Author: Katie
books that fail to touch the binder clip in my chest where my heart should be – book reviews for the week
Just finished Red Rising and Golden Son (Books 1 and 2 of the Red Rising trilogy) by Pierce Brown I didn’t have high hopes for Red Rising when I started, but I’d heard so many good things about it that I wanted to give it a fair shot. Both Ender’s Game and The Hunger Games are referenced in blurbs […]
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horses, magic and that self-destructive waitress crying in the wine cellar – book reviews for the week
Just finished All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy I’ve read All the Pretty Horses before, but when it came up as Clair’s pick for the next book club book, I was happy to dive into the world of wistful cowboys again. All the Pretty Horses is probably the plottiest of the McCarthy books that I’ve read, but the […]
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cat daddies, Iran, Serena takes a lover – book reviews for the week
I’ve been away, physically and mentally, for a couple of weeks and I’m struggling a bit to get back into a productive routine. T and I spent five days at an amazing music festival and then, after catching a cold from one of the 55,000 dirty hippies there, I spent the next five days recovering. […]
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liberal arts education fails Mae Holland – book reviews for the week
Just finished The Circle by Dave Eggers As a parable cautioning against the perils of privacy loss in the digital age, The Circle fails miserably. I’m inclined to be generous to Eggers, though, and if you set aside the notion that he has anything prescient or insightful to say about big data, sharing, or online privacy (he […]
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2016 Pride Parade in Amsterdam
Gay Pride is one of my favorite holidays in Amsterdam. Everyone is in a good mood and the weather always manages to cooperate. T and I made up a picnic and found a great spot by the water early in the day. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the Pride Parade.
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2016 Drag Queen Olympics in Amsterdam
I’d been looking forward to this event all year. I missed out on the Drag Queen Olympics in 2015, arriving too late and with the wrong crowd to enjoy it. This time around I was eager to fully soak in all the rhinestones and sequins, so I got there early, parked myself in a good spot near the stage and […]
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very different ways to deal with traumatic family histories – book reviews for the week
Just finished Kindred by Octavia E. Butler Once I settled into the writing style, I really enjoyed this book. It tells the story of Dana, a black woman from the 70s who travels back in time to protect one of her white, slave-owning ancestors. When Dana first travels back to save Rufus, he’s just a boy. Later […]
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embracing and avoiding books by white guys – book reviews for the week
Just finished The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck It feels a little silly to attempt to say anything at all about such a classic piece of literature. I’m happy to report that I really enjoyed reading it, and I’m glad I hung onto it all these years after 11th grade English. The dialogue is written dialectally, […]
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bike trip from Haarlem to Zandvoort
We started our trip, in earnest, at Haarlem Station. We bought day passes in order to take our bicycles on the train and it couldn’t have been easier. We cycled from our apartment to Amsterdam Centraal Station, hopped on an Intercity to Haarlem and were soon on our way. The Art Nouveau style at Haarlem […]
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