Clearly the only way I can get myself to read one of the books in my continually growing to-be-read pile is for there to be a movie coming out. Get on it Hollywood, there are about 60 books I still need to get through. Disclaimers: I read a translation due to my French being nonexistent, but the original is supposed to be exquisite. I don’t have to warn about spoilers in a review about something published in 1856, do I? Madame Bovary is one of those classics in which the elements that […]
Is this the best Agatha Christie book? I’m still partial to ‘And Then There Were None.’
Up until the ending, I really did not understand why this book is widely considered to be the best (or at least the top five) of Christie’s books. Then it happened, and I was like WHAT!? Actually it was more like a double what, because not only was it a really daring ending, especially for being published in 1926, but I actually guessed the murderer! That has never happened to me before. I am THE WORST at guessing mystery endings. I am gullible and trusting […]
The Awakening. But in Hollywood.
“…the book is very…sordid, isn’t it? And tough – by which they mean not a tough read, but hard-hearted.” Not being a fan of book intros (spoilers, love) I generally wait until the end of a novel to see what has been illuminated. In my version, the introduction by David Thomason eloquently summarized the complicated appeal of this book. It is compelling, complex, and has unyielding momentum. The question is, what is it, and thus the protagonist Maria, moving toward? The answer? Nothing. Estranged from […]
I really missed out, not reading this as a youth.
A wise person knows to expect thoughtful, imaginative, lyrical fantasy from Ursula K. Le Guin, and in A Wizard of Earthsea, she does not disappoint. Goodreads summary: “Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth. Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death’s threshold to restore the […]
The Haunting and the Haunted
Sethe, a former slave, is raising her last child left in the lonely, two story house at 124. Well, they aren’t completely alone. There is the spiteful spirit that bedevils the house, scaring away Sethe’s two sons and turning her mother-in-law infirm. The arrival of Paul D, another former slave that worked on the same farm as Seth, brings a short period of relief from the haunting. Until a few days later, when a young woman shows up on their porch, with no memory, who […]
Some Books Can’t Be Read Too Many Times
I don’t recall exactly how old I was the first time I read A Christmas Carol, but I was in grade school, and I knew enough to know that this Dickens fellow was an author adults read. Still, the volume was thin enough to be un-intimidating, and the illustrations were friendly, so I checked it out of the library (with the encouragement of the local librarian, I should say!). I remember being a bit taken aback when Dickens spent the better part of the first […]