BOOKS 13-15
BOOK 13 - VIRPI HÄMEEN-ANTTILA: SUDEN VUOSI
A Novel
Language: Finnish
Pages: 399
So, this is a debut novel by a Finnish author. I liked it, but it was not especially good. The Year of the Wolf (the title of the movie based on this novel) tells the story of Sari, an intelligent literature student who has epilepsy and of Mikko Groman, one of her professors. Basically they fall in love etc; the book has been advertised to tell about an inconvenient love story, but there was really nothing improper about their relationship: Sari is in her 20s, and Mikko is 40 - both intelligent adults, so I couldn't really see the inconvenience... I enjoyed the book partly because of all the allusions to different authors, poets and philosophers. I could also feel proud of myself, because I understood almost all of the quotations - in English, Swedish, German, French and Latin - only about one Italian quote from Dante I had to ask my fiance. :) If you're interested to see a list of all the big names quoted in the novel, I made a list and posted it in my journal (Hoping that one day I could be able to say I have read something by all of them):
http://gugga.livejournal.com/99046.html
The entry is in Finnish, but I'm sure you can sort out the list from the other parts of the text.
This book will probably remain dear to me, just for the fact that I read it while I was in a hospital (and that was scary).
BOOK 14 - TONI MORRISON: SULA
A Novel
Language: English
Pages: 174
I have only read Sula, once before this, by Toni Morrison, but I am pretty confident about recommending her to anyone who is willing to hear me. Sula is a short novel, but it has so much in it, and themes are interesting and important - love, friendship, family, individual vs. society, women vs. men, whites vs. blacks. Everyone can find a theme that will interest him/her. I think I would really really like Sula, if my class (we read it in class for English) hadn't made it a joke. I really like Morrison's style, it is easy to read but still deep and "picturesque".
I read Sula for the retake of my English test [was some 3 points shy of the best mark, I have to try it again] - I'll be reading all together 5 works of English literature for the test - and have no attitude problem towards searching up suitable quotes from it and learning them by heart - that's something I can't say about all of the books I'll have to read for the retake (1984....).
Recommended!
BOOK 15 - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: ROMEO AND JULIET
A Play
Language: English
Pages: 142
This was the 5th or 6th time I read Romeo and Juliet. And I have proof for it being a classic - I'm still not getting bored of it. I love it, and if learning quotes from Sula is not painful, learning quotes from Romeo and Juliet is only pleasurable. (Yes, this one I read also for the retake.)
I've actually once played Romeo at the square of my hometown, under our statue of liberty... My best friend was playing Juliet - this was a part of one crazy tradition in IB. So I can almost tell the balcony scene by hear - "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?/ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. / Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,/ who is already sick and pale with grief / That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she./ ..." And so on. :) Perhaps many of you can do the same, but for me it was difficult to start with, not only because English is not my mothertongue, but also because the language is so old (well yeah, I've been reading some Canterbury Tales, now I would call Shakespeare a piece of cake.)
And yes, of course, everyone should read this again and again and again... It's beauty won't wear out, not ever.
Read this far:
15/50 = 30 % done,
23 % of the year gone
Now reading:
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter ja feeniksin kilta (5th)
Montgomery, Durant, Fabb, Furniss & Mills: Ways of Reading (a study book for my retake)
Charles Dickens: Great Expectations (this will take forever)
etc.