A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

It's a new semester! I'm in an American Realism class this fall, which is good for me because it's not really my go-to genre and I'll be reading all sorts of books I haven't read before. I'm excited to expand my horizons a bit! Starting off with a familiar friend, though, is Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It's been years since I've read this book. It's amazing the way a book can change from childhood to adulthood. When I read this as a teen I remember thinking it was funny. And it is funny. It made me laugh out loud and frequently share portions with Jon. What I never realized before is what seriously clever satire this is! As an adult I can see the commentary that Twain is making on his own society and the way romanticism is being attacked. It made me think twice (or thrice or more) about a few aspects of our own society. I really enjoyed this on every level, from intellectually to emotionally. I'm so glad that taking this class made me buy this book, because I think it's a must have for any library.

Mockingjay

*Spoiler free, so read on!*

You all know how long I've been anticipating this book. So... where to even start! Overall, my feelings are positive. I feel closure on the series. I feel acceptance. I feel like this book has changed the way that I think about war. Which, when it comes right down to it, is what this whole series is really about. The first couple of books may have made us think that this is a love story, but by the time we've all read Mockingjay we can see what it all comes down to: the horrors and emotional impact of war. This is not a fairy tale or a happily ever after type of story. Because of that, I have to say that I didn't love this like I wanted to.

I love the first two books and I really wanted Mockingjay to be a glorious ending, Harry Potter style, where all the bad guys get their trash kicked and hope and good reign in the end, despite the losses and pains of war. Instead, Suzanne Collins paints a non-fiction picture of the realities of war in a fictional world. I described some of the things that happen in this book to Jon (who has extensively studied politics and war), and he assured me that with a few technological differences, there's nothing in this book that hasn't occurred somewhere on this planet in the last 200 years. Real war, unlike fictional war, is extremely ugly. I've read some interviews with Suzanne Collins about Mockingjay, and she's said that her purpose in writing this is to teach kids and teens about the realities of war that adults won't tell them about. And maybe she has a good point. But here's controversial question: does educating people about war (horrendous as it may be) really help prevent war? Probably. But it's not fun.

I'll be honest, this book is emotional and brutal. People you love with die. People who you thought were good with do terrible, awful things. Emotional scars will never heal. After I finished reading it, Jon found me sobbing on the couch. I'm an easy crier, but still.

Despite all that, I do feel like this is a book worth reading. I've had to take a couple of days to mourn to come to this conclusion, but I have made it here. I've been going through the book and reading a few parts again, and that helped me see hope and love in the last few pages where I missed it the first time (blame it on shock from some of the horrific events of the climax). Suzanne Collins has created a detailed and multi-layered story here. This entire series is a journey that is not for the faint-hearted, but if you read it you will come out changed.

Princess of Glass

This is another sweet story from Jessica Day George. It takes the tired out Cinderella plot and reinvents it in a beautiful way. I can't say, though, that I loved it as much as Princess of the Midnight Ball. And maybe it's just because I read it after Mockingjay. Unlike, Mockingjay, Princess of Glass IS a fairy tale. No one you love dies a horrible gruesome death and everyone who deserves it lives happily ever after. After reading Mockingjay, this book was actually very soothing on my scoured raw emotions. But, I can't help it if I found Princess of Glass just a little bit dull in comparison. The romance also left a little bit to be desired. In fact, a quote from the 1995 Sense and Sensibility movie comes to mind...

MARIANNE

Can the soul truly be satisfied with such... polite affections?

That about sums it up. I just had a hard time believing that this was a story about true love when the characters seemed so young and so... politely friendly to each other. Anyway, just my opinion. I still think it's a fabulous young teen book.

Cecilia

I've been interested in Fanny Burney as an author since last semester at school, mainly because she's cited as being such a big influence on Jane Austen. I did a couple of big projects on her and now I feel like I know her life and her works pretty well. I read Evelina and loved it! Her other big three novels are Cecilia, Camilla, and The Wanderer. I've particularly wanted to read Cecilia and Camilla for a while, because Jane Austen writes about them in Northanger Abbey, using Catherine Morland to give a little speech on how novels were received at the time:

‘And what are you reading, Miss — ?’ ‘Oh! It is only a novel!’ replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. ‘It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda’; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best–chosen language.

So, now that I've read Cecilia, do I agree with Ms. Austen? I don't know...

It's not a bad book... for the first 500 pages or so. I really loved Evelina, but Evelina is also much shorter than Cecilia (about 500 pages shorter). Cecilia is 940 pages. Even Fanny Burney thought it was too long, but she was under pressure to release it and didn't have time to edit it as much as she wanted. Also, during the Regency era melodramatic literature was considered the best. While Evelina has some crying and fainting, it's minimal. Cecilia takes it to the extreme. I enjoyed the beginning of the story, but eventually it became too much for me. Cecilia is about a young and beautiful heiress who can only retain her fortune if her husband takes her maiden name as his own. The premise is interesting, but I quickly grew irritated with all the overly dramatic plot points. Fainting, screaming, crying, suicide, dueling, death, loss of fortune, and it goes on and on and on.

I can see now why Fanny Burney no longer resonates with modern audiences like Austen does. Austen pares down her stories to universally understandable situations and people. Burney, on the other hand, loads down her books with details and situations that are specific to her time period. That doesn't bother me too much because I've studied the period, but I don't really relate to these novels like I relate to something by Austen.

At the same time, I have serious respect for Fanny Burney. She had a knack for capturing each of her characters' individual voices and a knack for writing dialogue like she was writing a screenplay. She also had a serious gift with language and was good friends with Samuel Johnson (author of the first English dictionary), and my dear friend, the Oxford English Dictionary, cites Fanny Burney's novels often as the first use of many words and phrases we use today. And, there's no denying that, as Cecilia and Camilla are often cited as some of Austen's favorite novels, Cecilia influenced Austen. There are obvious parallels between Mortimer Delvile (proud, rich young man from arrogant family) and Mr. Darcy. And then there's the fact that most scholars agree the title Pride and Prejudice comes from a line at the end of Cecilia:

"Remember: if to PRIDE and PREJUDICE you owe your miseries, so wonderfully is good and evil balanced, that to PRIDE and PREJUDICE you will also owe their termination." (It really reads like that in the book too, with the bolded capital letters.)

So, to conclude this rather long book post, I'll just say that as an Austen/Burney nerd I found Cecilia worth reading, if not thoroughly enjoyable like Evelina.

The Hero and the Crown

What can I say? I loved it. After I finished it, I was completely unable to close it. I had to fight the urge to flip back to page one and start it all over again. Although I finished it several days ago, I keep sneaking it out of my library book basket to reread some of my favorite parts. It's also caused me to reread large chunks of The Blue Sword, searching for any mention of Aerin, Tor, and Luthe.

This is a brilliant book! Since it's a prequel to The Blue Sword and details Aerin's story (which is mentioned often in The Blue Sword), I thought I had some idea of what was going to happen and how it would end, but I was surprised over and over again. The execution is flawless and the plot is character-driven. I felt like I really knew Aerin and identified with her. I loved Harry of course, and I think that The Blue Sword is the best give-a-girl-a-sword book I've ever read, but Hero and the Crown held more emotional depth for me. Aerin is a little more vulnerable and uncertain of herself than Harry ever was, and as much as I'd like to be like Harry, I'm really more like Aerin. I can't believe I have never read this book before! I'm in mourning right now for all 28 of the past years I've lived without having read this book. It is, in my opinion, Robin McKinley's magnum opus.

If you're looking for adventure, magic, coming-of-age, an awesome female protagonist, romance (although I'm warning you now that there are some unexpected twists and turns in this department - some of which had me tearing up and/or slamming the book shut in frustration), lyrical writing, and overall brilliant fantasy, The Hero and the Crown is a must-read.

The Blue Sword

I've always loved Robin McKinley's Beauty, and in the last couple of years I've read other books by her that I enjoyed (Spindle's End and Chalice), so why is it that I've never read her Newbery winning The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown??? I don't know, but now that I've read The Blue Sword, I am a serious fan. This book has so much going for it! Awesome story, amazing detail, beautiful descriptions, well-realized fantasy, great romance, and one very cool heroine. I always love a strong female protagonist who doesn't always rely on everyone else to do things for her, but instead goes out and makes her own destiny. Harry (yes, her name really is Harry) is everything I love in a main character.

There are two questions I have about this book. One, why is it labeled as science fiction? I'm not seeing it. I'd say it's clearly fantasy. The other question I have is, why is this considered a children's book?? I thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult, and none of the main (or even minor) characters are children. If there's one thing that's made clear in this book, it is this one fact: Harry is a woman. :D That was a fun sentence to write. Anyway, Harry never acts juvenile, although her tale is sort of a coming of age story, except I see it more as a finding-yourself-and-your-place-in-the-world plot.

Whatever this book is, it's wonderful. It is now high on my list of books I intend to buy and recommend to others. I just started The Hero and the Crown this morning (it's a prequel to The Blue Sword) and I'll let you know how it goes!

Middlemarch

I always feel like giving myself a nice round of applause and a hearty pat on the back when I complete an 800+ page Victorian era British novel. I enjoy them, but they are a piece of work to read sometimes. Middlemarch is one of the more complex novels I've ever read. There are several plots going on at once, and it took a while to get into it and figure things out. There were also a few ultra long (and boring) descriptions on politics that I found myself slogging through, and I'll admit that I glanced ahead to see when things would get good again a few times and speed read through the worst parts.

But it was all worth it! This book is descriptive and emotional. By the time I got into it I was hooked. I was so personally invested in the characters' lives and stories that I had a hard time dragging myself away for such menial tasks as feeding children. I was so attached to one story in particular that I cried a couple of times (am I allowed to admit that on this blog?) and even *gasp* dogeared a couple of pages that I found particularly heartwrenching so I could go back and read them again later.

Like Dickens, George Eliot (who is a woman, by the way) captures the lives of people from a wide range of backgrounds. No one in the small town of Middlemarch is exempt from being affected by the main characters or affecting them in turn. The plot is woven together seamlessly. I have serious admiration for any author who can write like this.

There is a Middlemarch movie, made in 1994, which is waiting for me at the library. I'll let you know what I think. Even better, though, they are making a brand new Middlemarch which should make an appearance on Masterpiece in a year or two. Andrew Davies is doing the screenplay (1995 Pride & Prejudice, 1996 Emma, 1999 Wives & Daughters, 2005 Bleak House, 2008 Sense and Sensibility, 2008 Little Dorrit), so you can imagine that I'm very excited to see the results of that!

The Reluctant Heiress

My first two experiences with an Eva Ibbotson novel were very positive; I liked A Company of Swans and I really liked A Countess Below Stairs. After reading The Reluctant Heiress I have to say that I enjoyed it, but that I'm a little bored with the plot. It seems to be a pretty close duplicate of A Countess Below Stairs's plot, with the unfortunate problem of not being quite as good. That said, the setting was fabulous! I loved the descriptions of Vienna and the countryside in Austria. The protagonist of this book is a penniless princess who works in an opera company. I happen to love opera, and really enjoyed the descriptions of the various operas that played key moments in the plot, as well as the fun backstage look into opera productions. There were so many things going for this book... if only it had been a little more original!!! All the same, this book is a good clean romance and was a nice way to spend a couple of afternoons.

Charlie Bone... Take 8

Finally! The last Charlie Bone book!!! It's been out for a while, but there were so many holds on it at the library that I had to wait until now (particularly because I don't intend to buy it; not the biggest Charlie fan). I have such mixed feelings about this whole series. I felt like it had such potential. The plot does have interesting twists and turns. I think all the references to Welsh and African culture/mythology are very cool. Each book has ended on enough of a cliffhanger that I've felt compelled to read the next. And that's about the end of the positives.

Jenny Nimmo's writing drives me crazy. She's constantly introducing new complications to the plot and half the time she leaves them unresolved. And when she does resolve things, it feels hurried and sudden. She never spends time on what I want to read more about. I've always felt like she was in a hurry to just produce another book. Another point I take issue with is her character development. After 8 books you'd think the main characters would mature or gain some sort of depth... but they don't. They remain the same as they were in the first book. Irritating.

At least there are no more books coming out in this series. :D I know she's planning on writing another based on the same world, but I think I'll skip them.

Frankenstein

Ah, Frankenstein. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading this. Truly. I'm not much for horror, but this book is so great. I'm not saying that everyone will enjoy it, simply that I did. This book was the final thing I read for my British Lit class last semester and in a way it was a great accumulation of everything I'd studied over the semester. There were so many references to Mary Shelley's contemporary authors and their works in this book, that I'm sure if I'd read it before taking my Lit class I would have been thoroughly confused. Instead, I understood exactly what Mary Shelley meant in the plot when she referenced Percy Shelley's poems, Wordsworth's poems, Byron's life, Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther.

All that aside, this book has some good universally enjoyable qualities. It's really quite surprising. The plot is not what Hollywood would want you to believe. There's no gory horror. I found that the same thing is true with this book as it was with Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde: the plot is simple, symbolic, gripping, and open to interpretation. Thus, the many different variations on it by popular media.

This book carries some interesting and unexpected themes, such as how what you read affects you (the monster - who is unnamed, by the way... Frankenstein is the doctor protagonist - reads three books after being shunned by his creator and they each have a profoud effect on what he later becomes), the responsibilities of parenthood, the possibility that society creates its own criminals, the inner workings of outcasts, promethean science (do men go too far into that realm that belongs only to God?), and the fact that the monster is what any human could be if he or she let his or her emotions run wild.

After reading this book I couldn't stop thinking about it. There was so much to learn and digest from it that I still occasionally come back to it in my thoughts during those rare still moments. I characterize books like this as uplifting, a word I would never have thought I'd use to describe Frankenstein before reading it.