Twitterature: October 2013 Edition

Posted on October 15, 2013 by BrittanyR

Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Twitterature is her fun way to share quick, little reviews of books read recently.
I hope you enjoy these; I’ll follow up later with longer book review posts.

I’ve had so much fun participating in Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Twitterature the last two months that I decided to do it again! I’ve only read two books since the last link up, so I’m sharing reviews of two books I reviewed earlier on the blog in Twitter’s signature brief form. Links to the full review are at the bottom. Also, I will be writing a complete review of Dracula tomorrow.

Beautiful Ruins
By Jess Walter

Gorgeous words, scenes and characters. #MustRead #LitFic

Dracula
By Bram Stoker

Dark. Rich. Suspense. #MustRead #TheOV (Original Vamp!)

The Glass Castle (audiobook)
By Jeannette Walls

You think your childhood was bad? Walls has ya’ll beat! #Memoir

The Casual Vacancy
By J.K. Rowling

Character study of the inner workings of small village. #LitFic #MustRead

Ape House
By Sara Gruen

A wonderful statement about ethical treatment of animals. #GreatWriting

The Glass Castle | The Casual Vacancy | Ape House

**I’m linking this up with Modern Mrs. Darcy.**

Book Review: Ape House

Posted on January 17, 2013 by BrittanyR

Ape House
by Sara Gruen

Review

I first read Sara Gruen’s bestselling Water for Elephants well after most people had, but I quickly figured out why it was a bestseller. Because that book had been so good, I knew I needed to read this one, and I wasn’t let down.

Ape House is a morality tale about animal rights and the value of mothers and nonmothers in society; and a declaration about the rise of reality TV in the United States. It’s a lovely little story about some very intelligent apes and their bond with their trainer, friend and mother.

Ape House not only kept my attention, it also really made me think about how we treat animals in the US. There’s really no argument that we have a terrible history with animal testing, but we still continue to mistreat animals and test any number of disgusting things on them. I can acknowledge the wonderful innovations that have come about after animal testing, but I’m still really bothered by it all.

If animal rights seems to be a familiar topic for Gruen, you’d be correct. Animal rights, specifically the proper treatment of circus animals, was a main theme of Water for Elephants.

I highly recommend this book to any reader, whether they love animals or not.