Backlog - "D" is for Dumas

Look, I got the penguin picture! hopefully this shameless promotion absolves any copyright issues.

Hello all!

First thanks to Allisonface for keeping us updated and reading something new and interesting.

I will try to be as interesting even though what I read certainly isn't new.

****SPOILERS AHEAD***** Again, I will try to keep it to a minimum.

So for my "D" I read Count of Monte Cristo. I chose this mostly because so many people I know loved it, Justin and Meredith both count this book as one of their all time favorites so I thought I should explore it. Ive had a copy for years and been daunted by it.

First let me say I accidentally read an abridged copy (didn't realize that till the end) and it was still like 660 pages. Whoa! However, I didn't have any trouble keeping with the pace of this book, maybe partially because I had seen the movie.

The premise of the book, as many of you know, is really in my mind the classic revenge story.

Basics:

-Man is screwed (really royally) by supposed colleagues
Loses: girl, job, basically life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
-Man tries to get it all back
-There is a happy ending? I question the happiness.

I think (without killing this complicated story too much with spoilers) my favorite part was his relationship and plotting with the Abbe in Chateau D'If. I thought the Abbe was so neat, I love that his whole life and character in the book revolved around learning and how willing, even in a place of despair, to pass this on. It was the most valuable thing he had and he gave it pretty freely (to more and less degrees with certain things). I thought that was awesome.

This took me a few months to read and it was a bit ago so I am not sure how to summarize the middle, as I do really want to encourage others to read this "classic". In any case, it takes the main character, Edmond, years and year and many hours of plotting to get "back" at those who wronged him.

In generally I really disdain revenge stories. In general, I hate the concept. I think energies are better spent elsewhere, its really crying, and throwing a powerful and mean fit, over spilled milk to me. Though this story was engaging even through my disdain.

The ending was odd to me - he really doesn't "get it all" back and Im not sure, given the ending, he ever meant too. What do others think? It was a bittersweet ending for me, though all that misfortune I hoped more would (rather magically I suppose) come of it.

Read it!! I think Im doing it injustice here trying to talk around the plot spoilers - its a gripping adventure and drama story.

Oh-My-God MOCKINGJAY!!!

So I'm very excited for this news, and I had to share. I'm basically going to be copying the images from this blog post, but oh well.

The cover of the third Hunger Games book was released today from Scholastic (see above), much to my delight. It is beautiful.

To show you how great the whole series looks together, here it is:

Wow. I cannot wait. The third installment comes out on August 24th. I've got my calendar marked :)

P.S. I will not lie, I'm more obsessed with this series than Percy Jackson and the Olympians.. although I love Percy Jackson, this series is incredible. And I would force this series on someone before I would force Percy Jackson on someone :)

P.P.S. Irving is going slowly. I don't know why, because I really love it. I think it's just because I haven't been feeling well..

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief

So, here it goes. :D

Note: I'm avoiding spoilers in this post, because I want everyone to read it. :) However, I will be revealing some plot points, but they're all things that are easily found out in the first book. I won't be going into detail with major plot points, but I might be touching on them (again, this is all stuff that's BASIC to the story.. nothing surprising here :) ).

The story introduces a "troubled boy" named Percy Jackson who has never been able to stay at one school for the whole year because strange things always happen to him. Through a series of events, he finds out that he is a demigod (son of a god and a mortal) and the gods of Olympus are still alive, well, and in New York City (Olympus is on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building). His only friend at school (Grover, a boy with a limp) is a satyr (hence the limp) that's been watching over him, and it's his job to bring Percy safely (key word) to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods to help them train, come to terms with their parentage, and learn the ways of demigods/gods. He finds out that he is the son of Poseidon, one of the "Big Three" (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades). So why is he a big deal?

You may remember that Zeus always had a thing for mortals, and fathered children by them. Demigods by the "Big Three" are much more powerful than any other demigods, making them particularly powerful. This was all well and good until the 1940s when a demigod became particularly ambitious and caused World War II. After this, the Big Three made a pact to never father a child by a mortal again. This pact has been broken once before by Zeus, and now again by Poseidon.

Percy (short for Perseus) is accused of stealing Zeus' lightning bolt. Zeus believes that Poseidon is trying to take over Olympus, and the tensions on Olympus tighten. Percy takes on a quest to go to Hades (located in Hollywood) to retrieve the lightning bolt that he, logically, thinks Hades stole and framed him for it. Percy sets off with Grover and a girl from camp named Annabeth, a daughter of Athena (they are friends, but they fight a lot--their parents' have a long standing feud that makes Annabeth and Percy inherently dislike each other). There is also a prophecy surrounding Percy that no one will tell him the details of, because of the Greek mythology rule: never tell the hero their fate, or they will try to change it (unsuccessfully) which is carried throughout the whole series.

Overall, this story is really clever. The integration of the Olympians into the world today is really cool, and it makes sense. I can tell the author REALLY knows his mythology. It's written simply, but it's engaging--which is all that matters. The second book literally made me make this face: :-O at the end. It was so.. unexpected. Everything you assume through the first two books is completely thrown out the window when you finish the second book. Basically, if you enjoy mythology you'll enjoy this. And if, at the end of the series, you're hurting for more.. not to worry! Rick Riordan is coming out with a new series in March.. sort of the same thing, only with Egyptian mythology (which I am SUPER excited for).

I should probably finish the rest of this series though, right? Damn money..

this is my shameless plug about being awesome

Sooo.. I got to meet the cast of PERCY JACKSON on Wednesday at a Borders signing.

No, this has nothing to do with books (other than the movie was based on an awesome set of books) and no, this has nothing to do with classics, BUT I DON'T CARE.

I just want to say.. everyone should read the Percy Jackson books. They're really, really great. Not as great as Harry Potter (what COULD be as great as Harry Potter?) but definitely worth reading.

P.S. Logan Lerman? SO CUTE! I don't care if he's only 18.. he's legal!

/fangirl

Back log - "C" is for Cather

O Pioneers!


When I see the prairie again I feel like I should stand on top of a hill and shout that. I chose Willa Cather's "O Pioneers" for my C book because I had never read Cather before and had seen her titles come up in many a "classics" or "recommended" reading list. Ultimately I chose "O Pioneers" because though many of her novels are about trail blazing women and the prairie I thought from the summaries I read that this book combined the two the best and it did.

RED ALERT **** SOME SPOILERS AHEAD**** I tried to keep it minimal this time.

This book was a good one but a short one. I think i read it in about a week, and that would have gone even faster if I read more than a chapter or two a night. I would have to say her writing is nothing if not concise but I don't think the setting lacked for detail at all. As I was reading I definitely felt that I could clearly imagine the high plains of Nebraska during its first settlements with pioneers lonely, confused, and frustrated breaking their backs to make something of the land of tall grasses that just goes on and on for miles. Quite frankly sometimes her descriptions were rather eerie and leaving me feeling unsettled.

O Pioneers! is about a family of Scandinavian (now I can't remember if they were Norwegian or Swedish, shame on me) pioneers. They were successful shipbuilders in the old country (I want to say Sweden but Im not sure if thats because Im biased that way) who come to Nebraska to farm.

The main character of the book is Alexandra, who is all around bad ass. The book follows her building the farm, and her family, with the help of her brothers. Note, with the help of her brothers. She is definitely the leader and the one who makes things happen. Yet, a big part of the book, is that this strength puts her in a vulnerable position for the times. On the one hand, being a pioneer in the Nebraska plains allows her some freedoms - when everyone is struggling to make it people aren't going to be as particular about a woman acting out of order, being in charge of her family and the finances. However, she still has to play this part very carefully politically, making sure her brothers on are board with her, because they can support her just as easily as bring her down.

However, I really view this whole "farm building" thing as the back drop for the love stories in this book. Alexandra for a good part of her life denies herself (in some ways) of having any relationships outside of nurturing her family. I LOVED Alexandra and her much younger brother, Emil's relationship.

Another interesting plot was the "culture" clashes that were happening on the Plains. For some reason, it never occurred to me that back in the day, we didn't have racial lines to divide ourselves, and instead it was ethnicity, by way of which country your family recently came from, and though a lot of these cultural practices aren't around anymore, at the time there were huge differences between how the Swedes and the Czechs lived.

I enjoyed this book, even though it ended rather tragically. I much prefer happy endings (sorry, its simplistic but real life is tragic enough for me) and demand them when it comes to television but even though this book was filled with a lot of hardship and a few tragedies I still enjoyed it, in its own austere way.

Back log - "B" is for Burroughs

Hello all!

I am so sorry I have neglected this. It has been a terribly busy and tiring week. I don't feel like I have accomplished much in all this madness but alas thats the way it goes sometimes.

So, again RED ALERT ****SPOILERS***** ahead.



For my B author I chose Edgar Rice Burroughs who in addition to the Tarzan series wrote many other science fiction type novels (also serialized). The Tarzan series is actually enormous, something I learned in this process. It was hugely popular at the beginning of the twentieth century - so popular that there are 25 novels and tons of short stories in the Tarzan series.

The first novel "Tarzan of the Apes" was, in a word, fun. This book was just plain old fun. Action packed and light on the intellectual leanings it was a fun book to read and kept me up through the night wanting to know "omg wtf is going to happen to tarzan?!?". See, I would get so distressed I would slip into internet messaging lingo. Thats how exciting the adventures were.

I must say that Tarzan the Disney movie, what little I remember of it, departs GREATLY from this novel, not that an of us are surprised by that. Ok I was a little surprised. Though it is a large departure, its not as big of a leap when you read the other books, because the movie is really the first two books slapped together.

Whenever I watch movies based on the books it really gets confused in my mind which part was book and which part was movie for some aspects. Since I read about four of the first books back to back I am also a little confused about what was in which book to some extent. My apologies on that.

The first book is probably the one with the deepest running "themes" other than action packed fun of the four that I read. Obviously there is the man vs. wild thing but I actually found the concept and idea of family and the different things family means to be a big thing in this book. Its embedded in with lots of other things, but its there.

As we know from popular lore, Tarzan's parents are stranded on the coast of Africa and he is raised by apes. Whats interesting about this is how torn Tarzan is about the man vs ape thing. Even when he falls in love with Jane (which was so flaky Romeo and Juliette style, I see her, I love her. I don't buy that so much) he is goes back and forth whether he can really be like man and live like man with Jane.

I should note here, that everything in this book is embedded is deep levels of RACISM and SEXISM and general EXOCITISM (I feel like Im falling down the slippery slope of isms here) but its really worth noting. I could say, oh that was the times but I think thats a poor excuse. Yes, I realize calling all Africans "black savages" was acceptable at the time but even though that prevailed that wasn't acceptable for everyone and Im sure the author made plenty of money off juxtaposing Tarzan "the ape" yet moral man-ape above the "savage" Africans in his plotlines (which he does).

Also heavily sexist, with Jane fainting at the drop of the hat and needing to be rescued. Though Jane does have a feminist streak in her, not wanting to marry just anybody and learn about the world, but this aspect of her character is downplayed, ESPECIALLY after she marries Tarzan in later books.


Even against this backdrop, Tarzan does often explore "morality" and the laws of the white man, black man and the jungle all run into each other and he has to decide what is right for him, which is a developmental task everyone goes through. There are lots of sets of rules we could follow from our parents, our society, religion, etc, but which ones do we make meaning of?

However, the book (and the series as far as I've read) is really about adventure and its really good at that. Tarzan was the original MacGuyver taking down "Numa" the lion with whatever he could create in the jungle and surviving, on his own, in all kinds of societies from brute strength but also his own quick wit and thats what makes it really fun to read.

I recommend it, I know allisonface read this as well, so I would love to hear your reply to my post :) I may even like this more than Little Women, just because the ending of Little Women made me so ANGRY.

Thats all for now!

Look I added pictures!

les miserables (part ii)

WOW.

Alright, so for the record.. I doubt I can do this last part without saying SOME spoilers, because I'm going to complain about a few things. So.. you've been warned. :)

Jean Valjean is simply amazing. I don't think I've ever come upon a character that's so fully developed through and through than he was. He was, by far, my favorite character in the book. He's what every person should aspire to be. Yes, he had a rough start, but he had the strength to change. Yes, he needed a catalyst (the Bishop), but it was HIS choice to change, and no one elses'. And what did he do? He saved a town from destitution, he protected and raised an orphaned and mistreated child, he gave and gave and gave, he saved Marius and carried him through the depths of the sewers quite possibly to his own death, he sacrificed seeing Cosette because he thought Marius didn't want him there.. etc. etc. etc. So many things, and I'm sure I'm missing the half of it.

In the end, when Marius was so cruel to him and Cosette was seemingly indifferent to her father's disappearance it broke my heart. Seeing Valjean walk to their house every day, each stopping further and further away, and eventually not even leaving his house so he could die.. ugh. It was so unfair. I couldn't believe that Marius was so.. unforgiving. I mean, my god, yes he's an ex-convict but he raised your wife, he saved her from a life of servitude and poverty (one which she probably would not have survived). That should have been enough of a reason to forgive him of something he had done 30 some odd years before. If he had not been good, she would have not turned out "good." Marius was completely unfair. That he should passive aggressively turn away Valjean and make him feel so unwanted when he had given up so much.. so unfair.

AND THEN. After all that, when he realized it was Valjean that had carried him through the muck of the sewer on his back saving him from the battle.. only when he realized that was he all about bringing him back. I didn't like Marius much towards the end (if you couldn't tell).

Cosette turned out to be a disappointment. She was so interesting at the beginning of the novel, when she was a child. She was bright, full of life, and charms. Her innocence was very well done, but when she grew older she morphed into the typical woman figure from this time--serving her husband's every wish (even if it meant never seeing her father again) and completely oblivious to the things happening around her that really mattered. She fluttered through life without a care in the world, she only thought of being devoted to her husband. It broke my heart that after the first two nights Valjean had not visited her (when he stopped because of Marius' passive aggressive behavior to push him out) she had only noticed that he had not come ONE out of the two nights.

Javet really surprised me.. He was probably my second favorite "major" character. He was single-mindedness in his determination to take down Valjean, and when he had him in his clutches.. he just let him go. The struggle he went through, and his solution to quieting it, was very intriguing.

There were multiple times that I was surprised at the criss-cross of characters, how all of their lives weaved in and out of each other. But then you start to think how many characters you are familiar with.. how many back stories you've read.. and it starts to become understandable. The story was incredible. So much depth to it (I suppose that comes with the territory of being over 1,000 pages long). Every character I encountered in that book I felt as if I knew them, because Hugo always gave such great details into their lives. Even if it wasn't background, it was just how they lived, their morals, etc.

I think I will have to read Hunchback of Notre Dame..