Tag: eBooks

Books

Book 67: The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Geoff W

I had no intentions of reading this novel, it’s not on any of my lists and it’s not like I don’t have 20 additional books that I’ve purchased over the past month. This is one of the drawbacks (or amazing qualities) of the Kindle. I’ve come to realize that the ability to make the text larger and not have to hold the book is awesome at the gym and on public transportation. The only drawback of the free ones are the none-to-exciting covers as seen to the left.

Throughout the novel I couldn’t help but comparing it to the 1993 film version which I loved and now desperately want to see again having read the work that inspired it. And I love the novel even more having spent two years in West Yorkshire.

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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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Books

Book 63: Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street – Herman Melville

Geoff W

This is my first introduction to Herman Melville. I don’t believe I’ve read any bits of Moby Dick, even though I know (as most people do) the opening line, “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago…” This is a novella so I wasn’t sure whether to count it in my total, but decided to as it was an interesting read, and probably a fascinating case study for Mellville’s mindset during the time, or the character Bartleby.

Melville wrote this, among a series of short-stories after publishing Moby Dick. Many believe he wrote this in response to his inability to follow-up with the success of the novel, and that it shows clinical depression through the character Bartleby.

At the heart of the story is Bartleby, who does not speak unless spoken to and even then only complied to requests of help/work during the first few weeks of his employment by the narrator. The way Melville told the story convinced me Bartleby didn’t speak English and only parroted the sentences which sounded like questions back to the narrator.

Click here to read the rest of the review and for quotes from the novella.

Books

Book 62: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters – Jane Austen and Ben Winters

Geoff W

This Quirk Classic was MUCH better than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I’m not sure whether it’s because this is their second ‘Mash Up’ (as Quirk calls it) and they were able to get some feedback after the first one, or if Ben Winters is that much better of an author than Seth Grahame-Smith.

There was a stronger maturity about this novel compared to Zombies. Although there were a few nods to impropriety in Sea Monsters as Austen herself vaguely alluded to in the original Sense and Sensibility, they were nowhere near as onerous or obtrusive as they were in Zombies. But what solidifies Sea Monsters as a better novel, is Winters removing it far enough from Austen, to create a cohesive (and believable) fantasy. There were no obviously disparate elements in this novel which stood out as much as the seemingly random zombies/Orient mash-up in the previous Quirk Classic .

Winter created a story which could stand on its own. There’s no need to have read Sense and Sensibility as most of the sea monster/nautical elements can stand on their own. I’m excited for the second ‘Mash Up’ Winter created, Android Karenina. Some one recently recommended Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter but I’m a bit wary as Seth Grahame-Smith, author of zombies wrote it.

Recommendation: Definitely read it!

Books

Book 57: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Geoff W

This was a so-so read. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I remember when it first hit the shelves and everyone obsessed over it. I sort of put it in the back of my mind as a to-read book, but never thought I would as I love Austen’s novels on their own and really didn’t know what to expect with the introduction of Sci-Fi/Horror elements.

Overall this probably would’ve been a better novel if Grahame-Smith were a better writer, or a writer with better mimicry skills. The added parts stood out like sore thumbs (aside from the zombie material) and got very old very fast. It wasn’t just the zombie introduction that tried my patience with the novel, but the introduction of the Orient, from warrior training, to dojo and ninjas, it took a potentially brilliant idea and completely mangled it. Rather than just introducing the zombies and working with the time period and culture, he brought in a completely different culture and mutated the novel from a satirical social commentary to a rather ho-hum humorous horror novel. I also didn’t appreciate the crude humor, Grahame-Smith took the hinted impropriety a step to far, but I guess that’s what’s supposed to make it a comical novel rather than just a horror novel.

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