20 posts tagged “1001 book”
I never had to read this book in high school or college. In fact, I didn't have to read anything by Hemingway in my academic career. I might be the only one...
I picked this one up because pretty much everyone who reads it says they hate it and if I haven't read an author I like to start out with the one people seem to anecdotally hate the most.
Although I have no interest in fishing, I did enjoy this book. I came away learning some things about fishing as well as a few tidbits of wisdom.
And the book was either not as over-the-top macho as I was expecting, or I've become impervious and need to find more girlfriends.
I picked this one up because pretty much everyone who reads it says they hate it and if I haven't read an author I like to start out with the one people seem to anecdotally hate the most.
Although I have no interest in fishing, I did enjoy this book. I came away learning some things about fishing as well as a few tidbits of wisdom.
And the book was either not as over-the-top macho as I was expecting, or I've become impervious and need to find more girlfriends.
I can't remember the last time I was so gripped by a novel. I loved the way this story was told. There are basically three sections and each section is one day in the storyline. The first part is told from various points-of-view. Sometimes we go forward in the day and sometimes we reverse a bit. The second and third sections are told from the viewpoint of a single, but different, character.
There is so much you could talk about with this book. I am not sure what the main theme is. Crime? Love? Time? One might think from the title that it would be atonement itself?
As a statement about life starting out at one point and ending up somewhere else completely unimagined, it's a wonderful analogy. We never really know what another person might be thinking or his/her true motives. Even friends. Even family. And there is a certain amount of danger in that. And loneliness.
There is so much you could talk about with this book. I am not sure what the main theme is. Crime? Love? Time? One might think from the title that it would be atonement itself?
As a statement about life starting out at one point and ending up somewhere else completely unimagined, it's a wonderful analogy. We never really know what another person might be thinking or his/her true motives. Even friends. Even family. And there is a certain amount of danger in that. And loneliness.
What a strange book. Since finishing it I have heard that Palahniuk always writes about the same angry man. I'll have to read more to judge that, but this book is great. Not because he is writing about an angry guy. Not because of all the shocking details.
I am impressed that he could use the shocking details and such an angry protagonist to make some pretty great points about who we are--and who we think we are.
Looking forward to reading another Palahniuk novel now.
I am impressed that he could use the shocking details and such an angry protagonist to make some pretty great points about who we are--and who we think we are.
Looking forward to reading another Palahniuk novel now.
I finally picked this book up after years of people either telling me to read it or assuming I already had.
Enjoyable read, a little too tongue-in-cheek maybe for such a topic, but well researched.
Nothing shocking, or even revealing, if you know much about intersexual issues. The side issue (of incest) was the topic I found much more interesting.
Desdemona was a great, great character. Maybe one of my all-time favorites. It was worth the read just for her.
Enjoyable read, a little too tongue-in-cheek maybe for such a topic, but well researched.
Nothing shocking, or even revealing, if you know much about intersexual issues. The side issue (of incest) was the topic I found much more interesting.
Desdemona was a great, great character. Maybe one of my all-time favorites. It was worth the read just for her.
What can be said about this book that hasn't been already?
Chilling. The most disturbing thing to me personally was the idea that the way to kill humanity is to attack the structure and vocabulary of language.
Orwell's novel is the most complete vision of dystopia that I've ever read. It's a masterpiece.
Everyone should read it...preferably after high school.
Chilling. The most disturbing thing to me personally was the idea that the way to kill humanity is to attack the structure and vocabulary of language.
Orwell's novel is the most complete vision of dystopia that I've ever read. It's a masterpiece.
Everyone should read it...preferably after high school.
This book doesn't have a cover picture because it's been out of print for some time. It took a lot of searching to find it. Eventually, I bought it in a compilation collection from someone in New Zealand.
Last December I was reading a forgotten author named William Samson. This December it was Storm Jameson. She wrote over 20 books and was very popular during the Great Depression, but has sense disappeared into obscurity.
So was it worth the hunt? It was. The very short book is one of the most haunting I have run across. It takes place all in one day and is sort of a A Christmas Carol in reverse.
The main character has recently lost her boyfriend and she remembers some of the events that led her to grow so bitter. She is suspicious of everyone who offers her any consideration, and in the end she has a choice and she betrays a woman who is kind to her. In effect, that moment, like Ebenezer repenting on his grave, she seals her psychological fate.
Definitely not as heart warming as A Christmas Carol, but it has just as much to say about the human spirit. Each of us chooses who we become--not by what happens to us--but by how we choose to interpret what happens to us.
Last December I was reading a forgotten author named William Samson. This December it was Storm Jameson. She wrote over 20 books and was very popular during the Great Depression, but has sense disappeared into obscurity.
So was it worth the hunt? It was. The very short book is one of the most haunting I have run across. It takes place all in one day and is sort of a A Christmas Carol in reverse.
The main character has recently lost her boyfriend and she remembers some of the events that led her to grow so bitter. She is suspicious of everyone who offers her any consideration, and in the end she has a choice and she betrays a woman who is kind to her. In effect, that moment, like Ebenezer repenting on his grave, she seals her psychological fate.
Definitely not as heart warming as A Christmas Carol, but it has just as much to say about the human spirit. Each of us chooses who we become--not by what happens to us--but by how we choose to interpret what happens to us.
I remember reading some of e.e.cummings' poetry in high school. All I remember is being unsure of why he didn't want to capitalize his initials. That's all I knew about him when I found this book. It is his memoir of his accidental four month stay at a French concentration camp during World War I. And just like his poetry and his stance on capitalization, I'm not sure I get this book.
At the beginning of the book he and his friend are taken away from their job as ambulance drivers and taken on a string on interrogations and temporary prisons. They are separated but eventually end up together in La Ferte.
The strange part is that Cummings seems to find amusement, even glee, at the situation instead of being fearful, confused, or even wanting to know why they are being held by the French government. (It turns out to be some anti-war sentiment in Cummings' friend's letters he wrote home that a censor did not like and Cummings is guilty by association).
But after the amusement comes acceptance which is followed by bitterness. It just wasn't the flow of emotions one would expect for such a situation.
Even though the book was mostly character sketches of the other prisoners Cummings encounters, it was worth it for illustrating why soldiers and prisoners of war often feel such a comradeship. They never seem to forget one another or feel less tied together--even if they never see one another again. They do not stay imprisoned in the enormous room forever, but an enormous room exists in their minds forever.
As a note: this particular edition was horrendous in its handling of the plethora of French in the book. The cover is great but it would be better to use another edition if possible.
At the beginning of the book he and his friend are taken away from their job as ambulance drivers and taken on a string on interrogations and temporary prisons. They are separated but eventually end up together in La Ferte.
The strange part is that Cummings seems to find amusement, even glee, at the situation instead of being fearful, confused, or even wanting to know why they are being held by the French government. (It turns out to be some anti-war sentiment in Cummings' friend's letters he wrote home that a censor did not like and Cummings is guilty by association).
But after the amusement comes acceptance which is followed by bitterness. It just wasn't the flow of emotions one would expect for such a situation.
Even though the book was mostly character sketches of the other prisoners Cummings encounters, it was worth it for illustrating why soldiers and prisoners of war often feel such a comradeship. They never seem to forget one another or feel less tied together--even if they never see one another again. They do not stay imprisoned in the enormous room forever, but an enormous room exists in their minds forever.
As a note: this particular edition was horrendous in its handling of the plethora of French in the book. The cover is great but it would be better to use another edition if possible.
As with the last few classic books I have read, I am surprised by the dissimilarity between this book and the ideas of the book in pop culture.
Neither Frankenstein nor his creature are anything alike between film and novel. Frankenstein comes across as shallow and cowardly--at least until it is too late. The scientist reminded me of all those bad horror movies where the female lead is running without thought. Frankenstein needed a plan and he needed to protect his family. Instead, he ran around until he twisted his ankle and fell to the ground.
The "monster" is less like a monster than an exile and an outcast. He is erudite, articulate, and athletic. It took a while to adjust to this "new" image of the creature.
The pop culture images of the creature are actually just the image that the character fights against through the book. It seems Shelley failed to get the point across. Or, we really are more like the humanity Shelley represented in her novel than we would like to believe.
Neither Frankenstein nor his creature are anything alike between film and novel. Frankenstein comes across as shallow and cowardly--at least until it is too late. The scientist reminded me of all those bad horror movies where the female lead is running without thought. Frankenstein needed a plan and he needed to protect his family. Instead, he ran around until he twisted his ankle and fell to the ground.
The "monster" is less like a monster than an exile and an outcast. He is erudite, articulate, and athletic. It took a while to adjust to this "new" image of the creature.
The pop culture images of the creature are actually just the image that the character fights against through the book. It seems Shelley failed to get the point across. Or, we really are more like the humanity Shelley represented in her novel than we would like to believe.
Housekeeping does not have much in the way of plot, but it certainly is haunting. It is rightly considered a modern classic for its beautiful, poetic language.
I love the title of this book too. We have so many underlying notions about that word--many of those preconceptions come up in this book.
I kept thinking of The Secret Life of Bees (a book I particularly loathe) while reading this. In that book the main characters are also females in a situation that is a bit out of the mainstream, but that's where the similarity ends. Housekeeping is powerful where the other book is cheesy. This book deals with loneliness, expectation, and waiting and results in with a life-usually-does-not-give-you-what-you-expect ending. The Secret Life of Bees has an everything-works-out-in-the-end-if-you-just-believe-hard-enough ending.
Generally, books about women with female characters and a domestic plot line are more like Secret Life of Bees. I am glad Marilynne Robinson was able to give us something else.
I love the title of this book too. We have so many underlying notions about that word--many of those preconceptions come up in this book.
I kept thinking of The Secret Life of Bees (a book I particularly loathe) while reading this. In that book the main characters are also females in a situation that is a bit out of the mainstream, but that's where the similarity ends. Housekeeping is powerful where the other book is cheesy. This book deals with loneliness, expectation, and waiting and results in with a life-usually-does-not-give-you-what-you-expect ending. The Secret Life of Bees has an everything-works-out-in-the-end-if-you-just-believe-hard-enough ending.
Generally, books about women with female characters and a domestic plot line are more like Secret Life of Bees. I am glad Marilynne Robinson was able to give us something else.
Wuthering Heights was not at all what I expected again. It happened earlier this year when I read Madame Bovary, but I think I am even more surprised at this one. Just as I walked around after seeing Last Tango in Paris saying, "how messed up are we collectively to begin to think that was a love story?" I can't help but feel similarly. While Wuthering Heights is not as messed up as Last Tango, there is no romance in this book. None. And whatever love is between Catherine and Heathcliff, it's dangerous and unhealthy--apparently not so much for themselves as for everyone else they encounter, however.
No, this book is a revenge tale. And the most disturbing one I have ever read.
And reading it alongside Of Mice and Men only solidifies the notion of "the best laid plans." If only Earnshaw Senior had not picked Heathcliff up from the side of the road...how different the lives of the characters would have been.
No, this book is a revenge tale. And the most disturbing one I have ever read.
And reading it alongside Of Mice and Men only solidifies the notion of "the best laid plans." If only Earnshaw Senior had not picked Heathcliff up from the side of the road...how different the lives of the characters would have been.
