krysalid

I get the point, I really do...but the ending is depressing. Seriously. Where is my happy ending?

Title: Naughts & Crosses (Noughts & Crosses)
Author: Malorie Blackman
Random House 2001

( Sad and True, to a point, which makes it sadder... )

Has it really been more than two weeks since I finished a book?

It really isn't my fault. I have been so busy making bookmarks and coasters for teacher gifts and for my mother's office, and knitting scarves and hats for all of my friends children who live in places where such things could be necessary (so, not here, in other words...) and a set for my mother-in-law-who-already-has-everything-anyway...

.Oh, and you should see the Amazon list of "things we already purchased for the kids for Christmas" she set up for me to look at so that I don't duplicate them...So, I am not buying my kids anything else for Christmas because, well, my house already looks like a toy store exploded in it and she has 3 pages of Amazon list of items she bought and 3 more of "thinking of buying" which is ridiculous. Honestly...does a child need TWO of the same bike, so that at her grandparents house she can ride the same one and not be "confused"? A 4 year old, mind you...How am I supposed to teach them to be grateful and humble and all with this type of stuff going on? I think they need a hobby, a hobby besides on-line shopping, that is...

Anyway, BBC list...and an old-fashioned kids book, that I think, I would rather have liked as a kid...

Title: Swallows and Amazons
Author: Arthur Ransome
First Published 1930

( Cut for you )

I was actually worried at first that this was another war story, but the war really was just the beginning and the end of this one.  Inside was, I guess a love story, or web of stories I suppose.

Title:  Brideshead Revisited
Author:  Evelyn Waugh
Orig copyright 1944

I will say, that the writing seemed beautiful and the lyrical quality of it was lovely.  I thought the ending a bit...odd...I guess.  It seemed to have the little "sum everything up" talk with the nanny but without actually saying anything really about the conclusion of their stories. 

I am glad that I read the introduction and discussion about the changes made, and how the book was intended to be a tribute to the great old houses that were falling into disrepair, and that the author felt after the war that many of these were indeed being preserved instead.  I would have missed the point of a lot of the novel had I not known this beforehand.  

Overall, it was a nice read, but the story seemed rather tragic, and I would have liked to know what did happen to Sebastian.

I was not in much of a hurry to start this one after I checked it out of the library, because I had heard it was not his best...and that it was a lot like American Gods, which- though I liked okay once I got into it, was certainly not my favorite.  But I did like this one. Perhaps it was the Linguistics major in me....

Title:  Anansi Boys
Author:  Neil Gaiman
Harper Collins, 2005

I really enjoyed the comparison of stories to spider webs, which we get ourselves entangled in...and the significance of the word in this one.  I liked the story.  I liked the word play.   I liked the character much better than the ones in American Gods, and it sucked me in so that it took very little time to read.  I will probably even consider buying this one.

Another one from the actual voter list of the BBC Big Read, and I know, another children's/ young adult book.   It was a pleasure to read though, actually.

Title:  Artemis Fowl
Author:  Eoin Colfer
Scholastic, 2001

I think this book had everything a kid could want in a story- a 12 year-old genius villain/main character, fairies, sprites, goblins and trolls, military and police type strategy and fighting, time stoppage and magic and gold and wishes....I mean, really it goes on and on...
But also, it was quite witty and clever on top of that.  I enjoyed it.   I don't know that I will rush out to get the next 5 or 6 books in the series, but I could see how a child would become quite attached, especially since the child genius is the "bad guy" for once, sort of.   I would certainly read them, should time permit and the library have them, though.  I am admittedly not the target audience and yet, I found it to be quite entertaining...especially all of the word play with the traditional stories of the magical world. 

The Roald Dahl list continues...I am not choosing them though, the people who voted on the BBC poll of the best loved books chose them.

Title:  The BFG
Author:  Roald Dahl
Penguin, 1982

Of course, another perfect kids story.  Little Girl and "Little" Giant (the big friendly giant) save the human beans from the big mean giants with the help of the queen and live happily ever after...Plus, it is 200 pages with great amounts of funny-sounding, made-up words.   I think my daughter will really like this one when she gets maybe a little bit bigger, but I don't want to put any ideas about man-eating giants into her little head just now- as I have a hard enough time getting her to go to bed, and she would just use that as an excuse for not sleeping.

I don't know why I hadn't read this before, because I am sure that at one point I was going to...but I guess I just never got around to it.

Title:  Memoirs of a Geisha
Author:  Arthur Golden
Random House, 1997

I am always amazed when male writers try to describe what losing their virginity is like for a girl, or sex in general I suppose.  
Anyway, quick read.  Very entertaining.  But I am not sure that I put it in the top 100 like the BBC list.  Lovely escape into another world for a few hours though, and with the right amount of happy ending to be believable without being sappy, or too depressing.

Not much else to say about it though, except that it was a much faster read than Bleak House, for sure.

So, it took a long time, but I finished Bleak House.  Maybe not so long as Atlas Shrugged, but it felt like it.  The trouble was, there are so many characters, and they seem so random for so long.  It is finally finished though, and I have to say, I do see why so many consider it to be Dickens' best.  

Title:  Bleak House
Author: Charles Dickens
1853

I am not actually going to write a critique of Bleak House, because, you know, you could read one written by Nabokov or any of a hundred famous people instead...
I am just going to say, that once I got into this one, I really did enjoy it.  It just takes a while because it isn't until about 300 or 400 pages in that the characters actually start to really interconnect.  I do wish some parts had ended differently but it can't all be happy endings for everyone.  I thought that the characterizations, though supposedly based on actual people, were quite effective at not just playing to stereotypes, but also at pointing out and emphasizing character flaws which may seem positive on the surface.  (i.e.  spending all one's time and money to help those far away instead of those around you)
I also thought that like many of his works, Bleak House painted a much more realistic vision of the poor side of London and the inequality of the social classes. 
Overall, I did like it, and I read the last 300 pages quite quickly to reach the resolution...but, it is long, and takes some getting in to.

Another Roald Dahl, but I can't help it.  I am still working on Dickens' Bleak House, but I have been so tired at night lately that I haven't been able to concentrate on it well enough, and so I have been substituting in the children's books off of the BBC Big Read top 100 just to have something lighter.  At least this one was 230 pages and not just 75, right?

Title: Matilda
Author: Roald Dahl
Puffin, !st publ. 1988 

This book appeals to my aforementioned sense of justice immensely.  As a child I was, though not brilliant like Matilda, especially obsessed with books, and with people being treated fairly and/or getting punished if they deserve it.  This is actually echoed in my daughter now, and I am still trying to figure out how to teach her the line between speaking and obeying the rules and becoming the "tattletale"...I can't quite explain it to her without sounding like I am telling her to ignore the rules and lie.  She is, as I was, convinced that things should just be fair, and constantly laments, "But that is NOT FAIR!" to which I find myself responding out of habit, "Life is not fair. Get used to it."  When my mom used to recite this to me, I know now out of sheer exasperation, I always got so mad at her.   I wanted justice!  Now, each time I say it, I think of my mom, and I usually end up calling her once again to remind her how sorry I am for putting her through all of that. 

I find it disconcerting that she still keeps saying, "Just wait...."  ;)

I am not even sure I should count it, but I also read The Twits from the BBC voter list, by Roald Dahl.  It was a very short and cute enough kids book.  I don't see how it made it into the top 100 of all time, but it was cute and took about 20 minutes.  Does a 76 page kids book even count?

I think I may have read this one before, a long time ago, but I couldn't remember.  And it was just sitting there on my shelf and I needed something for the airplane to Chicago...so I took it along.

Title:  The Bell Jar
Author:  Sylvia Plath
Harper & Row, 1971
( Do you ever feel like that? )

This book actually reminded me of the antithesis but along the same line of The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri Tepper, except that I think  I liked that one better and now I want to reread it.
The Handmaid's Tale was a quick read.  Interesting enough to keep my attention and pull me through, but I doubt I would reread it. 

Title:  The Handmaid's Tale
Author:  Margaret Atwood
Anchor Books, 1986

( Look under the veil? )

First, I have to say that I never thought I would make it when I set out for a book a week...and now it is only the first week of October and this is number 52!  I am impressed with my persistence if nothing else, even if dreadful insomnia is to blame.
Second, I did not think I would like this book, from the fact that it is about war and had soldiers on the cover.  Really, this is a book I would never have picked up on my own, and so I feel a sense of accomplishment there too, as that was the point of pushing myself in the first place.  The subject matter I admit was not happy, and was in fact quite gory and disturbing in parts, but overall the writing was so well done and the parts of the story so compelling that I finished the 500 pages quite quickly for a war book.

Title:  Birdsong:  A novel of Love and War
Author:  Sebastian Faulks
Random House 1993

( Graphic war scenes and graphic sex? )

First, I have to say that I feel really guilty for requesting the only large print edition of this book to be held for me at the library, since there were 120 other requests for the regular edition of the book but none for the large print.  It seems wrong, but my husband says any of those people could have requested the large print too, they just didn't think of it, so I should not feel bad.  I am returning it quickly though, just in case someone who needs the large print version is waiting for it.

I had really high expectations for this book, because several people told me that it was "life-changing" I swear.  So in that sense, I have to say I was a little disappointed.  It was quite good though, and did really  make me cry, mostly for reasons I will go into after the cut.

Title:  The Time Traveler's Wife
Author:  Audrey Niffenegger
2003

( Would it be cool or a burden to be able to do that? )

Okay, let us first celebrate the big number  50!!!! at the top of the entry and the accomplishment that in May or June I would have deemed impossible.  Now that said, let us celebrate getting through Lolita, because while I get the reasons that it is so celebrated, sort of, it is still kind of creepy and wrong.

Title:  Lolita
Author:  Vladimir Nabokov
Everyman's Library 1992, orig published 1955

( And 'Don't Stand so Close to Me' won't stop playing... )

I am excited that I am almost at the original number of books I expected to read this year.  I think it has been really good for me to force myself to make the time.  I did not realize when I first checked out this book that it was short stories...500 pages worth.  So I have taken my time reading them, especially since, although I do like Louise Erdrich and have several of her books, the subject matter is generally not so happy.  

Title:  The Red Convertible  Selected and New Stories 1978-2008
Author:  Louise Erdrich
Harper Collins, 2009

( A nice collection, actually... )

I love Annie Dillard, but this just is not my kind of subject matter.  In fact, I tried to read it, and then when the first main character lost two children ages three and five within the first 30 pages to different ailments, I almost just took it back to the library unfinished.  I let it sit for a while, and renewed it, and finally just dove in and pushed through it.  Too sad for my tastes, really, although I get that it is supposed to be uplifting at the same time, sort of.

Title: The Living
Author:  Annie Dillard
Harper Collins, 1992

( Pioneer life would not have been for me... )

I was really dreading this one, and I don't even know why.  It was sooo long...and it sounded so dull.  I let it sit until it was due back at the library and had to renew it, and then I finally decided I would just dive in.  But I honestly really loved it, and found myself wishing it wouldn't end, even though I was dying to know how it turned out.

Title:  Middlemarch
Author:  George Eliot
1872, (this ed. Signet, 2003)

( Am I starting to enjoy all of these  )

It took me a long time to get into this book at all.  This is why it has been so long since my last entry- as I am partially through several less-than-gripping choices.  I wanted to really like this book.  But I don't think I can say for sure that I did.  At times, I thought the writing was hypnotic and beautiful, and at times it dragged on so unwillingly that I almost gave it up.  And it was so tragic.  Such a terrible, though perhaps realistic, end.  

Title:  Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Author:  Thomas Hardy
1891, (this ed. Barnes and Noble, 1993)

( Things have certainly changed, my friend. )

I would normally have put a few more books in between two by the same author but this one is due back to the library sooner, so I went ahead.

Title: Brida
Author:  Paulo Coelho
HarperCollins, 2008

( Lovely dancing naked witches... )