Thanks, Bottle of Shine, for hosting 342,745 Ways To Herd Cats, which was really a fun idea for a challenge! I’m going to call this challenge complete, though I really do hope to read the last two books on this list (we only had to read three total) before it ends officially. I enjoyed The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Draculathe most and Oryx and Crake the least.
Here are the books I read, followed by the ones I recommended:
Thanks, Joy, for hosting this again! I call this a wrap-up because even though technically I completed it, you might take issue with that. After all, 4 were graphic novels, and the one that wasn’t was under 100 pages! To top that off, I’m behind in my reviews as well. I had hoped to finish X Stands for Unknown by Asimov to lend some credibility to my progress, but oh well. I still plan on reading that one because I need an ‘X’ title, but it may take some time to finish.
Here were the books I read (with reviews to come):
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (graphic novel memoir)
Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi (graphic novel memoir)
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
by Anne-Marie MacDonald
1990, 89 pp.
Rating:
Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) is hilariously fun. Winner of the 1990 Governor General’s Award for Drama and written by the author of Fall on Your Knees, this play takes the main character, Constance, and puts her in the middle of Othello and Romeo and Juliet with very funny results. Plot lines are changed, lines rearranged, and we get to really know the players as never before.
If you’re familiar with both plays you will be in stitches in parts. Lines from the original plays are in italics to help the reader know the difference between those lines and MacDonald’s. Even MacDonald’s are written in iambic pentameter.
Highly recommended — especially for lovers of Shakespeare or those participating in the Canadian Literature Challenge.
If you are a regular reader or commenter of this blog and you would like to be added to my blogroll, please let me know. There are SO MANY great new book blogs out there that I’m sure I need to add at least a few. I’m behind the times, so the easiest way is just to have you comment here and then I’ll add you!
Do you ever just pluck a book from your shelves on a whim? I’ve had Olive Kitteridge for awhile, and when I found out the paperback is going to be released on Tuesday, I dug it out of the pile to see if it could grab me, and I was pleasantly surprised. I’m already over 3/4 of the way through and expect to have the review up by tomorrow or Tuesday. Now I don’t have to feel quite so bad for not having read it months ago…
Also, as I posted yesterday, I’m 2/3 of the way through Dracula on audio, and I’m absolutely loving it! An excellent work of literature that I expect I’ll give 4.5 or 5 stars.
Three more mini reviews from Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories, edited by Roald Dahl. I enjoyed all three!
“The Corner Shop” by Cynthia Asquith
A man goes into a corner shop on a foggy night and finds warmth and kindness from two sisters. So much so that he wants to go back. When he does, the shop is closed, but he finds a mysterious old man who lets him in. He purchases a small object with some curious consequences. This was a good one.
“In the Tube” by E. F. Benson
Just some quotes on this one:
Time indeed! There’s no such thing as Time really; it has no actual existence. Time is nothing more than infinitesimal point in eternity, just as space is an infinitesimal point in infinity. At the most, Time is a sort of tunnel through which we are accustomed to believe that we are travelling. There’s a roar in our ears and a darkness in our eyes which makes it seem real to us. But before we came into the tunnel we existed for ever in an infinite sunlight, and after we have got through it we shall exist in an infinite sunlight again.
Say that a man commits some crime of violence, can we not, with a good deal of truth, say that he really commits that crime when he definitely plans and determines upon it, dwelling on it with gusto? The actual commission of it, I think we can reasonably argue, is the mere material sequel of his resolve; he is guilty of it when he makes that determination. When, therefore, in the term of ‘before’ and ‘after’, does the crime truly take place? There is also in my story a further point for your consideration. For it seems certain that the spirit of a man, after the death of his body, is obliged to re-enact such a crime, with a view, I suppose we may guess, to his remorse and his eventual redemption. [ ] Perhaps he may have done his deed blindly in this life; but then his spirit recommits it with its spiritual eyes open, and able to comprehend its enormity. So, shall we view the man’s original determination and the material commission of this crime only as preludes to the real commission of it, when with eyes unsealed he does it and repents of it?
“Christmas Meeting” by Rosemary Timperley
An older woman and an aspiring young author keep each other company at Christmas. Good, and only 3 pages!
This week’s Weekly Geeks was to get caught up on something. I desperately needed to write some past reviews, and I set a goal for at least getting caught up on 5. I ended up with 7, so although I still need to write several more, I did make progress!
This week’s Weekly Geeks was to get caught up on something. I desperately needed to write some past reviews, and I set a goal for at least getting caught up on 5. I ended up with 7, so although I still need to write several more, I did make progress!
