This Cheese Didn't Cut It! And More...

Unlike Kelly, I seriously struggled with Carlo Ginzburg's The Cheese and the Worms and only made it through half of the book before I just couldn't force myself to pick it up anymore. I felt as though I was reading the same thing over and over and found the writing a bit disconnected and choppy. Therefore, I don't have much else to say about the book.

So far I have not had much luck with the more educational-type books. Between the travel book we read earlier this year (Roads to Santiago by Cees Nooteboom) and this one - I am just not enjoying them! I have high hopes for our next round of books, as we will be reading Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer, a book that has interested me for some time, and Medieval Cities: Their Origin and the Revival of Trade by Henri Pirenne, a time-period I find absolutely fascinating!

So to recap, we set out in late January on a mission to read a book from each of the genres listed in 501 Must-Read Books. Having finished the first round of eight books, we will soon begin round two:

• The Accidental Tourist by Anne Taylor (Modern Fiction)
• Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer (Travel Writing)
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (Children's Fiction)
• Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda (Memoirs)
• The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne (Thrillers)
• Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne (Science Fiction)
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (Classic Fiction)
• Medieval Cities: Their Origin and the Revival of Trade by Henri Pirenne (History)

We are both extremely excited about this round and are looking forward to getting started. However, I have called a hiatus until I have reread the Harry Potter books so I can refresh my memory before going to see the new movie! I know - it's a bit selfish. ;) But Kelly is entertaining herself with some other books in the meantime as well and we will start The Accidental Tourist sometime next month.

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving!

Just as Worms Come from Cheese, the Angels Come from God's Creation of Earth

First of all the title of the book was pretty intriguing. As I read on I was surprised how much I was enjoying its contents as well. I’ve never been interested in reading history books for fun. This book was trying at times, but mostly quite enjoyable, especially because it is a true study and account of this man’s trials. (During the Inquisition there were “court reporters” to transcribe every word, every movement, every deep sigh, every look and every scream of agony from trial to hanging of a convicted and condemned church offender.) Horrible!

The best way for me blog about this one is to tie it up in a nutshell first then pull out my favorite parts afterwards. So…in a nutshell the book digs into the trial of a 16th Century miller who has created his own views of the church’s role in society and the existence and truth of God. Several teams of Italian inquisitors attempt to understand this relatively uneducated man’s philosophies and decide whether or not he should die for his “betrayal of faith and God”. That said much of the book was a recount of exactly what transcribed during the two separate trials and because they didn’t have video, cell phones, hand held recorders and email in those days there was a lot of testimony for or against Menocchio, the miller, via personal interviews and he said, she said conversations. When I think about people recalling exactly was someone said to them two years ago on a random summer afternoon my first thought is that they were probably lying or mistaken. However, I thought about what the content of the conversations were and why they might, in fact, be extremely memorable to the common folk. It would be like a local man in a small town talking to everyone about aliens and how influential they have been on our culture and the world. I would defiantly remember such a conversation, especially if the facts and content were presented in such a way to make me change my own beliefs on the subject.

Menocchio was a miller unlike any other. Although he truly believed in God, he constantly questioned his societies interpretation of God’s will. He thought confession was made up by the priests who claimed to be closer to God than all others. While reading few books of other’s travels to distant countries he questioned why God would create societies elsewhere who practiced His love in different rituals and customs than the Italians. Menocchio was a man who had so many questions and no one to answer them. He sought his answers and his ideals in the FEW books he could find…one of which was the Koran that he said was a “beautiful book”. One of the chapters listed every single book the Inquisitors had confiscated from Menocchio’s home. They interrogated him relentlessly to call out the names of the people who sold or loaned him these books so that they may be summoned for questioning as well.

At the core of the two trials the same big question remained for the Inquisitors, Where did Menocchio get these ideals and opinions? If the church did not talk of it how did he come up with anything other than what they presented to him and the rest of the community as truth? I believe Menocchio’s self-created opinions scared the Inquisitors and the church more than any notion that Menocchio worshipped the Devil. If one uneducated man could have such contradicting ideas against the church, what would happen if more people began to think the same way? In my opinion the church was worried about losing control of their oh so faithful flock of needy peasants and commoners. Menocchio was imprisoned for a few years after the first trial, then released after a plea then sentenced back to prison after the second trial. He lost his job, his family, his need to read and wonder and died. I can’t remember how or where he died, but I think after his spirit was broken during the second trial he just couldn’t hold out any longer.

As a whole the book was really great. It was out of the usual genre I read and I really liked the stimulation it provided for my own ideals of the church and God and how it related to my life. The everlasting belief Menocchio has is that we should love thy neighbor more than we love God, because in the end God had disguised himself as our neighbor.

~Kelly

A Classy End

If the main female characters, Margaret and Helen, could see the world today I think they would want to be a part of it. The male lead, Mr. Wilcox...not so much. Sisters Margaret and Helen were rich, yes, but also lived in a time when women were just beginning to voice their educated opinions about culture, society, poetry and their place in the bustling city of London. The story was gentle look into appreciating nature, the value of a loved home and the quality of one’s character and morals. Woven in between those lines was the story of two women finding their place in a “man’s world” and being respected there.

Howard’s End was not a page turning thriller, but it was a refreshing breath of classic language. I found myself getting lost in its simple words, basic moral reasoning and overwhelming gratitude for land, life and enriching adventures.

~ Kelly

Getting to The End

I feel like I'm saying the same thing over and over in my reviews - I appreciated (insert title here) as a (insert genre here), however it was a bit difficult to finish. I promise I don't feel this way about all of the books that I read! I just seem to have struggled with some of the ones on our list. E.M. Forster's Howards End is clearly a classic for a reason - the portrayal of sisters Margaret and Helen Schlegel, two fairly independent women for the early 1900s, is done extremely well.

I usually enjoy getting into a book, and this one was no exception. We were introduced to the characters with a series of letters sent between the sisters while Helen is away visiting a family they met while on vacation. As the story unfolds, the relationship between the Schlegels and the Wilcox family becomes more intertwined. Older sister Margaret befriends Mrs. Wilcox while Helen avoids the family after falling in, and then embarrassingly out of, love with the younger brother in a period of just a few days. In the meantime, the Schlegels meet a young man from a lower class, Mr. Bast, and try to help him however they can--including encouraging him to quit his job based on information from Mr. Wilcox about the company where Bast worked.

Long story short, there is a lot of narrative and not much plot. The funny thing is, I didn't feel as though it was too descriptive...just too long for so little "action." I really enjoyed the writing - here's a conversation between Margaret and Mrs. Wilcox that I bookmarked:

"Inexperience," repeated Margaret, in serious yet buoyant tones. "Of course, I have everything to learn--absolutely everything--just as much as Helen. Life's very difficult and full of surprises. At all events, I've got as far as that. To be humble and kind, to go straight ahead, to love people rather than pity them, to remember the submerged--well, one can't do all these things at once, worse luck, because they're so contradictory. It's then that proportion comes in--to live by proportion. Don't begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed, and a deadlock-- Gracious me, I've started preaching!"

"Indeed, you put the difficulties of life splendidly," said Mrs. Wilcox withdrawing her hand in the deeper shadows. "It is just what I should have liked to say about them myself."

The book slowed down tremendously for me mid-way through and stayed slow until close to the end when it finally picked up again. I didn't feel that I needed to stop reading it, but for a few days I wasn't as excited when I went to open it up. However, I thought Forster closed the story well with a little flash forward so we would know the characters' fates. I would recommend Howards End to people who enjoy slower-paced books and/or stories that broach social class and gender issues.

I Almost Got Lost in the Darkness!

H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr Moreau was extremely weird - there's no other way to describe it. I had heard of this classic and knew it was a bit dark, but I was not expecting this. As Kelly said - it's just plain creepy! As such, I enjoyed the book, but was also happy when it ended. It is about a man named Edward Prendick who is shipwrecked and ends up on a small island in the middle of nowhere with two other men and a lot of other creatures that look a bit like men. We come to find out that the creatures are Dr Moreau's creations - animals that have been vivisected and put back together to resemble humans.

As Kelly explained, the reader learns about Moreau's experiments as Prendick does...and we become increasingly nervous and concerned along with him too! Moreau has essentially pulled animals apart and then put them back together using parts of other animals to make them look human. He even wires them to speak and think like humans - brainwashing them with a set of rules to follow called "The Law" - so that they will not rise up against him.

Like I said before - I liked the book, but am not sure I would recommend it as readily as Kelly did. I had moments where I needed to put it down because I couldn't stomach what I was reading. I realize it's a science fiction (emphasis on the fiction part!) but I would only suggest it if you're into darker themes as well.

The Island of Dr. McWeirdo

I have often heard people refer to The Island of Dr. Moreau and had no idea about what it really meant. Well...now I know. Cree-pee. It's told from the perspective of a man who is essentially shipwrecked and ends up on this island with Dr. Moreau and his helper. He has no idea what to make of these really strange-looking "locals" who have very animalistic features. As he learns more about the island and Moreau, we learn more. The novel is a short, descriptive and entertaining book. I enjoyed it a lot actually.

Here was the super creepy part for me though. Dr. Moreau would, for example, take a bear (as a whole) and start cutting it up, stretching its muscles, graphing its skin, shaving its hair, breaking its bones and then adding/graphing/surgically implanting in parts of a lion's body (to which he did the same) and MOLD this animals into a human form. He would make it so it could walk upright, mess with its brain so it could speak English and brainwash it with preset mantras know and feared as "the Law". I find it totally disturbing that Dr. Moreau chose the human form for his experiments. It wasn't just the head of a bear sewn onto the body of a giraffe with the legs of a hawk and the tail of a lion. It was more unnerving than that. They were made to imitate man and surpress thier animal instints to walk on four legs and above all to hunt. At one point the narrator talked about how lonely he was...yea...gross...and how he confused the animals with people because they walked uprights, spoke and...well...he was lonely. That, among other things, was very awkward to read.

I just finished The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells right before reading this book and have decided that I really like his creativity and imagination and just hope he hasn't given any nutty doctors nutty ideas. I recommend this book to anyone who is missing a little oddity in their life.

~Kel

A Quick and Fun Read

I loved this book. I loved that it was a quick and easy read with a little suspense (I’m not saying it was an intense thriller, but there was a bit of suspense!) and fabulous writing. Kelly and I often check in with each other while we are reading our books, and in one such discussion we agreed that you can definitely tell this book was not written recently. This 1940s “thriller” felt like a collection of short stories that were tied together at the very end.

Cornell Woolrich’s The Bride Wore Black is about a woman on a methodical killing spree. The victims are clearly singled out and researched by their killer, but we have no clue what their relationships are to one another. The killer is smarter than the police for most of the journey – she even calls upon the detective to explain the innocence of a detained suspect and orders him to release her. But in the end, the “bad guy” is caught and we learn the story behind the murders, including a little twist!

I was happy to put in a few days—for that was all it took—to read The Bride Wore Black. The book was laid out with a chapter dedicated to each victim and each chapter is really just a quick character sketch. The plot isn’t particularly complex, but it was an enjoyable read for me nonetheless.

A Quick and Moderately Entertaining Read

I am so used to the special effects and props of today’s TV shows like Law & Order, CSI and NCIS and movies like Braveheart and The Gladiator that The Bride Wore Black (a murder mystery published in 1940) actually came across as a “sweet” murder story! Haha! A black widow of a woman goes around killing men in various ways and while reading on I found the murders effective, but without the WOW factor. The first edition cover is scarier than the novel.



Also, I would categorize this book as more of a short story than a novel anyway. Each victim had his own chapter and no known connection to the other victims other than a woman who was going to kill him. The woman herself changed her name, appearance, etc. so with no one really connected to each other I didn’t get to know any background of the characters or really care all that much when they died. It wasn't until the last 20 pages that things came together and I gave the “OH…okay” head nod to wrap up this sweet murder story.

As far as having a place in the top 501 Must Reads I’m going to need to read more murder mystery novels to compare. The one thing a reader could walk away with was this little life lesson: Before you kill someone, make sure they are really the one you have in mind to kill and for the intended reason.

Morbid…but true.
(For people who do those sort of things - hopefully no one who reads this blog or knows my name.....haha)

A Home Run!

John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me was an incredible look into southern culture in the late 1950s. John bravely dyed his skin from white to black in an experiment to find out if racism against blacks was truly occurring in our country - and it certainly was!

Having heard consistently that men were no longer being judged by the color of their skin, but by their merits, Griffin endeavored to see if his experience and qualifications as a writer would give him a leg up both in the black community and when interacting with whites. Other than his skin color, Griffin didn't change any other aspect of himself. He didn't change the way he spoke and he told the truth about his profession, life and history when asked. However, as you can imagine, most whites did not care to look past the color of his skin and treated him with such disdain and disrespect that he feared for his life on countless occasions.

What Griffin went through as a black man for several months was only a taste of what blacks were going through then, and probably what some have continued to experience to this day. He was followed and verbally abused on the streets, denied the use of public facilities and water, and forced to sit at the back of the bus. And while some of this didn't surprise me, (I guess some of those childhood history lessons stuck with me!) I was completely shocked by what the white men who gave him rides while he was hitchhiking dared to ask and discuss. Not only were they curious about the sexuality of black people, but they were proud of forcing themselves on potential female black employees who wouldn't dare refuse them - "Not if they want to eat -- or feed their kids...if they don't put out, they don't get the job."

Outside of the hatred and mistrust Griffin felt from white people, the camaraderie and support he felt from his fellow blacks was incredible. The sense of community among perfect strangers seemed to be the largest source of positive energy for Griffin throughout his experience. He was shown hospitality and generosity by a man who took him in, despite the fact that he could barely feed his wife and six children in their small, two-room shanty. A porter at the bus station pointed him toward a room where he could sit to wait for the bus. And then, he met a man on the bus who pointed toward contacts to help him with a safe place to stay.

I truly enjoyed this book, despite the sick feeling I got in my stomach at times. John Howard Griffin was able to expose the existing racism from a perspective that no one else had ever attempted before. And from his experiment, he went on to try to help communities and our country as a whole, work through the horrible mindset that so many had. I highly recommend Black Like Me.

Black Like Me...read it!

Black Like Me was an easy read, but harder to read…emotionally. I myself believe deep down people want to be good to one another. People want to adopt the “do unto others” motto and for social conformities and/or prejudices push their kind spirits for mankind aside and adopt a “save yourself” motto instead. This book made me glad to be born in the 80s in order to bypass the stream of hatred that seemed to flood the country at this time.

So about the book…John Griffin is your average white man writer who went “undercover” in the Southern black community by dying his skin, taking pigment alteration pills, tanning with high UV lights and shaving his dirty blond hair in order to successfully submerge himself into an race and identity opposite his own. His results were astounding. He passed as a black man 100% in appearance and maybe 25% in attitude. The man didn’t know what to do! He didn’t know where to sit, stand, or even what direction to look if a white person should walk by. He had no idea of the culture and the extreme hatred he would experience by the whites. Some days he walked across town just to use a “black bathroom” or get a drink of water. The undeserved and groundless “hate stares” he called them, were one of the worst things he experienced as a black man. One of the best was the kindness he found in the words and actions of complete black strangers.

Griffin exposed the immediate comradery in the black community amongst strangers who could empathize with one another. They had secret glances and gestures to unify them instantly should situations get out of hand in interracial areas such as busses or trains. My first feelings of disgust and devastation as to how whites treated blacks were strong, but were matched by feelings of hope and acceptance with how blacks treated each other. After Griffin came out with his publication and made his project known to everyone I was happy get some follow-up information about how he helped in the Civil Rights efforts to stimulate a culture that had been suppressed for so long. A great quote said to a white man by a black Griffin was, “…This happens when you force humans into a subhuman mode of existence. Social studies do not deal with any basic difference in human nature between black and white. They only study the effects of environment on human nature. You place the white man in the ghetto, deprive him of educational advantages, arrange it so he has to struggle hard to fulfill his instinct for self-respect, give him little physical privacy and less leisure, and he would after a time assume the same characteristics you attach to the Negro.” (The white man was in shock by Griffin’s vocabulary and sentence structure, by the way).

I would suggest everyone read this book, if you haven’t already, to remind us how much progress we have made as a country of mixed races, religions and cultures. By the end of the novel I had a renewed sense of myself and faith in the person I am and always want to be. In my opinion this book should still be read in high schools and definitely deserves its place in the 501 Must-Read Books book.

A Sword..in a Stone? What, what?

I dare say, what, what? Sword in the Stone was a jolly good read, what? From the moment I started reading I knew I would be more entertained with this quick little book than with the other LOOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG boring books before it. Hehe. I concur with my long standing, jolly good and jolly ho friend Devon Trux that the book was not blowing my hair back.

I’ll tell you what…what. :-) I think it’s a great book to read to a young boy at bedtime. Since I don’t have a son to read to at bedtime I will probably keep this book on my shelf for that day because it was a very imaginative and intriguing book. With giants, witches and talking animals it’s sure to be more entertaining to young kids. I can see why this book ended up in the 501 Must Read Books children’s fiction section.

Now…..about the sword pulling part. HELLO! It was a couple of pages and totally not what I was hoping for! I wanted more about the knight’s games, London, the mysterious sword and all the little bits in between. I was slightly disappointed.

Out of the whole book my favorite part was Merlyn’s first spell to turn Wart into a fish. I texted Devon with a quote of my own. “did uoy dnatsrednu snylrem lleps? ti saw os looc”. Although throughout the rest of the book his spells didn’t follow the same format so it disappointed me a little. I liked the challenge. :-)

So kind readers, what. ‘Tis time to bid the farewell, what what, until the next literary discovery and our opinions on its profound excellence or total interference with the countdown of minutes we have on this bit of earth, what. Cheerio, tallyho, pish-posh and I dare say ole chaps….what, what.

~ Dutchess Kelly

An Easy Read...Finally!

Having wrestled with the first two books we read, T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone was a breeze! I love period pieces so it was fun to jump back in time to the days of armed knights, castles and jousting. This, coupled with witches, wizards, monsters and talking animals, made for an easy read about young Wart (which rhymes with "Art," the shortened version of Arthur) and the time leading to his becoming King Arthur.

The Wart had an interesting education as a boy. (And yes, I often had to say Wart out loud to not pronounce it like wart, the blister!) His teacher, Merlyn, turned him into various animals so that he might learn about life from different perspectives, sent him on adventures with Robin Wood (not Hood) and took him to see jousting knights.

I must admit that while the book was fun, it wasn't my favorite. I can't really explain why...it's just that I only liked it as opposed to loving it. In addition, I kept waiting for the big scene where he pulls the sword out of the stone, but it was just a quick moment in the last few pages of the book. I am fine with the fact that the book was about Arthur's childhood, not his time as king, but I was hoping for a little more excitement when it came to that part, seeing as the book is called The Sword in the Stone! However, upon further research, I have learned that White wrote several sequels to this book so perhaps I will pick up one or all of them at some point to *hopefully* get more of that part of the story. In the end, Merlyn and the Wart entertained me for about two weeks--which was all it took to read this book.

One last point - I do not remember Disney's 1963 movie at all so as I read the book, the story was was entirely new to me. This was nice, although Kelly and I took to saying "What? What, what?" to each other for a while in the voice of King Pellinore that she remembers from the film. :)

Devon

A Dead End for Me

While I appreciate Kelly's interest in completing each of the first round of books, I could not bring myself to finish this book and therefore cannot say that I will accomplish the first round in quite the same way.

Cees Nooteboom's Road to Santiago was entirely too much for me. From the beginning, I had a hard time following what was going on. The author talked about his love of Spain, but never explained the significance of his journey to Santiago specifically. He then started the trip and, as Kelly mentioned, would bounce from one town to the next in a matter of paragraphs, but then take several pages to describe one church. I found it uninteresting and it did not flow well for my personal taste.

I don't have much to say, as I didn't even make it to the half-way point. This one just didn't cut it for me.
Devon

Libre Numero Dos ~ by Kelly

Hi Everyone!!

So here’s the thing…whether I like the book or not (at least for the first round of each genre) I am going to finish it. That said I didn’t really enjoy reading Roads to Santiago. Some of the descriptions were beautifully written, but it was entirely too much. Like sensory overload. One sentence Cees was in one little town and in the next sentence he was arriving in another little town. On the flip side of that he would then spend two pages describing a painting and the artist. Again – sensory overload.

So here’s what I did…I found you the BEST parts of the book and am quoting them below. About 1/2 the way through I decided the best this book would offer me was a few really great sentence and ideas. So during my own pilgrimage of Cees’ book this is what I found. J

“Spain is brutish, anarchic, egocentric, cruel. Spain is prepared to face disaster on a whim, she is chaotic, dreamy, irrational. Spain conquered the world and then did not know what to do with it” (pg 5).

“And make no mistake, you are never in a place that is nameless, in a region without a name, on a mountain without a name, in a town without a name – you always find yourself in some word invented by others – others never seen, long forgotten – before it was recorded in writing. We are always in words” (pg 17).

“The province is poor, the provincial capital is poor, and poverty does not shine, poverty is quiet, poverty does not discard the old in favour of the veneer of emblematic junk which, like a botched facelift, has messed up so much of what was old and authentic” (pg 22). **This is my favorite quote!**

“The paradox is perhaps that history has no purpose, but that we, simply because we exist, always think we do have a purpose and thereby we make history” (pg 111).

“There is an old Castilian saying: “Si Dios no fuse Dios, seria rey de las Espanas, y el de Francia su cocinero” – If God weren’t God, he would be king of Spain, and the king of France would be his cook” (pg 128).

“Sometimes the enclosure takes up a great deal of space in the cathedral….the arrangement somehow creates the impression that they have driven the common folk out of the church. If you want to see mass being celebrated you must find a place in front of the choir, because if you enter the church from the back and make your way to the alter, your view will be blocked by the trascoro, the decorated rear wall of the choir, a church within a church, from which the faithful are barred. The coro epitomizes the clergy as an institution, the wielders of power in their secure bastion, aloof: the owners of God” (pg 230).

“There are two ways of approaching a newsstand. One way is carefree: you don’t know what news the paper will bring. The other way is more involved: you know something has happened, you have heard the news, and now you want to read about it. Newspapers no longer ARE the news, but they remain the only confirmation: here it is, the news, black on white” (pg 300).

OK – that’s it! That’s the best of the best of the book. You’re welcome. J Haha.

Now…on to the next!

~ Kel

Don't Choose Sophie's Choice

I can't believe I actually finished this book.

As I mentioned in my mid-book review, I would have put the book down were it not for the fact that I knew Kelly and I were in it together...well, that sentiment did not change through the remainder of the book. Like Kelly, I was surprised to find that this was a must read and I was also completely disappointed with the ending.

The writing in Sophie's Choice was utterly frustrating. The author, William Styron, would narrate a section of the story in Stingo's voice and then randomly switch it to Sophie's voice. Next, he would be in the past referring to the future and then bounce into the future and look back on the past. These inconsistencies made it difficult to follow at times and were often unnecessary. There were also tangents that would tell a side story to expand on a character who we didn't even need to remember or know about later in the story. It was absolutely ridiculous.

And then there was Sophie's choice - the title of the book, the book jackets, and other people all referred to this horrific, yet moving event - but after reading the several paragraphs (read: not more than a page!) it took to divulge, I was left wondering if I had in fact just read the "choice"?! I had a sad moment (a second, really) but then laughed out loud over the fact that the choice was so...so...so NOT what I was expecting! Sure, it was traumatic for Sophie, but as a reader I felt completely unattached to that piece of the puzzle. What a disappointment.

All in all, I enjoyed some of the book, but was often annoyed and bored - feelings I do not want to have when reading. I'm glad to have made it through to the end (without skimming, might I add) and enjoyed talking about it with Kelly, but I hope the next one is better.

Modern Fiction down, on to Travel Writing!
Devon

One Book Down!

This is what I want to know…what type of person would consider Sophie’s Choice a MUST READ? I wouldn’t even consider this book in any of the top thousand to read. Okay – I’m getting a little ahead of my review.

I was really excited to dive into this project with my BFF Devon. We knew some books we would love, some we would hate and some we would have different feelings about. I was really, really hoping to L-O-V-E the first book of our quest. I didn’t. I didn’t like the writing style, the “flow” (when I could find it) nor did I really like the idea that anyone would even publish this book after finishing Chapter 2. There were a few “Woa” moments, but most of the time I was relatively bored.

The author’s name should be William Tangent Stryton. I’m slightly curious to read another Stryton novel if only to redeem my faith in his writing abilities. The main character, “Stingo” is an aspiring novelist and maybe its Stingo’s writing I don’t like. I’m not sure where the lines cross. Regardless, the book’s “flow” jumps from time period to time period and Stingo brings up so many things that seem pointless to me even though he preempts his tangent by saying, “I bring this up because….”. In the end I’m left disappointed with all the time I wasted on 20 pages of a tangent.

Here’s the kicker…it must be said I am not proud of this. It also must be said that I have probably only done it once maybe twice before with a book I’m reading for pleasure. I skimmed! That’s right. About 450 pages into it I was so bored and “over” the book I skimmed most of the tangents and useless scene set ups. I got all the information I needed and when I hit a part that did interest me and did offer relevancy to the story I slowed back down to my regular reading pace. I feel bad about it, but what can I say…I was totally uninterested in this book.

I know this is going on long, but let’s talk about Sophie’s choice for a second here. The lead to choice, the choice and the after effects of the choice lasted about ¾ of a page and were over before I new it. My reaction, while sad, was, “That’s it?!?!?! That’s all I get!?!?” After reading the choice I had to finish the book to make sure it was the choice and that there wasn’t another one coming around the corner. While sad, again, I was disappointed. Plus the cover of the book says something about this being about Sophie and all of her men. There’s a picture of two men and two women on the cover aside from the three main characters, Stingo, Sophie and Nathan, and I have no idea who they are supposed to be! What did they have to do with her choice? Nothing.

All in all, I am kind of glad I read the book. One, because it’s on the list; two, because I have my BFF to talk about it with and three, because now I will know what people are talking about when they refer to “Sophie’s Choice”. I put that in quotes as in the movie, instead of underlined, as in the book, because no one would have the “OH MY GOD IT’S SO SAD” reaction if they read this book. To all you blog readers out there………go see the movie. OMG – I can’t believe I just suggested that.

Thanks!
Kel

Mid-Book Review - Sophie's Choice

Getting through the first two chapters of William Styron's Sophie's Choice was a bit of a chore. Thank goodness I knew Kelly and I were in it together, otherwise I might have put it down. We weren't even introduced to Sophie until the third chapter, where we finally got into the main plot.

Now that I'm just over half-way through it, I can honestly say that there is no way this will be on my favorite book list. I know - I haven't finished it yet, and supposedly I'll need to break out the tissue in the end, but it's not a particularly easy read! First off, the writing is extremely verbose. For example, this passage:

She took his dictation with care, but because of his runaway fervor, in some haste, so it was not until she got down to the job of typing it out for the printer that she began to glimpse seething in that cauldron of historical allusions and dialectical hypotheses and religious imperatives and legal precedents and anthropological propositions the smoky, ominous presence of a single word--repeated several times--which quite baffled and confounded and frightened her, appearing as it did in this otherwise persuasively practical text, this clever polemic which voiced with breezily scurrilous mockery the sly propaganda she had half heard more than once...

Come on - baffled AND confounded AND frightened her? All in the same, already extremely long sentence?! I just find it a bit unnecessary and completely frustrating.

In addition to the flowery prose, the narrator, Stingo, jumps around within the story line. We learn about Sophie through his eyes - how they meet, her background, their growing friendship, then back to her background, a jump into the future for a walk down memory line, then back into her history with edits on things she had lied about or left out of the original stories. It makes it confusing at times and is another frustrating aspect of the book as a whole.

The last piece that puts me over the edge are the literary references and what are basically book reviews scattered throughout the story. Stingo himself is an aspiring author and so refers to various other accomplished authors and poets frequently. While I am not a literary scholar, I do recognize at least the names of many authors in general even if I don't know what they have written. However, Stingo refers to authors that I have never heard of and expects me, the reader, to know what writing style or genre he is speaking of when making said references. Oy vey!

I'm going to stick with it to learn what Sophie's unbearable secret is - that solitary choice that seemingly defined her (and the book!) We'll just have to wait to see what all the fuss is about...and I guess it's in the second half of the book because it certainly isn't in the first half.

A New Years Resolution of Sorts

With the start to another year, two friends have decided to take on an exciting challenge. Kelly and Devon - best friends from college and avid readers - have discovered 501 Must-Read Books and are going to attempt to tackle the beast. This self-defined "trusted friend" divides the books into eight genres - Children's Fiction, Classic Fiction, History, Memoirs, Modern Fiction, Science Fiction, Thrillers and Travel Writing.

When we sat down to go through all the books and determine what to start with, we realized we'd need some sort of system. 501 books to choose from - are you kidding?! So we made a small list from each category of books that sounded interesting and then drew from a hat. We've chosen our first eight books (now listed on the side of this blog) and will endeavor to read them by the end of the year. The list is as follows:

• Modern Fiction - Sophie's Choice by William Styron
  
• Travel Writing - Roads to Santiago by Cees Nooteboom
  
• Children's Fiction - The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
  
• Memoir - Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
  
• Thriller - The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich
  
• Science Fiction - The Island of Dr Moreau by H.G. Wells
  
• Classic Fiction - Howards End by E.M. Forster
  
• History - The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg
  

So here we go! Within the next couple of weeks we will both begin reading Sophie's Choice. We'll let you know what we think...
Devon