WANT!

I am really eager to get my hands on Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman.

See a synopsis here.

She is oppressed, she escapes inspiring hope and determination in the rest of us. I can't wait to read it!

I'll be popping by my friendly neighborhood book seller this weekend to see if it is on the shelves yet.

Until next time,
Laurie

My NEW Review Process

OMG, y'alls - I feel like this here blog is morphing from infant to toddler! I am rolling out a NEW review process which is based on how I evaluate books for myself. I'll still provide a more indepth review but it's also nice to have some apples-to-apples comparitive standards.

I. Book Qualities: Rating of high, medium, or low on the following qualities:

• Deep-Thought Provokingness
• Entertainment Value
• Fun Factor
• Emotional Impact
• Writing Quality

II. Three one-word descriptives of the book
III. Did I like it?? (yes or no)
IV. "Read it" or "Skip it" (for all prospective readers)

That's it! Hope you like it.

-Laurie

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road was written by the same author who wrote No Country for Old Men (of which I saw the movie version). The Road has the same kind of barren, minimalist feel that NCfOM has. And the same kind of hopeless feeling, as well.

The Road is a post-apocalyptic tale about a man and his son trying to survive in a barren waste. Starvation and cannibals are a constant threat. They are following a road from north to south to avoid the approaching winter. No plant or animal life remains except for the few human survivors of a planet-wide catastrophe (the author does not elaborate on the cause...it could either be an asteroid of a nuclear winter).

The love that the man and his son share is very moving and at some points it almost brought me to tears. In the face of hopelessness, the two of them have each other and it is enough. It sustains them and keeps them pushing on in what seems like a pointless effort. The man's purpose in life is to protect the boy and he does it well. When they are almost dead with starvation, they at least know that they are not alone.

The ending is not happy but it is not hopeless, either: other "good guys" are found in a world full of ruthless, hungry animals who once were human. In the end, the story shows that honor and goodness can remain even when pushed to the extreme limits when the willingness is there to hold on to it. In the end, that is all that the survivors have.

This book won a Pulitzer prize and apparently there is a movie version - I have to find it, ASAP!

This is a good read...probably to become a modern classic. But be warned, it is not an escapist, good-time read.

Until next time,
Laurie

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

The Hours by Michael Cunningham is a book about people deciding whether or not to commit suicide or not.

The book toggles between the stories of three characters:

• Virginia Woolf: fictional depiction of the real life author's creative process of determining the fate of one of her famous characters, Mrs. Dalloway (i.e. whether or not she will kill herself). Virginia Woolf did commit suicide in real life and that is also represented in the book.
• Laura Brown: 50's housewife in Los Angeles. She feels overwhelmed and deeply unsatisfied with her seemingly perfect house, husband, and son. She also goes through a thought process of deciding if she will continue on with life or not.
• Clarissa Vaughn: modern-day Lesbian who is spending the day organizing a party for her dearest friend, Richard, who has won a very prestigious literary award for his poetry and who is also dying of AIDS.

These three stories are seemingly unconnected in the beginning of the book. As the storyline progresses, the parallels between many of the characters are revealed and the reader learns how some of the lives are connected. The thoughts and feelings of Virginia, Mrs. Dalloway, Richard, and Laura are all echoed by each other. However, different decisions are made by each of the characters for different reasons.

Also note that each of these three characters' stories are told over the course of one day (which I think is important to the author's theme).

I liked how the stories intertwined together at the end of the book. I saw the movie version of this book several years ago and missed a lot of what was going on. Reading the book gave this story a lot more depth and I was able to understand what the author was trying to communicate a lot better.

The story itself was a little bit of a bummer. People who count "the hours" of their lives like a bored employees counts the minutes until quitting time is not uplifting to me!

Ultimately, some characters cannot tolerate the wait until death, and others decide that life is too sweet to give up. Who lives and who dies lies with the pages of the book - you'll have to read it to find out.

I kind of want to learn more about Virginia Woolf after reading this book. From my very brief look on the internet, she suffered from some sexual abuse as a child which led to a lot of her mental troubles as a grown up.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

-Laurie

January Recap and February Goals

I finished five books in January and that's pretty high number for me!

Having started this blog and actually trying to read a lot of books makes me realize just HOW MANY books there are to choose from out there. There are so many books I want to read and the list just keeps getting longer. And then new books come out. How am I ever going to keep up? I have to realize that I can't read everything.

For February, I would like to read from my list but I also want to try another classic or a book from a different genre (non-fiction, maybe?). I need to give myself a goal like this each month so I can stretch myself and not read only one type of book for the rest of my life.

Let's see how this thing goes in February!

Happy reading,
Laurie

Room by Emma Donoghue

What can I say about Room? It was moving, disturbing, and heartwarming all at the same time.

Jack is the narrator and the main character. Jack is five years old and lives in Room with Ma, his mom.

I won't go into the plot too much because a great part of the book is slowly piecing together what the real situation is as an adult (which is not the situation as Jack perceives it with his five year old eyes).

The author speaks through Jack in his five year old language. It took a few pages to get used to the youthful vernacular but I was really enjoying it by the end of the book. I also really liked that the author did use Jack's perspective to tell the story. His innocence gives the events and characters in the story a new, interesting light. I really came to love Jack and I was really proud of how he grew and adjusted to the changing circumstances of his life.

This is a GREAT book and I 100% recommend it!

Keep reading,
Laurie

Blog Design

Blogger is acting all screwy and my backgrounds are not loading. Going into the template designer is too tempting not to change things around! I like to keep things spicy and changed up. So, enjoy the change of scenery.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo,
Laurie