Book Review: Hyperbole & a Half by Allie Brosh

This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:

Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!

This book was a complete impulse buy. I had just wandered in to Landmark - a bookstore here in India - with the thoughts of just whiling away a bit of time. I should've known better. There was no way I would've have walked out of there without buying a couple of books. I actually had a couple of books picked out to buy and then my eyes fell on this book.

I had only seen this book on the videos made by Jesse from Jessethereader and Raeleen from padfootandprongs07 on YouTube. So I just picked it up. All I knew was that they thought this book was hilarious. And boy were they right. This book made me giggle incessantly. I mean I read this book out in public, while traveling, in a course of a day. Before this book I had not even known the author was a blogger.


For all those people who do not know what this book is about, let me enlighten you. This is a cross between a diary and a graphic novel. Or more like a memoir which is a graphic novel. The art is simple, child - like actually. What you need to look forward to is the content. She tackles a varied range of topics from training her dog to her childhood antics to her battle with depression. I was touched by the way she handled the topic of depression in her book. I liked that she did not spout theories on how to battle depression and about why she was depressed. She just was. And one day she came out of it. It was a process sure, she did not know the why or the how of it and she stated as such.

The other topics she handled were sooo funny. Especially about the dogs, and the Goose. If nothing else makes you pick this book up this will. Trust me. The part about the goose was HILARIOUS. And the part about little Allie's trip to the dentist.

I would highly recommend you to check this book out, even more so if you want to judge for yourself if you think the above parts were as funny as I thought. I rated this book a 4/5.

July Recap

Hello All!! So I thought that I would put up a Recap Post. This post will recap all the books I have read (regardless of my reviewing it here on the blog).

I tried reading a lot of books this past month. But could only finish 4 Novels. I also read 4 Graphic novels. Here's the list:

1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer - Reviewed
2. Fables Vol. 2 - Bill Willingham
3. Fables Vol. 3 - Bill Willingham
4. Fables Vol. 4 - Bill Willingham
5. Fables Vol. 5 - Bill Willingham
6. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn - Reviewed
7. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl - Reviewed
8. Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder - I really enjoyed this book. The review for this book will be put up probably over the weekend.

So this was it for the July Recap. Coming to the books I plan on reading in August, I've lined up a few books I would like to tackle the following. This is the number of books I would like to read this month but it depends on how busy work keeps me. It could also be that I might not read any of these books at all as I read a book if the fancy strikes me.

1. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine l'Engle
2. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (if I receive the book in time. I just placed the order for it)
3. The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna
4. Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

So that is it for the August Reading. I know that there are a few holidays coming up (Eid and Independance day) but I am planning a trip on those weekends so I might not be able to read too many books.