Hey Rube/The Bell Jar/Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Hey Rube - Hunter S. Thompson (2004)

Hey Rube was an ESPN.com column written by Hunter S. Thompson in the early 2000s. A lot of Thompson's poignant, prophetic, controversial and hilarious ramblings from that time are compiled here, and I don't know that it could have been more fun to read. Thompson's style is obviously enjoyable, and it was interesting to read about the state of the NFL, the George W. Bush administration and the War on Terror through the lens of the Good Doc, especially considering that my interest in sports was at an all-time low back then. In Hey Rube, his political insight, insane obsessions with gambling and football and laugh-out-loud wit are unstoppable.

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (1963)

Considering how acclaimed Sylvia Plath's only novel is, I had high expectations that were never met in The Bell Jar. Yes, the fictionalized details of Plath's descension into depression and mental breakdown make for an enlightening, albeit uncomfortable, sometimes even heart-wrenching, read. I guess the hurdles I couldn't get over with The Bell Jar were that there was nothing really for me to relate to and Plath's writing felt pretty dry to me. I supposed if I had read this when I was younger it would have hit me considerably harder, but at this stage of the game, it just read like a brooding, downward spiraling mood piece and nothing more.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C. O'Brien (1971)

The Secret of NIMH was one of my absolute favorite animated films when I was a little kid, and I've actually wanted to read the novel for a really long time. I remembered this being a little dark for a children's story, but I think that actually had more to do with the eerie imagery in the film than the actual plot. Still, the story is layered a bit more than I recall, and the fact that I had forgotten a majority of the details helped this reading experience to be an enjoyable one, though, nostalgia had a lot to do with that as well. Anyway, it was really fun to revisit this story and be made a child again.