Title: The House of Mirth
Author: Edith Wharton
Pages: 320
Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge
Amazon.com Product Description:
The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, aged 29, beautiful, impoverished and in need of a rich husband to safeguard her place in the social elite, and to support her expensive habits - her clothes, her charities and her gambling. Unwilling to marry without both love and money, Lily becomes vulnerable to the kind of gossip and slander which attach to a girl who has been on the marriage market for too long. Wharton charts the course of Lily's life, providing, along the way, a wider picture of a society in transition, a rapidly changing New York where the old certainties of manners, morals and family have disappeared and the individual has become an expendable commodity.
My Two Cents:
Although I love Classics and read them more often then contemporary fiction, I'm not usually one for American fiction. I'm not quite sure why, perhaps it's just the latent Anglophile in me, but I've never much liked many American authors (Although I have found favorite authors in F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sylvia Plath and, now, Edith Wharton), so I always approach an American Classic with a bit of trepidation.
This book, however, drew me in right away.
I instantly liked Lily Bart, even when she seemed a bit shallow and dense. She's like America's version of Mrs. Dalloway -- A woman you don't think much about in passing because you think you know her just by looking at her, but there's something much more complex lurking beneath the surface.
Lily is one of those rare women in the late 19th century -- unmarried and in her late 20s. She begins the book planning to marry the puritanical Percy Gryce, a wealthy man with a large collection of Americana books handed down to him by his uncle -- but her penchant for gambling at bridge scares him off. In an attempt to earn more money (Lily's parents are both dead and neither was ever rich, but they taught her to live as if she was rich), Lily becomes embroiled with a "friend" who ultimately causes her downfall.
Wharton's writing just jumps off the page. I was able to see Lily and the others at every step of the way, right down to the last stitch of clothing. She also has the ability to make you feel sorry for Lily while, at the exact same time, mildly condemning her for her actions.
I'm not going to give away the ending here, but I will say that, even as surprising as it may seem, you will realize it was there, hiding beneath all the baubles and bridge games all along.
My rating: 9/10
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Review: The Giver by Lois Lowry
Title: The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
Pages: 192
Challenges: Take Another Chance Challenge (Challenge 4: Prize Winner Book - Newbery Medal, 1994); 451 Challenge; Read 'n' Review Challenge
From Publishers Weekly:
In the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world. With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.
My two cents:
I don't know why I waited so long to read this book. From what I can tell, this book came out when I was in either third or fourth grade, and I would have been in the perfect target range for this book. I read Number the Stars with my class in fifth grade and loved it, but I don't know what kept me from reading The Giver as well.
This is one of those books that everyone should read. It has so many lessons on things we should never take for granted, but often do; on the importance of memory; and on how one person's bravery can change the world.
I will admit: I was crying from around page 50 on. I had a feeling that "releasing" wasn't as joyful and great as it was made out to be, but that made it no less shocking when Lowry finally shows us a release. I think I bawled for five minutes straight, put the book down and tried to regain my composure before someone asked me what was wrong.
The best juvenile and young adult books speak not only to their target audience, but also resonate deeply with adults. This is definitely one of those books. I now want to purchase a copy and keep it in my house for when I have children. No one should miss this book.
My rating: 10/10
Author: Lois Lowry
Pages: 192
Challenges: Take Another Chance Challenge (Challenge 4: Prize Winner Book - Newbery Medal, 1994); 451 Challenge; Read 'n' Review Challenge
From Publishers Weekly:
In the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world. With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.
My two cents:
I don't know why I waited so long to read this book. From what I can tell, this book came out when I was in either third or fourth grade, and I would have been in the perfect target range for this book. I read Number the Stars with my class in fifth grade and loved it, but I don't know what kept me from reading The Giver as well.
This is one of those books that everyone should read. It has so many lessons on things we should never take for granted, but often do; on the importance of memory; and on how one person's bravery can change the world.
I will admit: I was crying from around page 50 on. I had a feeling that "releasing" wasn't as joyful and great as it was made out to be, but that made it no less shocking when Lowry finally shows us a release. I think I bawled for five minutes straight, put the book down and tried to regain my composure before someone asked me what was wrong.
The best juvenile and young adult books speak not only to their target audience, but also resonate deeply with adults. This is definitely one of those books. I now want to purchase a copy and keep it in my house for when I have children. No one should miss this book.
My rating: 10/10
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Review: The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
Title: The Year of Fog
Author: Michelle Richmond
Pages: 369
Challenges: Take Another Chance Challenge ("Read Your Doppelganger"); Read 'n' Review Challenge
From Publishers Weekly:
In this spare page-turner, Richmond (Dream of the Blue Room) draws complex tensions from a the set setup of a child gone missing. Photographer Abby Mason stops on San Francisco's Ocean Beach with her fiancé Jake's six-year-old daughter, Emma, to photograph a seal pup; by the time Abby looks up, Emma has disappeared. Abby, who narrates, flashes back to her growing relationship with high school teacherJake, and sketches its transformation over the course of the search. Emma's mother, Lisbeth (who abandoned the family three years earlier), wants back into Jake's life—even as he is giving up hope on finding Emma. Abby delves into the bereft missing children subculture and into the vagaries of memory. A hypnotist helps Abby unearth promising details of that singular last day with Emma, but the information requires major follow-through from Abby. The book's twist on missing child stories is wholly effective. Richmond develops the principle characters, and Abby's dysfunctional parents make for sharply drawn secondaries, as do local surfers. The book is beautifully paced—one feels Abby's clarity of purpose from the first page. The sure-handed denouement reflects the focus and restraint that Richmond brings to bear throughout.My two cents:
I chose this book because its author, Michelle Richmond, shares my first name. And, it looked interesting.
I had no idea I was in for one of the most intense reads I've experienced in a long time. It wasn't intense in the thriller kind of way, or the challenging-to-read kind of way, but intense in the, "I-can't-imagine-this-happening-to-me-OMG-I-have-to-find-out-what-happens" kind of way.
The book begins with 6-year-old Emma's disappearance and follows Abby, Emma's father's fiance, through the next year and her search for Emma. It captured me from the first page. Perhaps it's the fact that missing children capture the public's attention on a fairly regular basis, as the situation is a parent's worst nightmare. Perhaps it's Richmond's writing style. Either way, I didn't want to put this book down.
I agonized along with Abby through her long hours of searching and wandering the streets of San Francisco on the ever-dimming hopes that she would find Emma waiting there. I thrilled as she found the possibility of a new lead in the case. I watched as she tried, desperately, to remember every small detail of that foggy morning on the beach.
The sign of a good book, to me, lies in the characters. Do you care about them? Does it matter what happens to them? If you don't, that's usually the sign of a bad book (Although there are a few exceptions). This novel has characters I cared about in spades.
Abby, of course, was the character about whom I cared the most, as she is the narrator. I cared what happened to Emma and Jake, too, as they were directly related to the disappearance. But there were also several peripheral characters of whom I grew fond, and, if you read this book, you'll meet them, too.
This book, obviously, has a lot to do with memory. Abby reads constantly about the attainment of memories and those who have tried to recall past memories. She not only deals with her memories of Emma's disappearance, but also many memories of her life before meeting Emma and her father, Jake.
Richmond has a talent for details and a clear writing style that helps this novel flow along. Sometimes, I would pick it up and in no time flat, realize I had read another 50 pages. That's a sign of an engrossing novel, in my book. And, it's not a difficult read, by any stretch of the imagination.
I would recommend this book with no reservations, although you may find yourself being much more wary out in public with children after reading it.
My rating: 8/10
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
I've Beaten the BBC!
I found this meme on Kerri's site and just had to brag... I mean, try it. :)
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
Instructions: Copy this into your blog. Look at the list and put an (X) after those you have read. Pass it along to other book lovers...
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (X)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (X) -- Does writing a thesis on this get me extra points??
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - (X)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (X)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (X)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman -- I've read 2 of the 3... Doesn't count for a whole one!
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Total: 6
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (X)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (X)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (X)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (X)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (X)
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot (X)
Total: 7
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (X) -- Only about a dozen times!
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (X)
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (X) -- Ahh, how I miss Oxford!
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Never finished it in HS
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck -- Never finished this one in HS, either
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - (X)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Total: 4
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (X)
34 Emma - Jane Austen (X)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (X)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X) -- Uh, this is part of the Chronicles...
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
Total: 4
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (X)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (X)
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (X)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (X)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
Total: 5
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (X)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (X)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (X)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Total: 3
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Total: 0
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante (X)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (X)
80 Possession - AS Byatt
Total: 3
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (X)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (X)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (X)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
Total: 3
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (X)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (X)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Total: 4
GRAND TOTAL: 39
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
Instructions: Copy this into your blog. Look at the list and put an (X) after those you have read. Pass it along to other book lovers...
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (X)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (X) -- Does writing a thesis on this get me extra points??
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - (X)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (X)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (X)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman -- I've read 2 of the 3... Doesn't count for a whole one!
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Total: 6
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (X)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (X)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (X)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (X)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (X)
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot (X)
Total: 7
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (X) -- Only about a dozen times!
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (X)
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (X) -- Ahh, how I miss Oxford!
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Never finished it in HS
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck -- Never finished this one in HS, either
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - (X)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Total: 4
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (X)
34 Emma - Jane Austen (X)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (X)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X) -- Uh, this is part of the Chronicles...
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
Total: 4
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (X)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (X)
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (X)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (X)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
Total: 5
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (X)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (X)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (X)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Total: 3
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Total: 0
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante (X)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (X)
80 Possession - AS Byatt
Total: 3
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (X)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (X)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (X)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
Total: 3
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (X)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (X)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Total: 4
GRAND TOTAL: 39
My Favorite Books of 2009
For some reason, I didn't keep a list of all the books I have read this year. I'm not quite sure why, I just didn't.
So, I'm going to be dredging up 10 of the best books I read this year, inspired by Jenners' post on Find Your Next Book Here. Several were published this year, but some weren't. I'm also going to give you a little bit of my opinion on each because, well, this is my blog and I can do that.
In no particular order, here are my 10 favorite books of 2009:
1. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Even though I said I wasn't going to rank them, this book is at the absolute top of the list of books I have read in at least the last five years. It is that good. Funny, poignant and very, very smart, this is one book no one should miss.
2. Blindness by Jose Saramago
This book made me think a lot about the human condition and the brutality of men (In the way that Lord of the Flies makes you think). I watched the film shortly after reading the book and, although I thought the movie was fairly faithful in its rendering, I liked the book better. This was one I couldn't put down.
3. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
I absolutely adored Morton's debut novel, The House at Riverton, so when this one came out, I had to read it. The thing I love about Kate Morton is that she gets you thinking you've solved the mystery, but she throws in enough red herrings along the way to make you re-evaluate your analysis every so often.
4. Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos
The concept of this book sounded interesting, so I picked it up. Although it seemed a little hard to fight through near the middle, the payoff is well worth the wait. This is realistic fantasy at its finest.
5. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
I adore Philippa Gregory's historical fiction, and I was glad to see her begin to tackle the Plantagenets in another series. This is one of those books in which so much happens, you don't think anymore could possibly happen, but then you notice you're only halfway through the book.
6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
This is one of those books that I recommend to every kid that walks through the door of the library. It is imaginative (But when are Gaiman's books not imaginative?) and poignant, and they exist on a level that not only speaks to kids without talking down to them, but also to adults without boring them.
7. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
No one's list of great novels is complete without this monster. I loved how Tolstoy rendered not only the decadence of the upper classes realistically, but also that of the lower classes. If you'd like to read more about my debate over which character I actually liked, click here.
8. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
This book took me the longest to read of any this year, partially because of personal circumstances, but also because Rushdie can be really difficult to read at times. This book is audacious, though (If it weren't Rushdie wouldn't have spent a decade hiding because there was a fatwa out against him), and it presents a very interesting view of religion.
9. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Roth gives a very interesting re-imagining of the 1940s in which FDR is defeated in the 1940 election by Charles Lindbergh. What results is a much less violent anti-Semitism than was seen in Nazi territory, but something very disturbing nonetheless.
10. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I couldn't believe it had taken me 24 years to finally read this book. It is so beautiful I was in tears most of the time. This is one that definitely transcends the boundaries of juvenile literature to present something that can speak to adults.
UPDATE:
I seem to have forgotten two books that I read this year which should be on this list!
11. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
This book won the Pulitzer for a reason. It's hard to tell if you like Olive or hate Olive, but she is definitely one of the most interesting, well-rounded, vital characters I've met in a long time.
12. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
At first, I didn't want to read this book because it was all over blogs and lists of "recommended book club reading," which is kind of like Oprah's Book Club and the NYT Bestseller list in terms of turning me off. But, I'm glad I did. In a fairly simple epistolary novel, the authors show the power of reading and books in the lives of an island ravaged by war.
PS -- Thanks to martine frampton for mentioning both these books on her blog. You made me realize I had left out some great books!
Some runners-up:
1. Maximum Ride series by James Patterson
2. House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast
3. Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
5. The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O'Rourke
6. The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
7. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
8. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
9. Open House, Home Safe and Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg
10. Super-Toys Last All Summer Long: And Other Stories of Future Time by Brian Aldiss
So, I'm going to be dredging up 10 of the best books I read this year, inspired by Jenners' post on Find Your Next Book Here. Several were published this year, but some weren't. I'm also going to give you a little bit of my opinion on each because, well, this is my blog and I can do that.
In no particular order, here are my 10 favorite books of 2009:
1. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Even though I said I wasn't going to rank them, this book is at the absolute top of the list of books I have read in at least the last five years. It is that good. Funny, poignant and very, very smart, this is one book no one should miss.
2. Blindness by Jose Saramago
This book made me think a lot about the human condition and the brutality of men (In the way that Lord of the Flies makes you think). I watched the film shortly after reading the book and, although I thought the movie was fairly faithful in its rendering, I liked the book better. This was one I couldn't put down.
3. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
I absolutely adored Morton's debut novel, The House at Riverton, so when this one came out, I had to read it. The thing I love about Kate Morton is that she gets you thinking you've solved the mystery, but she throws in enough red herrings along the way to make you re-evaluate your analysis every so often.
4. Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos
The concept of this book sounded interesting, so I picked it up. Although it seemed a little hard to fight through near the middle, the payoff is well worth the wait. This is realistic fantasy at its finest.
5. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
I adore Philippa Gregory's historical fiction, and I was glad to see her begin to tackle the Plantagenets in another series. This is one of those books in which so much happens, you don't think anymore could possibly happen, but then you notice you're only halfway through the book.
6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
This is one of those books that I recommend to every kid that walks through the door of the library. It is imaginative (But when are Gaiman's books not imaginative?) and poignant, and they exist on a level that not only speaks to kids without talking down to them, but also to adults without boring them.
7. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
No one's list of great novels is complete without this monster. I loved how Tolstoy rendered not only the decadence of the upper classes realistically, but also that of the lower classes. If you'd like to read more about my debate over which character I actually liked, click here.
8. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
This book took me the longest to read of any this year, partially because of personal circumstances, but also because Rushdie can be really difficult to read at times. This book is audacious, though (If it weren't Rushdie wouldn't have spent a decade hiding because there was a fatwa out against him), and it presents a very interesting view of religion.
9. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Roth gives a very interesting re-imagining of the 1940s in which FDR is defeated in the 1940 election by Charles Lindbergh. What results is a much less violent anti-Semitism than was seen in Nazi territory, but something very disturbing nonetheless.
10. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I couldn't believe it had taken me 24 years to finally read this book. It is so beautiful I was in tears most of the time. This is one that definitely transcends the boundaries of juvenile literature to present something that can speak to adults.UPDATE:
I seem to have forgotten two books that I read this year which should be on this list!
11. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
This book won the Pulitzer for a reason. It's hard to tell if you like Olive or hate Olive, but she is definitely one of the most interesting, well-rounded, vital characters I've met in a long time.
12. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
At first, I didn't want to read this book because it was all over blogs and lists of "recommended book club reading," which is kind of like Oprah's Book Club and the NYT Bestseller list in terms of turning me off. But, I'm glad I did. In a fairly simple epistolary novel, the authors show the power of reading and books in the lives of an island ravaged by war.
PS -- Thanks to martine frampton for mentioning both these books on her blog. You made me realize I had left out some great books!
Some runners-up:
1. Maximum Ride series by James Patterson
2. House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast
3. Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
5. The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O'Rourke
6. The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
7. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
8. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
9. Open House, Home Safe and Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg
10. Super-Toys Last All Summer Long: And Other Stories of Future Time by Brian Aldiss
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Review: Rabbit Redux by John Updike
Book: Rabbit Redux
Author: John Updike
Pages: 368
From Wikipedia:
Rabbit Redux finds the former high-school basketball star, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, working a dead-end job and approaching middle age in the downtrodden and fictional city of Brewer, Pennsylvania, the city of his birth. When his wife leaves him for another man, Harry and his 12 year old son are at a loss, and the chaotic state of the nation circa 1969 finds its way into Harry's home.
Updike's recurring themes of guilt, sex, and death are joined here by racism, as Harry plays host to an African-American named Skeeter, a cynical, drug-dealing Vietnam vet who engages Harry in debates about the war and race relations. A wealthy white teenager fleeing suburban Connecticut, Jill, enthralls both Harry and his son, and the four of them make a scandalous household emblematic of the Summer of Love's most confusing implications, culminating in a house fire that kills Jill. Harry and his wife are finally reconciled at book's end.
My two cents:
I thought this book was terrible. Ick, ick, ick.
I read Rabbit, Run back in college and must have enjoyed it enough to warrant the purchase of the entire Rabbit quartet (It was five years ago and there have been a lot of books since then... I can only remember certain images from Rabbit, Run and the overall impression that I liked it a lot). I felt compelled to read the other three books when Updike passed away earlier this year (Obviously, it's taken me a long time to get there), and now I kind of don't want to press on to the final two books.
I got the impression of Rabbit, in this novel, as one of those creepy guys standing around the mall in their windbreakers (In the middle of July, no less) staring at all the teenage girls as they walk by. Sketchy to the max.
He just lets things happen to him, lets everyone decide the path of his life. His wife admits she has an affair, he says, "OK, fine. You can keep seeing him." She leaves him, he doesn't care. He lets a girl half his age move into his house and possibly begin his 12-year-old son's sexual initiation (How creepy is that? She's sleeping with the Rabbit and maybe even teaching his son the ways of the world, and Rabbit doesn't care?). He allows said girl to bring a black man on the run from the law, and a serious drug addict at that, into the home, and he just lights up some joints and reads Frederick Douglass aloud.
Don't get me wrong: Updike is a fabulous writer. The way he has with words is astonishing. But Rabbit is just a boring, awful man.
Since my volume has all four novels in one, it has little blurbs on the back about the quartet as a whole. In one of them, Joyce Carol Oates calls the quartet Updike's "valentine to his country."
If Rabbit Redux is a valentine, I'd be looking for the white powder in the envelope.
My rating: 3/10
Monday, December 28, 2009
Read 'n' Review Challenge
OK, I'm joining another book challenge.
This one, however, doesn't have any above-and-beyond requirements, so it will fit in perfectly with my other challenges and my regular reading.
We'll see how this goes...
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