50 Books for 2010
I was surfing through my archives, and realized for the first time in FOUR YEARS, I haven't been keeping track of the books I'm reading. Le sigh.
So I'm going to attempt to go through my re-reads and new acquisitions, and post reviews accordingly.
Currently reading (as of May 9th): The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft, The Odyssey, and a book on the Philosophy of Twilight - yes PHILOSOPHY OF TWILIGHT. I saw it at the library and I just had to. I HAD TO. The Breaking Dawn essays had best be delightfully full of crack or the venture is DAMNED.
01. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Part of my attempt to read all the classics.
I ADORED this book. At first, I was really put off by the rambling tone Vonnegut used, and the way it was broken into quarter-page sections marked off by stars, until I got to the twist half-way through: the main character was abducted by aliens that don't experience time as a fixed point but a constantly occuring thing - that every moment you've ever lived is happening at every moment of your life. Very interesting stuff.
So the character will fall asleep with his wife in his 40s and flashback to the war, actually living his life out of sequence, but in a way that in the later sequences, he remembers everything. It was a fascinating idea.
I would definitely recommend it - it's a short, quick read due to it's pacing, but very interesting.
02. Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueine Carey
This was a re-read. I ADORE the Kushiel's Legacy series (at least, the original trilogy that I've read so far), and I got these for my birthday last year but hadn't re-read them yet.
I don't want to go too loopy over these things, but they're fab. I love the characters: Phedre and Joscelin, poor Alcuin and Delaunay, Hyacinthe! (SOB), Ysandre de la Courcel and Drustan mab Necthana ... even Melissande and the other morally-ambiguous people who start wars and ruin the lives of the D'Angelines.
The premise is interesting: like Phillip Pullman and his system-of-parallels universe in the His Dark Materials series, the world Carey spins IS our world ... just pumped up with a bit more fantasy. The main characters are all D'Angeline - that is, from Terre D'Ange, which is basically France - and they have dealings over the course of this book with the Picts in Alba and Eire (England and Ireland) and the Skaldi warlords in Skaldia (Russia). The later books expand the universe, the third even going to Northern Africa ... the Carey-verse name of which escapes me at the moment.
I highly recommend them as a good political fantasy - which I love - but there's a very important warning inherent: the books are highly sexual and involve a lot of BDSM, because Phedre is a fabled anguisette - a woman who feels pain and pleasure intermixed with one another. She uses this position to infiltrate society and learn of political machinations. And then Jocelyn shows up as her protector and they're left bickering throughout eternity. :)
03-05. Four Comedies - William Shakespeare, Bevington Edition
This was for my Intro. Shakespeare class, and I didn't read all four of them, but I did read:
The Taming of the Shrew: I liked it, but Katharine never seemed amazingly shrewish to me: she spends a lot of time trying to protect her sisters virtue and trading wits with anyone who tries to cross her, which I like. The man she marries, Petruchio, "tames" her by being a complete and utter douchebag, to the point where she doesn't even bother fighting him anymore, she just agrees with him to make him shut up. YMMV, and I understand that Elizabethan couples would have NEVER married for love, but it doesn't seem like there's so much enjoyment of one another in the match but ... resignation? All in the name of Petruchio's friend, Hortensio, marrying Katharine's sister Bianca, who falls in love with Lucentio and marries him instead. Oy.
A Midsummer Night's Dream: I really liked this one. In fact, I picked it for my scene performance. I played Bottom in Act 3 Scene 1, and for those of you who have read this one, that will mean something! The rulers of the Fairies, Oberon and Titania, are fighting over a changeling boy Titania refuses to give to Oberon. He and his aide Puck scheme to magic her into falling in love with something ridiculous, come across the four dueling lovers int he woods, magic the wrong ones, and hilarity ensues. Titania mooning over donkey-headed Bottom mid-play is really hilarious, and I love all the puns written into the characters of the tradesman-cum-actors, especially in the performance they put on in the last act.
Twelfth Night: This is one of two plays that I constantly confuse (the other is, As You Like It), because both feature siblings, one woman and one man, wherein the woman dresses up like the man and no one notices, and then someone accidentally marries the brother thinking they are the woman. I like them both, but for differing reasons. In Twelfth Night there's a lot of discussion of class and social climbing, or the lack thereof inherent in Elizabethan society, so there's a lot of humor (and horror) in the scenes with Malvolio, Maria, and Sir Toby Belch. It's so fab as a lesbian to watch this acted, because you get to see the sexual tension between Olivia and Cesario (who is actually Viola), as Olivia falls in love with "him" and Cesario tries to dissuade her while simultaneously trying to snare Orsino, the man whom she serves under AND who is interested in wooing Olivia. Every Shakespearean comedy is a delightful clusterfuck of romantic entanglements. :)
For future reference, the one I didn't read was The Merchant of Venice.
06 and 07. Four Tragedies - William Shakespeare, Bevington Edition
Same as above, and I only read two, namely:
King Lear: Oh, man, King Lear. Shakespearean tragedy hinges on a tragic mistake the main character makes, and in King Lear it seems to be Lear's splitting up of his kingdom: it's what causes the bastard son Edmund (it's always a bastard son) conspiring against his father and legitimate brother, Edgar, for power along with seducing two of the royal daughters to ascend in power further; it's what creates the rift between Goneril and Regan, and the rifts therein between their husbands; it's what causes bloody civil war and over half the characters to die in the end. That's the interesting thing about Shakespearean tragedy: the down-spiral into complete suckitude for everyone involved at the behest of one, usually small, misstep.
Macbeth: OH MACBETH. If he just hadn't listened to the Weird Sisters, or - perhaps - thought harder about what they were REALLY telling him, maybe everyone wouldn't have totally died in this one, too. This is the play famous for both being ill-luck when it's namesake is uttered on stage, and for the "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble" scene. In the beginning, I hated Lady Macbeth, because she was the real driving force behind the murder while Macbeth was having cold-feet. Then, we see her sleepwalking, berating herself, and compulsively washing her hands later in the play, and we understand that it tortures her as much as it does Macbeth, she's just far less existential about her pains.
Hamlet: I read this is high school and loved it, but I can't say much for the storyline because that was more than five years ago. It deserves a re-read. :)
The fourth story in this collection is Othello, of which I believe I've seen a film adaptation, but I've never read the actual text.
08. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
I've never been much for Regency romance, and so I've never picked up an Austen book. When I realized someone had added Zombies to Pride and Prejudice, well, what's better than zombies? I picked it up as soon as I could.
It was ... interesting. It's hard trying to understand what sort of interest Elizabeth Bennet would have for a reader WITHOUT the addition of ass-kicking zombie slaying, ninja fighting, and constant talk of ripping out hearts and the like. It made sense that her and Darcy would bond over something that sets them apart from most of the society.
Having said that, the love story between Elizabeth and Darcy moved at a sloth's pace: at times, I even forgot that it was happening, though I did enjoy their constant bickering at the beginning: I'm a sucker for the Foe Yay and Belligerent Sexual Tension tropes.
There's been a lot of kerfuffle over Darcy beating Wickham lame on the internet, and how that's an example of the author using crippled people for laughs. I'm not really sure how I feel about that. As a system of punishment its barbaric, but the cruelness of it is very Darcy, and I felt like THAT was what was funny, if anything: that everyone was lauding Darcy for helping them out, when he actually beat someone near to death. Its very ridiculous - who would actually do that in real life?
It's also interesting to note that the narrative tries to persuade that Wickham and Lydia should be seen as despicable characters: Wickham for being a philanderer and a gambler who lives well beyond his means and has been generally cruel his whole life, and Lydia, interestingly, for being excessively Regency - giggly and boy-obsessed and grandiose in her needs, as well.
09. Twilight and Philosophy - William Irwin(series editor), Rebecca Housel and J. Jeremy Wisnewski(editors)
Twilight and Philosophy was an interesting read, but moreso for the philosophy than for the Twilight analysis.
For starters, I liked that the book wasn't entirely filled with essays either pro or con in regards to the books, but a healthy mixture of both. It's almost completely half - the book clearly changes tone starting with Naomi Zack's essay.
Also, it seemed that the pro essays used more actual philosophy in their essays, as opposed to cultural anecdotes, quotes from other popular authors, or comparisons to Sarah Palin. I believe there are at least three essays in the book that bring up Sarah Palin, apparently because she mentioned Twilight in one of her campaign speeches?
I think the most well-written essays are Jean Kazez's "Dying to Eat: The Vegetarian Ethics of Twilight" and Marc E. Shaw's "For the Strength of Bella? Meyer, Vampires, and Mormonism". Rebecca Houssel has two essays in the book, and I liked "The Tao of Jacob" far more than "The 'Real' Danger: Fact vs Fiction for the Girl Audience." This is partially because I found the latter essay to be extremely polarizing: I admired her for being the only essayist in the compilation to address the abusive tendencies inherent in Bella and Edward's relationship, but I also took serious offense to the notion that our (read: MY) generation lives in a fantasy world where we don't understand or accept reality, and that is why we fail and have mental disorders. Apparently this explains our attraction to vampires.
What??? I know I don't speak for all vampire-loving girls, but I love vampires because they represent the other in society: those people that live on the fringes because they are inherently different are a great metaphor for being a teenager, because that's what it feels like. Not to mention the sexual metaphors inherent in a supernatural figure stealing into your bedroom to bite (read: penetrate) you and drink your blood. :)
Perhaps this is why I sought out essays on Twilight in the first place?
10. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
I picked this up for the One Book, One Twitter event, and also because I've been following Neil Gaiman on Twitter for eons now and still hadn't read anything that he'd written.
This book was really enjoyable. I loved the idea that even if Gods weren't currently being (knowingly) worshiped, they were still floating about the world, brought into new lands by settlers long ago and set adrift when their worshipers disappeared. I also really liked how there were different versions of each God for each country (a la Odin in the narrative), as if the human consciousness carried the idea of the God with them, thus giving birth to new Gods in America.
Shadow as a main character was fairly sympathetic. I thought it was interesting that he was so chill - he went along with a lot of odd things throughout the narrative, asking little to no questions and just assuming everything would turn out right. When he started to understand the gravity of the situation he became a bit more passionate, which mirrored the sub-plot he had with his wife Laura insisting he was "alive but not living".
The twist - and, yes, there's a twist - to the end of the main plot was surprising. I definitely wasn't expecting it. Looking back on the story as a whole, it made a certain amount of sense from the end-game, but it felt like it could have used more build-up to the twist over-all.
11. On Writing - Stephen King
I've never been much for Stephen King's books. I've seen many of the movies and TV adaptions over the years, but I've only read The Regulators, which was interesting but not enough so to spur me to read the companion book Desperation; and The Shining, of which I much preferred the streamlined Kubrick movie - the part in-novel with the animal topiary moving behind the antagonist when he wasn't looking was a bit silly, even for me. And the way the movie ended, I felt, encompassed the narrative better than the novel.
Having said this, I've always admired his ability to write mainstream fiction, and write it well. He has a lot of ideas and all of them are interesting. This is just as clear in On Writing.
I really loved the first part - his memoir on his life in writing. As a writer, I took comfort in some of the kinship between his early life writing and mine, and there are a lot of things within it you can commiserate with. My personal favorite was his discussion on setting the characters in a situation and letting them deal with it how they want. That's got to be one of my favorite parts of writing: letting the characters knock around and surprise you.
The middle section is the nuts-and-bolts part of writing: read and write a lot, grammar and word choice (but not too much, mostly use what you know and don't try to sound too fancy), basically sound advice one finds through trying to write but bears repeating. In a way it's nice to know a prolific and acclaimed published author goes about things the same way we unpublished internet writers do.
I didn't know that he had been hit by a car during the writing of the book, so the third part was really interesting to me, from a voyeuristic standpoint as well as a written one.
I ADORED the "Furthermore, Part I", because it really showed me - for the first time in my life, I think - how it is that someone goes about chopping down their first draft. I, like King, am a notorious "putter-inner" - I add and add, from a desire to do good by the story and the world I'm creating, but in effect cluttering things up and confusing the reading with too much description. "Kill your darlings," he repeats often, and there really isn't any lesson in writing harder or truer than that. Reading the first draft of The Hotel Room (later to become 1408), I thought it was a nice story and couldn't see much wrong with it ... until we got to the second draft. All the strike outs and add-ins seemed intimidating at first, but his step through it really helped me understand how cutting down the unnecessary - in effect, diluting the story to it's base elements -- assists the narrative in a way nothing else really can.
There are very few books that I decide to purchase after reading at the library (which is where us poor college kids have to get most of our books) but this one is a definite keeper.
12. Anno-Dracula - Kim Newman
Anno-Dracula is an interesting re-imagining and continuation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but also a tale of political intrigue and a murder mystery, and a homage to history and famous literary characters all wrapped in one narrative. And with vampires, of course; lots and lots of vampires.
I adored the specific subplot surrounding Jack Seward, whose analytical recording transcripts in the original Dracula were always my favorite entries, next to Mina's. The folding in of Jack the Ripper from history gave the tale a richness that only an anchor in actual history can provide. Suffice it to say Jack was my favorite character in the novel.
It was interesting to see how the others of Van Helsing's group were affected by the failure that spawns this story, and the loss is evident to the reader in each of them, even those characters who have convinced themselves they are happier as they are now. In narrative, Beauregard puts it beautifully: "Between them, the Prince Consort [Dracula] and the skull on the pike [Van Helsing] had to account for a great deal of human wreckage."
As much as I enjoyed the two main characters on their own, I personally object to the union of Genevieve and Beauregard. I think they could have been a great example of opposite-sex partners just being good buddies and not romantically involved, which we don't see a lot of in modern fiction.
It was amusing seeing other literary characters popping up as the narrative continued: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Moreau, Inspectors Lestrade and Mackenzie, just to name a few. It's written in such a way that, if you know the characters from other novels it makes you smile, but if you don't you can enjoy the characters as they are within the narrative without necessarily needing to know that backstory.
I would recommend this for fans of horror or Dracula specifically, as the narrative was fun and created an interesting world to live in for the duration of the story. The ending was superb. However, I would have liked to hear more from the "dregs", as it were: the young vampires targeted are only represented by Nell and Mary Jean Kelly, or briefly described by other characters.
I actually found this at my local library, so do give that a shot if you are having trouble finding it.
13. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
Just another re-read. I'm sure I've reviewed this one before. I am hoping to read "Order of the Phoenix" before Mark finishes the movie, so I can read Deathly Hallows along with him in preparation for the movie.
14. Soulless - Gail Carriger
I've heard amazing things about this book from friends, so I picked it up from Amazon in a bulk book order.
I absolutely love the main character, Alexia Tarabotti. She's spunky, she does what she wants, she's witty and smart and capable. Not often do you see a woman like this a Victorian setting, but this is another reason why I really love the Steampunk genre. Lord Maccon is hilarious, as well, and I love the understated but formidable strength his Beta, Professor Lyall. Her friend Ivy with the hilarious hats is fun, though a tad underdeveloped so far. Lord Akeldama cracks me up - I love his friendship with Alexia, and how Lord Maccon tends to look down on it.
I love the "Our Vampires are Different" and "Our Werewolves Are Different" tropes because I read so much vampire/werewolf/general supernatural lit, and I like to see creativity and variation. The addition of soulless humans as a deterrent against supernatural energy gives these books a delightful edge and a quality of newness to them.
I hadn't realized it was a romance novel when I started it, so the hard and fast romantic involvement between Maccon and Alexia startled me a bit. But all the hot and heavy sexual innuendo - and action - smack dab in the middle of Victorian social mores was HILARIOUS.
I also loved the way she interacted with her family, especially her flighty sisters and her mother. And how her mother always suspected the worst of her - I think the phrase "brazen hussy" (which is hilarious on its own) is used about four times.
It's a light read - not too easy but not too muddlesome either. It's fun, and nicely paced, and the characters are multifaceted, whith the possible exception of the "villains" (save for one character in particular) who are obviously villainous. Having said that, they are villainous not because they are "evil" per se, but because they are doing horrible things in order to bring about a world they think will be better. That is always better than villains being evil for evil's sake, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm eagerly awaiting the chance to read the next book in the series, Changeless.
15. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
If I'm not mistaken, this was recently made into a critically poor movie, but I heard such good things about the book in comparison. I also can't seem to find a copy of the first issue of Sandman locally, which is the Gaiman work I'd most like to read next to Coraline, so I reached for this.
At first, I was a little thrown off by the tone of this book. I had expected, coming from American Gods, for this to have a more adult tone. Instead, it reads like a fairy tale: simplistic words (in general) and clear-cut concepts laid out in short, manageable sentences. It's really remarkable how effortless it sounds as you read it, while I'm sure the editing process (and the writing!) were very difficult.
The characters are very interesting and in-depth for a fairy tale. The hero, Tristran, goes on a typical hero's quest to win the heart of his True Love ... which is hilarious by the end of the book because the whole time he assumed he knew who his true love was when he didn't. It's very Macbeth and the Weird Sisters - Faerie people are always telling him things and giving him clues, but he interprets them wrong at the time. Kind of like most people are apt to, I suppose. Yvaine is hilarious - she's so surly and argumentative and confrontational. Not that she doesn't have a reason to be considering what happens to her, but historically fairy tale women are demure and polite, and simpering, and good to the core. This way is much more fun!
The subplot with the Lord of Stormhold and his sons was really well written - I loved the imagery of the slain brothers following around those who were still alive, and then welcoming the ones who died later into their fold. And I laughed out loud at the way the storyline was concluded - pay attention to the little details along the way and you might figure it out first!
I would very much recommend this book, and at some point in the future I'd like to see the movie version, to compare with the book. I'd like to know how bad is bad. :)
16. 'Salem's Lot - Stephen King
This was actually in a recommended section at my local library. Apparently one of our librarians loves Stephen King!
I haven't read much of Stephen King's books, but generally they aren't my cup of tea. This book, however, I very much enjoyed.
The two "main" characters, Mike and Ben, are sympathetic and interesting and foil one another well during the town's down-spiral. The parallels to Dracula are poignant and at times self-referentially funny: at one point a main "good guy" says of another, "Doesn't he remind you of Van Helsing?" Matt, Susan, Dr. Cody and Father Callahan are also intricate and interesting characters, Callahan being my favorite because of his hilarious brand of liquor-induced sarcasm.
Susan plays the part of both Mina (in relation to Ben) and Lucy (in relation to Barlow); Ben, both Johnathan and Arthur; Matt, Van Helsing and Quincy; Dr. Cody, Seward (obviously) and Arthur; which I suppose leaves Straker as Renfield. It's a very interesting combination and parallel system.
The dynamic between Straker and Barlow is particularly interesting, because it's left ambiguous as to what Straker planned to recieve from the relationship. Immortality? He certainly waited a long time for it, if he was ever going to get it in the first place.
I loved the chapters marked "The Lot", where King would go through the daily lives of everyone else in town. The first one was interesting in a small-town, highly regimented sort of way: it felt like they were the sort of people that had sleepily resigned themselves to a routine, but a lot of them took pleasure in it, anyway. There were a lot of secrets and pain behind closed doors, but that gives the world a lived-in sense of reality: everyone has those. As the vampires began to take over they became more sinister.
The pace, while slow for the first two and a half parts, becomes frenetic in the final act. I suppose my only complaint is that I felt the first two acts took TOO much time getting going. The amount of time it took for certain characters to convince others what was going on was spot-on.
It made me want to pick up more by Stephen King!
So I'm going to attempt to go through my re-reads and new acquisitions, and post reviews accordingly.
Currently reading (as of May 9th): The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft, The Odyssey, and a book on the Philosophy of Twilight - yes PHILOSOPHY OF TWILIGHT. I saw it at the library and I just had to. I HAD TO. The Breaking Dawn essays had best be delightfully full of crack or the venture is DAMNED.
01. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Part of my attempt to read all the classics.
I ADORED this book. At first, I was really put off by the rambling tone Vonnegut used, and the way it was broken into quarter-page sections marked off by stars, until I got to the twist half-way through: the main character was abducted by aliens that don't experience time as a fixed point but a constantly occuring thing - that every moment you've ever lived is happening at every moment of your life. Very interesting stuff.
So the character will fall asleep with his wife in his 40s and flashback to the war, actually living his life out of sequence, but in a way that in the later sequences, he remembers everything. It was a fascinating idea.
I would definitely recommend it - it's a short, quick read due to it's pacing, but very interesting.
02. Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueine Carey
This was a re-read. I ADORE the Kushiel's Legacy series (at least, the original trilogy that I've read so far), and I got these for my birthday last year but hadn't re-read them yet.
I don't want to go too loopy over these things, but they're fab. I love the characters: Phedre and Joscelin, poor Alcuin and Delaunay, Hyacinthe! (SOB), Ysandre de la Courcel and Drustan mab Necthana ... even Melissande and the other morally-ambiguous people who start wars and ruin the lives of the D'Angelines.
The premise is interesting: like Phillip Pullman and his system-of-parallels universe in the His Dark Materials series, the world Carey spins IS our world ... just pumped up with a bit more fantasy. The main characters are all D'Angeline - that is, from Terre D'Ange, which is basically France - and they have dealings over the course of this book with the Picts in Alba and Eire (England and Ireland) and the Skaldi warlords in Skaldia (Russia). The later books expand the universe, the third even going to Northern Africa ... the Carey-verse name of which escapes me at the moment.
I highly recommend them as a good political fantasy - which I love - but there's a very important warning inherent: the books are highly sexual and involve a lot of BDSM, because Phedre is a fabled anguisette - a woman who feels pain and pleasure intermixed with one another. She uses this position to infiltrate society and learn of political machinations. And then Jocelyn shows up as her protector and they're left bickering throughout eternity. :)
03-05. Four Comedies - William Shakespeare, Bevington Edition
This was for my Intro. Shakespeare class, and I didn't read all four of them, but I did read:
The Taming of the Shrew: I liked it, but Katharine never seemed amazingly shrewish to me: she spends a lot of time trying to protect her sisters virtue and trading wits with anyone who tries to cross her, which I like. The man she marries, Petruchio, "tames" her by being a complete and utter douchebag, to the point where she doesn't even bother fighting him anymore, she just agrees with him to make him shut up. YMMV, and I understand that Elizabethan couples would have NEVER married for love, but it doesn't seem like there's so much enjoyment of one another in the match but ... resignation? All in the name of Petruchio's friend, Hortensio, marrying Katharine's sister Bianca, who falls in love with Lucentio and marries him instead. Oy.
A Midsummer Night's Dream: I really liked this one. In fact, I picked it for my scene performance. I played Bottom in Act 3 Scene 1, and for those of you who have read this one, that will mean something! The rulers of the Fairies, Oberon and Titania, are fighting over a changeling boy Titania refuses to give to Oberon. He and his aide Puck scheme to magic her into falling in love with something ridiculous, come across the four dueling lovers int he woods, magic the wrong ones, and hilarity ensues. Titania mooning over donkey-headed Bottom mid-play is really hilarious, and I love all the puns written into the characters of the tradesman-cum-actors, especially in the performance they put on in the last act.
Twelfth Night: This is one of two plays that I constantly confuse (the other is, As You Like It), because both feature siblings, one woman and one man, wherein the woman dresses up like the man and no one notices, and then someone accidentally marries the brother thinking they are the woman. I like them both, but for differing reasons. In Twelfth Night there's a lot of discussion of class and social climbing, or the lack thereof inherent in Elizabethan society, so there's a lot of humor (and horror) in the scenes with Malvolio, Maria, and Sir Toby Belch. It's so fab as a lesbian to watch this acted, because you get to see the sexual tension between Olivia and Cesario (who is actually Viola), as Olivia falls in love with "him" and Cesario tries to dissuade her while simultaneously trying to snare Orsino, the man whom she serves under AND who is interested in wooing Olivia. Every Shakespearean comedy is a delightful clusterfuck of romantic entanglements. :)
For future reference, the one I didn't read was The Merchant of Venice.
06 and 07. Four Tragedies - William Shakespeare, Bevington Edition
Same as above, and I only read two, namely:
King Lear: Oh, man, King Lear. Shakespearean tragedy hinges on a tragic mistake the main character makes, and in King Lear it seems to be Lear's splitting up of his kingdom: it's what causes the bastard son Edmund (it's always a bastard son) conspiring against his father and legitimate brother, Edgar, for power along with seducing two of the royal daughters to ascend in power further; it's what creates the rift between Goneril and Regan, and the rifts therein between their husbands; it's what causes bloody civil war and over half the characters to die in the end. That's the interesting thing about Shakespearean tragedy: the down-spiral into complete suckitude for everyone involved at the behest of one, usually small, misstep.
Macbeth: OH MACBETH. If he just hadn't listened to the Weird Sisters, or - perhaps - thought harder about what they were REALLY telling him, maybe everyone wouldn't have totally died in this one, too. This is the play famous for both being ill-luck when it's namesake is uttered on stage, and for the "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble" scene. In the beginning, I hated Lady Macbeth, because she was the real driving force behind the murder while Macbeth was having cold-feet. Then, we see her sleepwalking, berating herself, and compulsively washing her hands later in the play, and we understand that it tortures her as much as it does Macbeth, she's just far less existential about her pains.
Hamlet: I read this is high school and loved it, but I can't say much for the storyline because that was more than five years ago. It deserves a re-read. :)
The fourth story in this collection is Othello, of which I believe I've seen a film adaptation, but I've never read the actual text.
08. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
I've never been much for Regency romance, and so I've never picked up an Austen book. When I realized someone had added Zombies to Pride and Prejudice, well, what's better than zombies? I picked it up as soon as I could.
It was ... interesting. It's hard trying to understand what sort of interest Elizabeth Bennet would have for a reader WITHOUT the addition of ass-kicking zombie slaying, ninja fighting, and constant talk of ripping out hearts and the like. It made sense that her and Darcy would bond over something that sets them apart from most of the society.
Having said that, the love story between Elizabeth and Darcy moved at a sloth's pace: at times, I even forgot that it was happening, though I did enjoy their constant bickering at the beginning: I'm a sucker for the Foe Yay and Belligerent Sexual Tension tropes.
There's been a lot of kerfuffle over Darcy beating Wickham lame on the internet, and how that's an example of the author using crippled people for laughs. I'm not really sure how I feel about that. As a system of punishment its barbaric, but the cruelness of it is very Darcy, and I felt like THAT was what was funny, if anything: that everyone was lauding Darcy for helping them out, when he actually beat someone near to death. Its very ridiculous - who would actually do that in real life?
It's also interesting to note that the narrative tries to persuade that Wickham and Lydia should be seen as despicable characters: Wickham for being a philanderer and a gambler who lives well beyond his means and has been generally cruel his whole life, and Lydia, interestingly, for being excessively Regency - giggly and boy-obsessed and grandiose in her needs, as well.
09. Twilight and Philosophy - William Irwin(series editor), Rebecca Housel and J. Jeremy Wisnewski(editors)
Twilight and Philosophy was an interesting read, but moreso for the philosophy than for the Twilight analysis.
For starters, I liked that the book wasn't entirely filled with essays either pro or con in regards to the books, but a healthy mixture of both. It's almost completely half - the book clearly changes tone starting with Naomi Zack's essay.
Also, it seemed that the pro essays used more actual philosophy in their essays, as opposed to cultural anecdotes, quotes from other popular authors, or comparisons to Sarah Palin. I believe there are at least three essays in the book that bring up Sarah Palin, apparently because she mentioned Twilight in one of her campaign speeches?
I think the most well-written essays are Jean Kazez's "Dying to Eat: The Vegetarian Ethics of Twilight" and Marc E. Shaw's "For the Strength of Bella? Meyer, Vampires, and Mormonism". Rebecca Houssel has two essays in the book, and I liked "The Tao of Jacob" far more than "The 'Real' Danger: Fact vs Fiction for the Girl Audience." This is partially because I found the latter essay to be extremely polarizing: I admired her for being the only essayist in the compilation to address the abusive tendencies inherent in Bella and Edward's relationship, but I also took serious offense to the notion that our (read: MY) generation lives in a fantasy world where we don't understand or accept reality, and that is why we fail and have mental disorders. Apparently this explains our attraction to vampires.
What??? I know I don't speak for all vampire-loving girls, but I love vampires because they represent the other in society: those people that live on the fringes because they are inherently different are a great metaphor for being a teenager, because that's what it feels like. Not to mention the sexual metaphors inherent in a supernatural figure stealing into your bedroom to bite (read: penetrate) you and drink your blood. :)
Perhaps this is why I sought out essays on Twilight in the first place?
10. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
I picked this up for the One Book, One Twitter event, and also because I've been following Neil Gaiman on Twitter for eons now and still hadn't read anything that he'd written.
This book was really enjoyable. I loved the idea that even if Gods weren't currently being (knowingly) worshiped, they were still floating about the world, brought into new lands by settlers long ago and set adrift when their worshipers disappeared. I also really liked how there were different versions of each God for each country (a la Odin in the narrative), as if the human consciousness carried the idea of the God with them, thus giving birth to new Gods in America.
Shadow as a main character was fairly sympathetic. I thought it was interesting that he was so chill - he went along with a lot of odd things throughout the narrative, asking little to no questions and just assuming everything would turn out right. When he started to understand the gravity of the situation he became a bit more passionate, which mirrored the sub-plot he had with his wife Laura insisting he was "alive but not living".
The twist - and, yes, there's a twist - to the end of the main plot was surprising. I definitely wasn't expecting it. Looking back on the story as a whole, it made a certain amount of sense from the end-game, but it felt like it could have used more build-up to the twist over-all.
11. On Writing - Stephen King
I've never been much for Stephen King's books. I've seen many of the movies and TV adaptions over the years, but I've only read The Regulators, which was interesting but not enough so to spur me to read the companion book Desperation; and The Shining, of which I much preferred the streamlined Kubrick movie - the part in-novel with the animal topiary moving behind the antagonist when he wasn't looking was a bit silly, even for me. And the way the movie ended, I felt, encompassed the narrative better than the novel.
Having said this, I've always admired his ability to write mainstream fiction, and write it well. He has a lot of ideas and all of them are interesting. This is just as clear in On Writing.
I really loved the first part - his memoir on his life in writing. As a writer, I took comfort in some of the kinship between his early life writing and mine, and there are a lot of things within it you can commiserate with. My personal favorite was his discussion on setting the characters in a situation and letting them deal with it how they want. That's got to be one of my favorite parts of writing: letting the characters knock around and surprise you.
The middle section is the nuts-and-bolts part of writing: read and write a lot, grammar and word choice (but not too much, mostly use what you know and don't try to sound too fancy), basically sound advice one finds through trying to write but bears repeating. In a way it's nice to know a prolific and acclaimed published author goes about things the same way we unpublished internet writers do.
I didn't know that he had been hit by a car during the writing of the book, so the third part was really interesting to me, from a voyeuristic standpoint as well as a written one.
I ADORED the "Furthermore, Part I", because it really showed me - for the first time in my life, I think - how it is that someone goes about chopping down their first draft. I, like King, am a notorious "putter-inner" - I add and add, from a desire to do good by the story and the world I'm creating, but in effect cluttering things up and confusing the reading with too much description. "Kill your darlings," he repeats often, and there really isn't any lesson in writing harder or truer than that. Reading the first draft of The Hotel Room (later to become 1408), I thought it was a nice story and couldn't see much wrong with it ... until we got to the second draft. All the strike outs and add-ins seemed intimidating at first, but his step through it really helped me understand how cutting down the unnecessary - in effect, diluting the story to it's base elements -- assists the narrative in a way nothing else really can.
There are very few books that I decide to purchase after reading at the library (which is where us poor college kids have to get most of our books) but this one is a definite keeper.
12. Anno-Dracula - Kim Newman
Anno-Dracula is an interesting re-imagining and continuation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but also a tale of political intrigue and a murder mystery, and a homage to history and famous literary characters all wrapped in one narrative. And with vampires, of course; lots and lots of vampires.
I adored the specific subplot surrounding Jack Seward, whose analytical recording transcripts in the original Dracula were always my favorite entries, next to Mina's. The folding in of Jack the Ripper from history gave the tale a richness that only an anchor in actual history can provide. Suffice it to say Jack was my favorite character in the novel.
It was interesting to see how the others of Van Helsing's group were affected by the failure that spawns this story, and the loss is evident to the reader in each of them, even those characters who have convinced themselves they are happier as they are now. In narrative, Beauregard puts it beautifully: "Between them, the Prince Consort [Dracula] and the skull on the pike [Van Helsing] had to account for a great deal of human wreckage."
As much as I enjoyed the two main characters on their own, I personally object to the union of Genevieve and Beauregard. I think they could have been a great example of opposite-sex partners just being good buddies and not romantically involved, which we don't see a lot of in modern fiction.
It was amusing seeing other literary characters popping up as the narrative continued: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Moreau, Inspectors Lestrade and Mackenzie, just to name a few. It's written in such a way that, if you know the characters from other novels it makes you smile, but if you don't you can enjoy the characters as they are within the narrative without necessarily needing to know that backstory.
I would recommend this for fans of horror or Dracula specifically, as the narrative was fun and created an interesting world to live in for the duration of the story. The ending was superb. However, I would have liked to hear more from the "dregs", as it were: the young vampires targeted are only represented by Nell and Mary Jean Kelly, or briefly described by other characters.
I actually found this at my local library, so do give that a shot if you are having trouble finding it.
13. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
Just another re-read. I'm sure I've reviewed this one before. I am hoping to read "Order of the Phoenix" before Mark finishes the movie, so I can read Deathly Hallows along with him in preparation for the movie.
14. Soulless - Gail Carriger
I've heard amazing things about this book from friends, so I picked it up from Amazon in a bulk book order.
I absolutely love the main character, Alexia Tarabotti. She's spunky, she does what she wants, she's witty and smart and capable. Not often do you see a woman like this a Victorian setting, but this is another reason why I really love the Steampunk genre. Lord Maccon is hilarious, as well, and I love the understated but formidable strength his Beta, Professor Lyall. Her friend Ivy with the hilarious hats is fun, though a tad underdeveloped so far. Lord Akeldama cracks me up - I love his friendship with Alexia, and how Lord Maccon tends to look down on it.
I love the "Our Vampires are Different" and "Our Werewolves Are Different" tropes because I read so much vampire/werewolf/general supernatural lit, and I like to see creativity and variation. The addition of soulless humans as a deterrent against supernatural energy gives these books a delightful edge and a quality of newness to them.
I hadn't realized it was a romance novel when I started it, so the hard and fast romantic involvement between Maccon and Alexia startled me a bit. But all the hot and heavy sexual innuendo - and action - smack dab in the middle of Victorian social mores was HILARIOUS.
I also loved the way she interacted with her family, especially her flighty sisters and her mother. And how her mother always suspected the worst of her - I think the phrase "brazen hussy" (which is hilarious on its own) is used about four times.
It's a light read - not too easy but not too muddlesome either. It's fun, and nicely paced, and the characters are multifaceted, whith the possible exception of the "villains" (save for one character in particular) who are obviously villainous. Having said that, they are villainous not because they are "evil" per se, but because they are doing horrible things in order to bring about a world they think will be better. That is always better than villains being evil for evil's sake, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm eagerly awaiting the chance to read the next book in the series, Changeless.
15. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
If I'm not mistaken, this was recently made into a critically poor movie, but I heard such good things about the book in comparison. I also can't seem to find a copy of the first issue of Sandman locally, which is the Gaiman work I'd most like to read next to Coraline, so I reached for this.
At first, I was a little thrown off by the tone of this book. I had expected, coming from American Gods, for this to have a more adult tone. Instead, it reads like a fairy tale: simplistic words (in general) and clear-cut concepts laid out in short, manageable sentences. It's really remarkable how effortless it sounds as you read it, while I'm sure the editing process (and the writing!) were very difficult.
The characters are very interesting and in-depth for a fairy tale. The hero, Tristran, goes on a typical hero's quest to win the heart of his True Love ... which is hilarious by the end of the book because the whole time he assumed he knew who his true love was when he didn't. It's very Macbeth and the Weird Sisters - Faerie people are always telling him things and giving him clues, but he interprets them wrong at the time. Kind of like most people are apt to, I suppose. Yvaine is hilarious - she's so surly and argumentative and confrontational. Not that she doesn't have a reason to be considering what happens to her, but historically fairy tale women are demure and polite, and simpering, and good to the core. This way is much more fun!
The subplot with the Lord of Stormhold and his sons was really well written - I loved the imagery of the slain brothers following around those who were still alive, and then welcoming the ones who died later into their fold. And I laughed out loud at the way the storyline was concluded - pay attention to the little details along the way and you might figure it out first!
I would very much recommend this book, and at some point in the future I'd like to see the movie version, to compare with the book. I'd like to know how bad is bad. :)
16. 'Salem's Lot - Stephen King
This was actually in a recommended section at my local library. Apparently one of our librarians loves Stephen King!
I haven't read much of Stephen King's books, but generally they aren't my cup of tea. This book, however, I very much enjoyed.
The two "main" characters, Mike and Ben, are sympathetic and interesting and foil one another well during the town's down-spiral. The parallels to Dracula are poignant and at times self-referentially funny: at one point a main "good guy" says of another, "Doesn't he remind you of Van Helsing?" Matt, Susan, Dr. Cody and Father Callahan are also intricate and interesting characters, Callahan being my favorite because of his hilarious brand of liquor-induced sarcasm.
Susan plays the part of both Mina (in relation to Ben) and Lucy (in relation to Barlow); Ben, both Johnathan and Arthur; Matt, Van Helsing and Quincy; Dr. Cody, Seward (obviously) and Arthur; which I suppose leaves Straker as Renfield. It's a very interesting combination and parallel system.
The dynamic between Straker and Barlow is particularly interesting, because it's left ambiguous as to what Straker planned to recieve from the relationship. Immortality? He certainly waited a long time for it, if he was ever going to get it in the first place.
I loved the chapters marked "The Lot", where King would go through the daily lives of everyone else in town. The first one was interesting in a small-town, highly regimented sort of way: it felt like they were the sort of people that had sleepily resigned themselves to a routine, but a lot of them took pleasure in it, anyway. There were a lot of secrets and pain behind closed doors, but that gives the world a lived-in sense of reality: everyone has those. As the vampires began to take over they became more sinister.
The pace, while slow for the first two and a half parts, becomes frenetic in the final act. I suppose my only complaint is that I felt the first two acts took TOO much time getting going. The amount of time it took for certain characters to convince others what was going on was spot-on.
It made me want to pick up more by Stephen King!