Books

Book 80: I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip. – John Donovan

I finished reading this book last week, but wanted to take the time to digest what I’d read. I’m still not sure how to respond to the book. Having read the three follow-up essays in the novel, I have a better understanding of the time period, the groundbreaking place this book earned, and the seeming timelessness of the book and the story.

Written in the late 1960s and published just months before the infamous Stonewall Riots, I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip. was a quiet force for change in young adult literature. It was one of the first young adult books, if not the first, to deal with homosexuality. And I felt it did so with a softness and quaintness that is often missing in the hyper-sexual hyper-hormonal way in which teen sexuality comes across in today’s media.

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Book Group, Books

Book 79: Friday Night Lights – H.G. Bissinger

I thought Friday Night Lights was going to focus solely on football (like the movie) but it didn’t. It was about so much more.

I read this book as part of a new book group, Books into Movies, I found at my local library. The book group itself was interesting enough, regardless of the book read. It was a mixture of 55+ individuals and about four of us in our 20s/30s. One guy pontificated, one woman knit, and the rest of us just sort of meandered about. I’ll definitely go back as I enjoyed the diverse opinions and perspectives, but I also like the idea of comparing books and films.

Prior to reading the book, I knew nothing about the story other than the film and the film was incredibly stunted compared to the book. In thinking about the book and what it means, Bissinger provided a perfect description of the book,
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Books

Book 78: Inheritance – Christopher Paolini

What a fitting 50th book for 2011. Not only have I completed my ‘set’ goal for 2011, but I completed a series that has spent eight years on my various bookshelves across the East Coast and Britain. As with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a part of my childhood/adolescence has come to a close with the completion of the Inheritance cycle.

I first read Eragon as a first year at UNC Chapel Hill. I didn’t know what to expect, but I ended up enjoying it and was surprised someone my age had written the novel. Eight years later and I’m not sure how to feel about the end of the series. I have no doubts that Paolini will return to Alagaësia, he’s said as much himself, but I wonder if it will be worth it. Having reread all of the novels these past few weeks has highlighted that they’re still a great story, but that there is much that could’ve been done to make them better. But, on to my thoughts about this book in particular wish some musings on the series thrown in for good measure.

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Books

Book 77: Brisingr – Christopher Paolini

In what was originally touted as the final book in the trilogy, Brisingr neither disappoints nor impresses and serves primarily as a place-holder in the series. There are some significant plot moments and a plethora of new characters, but all-in-all the novel serves only to highlight the atrocities the Empire has committed and is willing to commit to remain in power.

It is in Brisingr more so than any of the other novels that readers see what Paolini is trying to do (whether he is successful or not I will leave to each reader). He has created a world and he now has to fill it. Not only is he writing the story of what is happening in the world, but he is attempting to enumerate the myths, legends, and histories of the various inhabitants of Alagaësia. Whereas in Eldest we learn of the elves, in Brisingr we learn of the Dwarves and Urgals (bipedal creatures with huge horns growing out of their heads, think minotaur, but less bull like).

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Books

Book 76: Eldest – Christopher Paolini

With Paolini’s second novel, Eldest, I begin to understand and even agree with some of the critiques people have of the individual novels. However, I remain disappointed in the generic critiques of the writing and the author, with disregard to the merits of the story.

This does not excuse the editing issues, or the monotonous detail driven paragraphs. In this day and age a book is no longer created by an individual. The myriad editors and staff (and Paolini’s parents) involved should have caught most, if not all of these mistakes/passages. To be fair on the publishing industry from what I learned in my copyediting class, they may have made the suggestions and Paolini rejected them, but who knows. Regardless, the story is a moving and fast paced epic which if you allow it draws you in to events bigger than any individual.

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