The Rundown: John Green, Charles Dickens, and Many More

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