"N" is for Narayan

I should have finished this book quite some time ago, it was a pleasant, easy read. "Man eater of Malgudi" is written in a simple concise style. One of my favorite things about any good book is getting connected with the characters - if Im not invested in them a book is much less interesting to me. This book got you interested in the characters (I wouldn't go so far as invested), you wanted to know what happens, particularly to the antagonist, Vasu. Vasu was SO OBNOXIOUS. I had to read ahead to make sure he got his comeuppance, thats how annoying this man was. But that shows Narayan is a good writer, he made me want to know.

This book takes place in Southern India, which also added to its interest. It was set in post Ghandi India and makes many references to the changing and growing economy of Indian in that era, and with the traditional culture and Hindu belief system, so I found that fun and interesting. A edition with illustrations, even minor, would have made this a really fun book for me.

Isn't this cover beautiful? Mine was plain, alas.

"L" is for Loos

So my "L" book was "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" from which the famous Marilyn Monroe movie was based. I never actually watched the movie, but I thought reading the book it was based on might be fun.

How wrong I was.

I couldn't even make it through the first chapter.

The book is the diary of a "lady in society" published in the 1920s. Basically, she's a kept woman - and thats what the first 12 pages of the book were about. I get it that this was culturally acceptable at the time, but I couldn't take it. All the "oh well, since a man is paying for a woman's education for some reason I suppose I should quit the job he doesn't like" was just more than I could take. I've read plenty of books where the women had to conform to rules I didn't like, or acted and thought in ways I didn't agree with, but rarely has it annoyed me so much, I had to stop reading. Usually I can deal, people are shaped by the times right? Sometimes they are conscious of the forces shaping their lives, sometimes not but this book was too much.

So thats the end of my "L" book.

It did have cool illustrations.

Follow up on "J" is for Jonson

I was never able to track this down at the UWM or Milwaukee Public Library (at least not the one on the East side) but I WAS able to get it for free on Kindle, woot@ woot!

This one did take me a bit to get through, even though it actually read quite quickly. I finished it on the Caribbean cruise I went on with Justin's family - I just took an afternoon to sit on the deck of our room and read, one of my favorite vacation activities. And in honor of the challenge, WHICH I AM APPARENTLY THE ONLY ONE STILL BLOGGING ABOUT, but I digress, I decided to plough through and finish it up.

Again, I will excerpt from my goodreads.com review:

"I realized at the end I had been misconceptualizing the purpose/point of this book. The title says it all: by the end of the book, he is an ex-colored man, aka, he is living as a white man.

On the whole I don't feel like its a terribly interesting book, its fair. I did enjoy the end, when he sums of his life experience and his decision to "pass" as white, I found it interesting how cognizant he was of the many and multiple implications of his choice, but how the practical consequences outweighed those (for him, in this instance)"

I don't have a whole lot more to add to this. He lived in an interesting time period, but I didn't feel like he gave you much info on his context he often noted to the reader with the gist of, "I won't bore you with the details" which is often the part of the book I enjoy the most. Especially for a book like this, in which the character's actions are so much dependent on his context - I wanted more of it!

Another interesting note, what to make of use of the word "colored" nowadays? I had a friend refer to herself as "colored" the other day (she actually is...at least according to how the word used to be) and it didn't seem offensive to me at all, nor was she trying to be, or really even trying to be joking, it was more descriptive. Im NOT into re-claiming words, though Im not sure this one is one meant for or destined for reclaiming, it seems more to have gone out of Vogue (because YES, it was associated with many awful experiences for people of color, which seems to be the replacement phrase). Little of topic, and not going to get the space it deserves in this post, but some thoughts I had while reading this book.

"M" is still for Montgomery

So here is my review of my proper "M" book. Didn't seem right to assign myself a book I had already read, so I assigned the sequel (question: is it really a sequel when there are 10+ books in the series?) to myself but then felt the need to re-read the first book before starting the second.

Here is my initial review posted on my goodreads.com page (LOVE THAT WEBSITE PEOPLE!)

"Another great book with Anne of Green Gables. I was scared starting this book that it would be a letdown, like many sequels are, but it stayed quite well with what worked great in the first book - neat characters who play and grow. You still get a lot of the fun and silliness of Anne, though within an appropriate adult context, as she is now a school teacher. I do wish there was a little more Marilla in this book, because she is hilarious, but I can see that there is more to comes from this series and I am excited to keep reading"

I still agree. I have trouble describing how much these books take me back to the great parts of my childhood and bring back that young "imagination" that I feel like many adults lose in the worries of bills, jobs, kids, etc. Its not so much that it makes me think of some specific part of my childhood, but just that I read it then, and it reminds me of the things that I connected with then and renews my excites about those things, while giving me the opportunity to laugh at myself and find new parts of the book to connect with.

As a kid I loved Anne and connected with her in some ways - the way she loves to use big words and has red hair. Now I laugh at how similar I really was to her in some ways - mostly the big words and red hair (but also the DRAMA) and how STILL SIMILAR I am in many of those ways (really only my hair color has changed, let it be known, I was unwilling in that, it just happened).

I want to use more big words now. I feel my perspicacity has lessened now.

LOLZ.

Here is a link to the wordle I created based on the first chapter

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"K" is for Kerouac

An update on my K book "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac, which I mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes post and started a while ago. This book has been indefinitely placed on hold. I just wasn't getting into it. I am open to re-visiting this book, but it didn't grab me, and as I have previously mentioned on this blog, I am adopting a new policy on this issue, in that I am not going to make myself slog through a book Im not into when there are so many great books out there. So again, I am open to re-visiting this book, but its put away for now. Any opinions to share on your own experience on reading this book? I know so many people who have enjoyed it.

"M" is for Montgomery

Ahoy!

So I have been skipping a bit in the alphabet. Lately, because I got an AWESOME kindle and while I was at a conference a few weeks ago I was just reading whatever I could download for free on my Kindle. This brought me back to the "Anne of Green Gables" series, which I very much enjoyed as a pre-teen. This series is my "M" letter, yay for Lucy Maud Montgomery.

I enjoyed Anne of Green Gables a lot, even as an adult. I just find Anne and Marilla's interactions hilarious! Anne says the most ridiculous things. I enjoy her drama and zest for life. I also love how sweet Matthew and Marilla are - even though neither of them wants to admit it until the end, they love Anne to pieces. In overview, for those who haven't read it, this series takes place on/around Prince Edward Island, Canada and is about an orphan, Anne, who is adopted around age 12 by an older brother and sister who run a farm. This series, at least the first book, I haven't started the second yet except for a few pages, isn't really about plot and more about the development of the characters. In that way its a really neat book, the characters are very well developed and you get to know them really well - there are times where I felt like I could predict how Marilla was going to react to Anne's silliness. This book, I imagine, sets the foundation for the rest of the series, because you really get to know the characters and see how they develop through this period in their lives. Its fun to read and fills me with warm fuzzies.

Skipping Through the Alphabet

In other exciting news, Justin gave me a Kindle for my birthday. ITS SO COOL PEOPLE!! I wanted one so that I could download articles that I need to read for classes and now I am totally in love with reading on it, period. I was a bit hesitant about it, I mean I love books and will not change to the dark side on that. I did think however, as I was re-reading "The Deathly Hallows" that it would be way easier to read on e-reader...anyway. I took that opportunity to download free e-versions of as many of my challenges books as I could. I was able to download my "K" book, On the Road by Jack Kerouac and my "X" book, which is actually a "D", The Extraordinary Cases of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I started reading these simultaneously, out of excitement and got totally wrapped up in Sherlock Holmes! I am actually on my fourth Sherlock Holmes book right now, but I did start with the extraordinary cases.

So, "X" is for Sherlock Holmes.

This series I am finding SO MUCH FUN to read!! Reminiscent to me of the Tarzan series, in that there are many different books in this series, they differ in length, and you can blast through them. (fun fact: I also downloaded a ton of Tarzan books on my Kindle). This is another book where I am constantly reminded of other versions I have seen of it, notably, The Great Mouse Detective (Yes, I am that cool), though I haven't watched many other versions. What strikes me about these books, beyond how fun and quickly you can read them, is that Sherlock Holmes is not that likable of a character. He's sometimes condescending, does coke when hes bored, and is rather emotionless at times. BUT the books are narrated by Watson, who is quite likable, and though he lacks the deductive powers of Holmes, is still bright but has a lot of heart and greatly admires Holmes, as well as many of the "clients" they help.

The Extraordinary Cases, is kind of a memoir. It is a chronicling or several short cases, compiled by Watson to kind of "record" for posterity the many adventures he assisted Holmes with. The cases chronicled cover a ton of subjects, from one of the few times that Holmes was foiled, to stories that touched their hearts, to rather sinister plots blown by Holmes. The shortness of each chapter is fun and I often found myself trying to figure it out before Holmes. Often, I could guess the persons involved but not at all how to bring all the pieces together. It has motivated me to re-read "The Hound of the Baskervilles" which I did enjoy when I read in MS or HS, but I don't remember much about. I have also enjoyed learning bits about the time period that it was written in, for example, Watson often references his time serving in a war in Afghanistan for England.

I've gone on to read another couple of short stories about Holmes and downloaded several. From what I can figure on the Kindle online store, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was rather prolific, he wrote MANY Holmes stories as well as many other books that are non-Holmes related.

Additionally, this may be a bit random, but reading this has often reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock's short films (and show, watch it, its stream-able on Netflix), in that they are both short mysteries, often have dark or sinister themes, but don't scare the crap out of me because they are not graphic or random, but very logical and straightforward with dark things happening to people who partake in dark stuff. I'd be curious is anyone else makes this connection or if its just me.

PS> I kinda want a Sherlock Holmes outfit.