I Would Like to Recommend You My Most-Recommended Book

There are a lot of books I have read more than ten times. 

Like, a lot. 

The book I'm recommending today is probably the one I've read the second-most times. 

The one I've read the most takes a lot of explanation (it's pretty misogynistic) so I'll recommend that one on a day I want to type out more words. 

Today I really only want to wallow in Ally McBeal and probably read this book again. 

It's called "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" by Marisha Pessl and I bought it 100% based on the cover. Here is the Amazon Affiliate link if you would like to purchase it and also give me some money back to buy more books or similar. 

(this is a toned down version of the original cover that caught my eye. This is also about the 12th physical copy of this book that I've owned. I've leant the rest of them out. Nothing makes me happier than losing a book that I love to another reader. Yes, I also own the digital version too. WhenI find something I love this much, I want to make sure it's around, lol)

I had no idea at all what this book was about. The author had never written anything before, so I was going in blind there too. The combo between the weird title and busy cover art was an insta-Jacki-win-combo. 

Like, what even ARE Calamity Physics? 

So I read it and when I finished, it was as if I had written it myself. The characters were people I felt like I already knew. I could find parallels between them and my real life friends. 

And, like with movies and TV, in books I rate good characters and strong dialogue higher than almost any other qualities. It could have a crap story or be about something I already know, but as long as the characters are real and the dialogue is sparkling, I'm gonna love it. 

Recapping this book won't work because it's a morpher, and to give away any of the morph could ruin the book.

It's not a big showy morph by a long shot. It's gentle, like how your life story morphs from PBS to TBS to HBO, with some stops at other channels in between. 

(like, when I was a kid I watched Sesame Street on PBS, then I grew up a bit and watched baseball on TBS and then... you get the picture.)

The book starts out as your typical "gifted girl feelin' outta place in high school story" but it's much more than that... despite being GREAT at that. Like, I'd happily read about Blue's high school career if the book didn't go anywhere other than that. 

(Blue is the main character's name and D is very lucky I had not read this book before she was born or her name would 100% no doubt be Blue.)

Like I said, it does morph from a standard book about the high school experience, but in such a way that it sneaks up on you. But then when it happens, you think to yourself, "Of course, there is no other explanation."

While I can't gush all over the story without giving anything away, I can 100% talk about the structure and not spoil a damn thing. I am a terrible recapper, but I really like people to experience things for themselves. 

First off... the table of contents is much more than just a table of contents. It also serves as required reading as you can see here:

There are still 1.5 more pages of the TOC. I keep meaning to read the book the chapter is named after and then reading the chapter, but then I get sucked into the story again. 

But from what I can gather, they just deal with similar themes. One day I'll do it to be 100% sure, though. ONE DAY. Oh man, a Special Topics 

Also, sprinkled throughout the book are visual aids, mostly to highlight whatever the main character is talking about. 

After discovering the aphantasia, I realize now that these visual aids were much more useful to me than I originally thought. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I keep coming back to this book. 

Hmm. I'll have to noodle on that. 

Ok, so all I'm doing today is basically asking the readers that, uh, read my blog to read this book! And then come talk to me about it!!!

(also if you like this book, all of Marisha Pessl's books are incredible, even the Teen-y one!! 

Night Film 

Neverworld Wake)