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Friday, August 04, 2006
books for July
Whoops, REALLY late with these. I kept completely forgetting except when I was away from the computer.
There were only three this month. Bold indicates first-time read, ratings out of five, yada yada.
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Vanity Fair -- William Makepeace Thackeray -- 4.5
- This is the reason there were only three books this month, by the way. This thing is HUGE. It's also very, very good, kind of like if Dickens and Austen had a child who grew up to write 900-page novels like his father, which I know was impossible because Jane Austen died (unmarried and hence childless) when Charles Dickens was only five, but whatever. Anyway. Picture Austen-style barbed social commentary and Dickensian characters and wordiness and there you have Thackeray. You also have Becky Sharp, a character who is supposedly One Of Literature's Best-Loved Heroines but who I found, quite frankly, like the similarly-lauded Scarlett O'Hara, to just be a conniving bitch. A really well-written one, but there it is, and I just can't admire her, no matter how tenacious and clever and whatever she was. And now I want to watch the movie with Reese Witherspoon even though I know for a fact I'll be yelling at the TV the whole time because that's just how I roll with movie adaptations.
By the way, this is subtitled by Thackeray "A Novel Without A Hero" and I almost agree. Becky's what I said she is and Amelia's a simpering, gutless little airhead, bless her heart, (*cough* Dora Spenlow *cough*), and most of the men are jerks, because hey, this is Vanity Fair here; we're supposed to be clucking our tongues over the emptiness and tragic waste and, well, vanity, in an Ecclesiastes sense, that is (was) 19th-century British high society. But Dobbin -- I could love Dobbin if I were a single young woman still prone to literary crushes -- lisp, gangly limbs, awkwardness, and all. Too bad he wasted his life pining over Amelia who would never in a billion years appreciate him properly and who only ended up with him at the end (oops, spoiler) because Becky, wanting to get rid of her and Dobbin so she could continue with her own devious schemes, told Amelia what a faithless loser Amelia's first husband had been.
Um, yeah. So. Good book. Coming soon at Librivox, too, and since I was reading it anyway I contributed a couple of chapters.
- This is the reason there were only three books this month, by the way. This thing is HUGE. It's also very, very good, kind of like if Dickens and Austen had a child who grew up to write 900-page novels like his father, which I know was impossible because Jane Austen died (unmarried and hence childless) when Charles Dickens was only five, but whatever. Anyway. Picture Austen-style barbed social commentary and Dickensian characters and wordiness and there you have Thackeray. You also have Becky Sharp, a character who is supposedly One Of Literature's Best-Loved Heroines but who I found, quite frankly, like the similarly-lauded Scarlett O'Hara, to just be a conniving bitch. A really well-written one, but there it is, and I just can't admire her, no matter how tenacious and clever and whatever she was. And now I want to watch the movie with Reese Witherspoon even though I know for a fact I'll be yelling at the TV the whole time because that's just how I roll with movie adaptations.
- Second Nature -- Alice Hoffman -- 3.5
- Good, but weird. Quirky, well-written, definitely not just your average chick book. I whizzed through this quickly because a friend lent it to me and said it was good. It honest-to-goodness is about a woman who falls in love with a man who was raised by wolves. Sersly.
- Good, but weird. Quirky, well-written, definitely not just your average chick book. I whizzed through this quickly because a friend lent it to me and said it was good. It honest-to-goodness is about a woman who falls in love with a man who was raised by wolves. Sersly.
- The Bad Beginning (I think this is the title -- first of those Series of Unfortunate Events books) -- Lemony Snicket, which is a pseudonym that bothers me with its obviousness -- 3.5
- At first I had a really hard time wrapping my brain around this book. Dark humor for children? I actually read this because the neighbor kids are always recommending this series to my kids, and since said neighbor children also luuurve Captain Underpants, I wanted to make sure that this was not something revoltingly objectionable. And it wasn't. Pretty well-done, actually, and tasteful, just... dark. And for kids. At the same time. The whole idea just struck me as kind of creepy. Who would do that? Then I went, oh, duh, Roald Dahl. Whom I love(d). OK.
- At first I had a really hard time wrapping my brain around this book. Dark humor for children? I actually read this because the neighbor kids are always recommending this series to my kids, and since said neighbor children also luuurve Captain Underpants, I wanted to make sure that this was not something revoltingly objectionable. And it wasn't. Pretty well-done, actually, and tasteful, just... dark. And for kids. At the same time. The whole idea just struck me as kind of creepy. Who would do that? Then I went, oh, duh, Roald Dahl. Whom I love(d). OK.
Comments
I always love your book posts :) I think you're the first person I've come across who has actually *read* Vanity Fair.
Posted by: Maria at August 5, 2006 12:30 AM
Okay, with your Dickens/Austen child thing you have catapulted Vanity Fair to the top of my To Read pile. (I'm finally reading Jane Eyre, by the way.)
Posted by: Kat with a K at August 5, 2006 04:33 AM
I LOVE The Series of Unfortunate Events! Of course, I love Roald Dahl, too. :-)
Posted by: thicket dweller at August 5, 2006 09:26 PM
I think the reason Scarlet was such a heroine (Almost forgot the e there, like I always do) was because she had such an amazing character arch. In the end, when all was said and done, she was no longer said coniving bitch, she had; in essence, become an optimistic, independant, willful woman. At least in the movie she did ;-) Hee, hee.
Posted by: jenn at August 6, 2006 06:43 PM
Also, I think the dark books for kids is a good idea for those who have had a less than savory childhood. Unfortunately that is a lot less rare than we'd like to believe. Kind of gives them something to relate to. I haven't read the book but I did see the movie (Of course I did, right?) and it wasn't as good as I had hoped. I would like to check out the book(s).
Posted by: jenn at August 6, 2006 06:45 PM
