Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow

When I started blogging about the Top 100 I promised myself that I would actually read every single book on this list. That even if I didn't like the book, or it was boring, or it didn't move me (how's that for sentimental?), I would read it from start to finish.

Well, I seem to have run in to a slight hitch in that giddy-up. Ragtime is probably one of the most boring books I've ever read in my life...and I've read some pretty boring books! It was written in 1975, not to mention that it's set in 1901!!! I thought it had hope when there was some naughty bedroom action around page 60, i.e. girl-on-girl with man watching from closet!!!!! Shocking, huh?! Unfortunately for myself, and Doctorow (I'm sure he's real torn up about it!) that it wasn't shocking enough. I literally found myself dreading having to pick this book up and read it.

Bleck!

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

I finished this book with all the intention in the world to talk it up and tell everyone what a fantastic book it is...I can't even begin to put words on this page. FML!

I will say that I cried more while reading this book than I have reading any other book thus far on my journey of the Top 100. This poor girl had a horrid life, and she knew it.

On another note...I did read Virgin Suicides. If anyone has teenage daughters, might be depressed, knows anyone that has committed suicide or really doesn't feel like crying, I don't recommend reading this book. Don't get me wrong, it's a great book. But that's just it...it's almost too good. I felt like these girls were my friends and they slipped out from my grasp and left this world without my permission. ..

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Okay so this post is long overdue. I finished the book three weeks ago and have been slacking on getting my blog done.

I have to admit, when I decided this book would be next it was more so done out of sheer desperation to just get it out of the way. I've read it probably four other times!! Although I've always enjoyed this book, you can only read something so many times without getting burned out. However, as soon as I started reading, I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I just expected to read a boing book and be BORED one more time! That was sooooooo not the case...

Scout (which by the way, is my nickname to some of my family members) is hilarious! She's feisty, smart and doesn't back down from anything/anyone. Sounds like me!!

Moving on... I know this book was written a long time ago but it still amazes be the ignorance people have! Trust me, I know people are still like this, and probably will be forever, but it makes me sick when peoples' opinions are soley based on the ignorance. It's like saying you don't like chocolate ice cream without even having tried it!! (Okay, I totally stole that analogy from my mom.) And trust me, I LOVE chocolate ice cream!!!

The Finch family has hearts of gold... I can't imagine living during this time period and not knowing them. I think Jem and Scout (and Dill even though he's not technically a member of the Finch family) are the most inviting people in the novel. Even more so that Atticus and Calpurnia. The kids, although they are ...

Okay people, I started this blog weeks ago. I can't write about this book. I don't know why, no inspiring or moving or funny or just plain words are getting put down on "paper." Sorry...

Oh and by the way...

I really am reading To Kill a Mockingbird now. And at the rate I'm going, I should be done by next week!

Slaughterhouse 5...Finally!!!! - Kurt Vonnegut

I have found one word that can ALMOST describe my thoughts on this book...Vertigo. As per Merriam-Webster Online, the definition of VERTIGO is...a) a sensation of motion in which the individual or the individual's surroundings seem to whirl dizzily, b) a dizzy confused state of mind. Not only does Billy Pilgrim find himself constantly swirling through his thoughts, through time but also through life. Even when he is in one particular time, his mind is almost always elsewhere.

I have to admit, I think Vonnegut may have been experiencing vertigo when he wrote Slaughterhouse Five. And I say that with all the respect in the world! This book is amazing but I found myself reading two or three pages, then having to re-read them... Where is Billy? Or when is Billy? Is he on Tralfmadore? In Illium? Dresden? 1956? 1941?

Even with all the confusion experienced, I still found myself wanting to be with Billy. No matter where, or when, he was. His mind was almost spiraling out of control...but he always managed to keep the audience (whether it was the Tralfmadorians or the readers) intrigued and looking to him for new insight. What I couldn't understand is how Billy Pilgrim didn't end up literally, crazy?! I mean, one could say, yes, he's crazy alright! But wasn't what he was doing (time-traveling/escaping from reality) what we all want to do at one point or another? I wish, I soooo wish, that I could go back to high school sometimes and bitch-slap a couple people! Or go to the year 2021 and see if I really do write that book the psychic told me I would. Or maybe to the 1960's to see what all the fuss was about LSD.

My point being is that although Billy's mind was somewhat ignoring the reality of World War II, he made no apologies for it. In fact, he loved it! He even knew when, where and how he'd be killed. Which, btw, is after he's given a speech on flying saucers in front of a huge audience!

I just wish, that we, as Americans, and as humans in general, that we could be a little more like Billy freakin' Pilgrim!! Call him crazy, delusional and eccentric...but at least he's willing to let his mind wander and enjoy the time, whenever it is!

Oy vey

I started To Kill a Mockingbird almost a week ago... You wanna know how many pages I've read? 23! 23 pages in 6 days?!?!?!?! OMG...this is going to kill me! Gggrrrrrrr!!!!

On a side note, I did decide that I'll be reading Slaughterhouse Five next.

Top 100 Novels List

Top 100 Novels to Read Before I Die
- compiled from Modern Library Board & Readers, NPR and Time Magazine’s Top 100 Novels

Light In August, William Faulkner
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Deliverance, James Dickey
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
I, Claudius, Robert Graves
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers – September 11, 2010*
The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
The Sound and The Fury, William Faulkner
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
A Dance to the Music of Time, Anthony Powell
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh
A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul
American Pastoral, Philip Roth
An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
At-Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O’Brien
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
Go Tell it on the Mountain, James Baldwin
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
Howard’s End, E.M. Forster
Ironweed, William Kennedy
Loving, Henry Green
Lucky Jim, Kingley Amis
My Antonia, Willa Cather
Naked Lunch, William Burroughs
Native Son, Richard Wright
Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
Rabbit, Run, John Updike
Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
Scoop, Evelyn Waugh
Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
Sophie’s Choice, William Styron
Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
The Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen
The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles – July 26, 2010*
The Ginger Man, J.P. Donleavy
The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford
The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene
The Lord of the Rings (3 parts), J.R.R. Tolkien – August 21, 2010*
The Magus, John Fowles
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
The Recognitions, William Gaddis
The Sportswriter, Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, John le Carre
U.S.A. Trilogy, John Dos Passos
Ulysses, James Joyce
Under the Net, Iris Murdoch
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
A Coffin for Dimitrios, Eric Ambler
A Room with a View, E.M. Forster
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
City Boy, Herman Wouk
Dune, Frank Herbert
Fabulous Small Jews, Joseph Epstein
Finnegan’s Wake, James Joyce
Possession, A.S. Byatt
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
The Godfather, Mario Puzo
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead
Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
Seize the Day, Saul Bellow
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron
100. Killer Angels, Michael Shaara


*date novel finished

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers

This book is unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was curious if I'd even like this book...but I will treasure it forever!

Have you ever had so much to say about something the feeling left you completely speechless?! That's exactly how I feel about this book.

I felt like I was transported back to 1930's Georgia, like I was Mick Kelly's sibling, Dr. Copeland's patient, a patron of Mr. Brannon's and a friend to John Singer. I don't know how Carson McCullers could have possibly transported me to a mill town in Georgia (80 years ago!) but she did it!

I think I may have fallen completely and madly in love with Mr. Singer!!!!!!! Who cares if he's a mute?! Throughout the novel, he's clearly presented as the saviour for all of these people. At one point, four of his friends (all from completely different walks of life) are in his room spending time with him. This may not seem abnormal but when you look at who's there...it definitely presents itself that way. A 13-year-old girl, an older African-American doctor, a middle-aged drunk, and a middle-aged cafe owner (who appears to at some point have a very creepy crush on said 13-year-old girl! eewww!). Not only do these people find awkwardness within themselves but also amongst each other...they can't find anything to say. He becomes a sort of confidant/secret-keeper (haha, that's a Harry Potter word!) for all of them. Unfortunately, Mr. Singer has some unresolved issues of his own and doesn't have a shoulder of his own to lean on.

ACK!!!!!!!!! Now I can't think.....

The Lord of the Rings: Parts 1, 2 & 3

So the bottom line is this...a man-child (Frodo) is given a ring (the one to rule them all), by his Uncle Bilbo (who apparently is older than dirt's grandfather), and he must go to the depths of Mordor (eek! scary!) to destroy it. It's 1,068 pages of just that...a perilous journey for the 9 of Middle Earth.


J.R.R. Tolkien, however, turns it into a rollercoaster for the imagination. There are elves and dwarves, uruk-hai and orcs, men and hobbits! It takes place in the Shire, Gondor, Rivendell, Lothlorien, Fangorn Forest, Isengard, Mordor, the Mines of Moria! They use swords, arrows, axes and staffs to conquer their foes! How on Earth, or Middle Earth for that matter, could someone not fall in absolute love with these books?! It was a tedious journey for all those traveling from The Shire to Mordor AND for those reading of this expedition.


I'll be really honest here...I'm having a serious case of writers block! The two previous paragraphs were written about a week ago and have been part of a saved draft since then! Lol! Part of the problem is that I'd already read these books once before AND seen all three movies several times. Instead of being able to sit here and write about how great and detailed the books are all I can do is think of how much I would like to be Viggo Mortensen's wife! Don't judge! Ugh!!!!!! I won't leave this blog without having written a little bit though...

The Fellowship of the Ring was by far my favorite of the three parts! It has everything a story needs...a party, a coming together of uncommon people for a greater task, action and heartache. When Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin start out it's actually quite bo-ring! But, after meeting up with crazy Tom Bombadil things start to pipe up. The Prancing Pony is where they meet Strider (otherwise known as my future ex-husband Viggo Mortensen) and discover how perilous this journey really is. The five of them then set out for Rivendell where eventually the Fellowship is created. Joining them is Gandalf the Grey (a wizard, who has probably smoked more pot than any person EVER has...EVER), Gimli, a dwarf (who clearly has issues with his size), Legolas, an elf (who must see something we don't in a far off place) and Boromir from Gondor (my first ex-husband). As they travel they encounter orcs in the Mines of Moria (where Gimli's people are from) and then lose Gandalf to a balrog (a big, nasty, creature that would literally cause me to make a mess of myself)! They meet Galadriel in Lothlorien and she gives them some really cool stuff...most of which will come in handy later, especially those boats! HA! Anyway, after Boromir succombs to the power of the Ring, the group meets some really awesome (oh yes, I said awesome) uruk-hai and some more orcs. He ends up getting shot to death by a bunch of arrows and the Fellowship is pretty upset about it. Frodo and ... now this just sounds like a flippin' book report. FML!

This is just silly. I can't think straight...not...enough...coffee.

Okay, I think I'm done with this. Seriously.

Ooh, but I totally have a crush on Karl Urban who plays Eomer!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, the other two parts are called The Two Towers and The Return of the King. ;)

LOTR update

I read the first part of LOTR (The Fellowship of the Ring) in six days, the second (The Two Towers) in eight days. But it has taken me two days to read one chapter in the third (Return of the King) part! I don't know what it is but this third book is really freaking tough to get into! All I can picture is cutie-patootie Sean Bean (Boromir) getting killed with a bunch of arrows, the blond God Orlando Bloom (Legolas) staring off into space with those gorgeous eyes of his, and ruggedly handsome Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) slaying everything on his path to my heart! How will I ever make it through part three?!

In betweener

In the last nine days I've finished LotR: Fellowship of the Ring and started The Two Towers. I know that these books are one and of themselves but I'm only going to do one post about all three combined! And I promise you, it will be a loooooong post...so be afraid, be very afraid!!!! Eek!

Book #1 - The French Lieutenant's Woman

Okay, right off the bat I'm going to admit that I had to start reading this book three times. I started in March, couldn't get into it. Picked it back up in April, still couldn't get into it. Finally decided to try, try, try again in June, and finally succeeded. It was, however, touch and go there for awhile.


At first, I couldn't tell what in God's name I was actually reading about. Is this book about a French Lieutenant? Is it about his woman? Nope and nope! It's about the French lieutenant's woman's man with whom she sleeps with. Did that make sense to you? Don't worry, it didn't make sense to me either...at first. By page 60, I was consulting a Spark Notes character guide. I couldn't tell Mrs. Poulteney from Charles Smithson. But after writing all the major characters down, and referring back to the list quite often, I really got into it. By page 400, I didn't want it to end!


These people are just that...they're real people. I know, I know, they're really just characters in a book. But I really believe that their stories absolutely transcend time. Take Charles for example... He's a man who, although clearly engaged to Ernestina, almost immediately falls for another woman. He admits to himself that he should steer clear of the woman on the undercliff. But what does he do you ask? He intentionally frickin' walks down there!!!!!! What a jerk!! I mean come on, we all know that if you point a gun at your foot and pull the trigger, you're probably gonna get hurt! And then when he actually eats the cake?! Oh, whoa is me!! Yes, he admits that he made a mistake but it's almost like he admits it just so he doesn't get caught lying about it. And then he's upset that he's alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Poor Ernestina really gets the shaft! She is pretty young and naive but she knows what she deserves. I do, however, find it low-down and dirty that she had to get good ol' daddy involved when Charles ends their relationshit. She almost appears to be completely incapable of standing up for herself. When the question of living in Charles' uncles house is proposed, she does make it quite clear she would not like it. But then resigns to the fact that she probably doesn't have a choice. I know that in the Victorian era, gender roles were drastically different than they are now but she almost lies down and says, "Please Charles, walk all over me."


Sarah, oh Sarah, where has your sanity gone? You, fair maiden, are the kind of lady that Jon Bon Jovi sings about...you give love a bad name! First you lie about sleeping with the French lieutenant. Then you seduce a man, who you know is incapable of controlling himself (not to mention in a relationship). And finally, when that man finds you, after searching for YEARS, you basically throw dirt in his face and say "Umm, no thank you!"

All in all (haha...I always wanted to put that in writing, especially since we were ALWAYS told we couldn't!), Sam is probably the most "normal" person in the book. He knows his place in life and doesn't try to change it...until he finally realizes he deserves better! Can I get an A-MEN?!

Crazy for the Top 100

I think I might be crazy... Who, you might ask, decides to read the Top 100 Novels and then blog about them? I do, as a matter of fact! That's right people...I've compiled a Top 100 Novels list based on four other lists (NPR, Time Magazine and Modern Library's Board & Readers'). I intend on reading every single book on this list and telling you what I REALLY think about them. I don't care if my opinion offends anyone, doesn't make sense, or is just plain silly.

When I would read novels in my major courses in college, I did it out of necessity for a good grade. I HAD to write 10-page papers about this novel, 20-page papers on that novel. Now when I read, I can write two sentences in a blog that absolutely no one can grade me on. If no one likes it, I don't get an F. I get a complete sense of satisfaction knowing I can write whatever I want, my ideas can be wrong and I'm still forming a valid opinion of what I'm reading.

I can't guarantee the posts will be consistent, as my reading pace is quite slow. What I can guarantee is my complete honesty. So, continue reading...or don't.