Sara Reviews: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

This book teaches that good is bad and bad is good. How do you review a book like that?

I rate it Buddha/Flower.

Word Count: 41,000

Sara's Total Points: 200,275

Kristie Reviews: Light Boxes by Shane Jones

Do you ever start reading a book, and you want so bad for it to be really good, but just:

Kind of interesting but I don't feel like I'm reading, I feel like you're talking at me. Also this is veering hard into hipster territory.

Did this start as a list of direct influences on the book but then you tossed in Myspace to throw us off?
Because um

 Selah oh no are you on tumblr

Please stop

I mean, the story is interesting at a basic level--February declares war on a small town of balloonists by outlawing flight and making it dark and snowy months, while the town rebels in really precious and magic-realism-y ways--and there are a handful of lines that have really beautiful and interesting imagery, but as a whole it doesn't really come together. I don't give a damn about a single character and I don't even care what the ending was.

On top of all this, there is an uncomfortable level of similarity between Light Boxes and Salvador Placencia's incredibly brilliant People of Paper, of which Jones admits to being a big fan.

I want to do this book justice but it doesn't do itself justice. 3/10.

Word Count: 20,000 or so
Kristie's total points: 474,748