and I'm suing the author. Fortuitously, the thing I was understanding was not the plot twist, and you are supposed to figure out what I figured out at the point in the book I figured it out. At least, I sure hope so. Then the ending baffled me, so it comes out to the same thin...

  Written in the Stars (a review) rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/ 5 I set out to read a romance novel and succeeded in reading a romance novel. In almost every respect, I got what I came for. I don't have a ton of opinions on this book, but I think Bella will kill (or at the very least seriously injure) me if I don't review enough books. I would not say that  Written in the Stars  has enough selling points for me to recommend it broadly speaking. I'm not going to, say, tell the scorer on the AP test that they should read  Written in the Stars . But if you are looking to read a romance novel specifically, and you just want it to be cute and fun, have I got a book for you. Written in the Stars  follows our intrepid protagonists, Elle (an astrologer) and Darcy (an actuary) as they begin fake dating to solve their personal problems. Elle's family thinks she is flighty and irresponsible, and she wants to show them that she's a responsible adult. Darcy has recently broken off...