AJ Dunn Reads

  Tin Man by Sarah Winman In 1950 Dora Judd wins a painting reproduction of Van Gogh's Sunflowers , which becomes a symbol in Tin Man for hope, acceptance, and possibility. Van Gogh himself is a symbol; one of loss, longing, love, and creativity. Dora exists in an unhappy marriage. Her husband is angry and abusive to both her and their son Ellis. Sunflowers becomes an escape for Dora, where she can place all of her hope. The story centers mainly on Ellis Judd and Michael, who meet when they are twelve and Michael, whose father has recently died, comes to Oxford to live with his Aunt Mabel. Ellis works in Mabel's shop and the boys become inseparable. Their attraction is at once innocent and all-consuming. Their relationship is encouraged by Mable and Dora. Michael takes a particular shine to Dora, and makes every effort to charm her. A precocious child, Michael knows about art and Van Gogh and they discuss the meaning of Sunflowers and Van Gogh's life. Dora says to the boy...

  We the Animals by Justin Torres We the Animals follows the lives of three mixed-race brothers: Manny, Joel, and the unnamed narrator (in the movie he is named Jonah). The story centers on their experiences with their often-neglectful parents who fight and love fiercely, behaviors that are reflected in the boys' behaviors toward their parents and one another. The boys have a strong bond throughout the book, even when they are attacking one another. They are used to corporeal punishment. Their parents were very young teenagers when they had the boys and their inability to focus on their sons' needs is painfully evident as they have a tumultuous relationship of domestic violence and non-consensual sex. The parents' distrust of one another is evident, as Paps continually lets Ma down. They both contribute to the cycle of poverty by making poor decisions that keep them stuck in the life they both wish they could escape. Paps spends money they don't have and Ma keeps going...

  The Dead Zone by Stephen King An oddly structured novel, King's The Dead Zone explores loss and fate in a more literary way than his previous novels.  Horror is not on the menu in The Dead Zone . This is the story of John Smith; a man with an ordinary name, but an extraordinary ability. When John is a little boy he suffers a blackout after being hit while ice skating. Later, as a young man, John is put into a coma after a car accident. When he wakes he is able to see flashes of peoples' lives and characters when he touches them. But some things are hidden from him, in the spot in his brain he calls The Dead Zone . John has to come to terms with what he missed during the years he was in a coma, and the ways in which the people he loves have moved on with their lives; particularly his religious zealot mother, his former girlfriend who has been married and had a child, and his father who is trying to hold his marriage together. Alongside this story line, Greg Stillson takes st...

  These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever Paul Fleischer lives with his mother and two sisters in 1970s Pittsburgh. He navigates his Jewish family life in the aftermath of his father's suicide and the rage that got him expelled from school. His family worries over him and his lack of friends, his insecurities, and sensitive nature. As well as his inability to connect with his peers. Until Paul meets Julian, a graceful and electric boy at his new school; a boy who matches his intellect, but who challenges his ideas of his own self-worth. Paul is a serious loner and Julian mesmerizes him. Paul is full of self-hatred, yet is an idealist and self-righteous, believing he is the only one who sees things and people as they really are. But Julian sees right through Paul, right down into the worst parts; the parts that want control and the parts that like the pain Julian asks him to inflict on Julian's body. I think this is what Julian wanted: for Paul to need him so much that he'...

  You by Caroline Kepnes Joe Goldberg seems innocuous. He works in a bookstore, lives in a crappy apartment, and lives a quiet, albeit eccentric, life. At least, that's what we're supposed to believe. When Guinevere Beck (just Beck) enters the bookstore, Joe becomes enamored with her flirty style and her taste in books. He learns her name and uses it to stalk her on social media. When he steals her phone he gains an all-access pass into Beck's life and uses it all to become the perfect man for her. Slowly and methodically, Joe positions himself to have Beck fall for him, reluctantly because of her own issues with men and sex. Eventually, when they are together at last, Joe manipulates her life and scrutinizes every nuance of anything she says in the digital world until Beck's secrets make Joe see her in a different light. There are casualties along the way. Beck's sometimes-boyfriend Benji and Peach, her secret-lesbian best friend who has her own agenda for Beck...

  Hard Times by Charles Dickens My first foray into the world of Dickens long after my reading of Great Expectations , Hard Times explores the ideas of morality, and viewing the world in either black and white terms or in shades of gray. It asks whether we should focus on reason in all things or let our hearts be our guide in many things. Set in the industrial mid-19th century, Hard Times mainly follows Tom and Louisa Gradgrind through their youth, tutored to believe in nothing but the facts, into adulthood where reality is confused by the heart conflicting with reason. Tom grows into a man interested more in drink and gambling than in hard work. He is a character of self-interest in-so-far as it works out to his advantage, such is the case when he uses a working class man to act as a cover for himself to rob the bank he works for. The man is blamed and Tom is silent, until it is discovered that Tom was the robber. His own life is eventually saved from accountability because of h...

  Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn Was Sharp Objects as good as Gone Girl ? No. Was it a twisty thriller that surprised me? Also, no. But it was a fast-paced read with interestingly disgusting characters that you love to hate, and ultimately a satisfying story. The novel follows reporter Camille Preaker who is sent back to her hometown to work on a story about two murdered little girls. Camille is forced to come to terms with her own childhood while she navigates the small town ghosts that haunt her. A cold and distant mother, a violent and fake little sister, an investigator who uses his charm to get into Camille's inner circle, and a town populated with girls and women who make you cringe and remember what being in high school was really like. Flynn pulls no punches with Sharp Objects . She's a master at opening up wounds we thought we ourselves had healed, using unflinching language to explore the disturbed psyches of girls and women fighting for their lives against one anoth...