Books you’d most likely find in a traditional English Lit class…

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
I remembered really liking this one the first time I read it. I didn’t like it so much the next time, but perhaps because I went through a phase and read them all back to back. This was near the end and I was probably Jane-Austened out.

Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
I didn’t particularly like this story. Perhaps I ought to re-read it sometime.

Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens
A good story (that falls apart at the end), but I, for one, need to remember that Dickens wrote for the serials and to make money by publishing his stories. This is not a novel that I could read chapter after chapter in one sitting. I needed to parse it out. Still, now I can say I’ve read something by Dickens. (I have a problem with the way he portrays women, but that’s another issue.)

Room with a View, E.M. Forester
It’s been years since I’ve read this, and I still think it’s an excellent little, silly portrait of English people in love with Italy. The movie’s just as good, too.

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
I hated it in high school…but liked it much better as an adult. Though I still think it would have made a better short story.

Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
I read this one because it was referred to in another book I read (the title escapes me now) where the character praised it. I thought since I’d never read any Hemingway why not start with this one. I realized about half way through that Hemingway is one of those authors for whom the style of writing is more important than the story. I finished it, but I wasn’t thrilled by it.

Daisy Miller, Henry James
A short novella – and an intriguing story about a young American woman in Europe and her lack of “propriety” that eventually leads to her downfall, of sorts. An interesting commentary on propriety and its place or lack of place in society.

Washington Square, Henry James
Of the two James books I read, I liked this one better. The heroine, while not exactly likeable, was more sympathetic, and I was glad for the choices she made through the course of the novel. She showed strength of character and resolve.

Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
This has been sitting on our shelf for years, and I finally got around to reading it. An interesting book, though a bit pretentious. Vonnegut seems to be like Hemingway: more concerned with the way things are written rather than what it’s about.

I don’t really know what to say about The Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw. It was the 1997 Newbery honor book. It’s about a half-fairy child that grows up with the humans for a while before she realizes who she is. The dedication says “to all children who have ever felt different” and I guess that’s what the book is about: celebrating and learning to deal with being different from others. It’s an okay book. I enjoyed reading it; I just wasn’t super-thrilled excited about it.

Fish, by L.S. Matthews suffers from a case of non-identification. You have no idea if the author is male or female (the copy I had from the library didn’t have the usual dust jacket with information about the author), and you have no idea whether “Tiger”, the main character, is male or female. For some reason, this bothered me. The book’s simple enough: a family of aid workers in a war-torn country need to get out and into a country friendly to their country (the countries aren’t identified, either), the border’s closed at one entry and so they have to climb over a mountain to another entry. The fish of the title is one Tiger picked up and carries throughout the journey. Which actually doesn’t take too long. Or is too hard. It’s not a walk in the park, but it’s not really devastating either. I think the book was supposed to be written as a metaphor for hope and faith and resilience. But I just didn’t get it.

On Amira’s recommendation, I checked out a couple more of E. L. Konigsburg’s books from the library. Sometimes I wonder how I miss this stuff…

I really liked both books — A View from Saturday and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth. But I think I liked Saturday better. It’s a good little story about kindess and change and discovery. Worth the Newbery it won. Elizabeth is an interesting, if a bit unusual, story about friendship. I really liked the end.

Every once in a while, you read a book you can truly call absolutely fabulous. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel was one of those, at least for me. A simple story: 16-year-old Pi and his family, and some of their zoo animals, are on a cargo ship headed from Pondicherry, India to Canada, where they planned to immigrate. The ship sinks. Pi find himself in a lifeboat with an injured zebra, an orang-utan, a heyena and a Bengal tiger. The tiger finishes off the other animals, and Pi finds himself alone with the tiger. And survives. For 227 days. The introduction to the story has a character saying the story will “make you believe in God.” I’m not sure about that. It did engross me, thrill me, amaze me and fill me with wonder. I couldn’t put it down.

Truth be told: I’m a geek. I’m one of the few women I know (I run in a limited circle here in Jonesboro) who loves the Lord of the Rings, who will read science fiction and fantasy and books about magic and not think it’s weird or unusual. After I went through an Agatha Christie phase in junior high where I read everything she wrote (or at least everything the library had), I discovered fantasy. I was hooked. (At one point, I was reading all the Star Wars/Star Trek fan fiction. Thankfully, I realized it was a huge waste of time.) I read to escape (I’ve said that before) and sci-fi/fantasy is one of the best means to escape real life.

Books that aren’t here that I’ve read in the past, but need to re-read: Douglas Addams Hitchhiker’s series; the Isaac Asimov Foundation series, Moreta by Anne McCaffery, and probably many others that I can’t think of right now.

Deerskin, Robin McKinley
Read this ages ago, so I don’t really remember what it’s about. I do remember that she used new-agey Goddess healing as a plot device, and that I liked it (it’s Robin McKinley, after all).

Dragonflight and Dragonquest, Anne McCaffrey
The first two of the Pern dragon series. And they’re quite interesting — good storylines, heroic adventures. The final book, White Dragon, sucked. I think you can get away with reading the first two of the series and not finish it out…

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula LeGuin
Many people really like this book. I just found it to be so-so. I tried reading the second book in the series and was bored.

Four Ways to Forgiveness, Ursula LeGuin
Interesting. But not what I was expecting.

The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula LeGuin
I think, out of all the books I’ve read by her, I like this one the best. She is good at not giving you quite what you expect out of a science fiction book, but it’s still intriguing. This one is about power and the abuse of it,
under the guise of a hypnotherapist “helping” a patient who’s dreams really do come to pass. A good book.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
A funny little book, though for the life of me, I don’t understand the ending.

A Long, Dark, Teatime of the Soul, Douglas Adams
Another “Dirk Gently” book – better than the first one, I think. Funnier, and the ending makes sense this time.

Curses, Inc. and Other Stories, Vivian Vande Velde
An amusing collection of “witch” stories (though I think I would call them “spell” stories). My favorite was “To Converse With the Dumb Beasts”.

The Silver Crown, Robert O’Brien
My niece Sarah recommended this to me, and I found it to be a very interesting premise. It’s not very often that the magical and the real are intertwined so believably.

A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories, Robin McKinley
Good fantasy short stories. Includes ones based upon The Hero and the Crown.

Spindle’s End, Robin McKinley
Great take on Sleeping Beauty

Redwall, Brian Jacques
I have to admit, I picked up this book because I was interested in the cartoon version they advertised on PBS several years ago. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable book; I couldn’t put it down. I know there’s tons of books in the series, but I haven’t bee interested in reading any of the others.