Haunting of Hill House

This short novel by Shirley Jackson (better known as the author of the short story "The Lottery") is spoiled somewhat by the film adaptations that have been produced over the course of the last 40 years or so. The book isn't so much horror as an eerie book in which you can't be sure of the sanity of the main characters - much like James' Turn of the Screw. Subtle references to lesbianism make this novel stand out among similar creepy novels of its time.

Recommended for horror genre fans who are serious readers (rather than just the blood & guts type). Also recommended for fans of psychological fiction - this is a good modern example without being blugeoned over the head with angst, mental illness, etc...

Dragon Rider

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke is a great children's book. Orphans, cranky fair folk, dragons, adventure - what more do you want in a children's story?! :)

Highly recommended for all young fantasy readers. Adult fantasy readers may enjoy this as long as they enjoy a lighthearted story.

Wrinkle in Time

Another book that was praised to me over and over again when I was in grade school, but never read. I suppose I was just being contrary. :) Anyway, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time is a great book and though written for children contains very adult themes (of distopian Big Brother-type societies and people fighting against them). Really, it sends the message that it's important for us all to have differences, but to not let those differences get us down too much (there will always be people who love you).

Highly recommended for children - especially those who enjoy stories where "ordinary" children do extraordinary things (fighting evil and whatnot), though this story doesn't have magic. Extraordinary things happen through science more advanced than our own at present. Also highly recommended for adults who like this kind of story and are looking for a quick read (ax. 2 hours).

Christmas Stories

Unbeknownst to much of the American population, Charles Dickens wrote several other stories that take place around the Christmas and New Year's holidays. I made my way through these during my recent flights to O'Hare and back.

Only recommended for true Dickens fans. There is a reason that Dickens' other Christmas Stories are not as well known - they're just not as well put together. Too much sentiment and "Do unto others..." is crammed into them without the great plot devices of A Christmas Carol - and not as much Christmas. I just didn't like them that well - and I really like Dickens. These are not an example of his best work.

Christmas Carol

I can hardly believe it (since I've read quite a few of Charles Dickens' novels) that I hadn't read A Christmas Carol before. Reading through, though, I was amazed at how true to the text of the novella many of the movies are! (I watched one on TMC a couple weeks ago and even the dialog was almost word-for-word).

Must read - even though most of us in the U.S. know this story, it's such a classic that it's a shame not everyone's read it. It's short, so there's no excuse!

Secret Garden

Even though my sister loved this book and was in a (very good) production based on this Frances Hodgson Burnett novel, I only just read it this past week. The Secret Garden is a classic of children's literature for a reason. A great book that doesn't talk down to its readers.

Highly recommended for children and anyone who likes uplifting books about orphans. :)

Ascending Peculiarity

Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey edited by Karen Wilkins. This book is a compilation of interviews people have conducted with Edward Gorey over the years. It's very interesting to see how described himself to others (regardless of how much of that description is "put on"). As is the nature of interviews, many people ask similar questions, so some of the transcriptions in the last quarter of the book are repetative, but still interesting.

Unless you're an Edward Gorey fan, you probably won't be interested.

Earthsea Series

I began another classic children's fantasy series and again was not disappointed! The Earthsea series by Ursula LeGuin begins with A Wizard of Earthsea and continues with The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, The Other Wind, and Tales of Earthsea. I've now finished the entire series.

LeGuin's writing style is very different from Lloyd Alexander's. I'd say his tone is almost like that of an oral storyteller while LeGuin's is a little more literary. The main character for much of the series is Sparrowhawk, a young wizard whose destiny takes him all over his world. The main theme is light vs. darkness in the depths of the human soul, but it's treatment isn't preachy. Now that I've finished the series, my early conclusions about not wanting to see any dramatizations thereof are confirmed. There's just no way they could have nearly the value - the kind of dark & personal intimacy as reading the books has. That being said, I hope the movie will draw more people to these books. Another interesting aspect is that though the books are sequential, the later books don't start right where the last one left off - or tell you much about what's happened in between the books. Very interesting.

Highly, highly recommended. Absolutely a must read for fantasy fans! I cannot praise this series enough.

Hiroshima

Hiroshima by John Hersey has become a required reading book for many high schools. I think part of that is due to its brevity, which makes it more likely that teenagers will read it. However, its subject matter - the stories of several survivors of the US bombing of Hiroshima is not light. Hersey depicts the moments before and after the bombing as well as following up on the later lives of each person depicted.

The book is not as poignant as The Diary of Anne Frank. It almost seems as though the author is waving a wild finger, pointing, saying, "look what you did!" The book really has many of the same qualities as an in-depth newspaper articles where the author remains objective. It relays the facts of what happened and the pain, but not really the horror of it. Maybe it was just me - Hersey's writings just didn't engage me emotionally. That, and I am irritated with his scolding tone in describing the lives of those survivors who didn't completely devote themselves to others and enjoyed as much of a regular life as they were able to. Of course those particular stories ended less happily than that of the woman who became a nun and the priest's story. It was if he went out of his way to say "that's not how you should grieve. See these people? They did it the right way." I found that annoying.

All that editorializing aside, I can see why the book is on many reading lists. It is one of the few books that describes the bombing of Hiroshima from the point of view of the Japanese civilians living there. Recommended, but if interested in this part of history, I'd also pick up another book that's illustrated - funny that we don't see too many pictures of the destruction wrought by the US here and so many illustrations, History Channel programs, etc... about the Nazi concentration camps. Sigh...

Grimms' Fairy Tales

The edition I read was The Annotated Brothers Grimm edited by Maria Tatar. I recall having an edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales as a kid, but I don't think I got very far with it because there weren't many pictures and the type was very tiny so all the stories could fit into a smaller volume.

As an adult with a semi-scholarly bent, I found the introduction and annotations very insightful. Each tale has a brief introductory statement to set the stage for personal contemplation. Most of the tales are pretty short, which makes it an ideal book to read during lunches or on breaks at work. The book also has references at the back if anyone wants to do further research on fantasy in children's literature, the use of fantasy and fairy tales in helping children conquer fears, etc... very interesting stuff in those annotations. There's also illustrations from various editions of the Tales, which are much appreciated! :) It's also interesting to see how children's book illustration has changed over the years!! (Pick up a copy of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and compare - very funny book by the way!!).

Highly Recommended for all readers. It's especially interesting to read the "original" versions of popular tales and the comments on them, even though we've all grown up with alternate versions of these stories that are more fleshed out. Much more violent than I remember from my childhood. Also, according to the notes, a lot of the violence was added by the Grimms even while they expunged a lot of the sexual content for their young reading audience. Weird.

The Bell Curve

I am more than halfway through this book. I'll republish after I've finally finished it. Thus far, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life by Richard J. Hernstein and Charles Murray is a very thorough meta-examination of many of the scholarly studies regarding intelligence conducted by various agencies throughout the 20th century.

Findings are clearly explained and statistical terms and methodologies are explained in text boxes in the middle of the text, but have lengthier, more thorough explanations in the Appendices. The volume also contains extensive endnotes for those of a more scholarly bent - or interested in further investigating some of their controversial findings. Thus far, I've found the book to be very thought-provoking, though I do not take this work as gospel truth. I think the purpose of the book was to generate dialog and for readers to self-examine their own position in society and the preconceived ideas we have about intelligence, social problems, and how they may - or may not - correlate. I think Hernstein and Murray have accomplished this task.

While very interesting, this book is rather lengthy and though not difficult for the educated layperson, it's not light or easy reading either. This one is a challenge, but will give you some good conversation topics for debate.

Recommended - especially for those with an interest in sociology or economics.

Peter Pan

Another children's book. They're on my mega-list of lifetime reads, so I figured I'd knock a few quick ones out of the way during the month that I moved and am prepping for Christmas and my wedding! All this aside, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie was a fun, but very quick read. Definitely written for children, it would probably be much better as a read-aloud title for younger children (maybe 6-9 years old?). As an adult, I can see where it would be appealing to children, but isn't written at a level where "kids of all ages" can enjoy it (whereas Lloyd Alexander, J.K. Rowling, Cornelia Funke, and others don't "dumb down" their writing).

Recommended - at the very least to somewhat counter the Disney version and as a piece of our cultural heritage. :)

Prydain Series

During November I've also finally read the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. This series consists of The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King. These books were first recommended to me by my friend Wolf (yes, this is his real name & not some weird RenFaire thing gone awry) during the 3rd or 4th grade. I finally read them and really enjoyed them - even though they're obviously intended for younger readers.

This is a fantasy series with some relationship to Welsh mythology, but mostly focuses on growing up, maturing (not always the same as growing up), and finding one's way in the world. As I've said above, I really enjoyed this series! You won't find detailed settings or character descriptions, instead enough details are given so that the reader is able to make their own mental images of how the characters look and the settings of where they might be. What character descriptions exist are almost Homeric in nature and these descriptions are largely the same throughout the series. The characters grow and change and find both joy and grief in this satisfying series.

Very highly recommended for fantasy readers and fans of Harry Potter looking for another series to read. I am not a particularly fast reader and was able to finish each book in ax. 3 hours (some a little more, others a little less), so this is only a quick fix for readers more used to Potter-length books (e.g. it took me ax. 9-10 hours to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Very enjoyable nevertheless!!

Becoming Human

I've been a little lax in posting, so am hoping to catch up a bit tonight. :) I finished reading Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness by Ian Tattersall about three weeks ago. This book discusses aspects of human evolution and how people differ from our closest living relatives - chimpanzees, gorillas, and other living primates. The book also discusses the accomplishments of our now-extinct antecedants in a fair amount of detail.

Some of Tattersall's observations are far from original (e.g. the cave paintings at Lascaux are impressive), but others - to the typical layperson seem somewhat controversial at first glance (e.g. that chimps and gorillas can't communicate like people can and that sign language experiments have pretty much failed all around). As a layperson with (realistically) only basic knowledge about human evolution and very little knowledge about recent developments (the last 10-15 years) in anthropological research, I found this book a breath of fresh air. Tattersall challenges the body of "common knowledge" and in doing so forces the reader to confront his/her own prejudices about how humans developed and what makes us unique in the world.

Highly recommended for all laypersons with an interest in anthropology/human evolution. Anthro students used to reading journals in these fields are unlikely to find much new and will probably prefer something more technical. Very readable for the layperson, though. Very little jargon.

Divided Minds

Divided Minds : Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S. Spiro, MD. is a memoir of mental illness and coping with a loved one's mental illness. The segments from both sisters - one with schizophrenia. one a licensed psychiatrist - describe the world as each experienced it often retelling the same set of events from each sister's perspective at the time.

The book is a fairly quick read. I found myself wanting to like them - and there are many things about them to like and to respect, but found their dependence on others to make them happy and the competition they perceived (probably really there) very frustrating. Easy for me to say, I know. That being said, the book does not sugar coat their individual difficulties with growing up as twins or with Pamela's struggle with mental illness. What I found fascinating, though is the fine line between a "sane" woman who has some issues and a mentally ill woman. That our brains are so fine-tuned. Amazing. I could go on and on, but don't have a lot of outside knowledge on the topic, so will stop here!

Recommended - I would say if you liked Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, this is right up your alley. If you're looking for something that includes more of the scientific perspective or a clearer history of the treatment of schizophrenia, this isn't it - but it doesn't set out to be, either. Good interesting read for something different.

Slaves in the Family

This book by Edward Ball took me a week or so to read. Though some parts are a little dry, the subject matter is very compelling. Growing up, Ball knew his family had at one time owned slaves, but the family did not encourage conversation on this topic. Needing to know more, he began researching and trying to find the descendants of the slaves his family had owned. Not all greeted him with open arms and some of his own family members were hostile. Through the process he found several people who are very likely related to him. The book discusses slavery on the rice plantations of South Carolina and larger issues of the slave trade, changing political climates, etc..., but the focus is on this man's family and the families they owned. The family stories he tells and the way he connects families through history - his own and those of others -draws the reader through a dark period of American history that still evokes strong emotions today.

Recommended - I am not aware of any other book quite like this. And for a fairly thorough portrait of what slaveholders and slaves thought about their lives, this provides a pretty good perspective that acknowledges bias, but tries very hard to overcome that bias. Does not turn a blind eye to outrages committed by whites (his own family included), but the message is one of family and of hope.

Voodoo Season

Voodoo Season is a mystery set in contemporary (pre-Katrina) New Orleans, Louisiana. The author, Jewell Parker Rhodes, uses her knowledge of the voodoo religion and surrounding history and culture as the backdrop for this unusual mystery. This was a very quick read for me and I really enjoyed the colorful setting and characters. I particularly enjoyed how Rhodes described Marie's visions throughout the text. I found Marie to be a very likeable, believable character and I hope Rhodes will continue her adventures in self-discovery through the course of future novels!

I liked this well enough that I plan to go back and read earlier books of short stories and novels set in the past, which also have to do with voodoo and Louisiana mystical culture.

Recommended!

The Assassin's Touch

Ah! Another book in Laura Joh Rowland's mystery series starring Sano Ichiro, a detective in feudal Japan. I love this series and was really excited when I found out this book was coming out. :) Rowland uses the conventions of feudal Japanese society to increase the suspense in her novels. She explains potentially unfamiliar conventions of that culture without setting the story aside for the "okay now I'm going to explain things" paragraph or two. Explanations are expertly woven into the story and greatly add to the richness of the setting and gives depth to the characters.

This is not a cozy mystery series, but there is little or no profanity and very little explicit violence or sexual content - though there is violent and sexual content.

Definitely recommend to mystery lovers and to those interested in the time period.

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman

This book is a series of anecdotes collected from Richard Feynman by the editor, Edward Hutchings. The subtitle, "Adventures of a Curious Character" really is an understatement! While I am not sure if I'd have wanted to date Feynman, he definitely sounds like someone who'd have been fun to meet and get to know.

Highly recommended for those interested in finding out more about the people behind the sciences and for people who enjoy funny stories. A very quick, enjoyable read.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

I just finished Verne's masterpiece today. I would have liked to have had a 19th century dictionary (or a very good current one!) with me while reading it, as some of the old words for different marine life were confusing for me. The ship-talk was a little dull, but I would have probably enjoyed it more if I'd been plotting the Nautilus's course on a map with latitude and longitude.

That being said, however, I really enjoyed 20,000 Leagues. I read it as part of a Barnes & Noble online discussion group and the variety of discussion was very thought-provoking. The idea that Verne created science fiction is really exciting to me and that so much of what he imagined has come to pass is inspiring.

I would definitely recommend the book to those interested in studying the science fiction genre. Also, I think that the book would be excellent for parents trying to teach geography & introduce classic literature to kids in a fun way. It would have been great to plot the Nautilus's course on a map and look up all the different sea life P. Arronax (the narrator) describes!

Recommended

The Historian

I just started reading Elizabeth Kostova's new book, The Historian. So far (40 pages in), this book is excellent & written in the tradition of Dracula by Bram Stoker rather than an Anne Rice-type vampire novel.

Very excited!! Will post full opinion after reading it in its entirety...

After finishing The Historian, I can say that I'd like to buy it even after having finished it! I'd checked it out from the library, but it's so good that I know I'll enjoy re-reading it! The suspense keeps building throughout the book and again, anyone who enjoyed Bram Stoker's style will enjoy Kostova's also. DO NOT let the length discourage you!

Very highly recommended for all vampire buffs and for those who enjoy reading classics and/or historical fiction.

The Stranger

A group of my friends and I decided to get together to discuss a few "serious" books and The Stranger by Albert Camus is the first book on our list. I'm not sure if I enjoyed The Stranger or not, however it has provided me with a LOT of food for thought. Incidentally, it's also the basis for The Cure's song, "Killing an Arab."

Recommended - for an hour to 2 hours to read, even if you dislike it, it gives you a lot to think about philosophically and spiritually. To me, that's time well spent.

My Wars Are Laid Away in Books

This book is a biography of Emily Dickinson. A very thorough biography. That being said, if you're interested in the growth of prominent literary figures, this would be a great biography to pick up. It is a slow read. I began this book for a free Barnes & Noble University course about Emily Dickinson and her poetry last October, read ax. 250 pages during the month-long course, and set the book down. Determined to finish during this course's July session, though! Despite being slow to read, the author presents a lot of background information and also points out topics of scholarly debate.

Highly Recommended for those interested in Ms. Dickinson. Recommended for the studious, but otherwise would recommend Connie Kirk's biography of Emily Dickinson, for those who just want the basics.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Wow. That's my first thought after reading this. Second, I know now why Angelou is famous for her writing. Rather than bring the book to any sense of conclusion (probably very frustrating to high school students reading it across the country as we speak), she instead gives the reader the feeling that change is not slowing down for her, but that that's all right. To borrow from a questionable source in relation to this book, there's a sense of "Tomorrow's another day." Throughout the book it's not the events or people in her life that seem to be the focus - it's her opinion and views of herself that are the subject. We as readers are most likely secondary to her literary quest. All in all, I am looking forward to reading the next segment of her autobiography to learn more about this fascinating icon of modern womanhood and black womanhood.

The Double Helix

This book was fantastic! I wasn't sure whether or not it would be hard to understand, but there was very little about the technical aspects of Watson & Crick's discovery of DNA's form. The book is a very quick read and I thought, very exciting. :) The book is written as a scientific memoir about how Watson & Crick made their Nobel Prize-winning discovery.

Excellent!!

Bridget Jones

Last week I finished reading Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Both this and Bridget Jones' Diary are very lighthearted & can be very amusing. I think Bridget Jones' Diary was especially funny to me because at the time I was single and many of Bridget's neuroses were mine as well. The Edge of Reason was much better than I believe the movie is (though I haven't seen the movie) because it's not a waffling situation - it's more of a comedy of errors.

Recommended fluff. :D