Hey everyone!
So as I am sure everyone has been able to see, I have not updated in about a year. School, of course, is to blame for this, but I hate it less than I used to now that I've decided to do a graduate program in book publishing and editing. One really learns to appreciate their education more when they actually have a game plan.
That being said, I have been doing a lot of personal reading, a lot more than usual. Since I do not currently have the time to review each and every book I've been reading, I am going to put a list of the top books I've read over the past year with a few words for each as to why I loved them.
(I hope to one day be a book critic, so it would be a great help if we could get some comments/discussion rolling, and perhaps pass on this blog to your friends. If you do, I promise to make more posts.)
*All cover images for each book mentioned can be found at the bottom.
*Oh, and, um...SPOILDER ALERT. (To avoid spoilers, simply read the titles and not what I have to say about them.)
1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.
How could I NOT include this one as my number one pick?
I have to admit, at first I didn't want to read this book. I know, I know. Classic story of not taking any interest until EVERYBODY ELSE does. But really, I love John Green's other books. I just happened to hear him reading the first chapter of TFIOS on Youtube, and I really didn't enjoy it. I now know that I simply don't like listening to people read to me. (I mean, I'm 20 years old. A little past the bedtime story phase.)
So I saw a clip for the movie and decided to give the book a try.
AND I LOVED IT.
I mean, holy crap, never in my life has a book inspired me and touched me as much as TFIOS did. It is the best book in the world, and not just because of the plot, but because of the honesty and sensitivity of the writing. John Green has written a beautiful teenage love story that is in no way condescending or humorous or naïve. He has opened up a world to the reader where true love is a very real and literal thing, and is just as difficult at seventeen as it is at twenty-six or thirty. Anyone who has ever been in love, or even felt the tiniest peck of it, will not be able to put this book down.
And, as a side note, if I see anyone call Hazel "Hazel Grace", I will have to slap you, because only Gus can call her that.
2. Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer.
Over this past summer (2013), Nancy Thayer was my first real trek into the world of easy adult fiction. Now, when I say easy I do NOT mean that she is less than other authors out there. I simply mean that she has a laid-back way of looking at the world, particularly its relationships and problems, that allow the reader to invest and submerge themselves without drowning in its melodrama. So often do I try to pick up those 400-page novels that are almost entirely prose, and I simply just can't get through the first 100 pages. I think it comes with being an English major, and having to suffer through that for the entire year; when it comes to summer vacation, I just want to throw books like that in Lake Ontario.
Beachcombers is an incredibly touching story, and I found myself in love with the characters as if they were my own sister. What I love about Nancy Thayer's writing is that all of her characters have some serious flaws, but she writes them in such a way that the reader can't help but accept them and appreciate them as a whole unit. One thing that did bother me about her writing, and continues to bother me about her writing, is that she tends to write younger characters (and I mean around the age of 20) as incredibly immature. As a 20 year old myself, I certainly do not act or speak the way her 20 year olds speak, nor do I know any that do. For myself, it was incredibly annoying to have to suffer through the POV of those particular characters, and I often skipped over them. However, on the whole, the majority of her characters are incredibly loveable, and each of them contains something unique. Another thing that I love about her writing is the setting--NANTUCKET!!!!--and the fact that each story has a really unique, and maybe somewhat whimsical element to it, usually centering around the characters' summer jobs. All in all, Beachcombers is a book to get lost in.
3. The Entire Starcrossed Series by Josephine Angelini.
I have blogged about her books before, but WOW did this series end with a bang. While I felt the first book started off (much like Nancy Thayer) portraying teenagers somewhat immaturely, Angelini quickly remedied that with the remainder of her series. Bringing ancient Greek mythology to modern-day Nantucket (can you tell I have an obsession?), Angelini combines the traditional story of star-crossed lovers with the everyday trials of the modern world in such a way as to take your breath away. I know that sounds like the same old thing any book critic would say, but it's true (and I also can't think of a way to describe how awesome it is without giving anything away).
I think what really drives this series is the combination of YA with a heavy sexual tension between the characters that causes young people to go wild. I mean this very literally. Too often do YA authors sugar coat love and sexual passion, often only ever giving readers the PG-13 version of what EVERY TEENAGER IS THINKING. I appreciated Angelini's writing for being realistic and passion-driven. If anything, I wished she'd given us a little bit more. I mean, after three books worth of telling the reader how badly Helen and Lucas want to do it, it would have been nice if they had...
4. The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick.
*Note: I have not seen the movie.
I think I liked this book because it was so utterly strange and unique to me. The narrator very obviously has mental issues from the start, which makes it kind of hard to read at points, as you are literally stuck in his confused, messed-up train of thought, and frankly I was really sick of hearing about how great his ex-wife Nikki is.
But frankly, the story this book has to tell is really sweet. It is brutally honest, and also shows the very selfish side of love, but is that a bad thing? I, for one, felt really refreshed when, at the end, Pat and Tiffany confess that they love each other because they NEED one another. It seemed to me like quite a different way of approaching that fairy-tale ending, but I was still left feeling content in the end. I think the reader is supposed to be left knowing that their relationship will obviously not be without its problems, but that just makes it all the more realistic.
Unfortunately, those four are the only four that I enjoyed enough to keep in my memory for this entire time. (I read a lot of bad books.) I hope that some of you will give each of them a try, because they are all really great in their own ways. Especially The Fault in Our Stars. If you only read one more book in your entire life, you should make it that one. You will never regret it.
Happy reading. :)
-Victoria
Covers:
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fault_in_Our_Stars
Source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7010683-beachcombers
Source: http://daisychainbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2013/07/delightful-debutantes-revisited.html
Source: https://search.overdrive.com/media/191721/the-silver-linings-playbook
Dear Blogger,
Just finished reading THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH by Maureen Johnson, the second in the SHADES OF LONDON series, while simultaneously reading about three other novels. I found this one to be a quick and easy read, mostly because of the pacing of the narrative voice. I felt like Rory, the main character, really kind of swept you along in what was probably only a couple of weeks anyways.
THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH deals with the aftermath of Rory finding out that she has the Sight and being stabbed by a ghost. It really focuses on the psychological aspect of that, which was a total relief for me. Because of this the book had a different vibe while maintaining the tone of the first book, which was still a really great thing. I was so glad Maureen Johnson did this because in so many other books where the characters are kind of bombarded with this new information (like ghosts exist and are trying to kill them, or vampires have been stalking them, or whatever), it often happens that the characters just accept it and move on, leaving me - the reader - feel cheated. Now, I know in order for the story to progress there needs to be a level of acceptance from the character. I totally get that. But I think the way Maureen presents it is way more realistic. Yes, Rory accepts that ghosts are real. Yes, Rory was almost murdered by one. But you still find Rory trying to wrap her head around the entire thing as a whole, and being very overwhelmed by the circumstances.
I won't tell you what happens in the ending, but it nearly broke my heart. My god. A lot of people were freaking out about it (and while I freaked out a little, I was expecting something a little more based on how much they were freaking out. Do I have a different copy or something?). Anyways, while I WAS expecting something with a bit more of a bang, I was still happy with the ending. After all, it leads into the next book, so it can't conclude with too big of an explosive.
SPOILER ALERT: I AM mad at what happened to Stephen though. I'm just saying.
For those who want to know, what I am currently reading at the same time:
THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN by Kate Morton
CITY OF BONES by Cassandra Clare (I know, I know. A little late on the uptake. I missed the bandwagon.)
And I will be starting...DREAMLESS by Josephine Angelini, but I'm terrified about what will happen with Jason and Helen. I JUST WANT THEM TO BE TOGETHER!!! D:
Stay tuned. :)
-Victoria
Dear Blogger,
I know, I know. I am way behind on this thing. School just got in the way again, but I'm now onto the exam schedule and right after is summer vacation, so hopefully I'll be able to spend a lot more time with this thing.
For this blog post, rather than review one book, I'm just going to list my favourite reads since my last post in one huge clump and give them a rating out of ten. That way you can see what I thought very quickly about a variety of novels.
First up: AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES by John Green
It feels like a really long time ago that I read this, but I think I may have liked it equally as much as PAPER TOWNS? If not more? It had a totally different vibe to it, which is why I think I had a hard time picking between the two.
I also just want to put it out there, that before buying this I read a review where people complained that Colin Singleton, the main character, was way too whiney and caught up with this one chick, but I actually did not find that at all. I felt like he was a guy whose heart had been stomped on and wanted to know what went wrong. I think it was pretty legit for him to think about it a lot - which isn't even that much, by the way.
My rating: 8/10
Second: OLIVER TWIST by Charles Dickens
Yes, we are headed into the classics now. Sorry, but that's what happens with a university English major.
This is the first work I've read by Charles Dickens, and I was entertained by it. Did I love it? No. But I think it was a nice introduction to his work and would be interested in reading more. Or you can skip reading it all together and go straight to the film versions. I think there's about, oh, six? Maybe more?
My rating: 6/10
Third: AGNES GREY by Anne Bronte
Oh, Anne. How do I love thee?
I absolutely loved this book. Again, I had never read anything by any of the Bronte sisters (and yes, I know there should be two little dots above the 'e') before reading this, and man did I love it. It details the experiences of a Victorian governess during economically hard times for her family. I wrote my term paper discussing the similarities between Nancy (from OLIVER TWIST) and Agnes but ultimately concluding that the gulf between the classes is much too wide to actually make them interchangeable (in case you wanted to know).
My rating: 9/10
Fourth: NORTH & SOUTH by Elizabeth Gaskell
Oh, my beating heart!
This is such a great love story. And the great thing about it is that it's more of a love story from the guy's perspective (Mr. Thornton) than from the main character's (Margaret), which is a nice twist. Let me explain that a little better: Mr. Thornton professes his love early on but Margaret won't have any of it; you get a glimpse of Mr. Thornton's feelings every now and then throughout the novel, but generally speaking Margaret doesn't even think about it herself.
Oh and bonus: there's a BBC adaptation, and for you HOBBIT fans out there, Mr. Thornton is played by the same guy who plays Thorin Oakenshield, but he's ten times hotter because, you know, he's clean and well-shaven.
My rating: 9/10
Fifth: KING SOLOMON'S MINES by H. Rider Haggard
(Sorry about the blurry image quality)
So I have this one on here because...I liked it? I am surprised by that. I felt it was a slow start, and it's kind of like an Indiana Jones-esque story, but in a novel, and so it was hard to read at times...
But I actually wound up liking it! There were a few good twists, and though it was written for children I found it entertaining enough that I could read it at 19 years old and still enjoy it.
Indiana Jones fans: it was like The Temple of Doom.
My rating: 6/10
Finally: THE GOLDEN COMPASS by Philip Pullman
Aw, yeah.
I've read this twice now with the same professor and I still keep loving it. I love Lyra's sass (even though Pullman, I would argue, greatly limits female agency in this work - I wrote a paper on it and everything) and I think the concept is pretty awesome. There are aspects in it for children, but I would argue that this is more a YA, or even adult, novel. There is just some graphic content and implied sexuality/passion that I would probably avoid if I was under twelve.
My rating: 8/10
So that wraps this post up. Just so you know what my semester has looked like, I'm going to post the full list of readings I went through (also in case you want to read them...). Here they are:
OLIVER TWIST - Charles Dickens
AGNES GREY - Anne Bronte
NORTH AND SOUTH - Elizabeth Gaskell
BARRY LYNDON - W. M. Thackeray
THE WARDEN - Anthony Trollope
SCENES OF A CLERICAL LIFE - George Eliot
ADAM BEDE - George Eliot
JOSEPH ANDREWS and SHAMELA - Henry Fielding
A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY - Laurence Sterne
A SICILIAN ROMANCE - Ann Radciffe
MEMOIRS OF EMMA COURTNEY - Mary Hays
EMMA - Jane Austen
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT - edited and translated by James Winny
LE MORTE D'ARTHUR - Sir Thomas Malory
TRISTAN AND ISEULT - Joseph Bedivere
PHANTASTES - George MacDonald
KING SOLOMON'S MINES - H. Rider Haggard
THE GOLDEN COMPASS - Philip Pullman
And quite a few more.
-Victoria
Dear Blogger,
Man, it is good to be back. I would have liked to have posted way more over the past few months but school really kicked me in the butt this past semester. Thank god I'm on vacation.
So I just finished reading THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION by Nancy Farmer, which was leant to me by my boyfriend. I went into it with high expectations after he told me he'd loved it so much he did three book reports on it, which is a pretty big deal because he doesn't read much. Let me just say, my expectations were met. They really were. I loved this book.
I will say, though, that the description on the back doesn't seem (to me) to go with what actually happens. Before I get into that, I'll give you a basic plot summary.
So Matt is a clone of El Patron, who is super evil, but kind to Matt. Matt doesn't wonder at why El Patron loves him but accepts that love graciously because clones are widely hated in this world. What he doesn't realize is that El Patron only loves what Matt can provide for him, which is transplants - anything El Patron might need to continue living beyond his nearly 150 years. This includes a heart transplant, and Matt realizes that El Patron is willing to kill Matt in order to live. Thus, this book is about Matt's struggle for survival.
Okay, so the back of the book stresses both Matt's struggle to survive and his self-discovery as he struggles with the knowledge that clones are like livestock. However, reading the book, I didn't feel like it was about his self-discovery as much as it was about his survival. Sure, he is treated badly because of who he is and he spends a good bit of the first half of the book working this out in his head, but after the middle, and definitely after he runs away from El Patron's estate, I'd say that the issue of his being a clone is widely abandoned except for him having to keep it a secret. After the middle it is a survival story more than anything, except at the end where he is told in basically two or three sentences that clones are still human and it makes him happy. For this reason, I think the back of the book is a bit misleading, as they can sometimes be.
Overall, I really liked that the dialogue in the book was a mix of English and Spanish. Don't worry, people - they translate it for you. But it gave the book a lot of depth, and it made it so much more believable. I hate books and movies alike when they are supposed to live in Mexico or France or whatever and they're still speaking English because they want the audience to understand. That is not realistic. This book, though, was a refreshing compromise. I also liked the wide variety of characters. There's Celia, who takes care of Matt while he is a child and can seem harsh but only out of her deep love for him. My favourite was Tam Lin, the Scottish bodyguard who El Patron gives to Matt for protection and who is kind of like Matt's idol. Maria was also really great, who is Matt's first childhood friend and loves him despite also being told her whole life that clones are not human and that she should treat him accordingly. Then when Matt runs away, there's Fidelito and Chacho, who both compliment the story nicely because they are more like Matt than any of the other characters were.
I definitely think everyone should read this book. There is nothing slow about it. Even when Matt spends six months locked up in a jail cell, the two chapters discussing this go by like lightning. I really loved this book. Thanks to my boyfriend for lending it to me! :)
-Victoria
Source citation for above image: http://www.google.ca/imgres?num=10&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=aPpPpv9PJBD9AM:&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Scorpion&docid=2FcLp_T5Bg4gBM&imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/de/TheHouseoftheScorpion.jpg/200px-TheHouseoftheScorpion.jpg&w=200&h=300&ei=TNDdUKvxCcPC2QXm-IGQDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=2&vpy=139&dur=1589&hovh=240&hovw=160&tx=64&ty=121&sig=109519639737055989513&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=85&start=0&ndsp=30&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:102
Dear Blogger,
This weekend for school I finished reading PYGMALION by Bernard Shaw. For those of you wondering why I have used a quote from MY FAIR LADY as my title, well...it's the same thing. MY FAIR LADY is PYGMALION in musical form.
I find myself yet again struggling to critique PYGMALION as it is a very well known and highly appraised play. There are some things I may be able to say, though. For the audience watching the play, the experience would have been much different than actually reading the script. I don't know how they did it onstage when it was originally performed, but there are actually huge gaps of time in the script where Shaw has just written in what has been happening. They might have narrated this to the audience, which I hope they did because otherwise the audience missed huge pieces of the storyline. Honestly, I was reading it and wondering why on earth Shaw didn't just write those bits into the play rather than describing it to you; the pieces he didn't include seemed to have been included in MY FAIR LADY, by the way. (Like "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain" was never in the original BECAUSE in the original, Shaw simply describes one lesson that Eliza Doolittle has been having and then jumps ahead five months. He literally goes straight from Higgins agreeing to tutor Eliza to the night that Eliza emerges a "duchess".)
Anyways, there was my rant. As for a description, the play PYGMALION is a rendition of the original story of Pigmalion, about a sculptor who creates his ideal woman out of marble, makes out with her a lot, prays to the goddess Venus for his love to come to him in the likeness of the statue and then the statue comes to life. In Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION, it is much the same as MY FAIR LADY; Henry Higgins is a speach therapist working with Colonel Pickering and they bet each other that they can transform Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower-seller who dreams of opening a flower shop but doesn't speak nicely enough to do it, into a "duchess" and pass her off as such. In the end, they succeed. That's pretty much all the play shows you, as well as a fight at the end between Eliza and Higgins. The reader can guess that Higgins has feelings for Eliza, though her feelings aren't quite clear (you could speculate that she likes both Higgins and Pickering, as well as Freddy whom she marries). In the end, nothing happens between them unlike in MY FAIR LADY.
Ultimately, it was quite fun to read the spelled-out cockney and the storyline was fairly entertaining even if there were huge lapses in time. It was definitely worth the read, and I finished it in two hours. Maybe you should pick it up?
Hopefully I'll be reading something more interesting for you soon.
-Victoria
Source for cover image: http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=OKs3KWnJa30MNM:&imgrefurl=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030637/&docid=WWEB4HKPbUlGRM&imgurl=http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BODI4MDE4MzYzNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDExMTgxMQ%2540%2540._V1._SY317_CR6,0,214,317_.jpg&w=214&h=317&ei=oiBzUO-QM_SH0QHcwIGAAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=414&vpy=152&dur=4680&hovh=253&hovw=171&tx=100&ty=110&sig=101342462150338071778&page=1&tbnh=131&tbnw=110&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:140
Dear Blogger,
So I ask again: how does one review a classic?
I ask this because obviously, a classic is good. It has passed through the hands of thousands of readers over time and has gained a Reputation, capital R. It leaves little room for critique. Also, I would feel weird critiquing the work of someone who is dead.
However, I CAN talk about what I thought of the book, and different themes I thought it had...
So I had to read FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley for the second time for school. I was both looking forward to it and dreading it. I was looking forward to it because I had read it once already; I knew what it was about and therefore would not have to spend too much time picking through the details. I was dreading it because from what I could remember, there was a lot of DESCRIPTION, and I was right in that remembrance. If you are looking to read this for fun and aren't one for long, drawn out details (and I mean three straight pages talking about how depressed Dr. Frankenstein is, then save yourself and don't read it).
For those who don't know, FRANKENSTEIN is NOT the name of the monster. Good lord, it frustrates me when people make that assumption. In fact, throughout the entire book, the monster is simply referred to as that, or "the creature", or "the wretch". He, apparently, is undeserving of a name. FRANKENSTEIN, rather, refers to Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who created the monster. You know, "IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIIIIVVVEEEEE!!!" That's him.
So when I read this book, for the particular class I am taking (Classical Myths and Literature), I had to relate this book to the ancient tale of Prometheus. The subtitle of FRANKENSTEIN is actually "The Modern Prometheus", and a fun fact for you: Mary Shelley's husband wrote an amazing poem called "Prometheus on his Crag".
So in searching for links between FRANKENSTEIN and Prometheus, I started to feel that Shelley intended for Victor to represent Prometheus: Prometheus had provided man with fire and this final straw against Zeus resulted in eternal punishment; Victor gave life to the monster and thus endured lifelong torment by his own creation. Perhaps there was a man vs. God dichotomy there in the sense that only God (or Zeus) should be the one providing life (or fire) to man and therefore others that attempt it will be punished. Huh.
However, in FRANKENSTEIN, the monster is punished almost as much and for no apparent reason. I had previously made a connection between the monster, inflicting lifelong torment on Victor, and the vulture that eternally pecks out Prometheus's liver. However, I am now not so sure. I wonder if he also represents mankind in the Prometheus story, forever being punished by Zeus out of his rage at Prometheus. Perhaps I could argue both sides.
I would love to hear somebody else's opinion on this. I know this is nothing close to how I would normally blog, but like I said, how can you review a classic? If you have opinions on that or would like to send me a review of a classic, please do. I am honestly so curious. Or just leave a comment saying hi. I know I have viewers out there. :)
Oh, and what do people have to read for school? I'm interested.
-Victoria
Source for cover image: http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=-bLj3Z20TPnKIM:&imgrefurl=http://sethlindberg.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html&docid=_gOKkOSLYIjxkM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbfUY3OFPM12SmcvkhzAixmXkhGJ-v_J7Peo_UqnjY8UQIlc0bKHDiG__S1e21r_iuC7LbMjNXisEeQqqIj3eiJX_HnBvib87H5oqVtMVoyF-x_fG9YdJ3WROGQ4m7dgkJS2yx1uOD_6s/s1600/muses_frankensteinCover.jpg&w=329&h=500&ei=1Y5rUP2ICKuB0QGmxYDgAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=180&vpy=252&dur=660&hovh=277&hovw=182&tx=95&ty=157&sig=101342462150338071778&page=2&tbnh=143&tbnw=105&start=26&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:26,i:198
Dear Blogger,
This is just a quick post to let you all know that I haven't posted because school started. Yes, the dreaded school. For school I am currently reading FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley for the second time. I do plan on writing something on the blog about the books I read for school, though I don't really know how one can "review" a classic. One thing to mention about FRANKENSTEIN that I've noticed both times through it - is it just me, or does Mary Shelley go into quite excessive detail describing the characters' emotions? I swear, the lady goes on for three pages about Dr. Frankenstein feeling depressed, basically just repeating herself. Oh well. It's a classic for a reason, I guess...
On another note, I've also been trying to read two books from the middle of the summer that I have just been struggling to get into. Not only do I not have that much time, but they aren't as interesting as the back of the book made them out to be. I'll get back to you on that.
-Victoria
