Tag: Class

2012 Challenges, Books

Book 92: A Clash of Kings – George R.R. Martin

Geoff W

Wow. What more can I say? Book two of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire cycle and although this novel wasn’t as captivating as A Game of Thrones, it was still a fascinating and entertaining read. As with A Game of Thrones I am using A Clash of Kings for two challenges – checking in at over 750 pages it is book two in my 2012 Tea & Books Challenge and as I bought it in 2011 with birthday money I’m also tacking it on to my 2012 Mount TBR Challenge.

As with the first novel in the series, so much happens in A Clash of Kings that it is hard to summarize or even review. Suffice to say that enough happens within this one novel that could fill three or four novels. You never know who is going to die or switch allegiances next; you never know where the next chapter will take you; and you can never 100% feel like you know who is who they say they are or where they’re from.

THERE ARE (a few) SPOILERS FROM A GAME OF THRONES. So if you plan on reading the novels scroll down to the recommendation to avoid them.

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2012 Challenges, Books

Book 91: A Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin

Geoff W

A Game of Thrones is the first book in George R. R. Martin’s Epic fantasy cycle A Song of Ice and Fire. Projected at seven novels, the fifth novel was published in 2012. I guess you could say I jumped on the bandwagon with this one, but I don’t feel at all guilty about it as I grew up reading Star Wars and Dragon based fiction, so I like to think I’m returning home after a long break. I’m also very excited to check out the HBO adaptation of the novel having finally read it.

I honestly didn’t think Martin would be able to draw me in as fast as he did, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for pre-modern technology worlds with knights and royalty and assassinations and intrigue. There was not a lack of action or adventure in this novel and it made it a quick read even though it clocks in at just around 675 pages. And as such a tome, it is the first novel I’ve read in the 2012 Tea & Books Challenge. It will also be tacked to my 2012 Mount TBR Challenge list as I purchased it in the last week of 2011 with birthday money, but I’m still hoping to read the other 25 novels on that list. Now on to my reaction (I’ve realized I rarely actually post reviews).

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Books

Book 69: The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri

Geoff W

A friend in undergrad recommended I read this novel and I’m sad it took me this long to read it. The Namesake is one of the most beautifully and eloquently written novels I have read this year, if not ever.

There is something so simple and yet strikingly intricate in Lahiri’s prose. I can only compare her to the lyrical like prose I’ve read from many Irish authors. I found myself repeating sentences in my head because of their artful construction. The foreign names, foods, and customs interwoven with the familiar places and customs created a story I couldn’t put down. I’ve compared Jhumpa Lahiri to Jane Austen, in the ordinariness of what she writes and her style, and I stand by this, but it is the lives and deaths—the full picture, rather than the snapshot—at which Lahiri excels.

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Books

Book 68: Waiting for Snow in Havana – Carlos Eire

Geoff W

This book was both brilliant and boring. There were times when I couldn’t stop reading and times when all I wanted to do was abandon the book for another. Mostly I’m glad I finished it and hopefully it is one of those books that in a few weeks/months I’ll appreciate having read it.

I was excited about seeing Eire speak at the upcoming Boston Book Festival and I still plan on going to the panel, but I’m not as excited as I was. This isn’t the first book I’ve read that let me down. Leaving it on my list for so long without reading it, removed a lot of the luster and excitement from when I first found it and wanted to read it. Either way I can’t get my copy signed as Tom accidentally spilled water all over it and I had to check out a new version from the library to finish reading it (the main impetus in actually finishing it).

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Books

Book 64: Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

Geoff W

As I mentioned earlier I decided to bump this higher on my list as I missed a trivia question and realized how woefully lacking French literature (Classic) is from my lists and my life.

Having finished it, I’m not quite so sure it was a bad thing French literature was missing from my life. There were parts of the novel I really enjoyed, the romance, the passion, but there were parts that dredged on and definitely left me wishing Flaubert was a more concise writer.

This is of course the story of Madame Bovary (Emma – my trivia question was ‘ In which novel by Gustave Flaubert is Emma the protagonist?’) and her fall from grace. I would say it’s a story of lessons—Don’t live beyond your means; Believe in love, and don’t give into lust; and Never stop dreaming, but know where the line between dream and reality is. We follow Charles Bovary from his time as a young school boy through to his education and his first wife. His first wife dies and he eventually marries Emma, and the rest of the story is about their love (or lack thereof) and Emma’s search for extramarital love/life. The ending is sad, but poignant.

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