Christmas Book-a-thon

It's been a very busy year for me.  The fall semester has been over for about a week already and I have yet to do much.  I think I just needed a breather.  This weekend I am doing a little reading catch up for the Christmas Book-a-thon going on this weekend.

Here's what I'm reading:

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull - Fantasy
I got this as a Christmas present from someone I am very close to.  It's one of her favorite series and she wanted me to give it a read, I'm already around 70% completed with it and I've only been reading it for about 2 days off and on. Read the majority of that today.  I will definitely finish this before the weekend.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - Dystopian
I finally got myself this entire trilogy...Well I bought my dad The Hunger Games since I won myself a copy when I went to go see the movie.  I bought myself both Catching Fire and Mockingjay in Hardcover. I just saw Catching Fire on Thanksgiving weekend with a friend and thought it wasn't too bad.  Now I remember why I wanted to read this one.  I just started it so I'm not that far into it yet...maybe about 4% done. Not sure if I will finish it before the weekend is over or not but I definitely plan to finish it before the year is through.  I've been wanting to read it, and since I now have it in hardcover (I actually got it as a gift for myself for getting straight A's for another semester), I will be trying to finish it as soon as possible.

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson - Whodunit (Mystery)
I'm really not understanding all of the hype around this book. I was expecting something magnificent but I'm struggling just to get through it.  It's not the genre that bothers me, but the way in which it is written.  The story feels dry and flat and more needs to be happening.  The most exciting part of this book is....well I don't want to spoil it for you, but lets just say around the middle portion of the book. I'm about 43% of the way through with it, but I've been reading it for a few months off and on when I've had time.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman - Witches
I saw the movie for this quite some time ago and had been wanting to read this book ever since.  I started this in October but found myself tapped for time so I didn't get to finish it before Halloween.  It's very different from the movie, and I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  Still, it's been sitting on my shelf since about the beginning of the year when I finally found a copy. I eventually aim to complete it.  I am about 42% done with this.  As you can see I jump around a lot and get halfway through books and then haven't really had the time to finish them. Let this be the weekend.

American Literature II [1]

Let me start by saying I'm a little behind on posting on here due to the fact that I have various books I have to read in my American Literature II class.  There are so many that I've read, I'd prefer to just post the ones I like, and thus this is what will be posted here.  I will be reading more stories for my American Literature II class and if any are worth writing a review about, I will come back and post another massive dump.  For now though, I hope you enjoy this review dump.

A ROSE FOR EMILY by William Faulkner
Genre: Classic / Horror / Mystery
This is a story about a woman who doesn't pay her taxes and who buys arsenic, for a purpose which is left up to the reader to decide.

What I thought:
I was expecting this to be a terrible read, having not read any Faulkner and having heard terrible things.  However, this story quite blew me away.  For being a short story it flows well and is very developed.  My only dislike is the fact that we never know why Emily buys arsenic, it's up to the readers interpretation of this.



Rating: ****/5

WINTER DREAMS by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genre: Classic / Romance
Not technically a romance, but I see it as such.  It's a story about a man who in his youth was a Caddy and later falls in love with a woman of whom he may never truly have.

What I thought:
I was quite bored at the beginning but this didn't last.  The story finally unfolds and by the end I felt myself feeling for the lead character Dexter.  I couldn't dislike it for the fact that it's a very painful thing, unrequited love.  It's one thing that can be most understood for certain people reading it.  I feel in a way that he was quite a strong character.

Rating: ****/5

WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
Genre: Classic
This is a book with various stories that all intertwine to create a larger whole.  It's about people called grotesques, and the meaning of grotesques in this book is basically along the lines of larger truths.

What I thought:
Some of the stories were dull and not something I would ever want to reread.  Not one of the best novels I have ever read.  I enjoyed some of the stories, and found myself coming to new understandings that are personal only to me.  I feel that anyone who reads this might, through a character's story, come to a new understanding of their own life or the world around them.

Rating: ***/5

THE OPEN BOAT by Stephen Crane
Genre: Classic
This is a story about men surviving a ship wreck by the only means they simply know how.  It's a story of their desire to survive, and their struggle to obtain freedom from the vicious natures throes, the ocean. 

What I thought:
I was expecting for this short story to be quite dull and boring but it was actually kind of interesting.  It didn't take me too long to read and I found myself wondering what was happening in it.  By the end I felt that the men had been more loyal to their captain than to themselves, sacrificing their lives for their loyalty in a way.

Rating: ***/5

DAISY MILLER by Henry James
Genre: Classic / Romance
This is a story about a woman who wants to live by her own rules, and a man who chases after her with love enveloping his very soul.

What I thought:
This felt like a shorter read than it was.  I burned through the pages like fire to paper. I felt connected to the man who loves Daisy, Mr. Winterbourne.  At first I thought he was kind of a douche, for a lack of a better word, but in the end I found myself feeling for him and his situation.  I felt like this is the beginning of a longer novel and was quite disappointed it was left so short.

Rating: ****/5

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain
Genre: Classic / Young Adult / Historical Fiction
This is the story of Huck Finn himself.  It tells of his drunken abusive father, and then leads us into his adventures after he escapes the coils of his father's shack.

What I thought:
This book started out as a 5 star review, but it slowly began to spiral down into a novel of lesser enjoyment.  I was expecting this to be one of the best novels I have ever read, but unfortunately, it wasn't.  I didn't find myself connecting to Huck himself, or the other characters really either.  By every chapter it was a new story, take from that what you will.  I felt like it was a bunch of stories that didn't really connect well to one another.  I'd have to say that I enjoyed the language and comprehension I got from this story more than from the story itself.

Rating: ***/5

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

Genre: Mystery / Gumshoe / Detective / Noir / Classic

This is a story about a detective named Sam Spade who is seen as a possible suspect in the murder of his partner Miles Archer.  He soon finds himself chasing after a black statue called the Maltese Falcon, while at the same time trying to clear his name.

Goodreads Synopsis:
A treasure worth killing for. Sam Spade, a slightly shopworn private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. A perfumed grafter named Joel Cairo, a fat man name Gutman, and Brigid O'Shaughnessy, a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. These are the ingredients of Dashiell Hammett's coolly glittering gem of detective fiction, a novel that has haunted three generations of readers

What an amazing novel.  I expected to like this after having read Red Harvest and enjoying it mildly, but this was freaking awesome.  It was only my second Noir novel, and no disappointments here. I was definitely not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. 

So why did I enjoy it so much?  Sam Spade is an excellent character based off of Dashiell himself, which probably is why it's so good because he knew enough about himself to write about his reactions. I found myself smiling, laughing, and contemplating as I read through this book, Spade capturing most of my intrigue.  He's the type of guy who lives by his own rules, and plays things quite by ear.  He seems to have a good understanding of the world around him and the events taking place before him. 

I couldn't for one second guess what was going to happen next. 

I haven't seen the movie for this, but I find myself wishing I could land myself a copy to watch after having read this.  I know it would pale in comparison to this novel, but that's besides the point. 

I absolutely loved the storyline.  It's basically a tale about a mysterious black falcon that various characters are after for the soul purpose of obtaining something worth a fortune of which nobody truly tells how much.  It was a story full of characters who were full of lies and deceit.

By the end of the book I found myself feeling like I understood Sam Spade down to his emotional bones.  This is by far one of my favorite books of all time.

It's been a while since I've come across any 5 star novels, and this one is by far one of the greatest I have ever read.

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

Genre: Classic/Romance/Lesbian/Fiction/Mystery



I can't say more than this is a story about falling in love so unexpectedly that your heart wants to leap right out of your chest, that it burns deeply within you, and that even water can't spoil the fire.

Goodreads Synopsis:  
Now recognized as a masterwork, the scandalous novel that anticipated Nabokov's 'Lolita'. "I have long had a theory that Nabokov knew 'The Price of Salt' and modeled the climactic cross-country car chase in 'Lolita' on Therese and Carol's frenzied bid for freedom," writes Terry Castle in 'The New Republic' about this novel, arguably Patricia Highsmith's finest, first published in 1952 under the pseudonym Clare Morgan.

Soon to be a new film, 'The Price of Salt' tells the riveting story of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose salvation arrives one day in the form of Carol Aird, an alluring suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce. They fall in love and set out across the United States, pursued by a private investigator who eventually blackmails Carol into a choice between her daughter and her lover. With this reissue, 'The Price of Salt' may finally be recognized as a major twentieth-century American novel.

It was brutal to read this book. It was as if I was seeing the world through Therese's eyes...Never knowing if Carol truly loved her until the very end. I felt myself wracked with emotions, from happiness to sadness; all the feelings that make up what it means to love. I feared at times, I would hate this book, but as I reached the end, I found that it's one of my most favorites. I only put it down once to sleep, then I returned to complete it as I awakened. I love it because it makes you feel what it means to love a person, truly and whole heartedly, even though at times you may not truly understand how deeply those feelings go. It reminds me that you can't run from what your heart wants, even if it hurts like hell. I recommend this book to anyone who fancies a story about falling in love.

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

Genre: Noir/Crime/Detective/Classic/Mystery

Red Harvest is the first book of a short series written by Dashiell Hammett called The Continental Op series. It's about a detective whose name I can't recall ever being mentioned within the course of this novel, perhaps it was mentioned just so infrequently that I didn't capture it. He's from San Fransisco and for some reason wants to stir up some mischief in a town called Personville, which keeps being called Poisonville. He finds himself in the middle of a crime he's sure he didn't commit...I'll let you read to find out what happens.


Goodreads Summary:
The Continental Op first heard Personville called Poisonville by Hickey Dewey. But since Dewey also called a shirt a shoit, he didn't think anything of it. Until he went there and his client, the only honest man in Poisonville, was murdered. Then the Op decided to stay to punish the guilty. And that meant taking on the entire town...
 

For this being the first Noir novel I've read it wasn't too bad; however, I felt like it was lacking something to make it capture me.  I didn't find myself connecting with any of the characters, but the story was an alright read. Dinah was an okay character, though too stereotypical. I do admit though that I got lost a few times in the dialogue, but later found myself back into the story a couple pages later. The ending seems flat to me, like it needs a little something more. It's an okay read if you're looking to start reading some Crime Detective books, it's a classic after all.

Shame on anyone who thinks evil of this.