Author Archives: Allison Abate

Kris Jenner and All Things Kardashian–Kris Jenner

This book was deceiving as fuck. 

Given the title I thought I was just about to read you know…gossip. 

Totally expected Kris to dish with me on …well ‘All Things Kardashian’.

I thought I was going to read a palette cleansing book before moving on to other more in-depth and interesting books, but Kris surprised me by not just being a decent writer and story-teller, but by having an interesting life before her kids and before Bruce. (AKA: Caitlyn. This book was written when they were still together and in love and nothing had come to light.) 

What I did NOT expect was that she was going to spend most of the book talking about her friend Nicole Brown Simpson and the OJ Simpson trial and how it affected her family and friends. It was interesting to get her perspective, and I don’t just mean interesting in a gossip seeking way. She ACTUALLY had real tea to spill and real information to share.

And real heartbreak that she went through. 

I really enjoyed this book, you know, as much as you can about a family going through tragedy.

It was super interesting: Up until she started talking about her kids careers. 

B-oring.

Constant vigilance!

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Worlds of Ink and Shadow–Lena Coakley

I was having a really hard time reading anything for a very long time. (And if you noticed, also writing anything beyond “Good book. Must read. Gronk loves rock.”.) 

But this book was so fucking fantastic. 

It’s based off of the Bronte family and intersperses their real life history with an interesting notion of jumping in and out of time and through their stories to meet their characters and rule the worlds. 

It was soooo well written and an interesting premise. And I learned so much about the Brontes! 

Like that there was a brother. Who knew? haha. 

And that the facts the author used are verified. At least by Wikipedia. 

Constant vigilance!

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How to Be a Bawse–Lilly Singh

Everyone should read this as a teenager. 

It tells you important things on self confidence and what really matters in life. 

I liked reading Lilly’s journey on being a YouTube star. (Which, if you haven’t seen anything she’s done: GO. Watch. She’s hilarious.) 

She has some fantastic stories.

And that’s all I’ve really got for a book that was well written and thoughtful. 

(Go figure. I wrote like three pages on fucking ‘Cujo’ and I can’t even write a proper paragraph on something that will actually help other people.) 

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Post Office–Charles Bukowski

How to describe this book? 

It’s…about the postal service. 

How did I end up reading it? I don’t know. It’s short? That’s all I’ve really got. 

Yet here I am reading a well known authors book about postal workers. 

And liking it. 

It doesn’t matter that I totally thought this guy wrote “Fight Club” (he didn’t, that’s Chuck Palahnuik.), or that I’ve never read anything else he’s written (totally thought I had. Book nerd problems.)

It was short but interesting somehow.

Yes, it went into the depths of the inner cogs sometimes, but otherwise, the characters were interesting and it was short enough you weren’t like “Okay asshole, that’s enough about this shit.”. 

He knows exactly how to tell a story and exactly where to end it. 

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The Bend in the Road–Nicholas Sparks

I needed this book after I read Marilyn Mansons book. 

I needed to scrub my brain for awhile. 

So this is (naturally) a romance about how a mans wife was ended in a hit and run, she was the love of his life and nothing will ever be the same. 

Insert: 

His kids hot teacher. Whoa whoa whooooAAAaaa. 

Okay it wasn’t exactly like that, but this book is just as you suspect it will be.

Heartbreaking and lovely and with a piss off ending.

Classic Nicholas Sparks.

Always with the piss off endings.

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Happy 8 Year Anniversary!

Holy crap.

I just got a notification from WordPress congratulating me on 8 years of writing on this blog.

8 years I’ve spent writing about books I’ve loved or hated, personal stories of triumph or failure, love and loss, book hunting, Keep Moving Forwards, True Story Tuesdays, or To Say a Little Words.

8 years of my life.

An inconsistent 8 years of writing on here, but still! That’s bananas.

So thank you all who have stuck with me, who have appreciated the posts, who have reached out to tell me how hilarious I am. I have a small fanbase, but I still appreciate it and am so grateful.

Here’s to you all! For putting up with my nonsense, my wisdom, my lies about when I’ll be posting, my long stretches of going MIA, and the grappling I do with books on a daily basis.

Here’s to books! Without them I would’ve beheaded someone a long time ago.

Constant vigilance!

The Long Hard Road Out of Hell–Marilyn Manson

“What the fuck did I get myself into?”

This is the thought that came up the most when I read this book. 

Look, I know who Marilyn Manson is. I’ve heard some of his music, I’ve read stories about what the fuck he gets into. I know he has beef with Justin Beiber about some t-shirts. 

I don’t know why I know that but I do. 

I know he was married to Dita Von Teese (who I adore.), dated Rose McGowan, and that he’s in general a pretty fucking weird guy. 

I didn’t realize how gross he was. 

This book was traumatizing in its brilliance, but also just gross because of gross things he did. He would scare me every other page with a startling pictures. Which I’m betting was the point. This guy is smart as hell and clever as a whip. And yes, for a while he was using his powers for evil and not good. But he took a long journey back to us (I’m sure he would resent that statement. Because who is “us”? The human race?)  and he’s finally becoming a human being. 

I think.

I don’t know.

This book was super messed up. His stories of his golden ages were really fucked up. As one would expect. 

And then he would hit you with a story of how it hurts that people would harm themselves or others in his name. And you’re like ‘You poor soul, let me hold you.”. 

Really think about it before you read this book. I didn’t . And I’m both worse and better for it.

It was intelligently thought out and executed in it’s contrasting unnerving you and making you love him at the same time.  

Constant vigilance.

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