Tag: Love

2012 Challenges, Books

Book 98: A Dance with Dragons – George R. R. Martin

Geoff W

Well I finally got bored with the series, but I’m glad I read them (and will finish the series as they are released). The action within the novel was fascinating and the stories only added to the complexity of the overall world, but I wasn’t wowed or taken by surprise this time and that’s how it has been for the past three novels (last two more so).

The boredom wasn’t from the book being any less interesting or its length, but more the fact that I’m no really surprised. The first two novels had entire sections which left me breathless and the last three have had moments where I approached breathlessness only to be left wanting, such as what happens to Lord Snow, the discovery of what happened to the Maid of Tarth, and Daenerys’ dragon escapade. But even these incidents came across as trite, or even repetitive, in comparison to the shocking and sometimes disheartening actions of A Game of Thrones.

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2012 Challenges, Books

Book 89: Hood – Emma Donoghue

Geoff W

Hood is the first of the 40 books I’ve committed to in Reading Challenges for 2012. It comes from the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and it feels good to cross one book off those three lists. And as mentioned sometime in the past, this is one of the novels my boss brought in for me to read – and it was interesting, not sure I would want to talk about it with her – see my reaction in the last paragraph before the recommendation. But regardless, on to the review!

Written by the author of Room and Slammerkin, Hood is a moving story of love and loss. Taking place during the week of Cara Wall’s funeral, the reader finds themselves at the mercy of Pen O’Grady’s, Cara’s lover of 13 years, sometimes tumultuous, most of the time lacking emotions. Using flashbacks and the days of the week, Donoghue tells the story of Pen and Cara’s relationship while showing Pen’s coping (or lack thereof) with Cara’s death.

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Books

Book 85: Jo’s Boys – Louisa May Alcott

Geoff W

As the final novel I could not have asked for a better ending to the informal trilogy.

Another ten years have passed and Jo and Fritz’ school is now a college and the cast of characters ever widens. I definitely appreciated Jo’s Boys on the same level as Little Women. Whereas Little Men solely served as a bridge between the two and an introduction to the future brave and generous men of Jo’s Boys.

However, as with Little Men, Dan and Nan were my favorite characters. Nan continues to be a spitfire character and has proven she is equal to any man by going to medical school. She has to contend with Teddy’s lifelong adoration, but she takes it in stride. Dan is just as untamable as ever and has by far the most intriguing story of the lot. He comes from the lowest background and falls the farthest, but picks himself back up as well, providing a great mini-story within the novel.

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Books

Book 84: Little Men – Louisa May Alcott

Geoff W

I’ll confess that I am back dating this post. I finished reading this the third week in December, but never got around to posting a review. This is the case for Little Men and Jo’s Boys which I’m hoping to have posted by Friday.

As the continuation of Little Women I expected more from this novel, however as a middle novel in a ‘trilogy’ (they’re loosely a trilogy, and there are apparently a couple of others tangentially connected) I’m not too surprised with the mediocrity of the work.

The novel takes place 10 years after the end of Little Women, and all of our favorite characters make occasional appearances. The hardest part about reading the novel were all the new names and back-stories. With twelve additional characters to the numerous from Little Women it gets confusing. What I took from the story and truly appreciated is that forced learning never works, nor does solely classroom learning. I’m sure there were many other lessons, but this is the one I found most appealing.

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Books

Book 81: Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

Geoff W

There are few books that I finish reading and truly regret not having read them earlier in life, and this is one of them. However, I’m also glad I haven’t read it previously as I truly doubt I would’ve appreciated the story or the characters as much as I did.

I expected the reading to take longer than the last few books I read, but it didn’t. I discovered Alcott’s editors specifically requested a book for young women and this so she wrote Little Women.

I identified most with Jo, as I feel most people do but I could be wrong. Perhaps it is her often times uncouth and startlingly simple view of the world, of right and wrong, of black and white, but her character provides a great antithesis to all of the other sisters. And although she changes and has her own faults, to me, she shows the most humanness. And Alcott summed this up saying, “But, you see, Jo wasn’t a heroine, she was only a struggling human girl like hundreds of others, and she just acted out her nature, being sad, cross, listless or energetic, as the mood suggested” (loc 5977).

Click here to continue reading and to see the recommendation and quotes from the novel.