So, I have been a terrible blogger this year. I started the blog with the best intentions and then life got in the way. I spent January though July taking classes in addition to my full-time job. Then I focused on work and a new relationship letting everything else take a back seat to love and money. I've read plenty of books. I've thought about blogging most of them. 2009 had me reading 30+ books and re-reading at least 4.
Quick list of 2009 reads:
Enemies and Allies by Kevin J. Anderson--Novel about Superman and Batman set during the 1950s. The two begrudgingly team up to stop the world from total destruction. 4 stars
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen--Classic chick lit. 5 stars
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith--The classic regency romance with added zombie mayhem. 4.5 stars
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters--More classic literary romance with some slimy, tentacled or clawed disaster. 4 stars
Persuasion by Jane Austen--Classic tale of a girl letting herself get talked out of love based on a mistaken emphasis on wealth and status. To my knowledge there are no plans to add vampires or ghosts. 5 stars
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen--More classic chick lit. Poor girl lives with rich relatives and finds herself between the two worlds trying to find love and happiness. Also no plans to add any strange apparitions as far as I know. 5 stars
The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery--French-American girl goes off to Japan and become separated from her family through fire and choice. Passes herself off as a Japanese lady's maid in a respectable teahouse. 3 stars
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte--More classic lit about two selfish people and their love for themselves and each other and their inability to function in their worlds apart. 2 stars
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown--Intrigue with a art history geek trying to solve the mystery, murder, and win the pretty girl. 3.5 stars
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown--Same hero as The DaVinci Code with a new mystery, murder, and pretty girl. 3.5 stars
White Oleander by Janet Fitch--Dysfunctional family at its finest. Plus a look into the foster care system through the eyes of a teen. 3 stars
Mary Called Magdalene by Margaret George--Novel of the possible and probably life of Mary Magdalene. Rich with history and a little possible blasphemy. 3.5 stars
Death of a Darklord by Laurel K. Hamilton--Weird novel filled with magic, zombies, and a witch hunter. 4 stars
Why Mermaids Sing by C.S. Harris--Murder mystery set in England. Part of a series. 3.5 stars
Chocolat by Joanne Harris--French lady opens a chocolate shop in a rural village and turns the town upside down. I believe I actually reviewed this one. 4 stars
The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson--Hilarious blasphemy. No way to really explain this. You just have to read it. 3 stars
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini--By the author of The Kite Runner. About 3 separate females and how their lives intersect in Afghanistan. 5 stars
A Widow for One Year by John Irving--Reviewed last January. About a family and how their actions impacted them and those around them. 4 stars
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd--Reviewed already. About a girl looking for her roots and finding them in unexpected ways. 4 stars
Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster--Snarktacular chick lit. 4.5 stars
Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster--More Snarktacular chick lit. 4.5 stars
Pretty In Plaid by Jen Lancaster --Less snarktacular but totally hilarious chick lit. 4.5 stars
The Host by Stephenie Meyer--Alien being inhabiting human bodies and a band of refugees trying to survive without detection. 3 stars
Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer (re-read)--Sparkly vampired and teen love. If you haven't already heard about Twilight; you're probably hiding under a rock. 4.5 stars
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison--Can't even really describe it. 3.5 stars
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton--Mystery about a lost child with amnesia trying to find the truth and her granddaughter who finally figures it out. 4 stars
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson--Non-traditional Patterson safe for the whole family to read. Daniel is an alien hunter with a few advantages trying to get revenge for the death of his family by killing the most dangerous aliens in the U.S. 3.5 stars
Swimsuit by James Patterson--Killer on the loose ravaging models. Sort of standard for Patterson. 2.5 stars
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath--Whiny, depressed, suburban girl. 0 stars
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks--Love story spanning a few decades about reconnecting with first love. 4 stars
The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner--Short stories about everyday women finding their Prince Charming. 2 stars
I also failed two books (Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift). I may try them again later but I have plenty to keep me busy right now.
All in all it really wasn't a bad year for reading. Despite a lot of happenings I truly read 2-3 books each month with a full time job and classes.
Here's hoping 2010 is even better.
Showing posts with label bibliophile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bibliophile. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Monday, November 16, 2009
Austen and Sea Monsters
One might not think of sea monsters as having a place in regency England. Much like Quirk Classic's zombies enriched the story of Pride and Prejudice the sea monsters have livened up Sense and Sensibility.
Another Austen tale of English ladies and their suitors has been altered thanks to the wonderful writers that Quirk Classics has managed to dig up. The original Sense and Sensibility follows the lives of the Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. When their father passes away the estate goes to their older half brother and his cold and selfish wife. The older Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters seek another home at a distant relative's estate and thus experience romance, love, and heartbreak.
Elinor is attached to Edward, the brother of her sister-in-law. She is also introduced to and courted by Colonel Brandon who is nearly twenty years older than she. Elinor thinks that loving and marrying a man so many years older is grotesque but does decide that being friendly with Colonel Brandon would be acceptable.
Marianne is swept off her feet by a wealthy adventurer after falling while out for a walk. John Willoughby is dashing and very similar to Marianne and many mutual friends believed them to be engaged.
Through the course of the story both girls have their hearts broken. One girl gets her happy ending after some turns of events take place, and another finds that what she thought she wanted was not correct anymore at all.
That's all that should be said in hopes of not ruining the book.
Sense and Sensibility is a little dry, much like most other books written in and around the 1790s. The story often lags on talk of money and how so-and-so has so many pounds a month and how no one could possibly wish to marry into so little amount and so on much like the talk in Pride and Prejudice. However, the story was definitely worth reading with its themes on emotion vs. sense, money, propriety, love, and many more. The ladies Dashwood and the gentleman acquainted with them all learned something by the end of the book, and the outcomes were suprising and in some aspects a little disappointing.
Now, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters used the same story line with subtle and not so subtle additions of tentacled beasts, water dangers, and facial disfiguration. In Sea Monsters, all places in the story are either near water or under water and many hours each day are dedicated to keeping sea monsters at bay. Estates were fortressed, weapons skills were mandatory, and traveling too near or over water was usually met with death by at least one character of little consequence. Instead of the Dashwoods traveling to London at one point they travel to an underwater city called Sub-Marine Station Beta. In addition to romantic intrigue, family drama, and sisterly bickering and love is the giant tentacled monsters and oversized lobsters out for human blood.
Sea Monsters, no matter how entertaining, loses something of the story when all changes were said and done. Colonel Brandon with a tentacled face, Willoughby as a treasure seeker, a lady competing for a gentleman's attention as a witch, and a sea creature large enough to disguise itself as land detract from the Dashwood daughters and their personalities and choices made.
In doing some research it can be found that though Pride and Prejudice and Zombies had 90% of the original novel's content with only about 10% additional content added; Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters started with only 60% original content with 40% added (source for Sea Monsters numbers, but cannot re-find the Zombie's numbers at this time).
In conclusion, whereas Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was worth reading because the integrity of the story did not change; the same cannot be said for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. In this case it is best to stick to the original.
Another Austen tale of English ladies and their suitors has been altered thanks to the wonderful writers that Quirk Classics has managed to dig up. The original Sense and Sensibility follows the lives of the Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. When their father passes away the estate goes to their older half brother and his cold and selfish wife. The older Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters seek another home at a distant relative's estate and thus experience romance, love, and heartbreak.
Elinor is attached to Edward, the brother of her sister-in-law. She is also introduced to and courted by Colonel Brandon who is nearly twenty years older than she. Elinor thinks that loving and marrying a man so many years older is grotesque but does decide that being friendly with Colonel Brandon would be acceptable.
Marianne is swept off her feet by a wealthy adventurer after falling while out for a walk. John Willoughby is dashing and very similar to Marianne and many mutual friends believed them to be engaged.
Through the course of the story both girls have their hearts broken. One girl gets her happy ending after some turns of events take place, and another finds that what she thought she wanted was not correct anymore at all.
That's all that should be said in hopes of not ruining the book.
Sense and Sensibility is a little dry, much like most other books written in and around the 1790s. The story often lags on talk of money and how so-and-so has so many pounds a month and how no one could possibly wish to marry into so little amount and so on much like the talk in Pride and Prejudice. However, the story was definitely worth reading with its themes on emotion vs. sense, money, propriety, love, and many more. The ladies Dashwood and the gentleman acquainted with them all learned something by the end of the book, and the outcomes were suprising and in some aspects a little disappointing.
Now, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters used the same story line with subtle and not so subtle additions of tentacled beasts, water dangers, and facial disfiguration. In Sea Monsters, all places in the story are either near water or under water and many hours each day are dedicated to keeping sea monsters at bay. Estates were fortressed, weapons skills were mandatory, and traveling too near or over water was usually met with death by at least one character of little consequence. Instead of the Dashwoods traveling to London at one point they travel to an underwater city called Sub-Marine Station Beta. In addition to romantic intrigue, family drama, and sisterly bickering and love is the giant tentacled monsters and oversized lobsters out for human blood.
Sea Monsters, no matter how entertaining, loses something of the story when all changes were said and done. Colonel Brandon with a tentacled face, Willoughby as a treasure seeker, a lady competing for a gentleman's attention as a witch, and a sea creature large enough to disguise itself as land detract from the Dashwood daughters and their personalities and choices made.
In doing some research it can be found that though Pride and Prejudice and Zombies had 90% of the original novel's content with only about 10% additional content added; Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters started with only 60% original content with 40% added (source for Sea Monsters numbers, but cannot re-find the Zombie's numbers at this time).
In conclusion, whereas Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was worth reading because the integrity of the story did not change; the same cannot be said for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. In this case it is best to stick to the original.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
New Purchases
I'm a horrible blogger, I know. I have been reading and I have been buying books though. I've just been a little wrapped up with work, sleep, and Netflix. :)
Recent book buys:
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (another QuirkClassics interpretation of Austen)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
My roommate has made a number of purchases recently too. I have a nice stack of things to read that she's finished already. I love that it's winter and I'll have more inside time to read too.
I hope to get my desk cleared off so I can sit and write a few reviews in the VERY near future. To anyone following, I'm happy you're here and sorry that I'm not a little more punctual with the updates.
Recent book buys:
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (another QuirkClassics interpretation of Austen)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
My roommate has made a number of purchases recently too. I have a nice stack of things to read that she's finished already. I love that it's winter and I'll have more inside time to read too.
I hope to get my desk cleared off so I can sit and write a few reviews in the VERY near future. To anyone following, I'm happy you're here and sorry that I'm not a little more punctual with the updates.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
I'm about one book away from tipping over my house.
I'm pretty sure that I've bought at least 20 books in the last two weeks (many of them on my 1001 Books list!). That in itself is not a bad thing, especially since I picked most up at Goodwill and yard sales. The problem is that I live in a trailer. I'm certain that if not for my roommate's boxes of books stacked against the wall in her room that my whole house would tip over towards the east. That would complicate my life a lot. I'm also perilously close to having no where to put new books. My big book case is full. I'm having to rearrange my 'pretties' into other places and smooshing them all together. Then my headboard is full of borrowed books. I have a stack of books on a corner of the bed. I also have library books on one of the end tables (so I don't mix them in with my other stuff and allow them to be lost). There's a book on the edge of the bath tub that I had intentions of started while immersed in bubbles and Eric Clapton on the stereo but I got caught in games on MyYearbook. Then there are either 3 or 4 books in my purse.
My name is Heatherly and I am a bibliophile.
My name is Heatherly and I am a bibliophile.
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