September 2012 Books

King Lear by William Shakespeare (No Fear Shakespeare version)
Published: 1608
Rating: 4
Goodreads

This play is about a dysfunctional family headed by an old king who prefers flattery to truth and so is blinded from seeing the loyal people in his life, daughter Cordelia and nobleman Kent.  He rashly disinherits Cordelia and divides the kingdom between his other daughters, Regan and Goneril, both consumed with greed and ambition which breeds jealousy, rage, cruelty, violence and sheer evil.  They remind me of the horrible, cold, unfeeling Lady Macbeth.

Read full post

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Published: 1911
Rating: 5
Goodreads

I have been meaning to read this book for quite a while and for some reason, on a night when I felt particularly ornery and crochety, I began and LOVED IT.

Swept away from the first sentence - "When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen" - I did not close my iPad until finished.

I found Burnett's writing extremely economical.  The chapters are not very long and yet after finishing chapter one, we learn that Mary, who lives in India, is a most disagreeable, ugly, spoiled child: unloved and unwanted by her parents who leave her care to servants whom she orders around and bullies at will.  Then a cholera epidemic leaves her orphaned and abandoned.

The child is sent to her uncle's home in the wild moors of Yorkshire and we see her slowly transform into a curious, open and caring child.   Other flawed characters enter the story and when Burnett adds in a "talking" robin, an abandoned secret garden and a mysterious cry in the middle of the night, a.k.a Jane Eyre, I was hooked.

Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides by Aeschylus.  Translated by Richmond Lattimore
Published: 458 BC
Rating: 4
Goodreads

Agamemnon is the first play in Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy and tells of Agamemnon's less than triumphant return home from the Trojan War and his subsequent demise at the hand of his wife, Clytaemestra and her lover, Aegisthus who is his cousin.

The Greek tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides) often used their work to expound on the characters that had their source in Homer's epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey.  This trilogy is a perfect example.

Read full post of Agamemnon.

In the second play, The Libation Bearers, the setting is several years after the gruesome regicide of Agamemnon.  Of the three children born to Agamemnon and Clytaemestra, only Electra is at the palace.  Iphigenia had been sacrificed to appease the gods at the start of the Trojan War and Orestes, her brother was sent away by Clytaemestra when she and Aegisthus had become lovers.  Key questions to be answered by the end of the trilogy are:

• How does Thyestes' curse on the house of Atreus play out? 
• Does it get resolved?  If so, how?
• What are the consequences?

Read full post of The Libation Bearers.

In the last play of the trilogy, The Eumenides, Orestes goes to Apollo's temple in Delphi to beg relief from the Furies for after all, Apollo himself told Orestes to avenge his father's murder.  The Furies, goaded by Clytaemestra's ghost and their own belief that matricide must be punished regardless of the circumstances, refuse to back down.

Apollo says that all should go to Athena's temple in Athens and appeal to her wise judgement.  She does not feel qualified so brings together a jury of 12 Athenian citizens to hear the case.

I will pick the finest of my citizens, and come back.  They shall swear to make no judgement that is not just, and make clear where in this action the truth lies (487-489).

Long story short, the jury is divided, Athena casts the deciding vote in favor of Orestes and placates the disgruntled Furies by renaming them and providing a new, enlightened, humane purpose.  They will be called The Eumenides or Kindly Ones and will help Athena uphold law, order and justice.  The need for personal revenge is over.

Audiocourse: Part 3 - Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition - Middle Ages by Professor Thomas Noble
Rating - 3

Part 4 - Neoclassic and 18th Century Literature by Professor Susan Heinzelman
Rating - 3

See this post for bibliography

The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton
Published: 1930
Rating: 4
Goodreads
Post on Josh's blog

I came across this excellent reference book via my daughter, who had taken a class in Greek tragedies while in college.  I have read Hamilton's classic book, Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes and reference both books while working my way through the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.  A list of chapters will give a feel of all the information contained in this rather short but meaty book.  She has also written The Roman Way which I may have to get.

• East and West
• Mind and Spirit
• The Way of the East and the West in Art
• The Greek Way of Writing
• Pindar, The Last Greek Aristocrat
• The Athenians as Plato Saw Them
• Aristophanes and the Old Comedy
• Herodotus, The First Sight-seer
• Thucydides, The Thing That Hath Been is That Which Shall Be
• Xenophon, The Ordinary Athenian Gentleman
• The Idea of Tragedy
• Aeschylus, The First Dramatist
• Sophocles, Quintessence of the Greek
• Euripides, The Modern Mind
• The Religion of the Greeks
• The Way of the Greeks
• The Way of the Modern World

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Published: 1977
Rating: 4
Goodreads

A quick, enjoyable read once I was able to suspend a good amount of disbelief that a child (6 - 9 years old) could think, act and command a battle as if a mature adult.  I could swallow more if Ender was an adolescent like Katniss and Peeta in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy.

That said, I LOVED the ending.  A very big, satisfying twist that I did not see coming but made perfect sense.

The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Published: 1888
Rating: 4
Goodreads

A sweet Cinderella story, the protagonist Sara Crewe is as different to Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden as can be.  Rather than bullying her French maid the way Mary surely would have done, Sara is sweet, polite, gentle and charming.  She reminds me of Anne in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series with her sunny disposition; optimistic outlook; thoughtful, intelligent, and honest conversation; and most of all, her big imagination.

Like Anne, Sara sees the best in people.  She is warm and caring to those less fortunate and even when orphaned, penniless and starving, she gives food away to a beggar-girl who is more hungry than herself.  The antagonist, Miss Minchin, is an evil villain - a thoroughly cruel and heartless woman who has no business running a boarding school for girls.

While I enjoyed the story, the characters are flat, meaning they do not change or surprise.  Despite the loss of family and fortune, Sara remains a sweet girl and Miss Minchin is unrepentant to the end.  In contrast, the characters in The Secret Garden are round and therefore more interesting, so TSG is the preferred book between the two.

My favorite quote:

Despite her calm, gentle manner, even bookish Sara could get annoyed when her reading was interrupted.

Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book.  People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment.  The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage.

Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell
Rating: 4
Goodreads

King Lear by Shakespeare

King Lear by William Shakespeare (No Fear Shakespeare version)
Published: 1608
Rating: 4
Goodreads

This play is about a dysfunctional family headed by an old king who prefers flattery to truth and so is blinded from seeing the loyal people in his life, daughter Cordelia and nobleman Kent.  He rashly disinherits Cordelia and divides the kingdom between his other daughters, Regan and Goneril, both consumed with greed and ambition which breeds jealousy, rage, cruelty, violence and sheer evil.  They remind me of the horrible, cold, unfeeling Lady Macbeth.

In a parallel story line, the Earl of Gloucester also turns against the loyal child, Edgar, in favor of the manipulative bastard, Edmund whose conniving and theatrics remind me of Iago in Othello.  Both fathers suffer tremendously from trusting the wrong child(ten).  The mutilation of Gloucester is one of the most gory, intense scenes I have read thus far.  And similar to Hamlet, dead bodies litter the stage by the end of the play.

One reviewer on Goodreads made some comparisons between King Lear and The Oedipus Trilogy (Oedipus the King, Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus) by Sophocles.  I agree.  It is so gratifying to see connections between great works of literature.

• Edgar leading blind Gloucester - Antigone leading blind Oedipus
• Siblings fight for overall rule of the kingdom with disastrous consequences
• Dutiful daughter - Cordelia and Antigone 

My favorite quotes:

Cordelia is being asked by King Lear to speak her love for him, as her sister's flattering tongues have done.  She feels that true love and honor is shown by actions and so says:  "I cannot heave my heart into my mouth" (1.1.90-91).

A most intense verbal thrashing given by a disguised Kent to Oswald, Goneril's steward who gives aid in her conspiracies: 

Oswald:  What dost thou know me for? 

Kent:  A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats, a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound-filth, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service; and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel birth; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition (2.2.12-21).   Wow, Kent, what do you really think?

In my reading, I make note of sentences that sing.  A disguised Edgar is giving his father a made-up description of himself:  Wine I loved deeply, dice dearly, and in woman outparamoured the Turk.  False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand - hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey (3.4.83-86).

August 2012 Books

I am on vacation and finding lots of time to read.  Have also gone to several bookstores and so have added to my already mountainous TBR pile. 

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Published: 2010
Rating: 5
Goodreads

Reading Fitzgerald's concise history of the Roman Empire in The Aeneid led me to download a sample of this book in my iPad.  Then found an autographed copy while browsing through the Wellesley Bookstore while on vacation in New England.

I loved it.  The book reads more like historical fiction than a dry biography.  While reading, I did keep wishing for a timeline so in the end, I made my own in the back of the book.  Also, about 60 pages in, I went back and wrote key events at the top of each page which helped me follow the narrative.  Without getting bogged down, Schiff gives enough historical, cultural and political background to support the main character: Queen Cleopatra.

She was born in 69 BC, the 2nd of five children in the Ptolemy dynasty and motherless at twelve.  She was well-educated, articulate, intelligent, witty and most importantly, a survivor. Being a Ptolemy was a hazardous occupation; none of her four siblings survived past early adulthood.

Cleopatra was queen at eighteen and following Egyptian tradition, was married to each of her two younger brothers.  She was the lover of two of the most important Roman rulers of her time: Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.  She ruled 22 tumultuous years and was dead by suicide at age 39.

This would be a most challenging biography to write as the only "original" sources are from Roman male historians writing decades afterwards.  In the absence of fact, a legend arose - with a little help from Shakespeare, Hollywood and of course, Elizabeth Taylor.  My daughter and I watched the 4+ hour movie; it was pretty good.  My husband tells me that a movie is coming out based on Schiff's book with Angelina Jolie in the lead role - I will definitely want to see it.

Schiff's writing is very descriptive with adjectives galore.  I wonder if she had a lexicon specifically for this project.   

In these excerpts from the introduction, we learn about Cleopatra:

A capable, clear-eyed sovereign, she knew how to build a fleet, suppress an insurrection, control a currency, alleviate a famine....she nonetheless survives as a wanton temptress, not the last time a genuinely powerful woman has been transmuted into a shamelessly seductive one....We do not know if Cleopatra loved either Antony or Caesar, but we do know that she got each to do her bidding....It is not difficult to understand why Caesar became history, Cleopatra a legend.

I like how Schiff gives a modern context to Cleopatra's world.

Comparing Alexandria, Egypt to Paris, France:

Altogether it was a mood-altering city of extreme sensuality ad high intellectualism, the Paris of the ancient world; superior in its ways, splendid in its luxuries, the place to go to spend your fortune, write your poetry, find (or forget) a romance, restore your health, reinvent yourself, or regroup after having conquered vast swaths of Italy, Spain, and Greece over the course of a Herculean decade.

On Egyptian bureaucracy:

It was Cleopatra's role to tax the people, the people's role to fill her coffers....The Ptolemaic system has been compared to that of Soviet Russia; it stands among the most closely controlled economies in history.

 On her entrance by royal barge to meet Mark Antony in Tarsus:

In the annals of indelible entrances - the wooden horse into Troy; Christ into Jerusalem; Benjamin Franklin into Philadelphia; Henry IV, Charles Lindbergh, Charles de Gaulle, into Paris; Howard Carter into King Tut's tomb; the Beatles onto Ed Sullivan's stage - Cleopatra alone lifts off the page in iridescent color, amid inexhaustible, expensive clouds of incense, a sensational, simultaneous assault on every sense.

In the last chapter are fitting descriptions of the incomparable Queen:

She was a dutiful, father-loving daughter, a patriot and protector, an early nationalist, a symbol of courage, a wise ruler with nerves of steel, a master at self-preservation....In the end she was a mistress of herself, astute, spirited, inconceivably rich, pampered yet ambitious.

Schiff won the Pulitzer Prize for Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) which I started to read a while ago but put down out of disinterest.  I'll have to try again as I do like her writing. 

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Published: 1957
Rating: 3
Goodreads

I started this as an audiobook on a business trip to Virginia Beach and got bored half-way through.  I really didn't care about the characters, Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise or what happened on their crazy cross-country trips filled with drugs, drinking, partying, shoplifting, hitch-hiking, sex, etc.

Despite all that, I did like the writing.  It is very descriptive and I would do well to study Kerouac's sentences - short, long and very long.   My favorite quotes:

On the horizon was the moon, she fattened, she grew huge and rusty, she mellowed and rolled, till the morning star contended and dews began to blow in our windows - and still we rolled.

Lying on top of the car with my face to the black sky was like lying in a closed trunk on a summer night.  For the first time in my life the weather was not something that touched me, that caressed me, froze or sweated me, but became me.  The atmosphere and I became the same.  Soft infinitesimal showers of microscopic bugs fanned down on my face as I slept, and they were extremely pleasant and soothing.  The sky was starless, utterly unseen and heavy.  I could lie there all night long with my face exposed to the heavens, and it would do me no more harm than a velvet drape drawn over me.  The dead bugs mingled with my blood; the live mosquitoes exchanged further portions; I began to tingle all over and to smell of the rank, hot and rotten jungle, all over from hair and face to feet and toes.  

A movie is coming out soon, from the movie trailer, it looks pretty good.

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Published: 1623
Rating: 4
Goodreads

Shakespeare begins this tragedy with unrest amongst key Roman Senate members over Julius Caesar's increasing power and control over Rome exemplified in this lofty speech:

"I could be well moved if I were as you,
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me,
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament."
 
Many feared this was the end of the Republic and the beginning of a dreaded monarchy which they vehemently opposed for various reasons: envy, fear, loss of power, etc.  Only Brutus' reason for joining the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar was honorable and noble as he says later to the crowd after the horrible deed was done:

If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his.  If that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.

The crowd is fickle, first siding with Brutus, then with Mark Antony against Brutus.  A civil war ensues and the avengers of Caesar's death, Octavius, Caesar's heir, Mark Antony and Lepidus are ultimately victorious over Brutus/Cassius in the Battle at Philippi.  

The play is very dramatic; I would like to see it performed on stage.

horoscopes for the dead by Billy Collins
Published: 2011
Rating: 5
Goodreads

This was the second of two books purchased at the Wellesley bookstore.  I  bought it because of the provocative title.  A Google search reveals that Collins was the nation's Poet Laureate from 2001 - 2003 and served as the Poet Laureate of New York State from 2004 - 2006.  Who knew that states have their own poet laureates?

I liked nearly all the poems in this collection; they are refreshingly accessible.  He writes about everyday life using everyday language, albeit in surprising, witty and whimsical ways.  Here is an example of the shortest poem in the collection.  I wrote "funny" at the top of the page.

Feedback

The woman who wrote from Phoenix

after my reading there

to tell me they were all still talking about it

just wrote again

to tell me that they had stopped.

His other collections are now on my wish list:

• Ballistics
• The Trouble With Poetry
• Nine Horses
• Sailing Alone Around the Room
• Picnic, Lightning
• The Art of Drowning
• Questions About Angels
• The Apple That Astonished Paris

He also edited an anthology, Poetry 180, poems that are meant to be read daily in high schools.  This site has all the poems. 

Two poems are on Josh's blog: Grave and Horoscopes for the Dead

 Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
Published: 1623
Rating: 4
Goodreads

Shakespeare's Cleopatra is the beautiful, manipulative, power-hungry seductress who has Mark Antony in her power and will do anything to keep him there. 

Makes for great drama but does nothing to show what an intelligent, capable ruler she really was.

Introspections: American Poets on One of Their Own Poems edited by Robert Pack and Jay Parini
Published: 1997
Rating: 4
Goodreads

A Feast For Crows by George R. R. Martin (#4 A Song of Ice and Fire Series)
Published: 2005
Rating: 4
Goodreads
Author's web site

*No spoilers in this review.
Before going on vacation, I downloaded A Feast for Crows into my iPad, refreshed myself (via Wikipedia) on the plot and characters from the third book, A Storm of Swords, which I read last year, and dove right back into the amazing world created by GRRM.

This fourth book A Feast for Crows, and the next book A Dance with Dragons, both pick up the action after A Storm of Swords.   While writing the fourth book, Martin realized that he needed to split the story into two books, but not in the conventional sense where one book follows the other, but rather by geography.  Therefore the action in both books run parallel to one another for a period of time.

This worked out great for me for when I was about one-third through Feast, I downloaded Dance into my iPad and picked up the story from the point of view of all the other characters.   I continued until some of the characters in Feast showed up in Dance.  At this point, I had to go back and finish Feast because according the Martin, Dance is a longer book because it covers a longer time period.  "In the latter half of this volume, you will notice certain of the viewpoint characters from A Feast for Crows popping up again.  And that means just what you think it means: the narrative has moved past the time frame of Feast and the two streams have once again rejoined with each other."

What a rich, layered, intricate and interesting world Martin has created.  He is a master at description so my reader's senses have no problem seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting his world - amazing.  

I loved both books but have given a higher rating to Dance because it followed some of my favorite characters: Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister.

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin (#5 A Song of Ice and Fire series)
Published: 2011
Rating: 5
Goodreads
Author's web site

Other things to share....

Upon perusing his web site, I've stumbled upon GRRM's "Not A Blog" blog - the posts are interesting and there are a number of YouTube videos of recent interviews - the guy can talk! 

I also found this fantastic food blog, Inn At The Crossroads, which features recipes/pictures inspired by the food in the book.  The bloggers have published a cookbook in which the foreword is from none other than GRRM.   I want to try Umma's Olive Loaf.  

in The Complete Plays of Sophocles translated by Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb
Bantam Classics: 1982
Goodread

Oedipus at Colonus 

Originally published: 401BC

Rating: 5

Oedipus is now a blind beggar, exiled from Thebes, wandering with his two faithful daughters: Antigone and Ismene.  In the meantime, there is a power struggle between the two brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles who alternately serve as kings with Creon as regent.  Eteocles does not give up the throne when his time is up so Polyneices declares war.

The oracle says that whomever has possession of Oedipus' grave will win the war.  Theseus, King of Athens grants Oedipus stay and backs him up when Creon tries to kidnap the girls.  Polyneices comes to beg his father to join his cause.  Oedipus' rebuke to his firstborn:

Villain, when you had the scepter and the throne which your brother now has in Thebes you drove me, your own father, into exile, and made me citiless, and made me wear this garb which you now weep to see when you have come to the same stress of misery as I.  The time for tears is past…..Now these girls preserve me, these who are men, not women, in true service.  But you are aliens and no sons of mine. 

He then curses the sons so they will kill one another.   Polyneices asks the girls to not leave him unburied, which ties directly into Antigone.

In the end, Oedipus is redeemed, dying amidst divine approval.

Trachinian Women 

Originally published: 420 BC

Rating: 4

Tragic story of the death of Heracles (unknowingly) by his wife, Deianeira.  Long ago, while she was being carried by a centaur for hire, Nessus, across deep waters while accompanying Heracles, Nessus touched her inappropriately and when she cried out, Heracles killed him with an arrow.  But before death, Nessus said that if she took the blood around the wound, it would act as a "charm for the soul of Heracles, so that he shall never look upon any woman to love her more than you."

As the play opens, Deianeira is concerned. Heracles has sacked the city of Oechalia and is sending slave women home, one of which is the young, beautiful Iole.

Age old problem - men wanting younger women.

Deianeira:  For I see that the flower of her age is blossoming while mine is fading; and the eyes of men love to cull the bloom of youth, but they turn aside from the old.  This, then, is my fear - lest Heracles, in name my spouse, should be the younger's mate.

She applies Nessus' blood to a robe which is sent to Heracles.  He puts it on and is poisoned, suffering in extreme pain.

Hyllus accuses his mother of deliberating poisoning his father which drives her to take her life.  So now Hyllus is without father and mother.   Chorus:  Rash indeed is the man who reckons on the morrow or on days beyond it, for tomorrow is not until today is safely past. 

Heracles wants Hyllus to kill him fire on a pyre and then marry Iole.  In the end as Heracles is taken off to be burned, Hyllus says these haunting words:

Lift him, men!  And grant me full forgiveness for this, but mark the great cruelty of the gods in what is being done.  They beget children, they are hailed as fathers, and yet they can look upon such sufferings.  

No man foresees the future; but the present is fraught with mourning for us, and with shame for the powers above, and verily with anguish beyond compare for him who endures this doom.

Philoctetes 

Originally published 409 BC

Rating: 5

Philoctetes was bitten by a snake while en route to Troy and tried the patience of his shipmate with his anguished cries and foul-smelling wound.  Odysseus elected to abandon him to a deserted island where for 10 years, he survives by Heracles' bow and nurses a deep hatred toward Odysseus. 

In the meantime, the Greeks are in a long war with Troy, either side unable to win.  The oracle says that  Troy can only be taken with the help of Philoctetes and Heracles' bow.   Odysseus and Neoptolemus, Achilles' son must fetch them both. 

Odysseus' plan is for Neoptolemus to trick Philoctetes in surrendering the bow.   He is the consummate liar, politician, con artist for to him, the ends justify the means. 

N:  You think it no shame then to speak falsehoods?

O:  No, if the falsehood brings deliverance.

Neoptolemus tricks Philoctetes to giving him the bow but seized with guilt, reveals all and receives this rebuke: You fire, you utter monster, you hateful masterpiece of subtle villainy - how have you dealt with me, how have you deceived me!

Neoptolemus returns the bow (to Odysseus' horror) but rebukes Philoctetes for not helping himself by coming to Troy.  

N: You suffer this sore plague by a heaven-sent doom, because you drew near Chryse's watcher, the serpent, secret warder of her home, that guards her roofless sanctuary.  Know that relief from this grievous sickness can never be your portion, so long as the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west, until you come of your own free will to the plains of Troy, where you shall meet with the sons of Ascleplus, our comrades, and shall be eased of this malady and, with this bow's aid and mine, shall achieve the capture of the Ilian towers. 

In the end, Heracles appears, admonishing Philoctetes to go to Troy, which he does. 

As the intro states, this is a play about 1) the individual vs his role in society (Philoctetes) and 2) the change from adolescent idealism (Neoptolemus) to responsible citizenship (Odysseus). 

Audiocourse: Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition Part 3 - Middle Ages by Professor Thomas Noble

See this post for bibliography

July 2012 Books

July is turning out to be a month of memoirs and classics.....

The Los Angeles Diaries: A Memoir by James Brown
Published: 2003
Rating: 4
Goodreads

A gritty, unflinching and searing memoir by writer James Brown of his dysfunctional family; the suicides of his only siblings, an older brother Barry and older sister Marilyn; and his own intense addiction to drugs and alcohol.

The prose of Brown's heartbreaking story is strong, clear and cutting as he describes unspeakable sorrows.  But there is humor as well.  The account of the show-down between himself and Daisy, his wife's pot-bellied pig, is hilarious.

A quick but unforgettable read.

The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life by Ann Patchett
Published: 2011
Rating: 5
Goodreads

This enjoyable 62 page ibook was read in one night.  Patchett comes across as a refreshingly folksy, down-to-earth, self-depreciating and humble author; despite winning the prestigious 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner award for Bel Canto.  I have yet to read her novels such as Run, The Magician's Assistant and new novel, State of Wonder; however, I did read her poignant memoir, Truth and Beauty, which recounts her friendship with poet and writer Lucy Grealy, author of Autobiography of a Face.  

Words of wisdom from her own writing life:

I would say that a deep, early love of poetry should be mandatory for all writers.  A close examination of language did me nothing but good. 

Art stands on the shoulders of craft, which means that to get to the art, you must master the craft.  If you want to write, practice writing. 

Over the years I've come to realize that I write the book I want to read, the one I can't find anywhere.

What I like about the job of being a novelist, and at the same time what I find so exhausting about it, is that it's the closest thing to being God that you're ever going to get.  All the decisions are yours.  You decide when the sun comes up.  You decide who gets to fall in love and who gets hit by a car.  You have to make all the leaves and all the trees and then sew the leaves onto the trees.  You make the entire world. 

Othello by William Shakespeare
Published: 1622
Rating: 4
Goodreads

Named for the unsuspecting and gullible hero Othello, Shakespeare's play is really about Iago; a most sinister, manipulative, back-stabbing, devious villain.

Read full post.

Audiocourse:  The Aeneid of Virgil by Professor Elizabeth Vandiver
Rating:5
Great Course link

Loved it - see this post.

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Published: 1964
Rating: 4
Goodreads

Hemingway has been on my list of "to read" authors for a long time.  I've always looked for this book during library sales or at used bookstores with no luck.  So when it was on a carousel titled "Living in Paris" at my local library, I snatched it up.  It is a quick and interesting read about a literary expat's life in Paris after WWI.

Read full post.

Oedipus the King in The Complete Plays of Sophocles trans. by Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb
Originally published: 429 BC
Bantam Classic Edition: 1982
Rating: 4
Goodreads

I agree completely with this synopsis in the introduction by Moses Hades: "Oedipus is a masterful play; but what gives it conviction and force is that plot and characterization combine in mutual support to produce the overwhelming tragic power which is the essence of the drama.  The construction is flawless.  Each new episode flows naturally out of what has gone before, and each is made plausible by the character of its participants."

Read full post.

Antigone in The Complete Plays of Sophocles trans. by Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb
Published: 442 BC
Bantam Classic Edition: 1982
Rating: 4
Goodreads

Antigone is a tragedy whereby two people acting on their convictions; Creon, King of Thebes and Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, clash - with devastating consequences.

The king refuses to grant one of her brothers a proper burial saying, "Polyneices....leave him unburied, a corpse for birds and dogs to eat, a ghastly sight of shame."   Antigone solicits the help of her sister to bury their brother but Ismene will not defy the King's decree: "Nay, we must remember, first, that we were born women who should not strive with men; next that we are ruled of the stronger, so that we must obey in these things, and in things still harder."

Antigone's heroic response: "Be what you will, I will bury him: well for me to die in doing so.  I shall rest, a loved one whom I have loved, sinless in my crime; for I owe a longer allegiance to the dead than to the living, for in that world I shall abide forever."

By the end of the tragedy Creon is devastated by three needless suicides; prompting this warning from the chorus:

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness, and reverence for the gods must be inviolate.  Great words of prideful men are ever punished with great blows, and, in old age, teach the chastened to be wise. 

The Aeneid by Virgil - translated by Robert Fitzgerald
Published: 19 BC
Rating: 5
Goodreads

Reading The Iliad and The Odyssey of Homer and The Aeneid by Virgil has been a fascinating education in ancient Greek and Roman culture and mythology.

Read full post. 

February 2012 Books - updated March 1

A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry by Mary  Oliver
Published: 1994
Rating: 4
Goodreads

Poetry has become an important part of my grief journey and is a genre requiring much self-education.  Thus a trip to the local Barnes & Noble yielded this slim book as well as the denser How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch.  Oliver's book gives a high level view of poetry and its terms.  Most of it was easy to comprehend although I confess to my eyes glossing over in the chapter discussing line, length and rhythm as they relate to the metrical verse and such words as feet, stresses, scansion, iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapest, spondee, iambic pentameter, etc.

She has a high standard for her own poetry and thinks about writing....

for a stranger who will be born in some distant country hundreds of years from now....it reminds me, forcefully, that everything necessary must be on the page.  I must make a complete poem - a river-swimming poem, a mountain-climbing poem.  Not my poem, if it's well done, but a deeply breathing, bounding, self sufficient poem.  Like a traveler in an uncertain land, it needs to carry with it all that it must have to sustain its own life - and not a lot of extra weight, either. 

It takes 40-50 drafts before she is begins to feel content with one of her poems.  Not surprisingly, she is the winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for American Primitive and the 1992 National Book Award for Poetry for New and Selected Poems.   I look forward to reading her work.

I love how she describes language, the tool of poets, as "vibrant, malleable, living material."

My favorite quote is at the end:

A mind that is lively and inquiring, compassionate, curious, angry, full of music, full of feeling, is a mind full of possible poetry.  Poetry is a life-cherishing force.  And it requires a vision - a faith, to use an old-fashioned term.  Yes, indeed.  For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.  Yes, indeed. 

Reading Like A Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
Published: 2007
First read: 2010.  Re-read: Feb 2012
Rating: 4
Other review: A Guy's Moleskine Notebook

Prose begins her book with an interesting question: "Can creative writing be taught?"  This book answers that question with a definitive "yes".  She, as the author of numerous fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children, says that while she learned valuable information in classes and workshops, she really learned to write by writing and from reading, more specifically, from "close reading," focusing on words, phrases and paragraphs, quite opposite of speed reading, which is what I tend to do.

By reading and re-reading her favorite authors, she learned the tricks of the trade: how to structure a plot, create characters, the effective use details and dialogue - "private lessons in the art of fiction".  Her goal in this book is to "help the passionate reader and would-be writer understand how a writer reads."

There is a list of 117 books in the back called "Books To be Read Immediately".  I've read 11 and 19 are on my TBR.  This means that according to Prose, I need to add another 87 books to my wish list - yikes!

Clarissa or The History of a Young Lady - Volume 1 by Samuel Richardson
Published: 1748
Rating: 5
My Vol 1 review
My Vol 2 review
My Vol 3 review
2012 Year long reading co-hosted by Terri and JoAnn

I am reading this huge tome as part of my own challenge to read through the bibliography of The English Novel, an audio course by Professor Tim Spurgin.  I plan to write a post on each of the nine free volumes downloaded to my iPad.  I bought the book at a library book sale but it is so thick and the type so small that I will stick with the ereader.

Richardson is a genius of the epistolary form; he tells a tension-filled story with fully drawn characters, all by the letters they write!

Modern Scholar audiocourse: Giants of Irish Literature: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce and Beckett by Professor George O'Brien
Rating: 3

Not my favorite course.  Not sure if it was because of my unfamiliarity of the authors or the professor's flat delivery of the material - probably a bit of both.  Unfortunately, I am not motivated to read any of the works that were discussed.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Published: 1605
Rating: 4
Goodreads
My review
Read as part of Risa's challenge

Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson
Published: 2005
Rating: 2
Goodreads

Looking for a break from the more challenging works of Shakespeare, Richardson and How to Read Poetry, I choose this book, recently bought at my local library's book sale; intrigued by the description on the back page:

"Veronika, a young writer from New Zealand, rents a house in a small village in the midst of a harsh Swedish winter.  She has come here alone hoping to come to terms with a recent tragedy while finishing her latest novel.  Her arrival is observed by Astrid, her elderly, reclusive neighbor who harbors a dark secret from her past.  Astrid offers Veronika companionship in her grief, and the two embark on an unusual and unexpected friendship." 

I expected a moving story about a writer on her grief journey and was sorely disappointed.  I was unmoved at the unveiling of both character's tragedies which is surprising, as my personal grief lies so close to the surface and is easily pricked by the words of skillful writers.

I found Olsson's writing to be cliche and forced.  The characters were one-dimensional, shallow and uninteresting.  Astrid's ultimate tragedy, occurring while a young married woman, was downright unbelievable.  

That said, I did find some quotes that resonate with me.

Astrid - on her memories:

My life's memories take up space with no regard to when they happened, or to their actual time-span.  The memories of brief incidents occupy almost all time, while years of my life have left no trace (30). 

Like memories.  You can make yourself believe that they have been erased.  But they are there, if you look closely.  If you have a wish to uncover them (67). 

Grief quote - at the beginning of chapter 25:

Grief, it's shadow in the room
doesn't move with the sun
doesn't become dusk
as dusk beings to fall (151).

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Published: 1597
Rating: 5
Goodreads

I found this play the most accessible of the three read thus far.  A Midsummer Night's Dream would be next, followed by Macbeth.  I still used the No Fear Shakespeare version which happily, I found the paraphrase matched my understanding of the original text.  Is this because the language gets easier with each play?  I am not sure but look forward to finding out next month, when I read Henry V as part of Risa's challenge.

I continue to enjoy Shakespeare's mastery of the English language and reading the context of infamous phrases such as "O Romeo, Romeo!  Wherefore art thou Romeo?" and "Parting is such sweet sorrow", both spoke by Juliet in Act II, Scene II.

I love this quote - when Juliet is impatiently waiting for her nurse to catch her breath so as to impart important news about Romeo.

How are thou out of breath when thou hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath?
The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.

I have written two detailed posts on Josh's blog.  One that focuses on the teenage suicidal ideation within the play and the other, on the loss and grief expressed in both this play and in Macbeth.

Aspects of the Novel  by E. M. Forster
Published: 1927
Rating: 4
Goodreads

A short, easy-to-read book that is a publication of lectures given by Forster at Trinity College, Cambridge in the spring of 1927.  The tone is witty and informal, reminding me of the published lectures of Virginia Woolf in the Virginia Woolf Reader.   I envy those who were able to hear the pearls of wisdom from both these authors!

In the introduction, Forster readily admits that while English poetry has no equal, English literature takes a back seat to the great Russian authors, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in their treatment of a man's personal/heroic life and the soul respectively, and to Marcel Proust in terms of illuminating of man's consciousness.

The lectures, for they read as lectures, define critical aspects of the novel, helpful for both the budding novelist and the wanna-be-a-more discerning reader, which is me.

Story - "is a narrative of events arranged in time sequence."  'The king died, and then the queen' is a story.

Plot - "is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality.  'The king died, and then the queen died of grief' is a plot....Plot demands intelligence and memory.....The plot-maker expects us to remember, we expect him to leave no loose ends."

The best chapter is on the subject of people or characters.  Here we find the famous discourse on the difference between "round" and "flat" characters.

Flat characters - "are sometimes called types, and sometimes caricatures.  In their purest form, they are constructed round a single idea or quality, when there is more than one factor in them, we get the beginning of the curve towards the round." Forster says that most of the characters in Dickens are flat, and while they are "types and caricatures, people whom we recognize the instant they re-enter", the genius of Dickens is that they are not "mechanical" or "shallow".

Round characters - "the test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way.  If it never surprises, it is flat.  If it does not convince, it is flat pretending to be round."  Forster says that all of Jane Austen's characters are round and "they are ready for an extended life".  I totally agree which is why there are numerous sequels to her books - we simply do not want them to end.

He references numerous books and authors that I have yet the pleasure to read: Tristam Shandy, War and Peace, Vanity Fair, Moby Dick and Dostoevsky, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, and Dickens.  I will have to re-read this gem of a book after doing so.

Ajax by Sophocles translated by Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb
Published: 420 BC
Rating: 4
Goodreads
Great Authors challenge

Next to Achilles, Ajax was one of the most valuable Greek warriors. In Homer's Illiad, he single-handedly prevented the Trojans from burning their ships.  He expected to receive the dead Achilles' armor as the worthiest successor - instead, by vote, it was giving to Odysseus.

Ajax took this as an affront; dishonoring his name and deeds.  So he plots revenge - no less than killing his Greek comrades.  Athena intervenes and makes him mad, such that he tortures and kills sheep, thinking they are men.

Ajax comes to his right mind and is so filled with shame and remorse that he is suicidal.  He does not listen to the pleas of his wife on behalf of herself and their young son.

When the deed is done, Teucer (Ajax's half-brother) wants to bury him but Menelaus says no.  Odysseus intervenes, convincing all that Ajax deserves to be buried.

We meet Ajax again, in Homer's Odyssey, where he meets up with Odysseus in the underworld and refuses to speak with him, thus nursing the grudge even in death.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Published: 1605
Rating: 4
Other reviews: Joy's Book Blog, Rebecca Reads
Goodreads

I read the No Fear Shakespeare version of Macbeth in which the original play is written on the left side of the page and the easy-to-understand paraphrase on the right.

I began with with the original text and understood about 75% on my own.  The 25% I would've missed if not for the paraphrase was enough to have dampened my understanding and appreciation of the work.  Here is an example:  "The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see." Paraphrase:  "I won't let my eye look at what my hand is doing, but in the end I'm still going to do that thing I'd be horrified to see" (I, IV, 54-55).

At the beginning of the play, we are introduced to Macbeth, a courageous Scottish general fighting on behalf of his king.  After a series of victorious battles, he hears a prophecy from 3 witches that set he and Lady Macbeth on a path of wanton destruction and murder, ending with their own deaths.

While Macbeth struggles with his conscious, Lady Macbeth does not.  She is heartless and ruthless, almost inhuman.  The only other villainous character I could think of that is remotely similar to Lady Macbeth is from a fairy tale - the Evil Queen in Snow White.  Some chilling quotes:

Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, un-sex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
of direst cruelty.  Make thick my blood.
Stop up the access and passage to remorse (I, V, 41-45).

The extent of her willingness to do what was promised:

I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me.
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you
Have done to this (I, VII, 54-59).

Macbeth says of her:

Bring forth men-children only,
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing by males (I, VII, 72-74).

Macbeth is set and ready to commit the ultimate treason; regicide of the good, noble and beloved King Duncan.

I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show.
False face must hide what the false heart doth know (I, VII, 79-82).

After killing the king, Macbeth goes a bit batty and foreshadows the sleepless nights that he and Lady Macbeth will suffer...no more baths, balms and nourishment for them.  I love this description of sleep.

"Sleep not more!
Macbeth does murder sleep" - the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
the death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
chief nourisher in life's feast (II,II, 33-38).

Once Macbeth is king, the 3 witches continue to cause mischief.  I now know where this famous couplet comes from:

Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble (IV, I, 10-11)

This play is about unchecked ambition.  About a man, egged on by his conscious-less wife, unable to trust his fate to Fate, and willing to do whatever vile act necessary to secure a destiny believed to be rightfully his.  Macbeth's ambition eventually drives Reason away, shown by his decision to kill Macduff's innocent wife and children.  Macduff is a nobleman who supports Malcolm, King Duncan's son and rightful heir:

From this moment
The very firstlings of my heart shall be
The firstlings of my hand.  And even now,
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:
The castle of Macduff I will surprise,
Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunately souls
That trace him in his line (IV, I, 147-154). 

The words below are spoken by a Scottish nobleman to Macduff after he hears of the horrific murders. These two sentences articulate why I write in my journal, Josh's blog and this blog.  See this post. 

Give sorrow words.  The grief that does not speak

Whispers the o'refraught heart and bids it break (IV, III, 211-212)

Murder begets murder.  This is Macbeth cry when he hears of Lady Macbeth's death by self-murder:

Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more (V, V, 23-26).

In the last battle, a father loses his son.  Here is another "grief quote" that speaks to me:

Your cause of sorrow
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end (V, VIII, 44-46).

At the end, Macbeth is overtaken and vengefully killed by Macduff, who cuts off his head and presents the grisly prize to the new King Malcolm.  Poetic justice, albeit after much violence and bloodshed, finally reigns supreme.  What kind of legacy does Macbeth and Lady Macbeth leave behind?  Not much when one considers the last speech of the play, recited by King Malcolm in which they are referred to as the "dead butcher and his fiendlike queen" (V,VIII, 69).

I have rated this play a "4", having no context as to how Macbeth compares to Shakespeare's other plays.  By virtue of the number of quotes (and I could've have written many more), I would not be surprised if, after reading other works, I later revise it to a "5".

Challenge: Reading Shakespeare - A Play A Month in 2012

After participating in Allie's Shakespeare Reading Month (see below), I've decided to jump in with both feet and join Risa's challenge of reading a play a month.  She has created a blog just for this challenge - click here.

"The Plays of Shakespeare" by Sir John Gilbert (1849)

The plays that we will be reading are:

January — A Midsummer Night’s Dream - scroll down this post to see my short blurb
February — Macbeth - see my post
March — Henry V
April — Much Ado About Nothing
May — Antony and Cleopatra
June — Richard III
July — As You Like It
August — King Lear
September — Cymbeline
October — Twelfth Night
November — Othello
December — Pericles

In my local Barnes & Noble, I have found the No Fear Shakespeare editions which I plan to use.

After some hemming and hawing, I have decided to participate in the Shakespeare Reading Month challenge hosted by Allie at A Literary Odyssey.   The rules are pretty simple:

• Read anything Shakespeare
• Comment on Allie's master post saying you want to participate
• Link to the master post with any individual posts related to the challenge

I have been intimidated by Shakespeare and figure this will be a great way to tackle some plays and learn from others.  I will be reading A Midsummer Night's Dream.  If this goes well, I may commit to the "Reading Shakespeare: A Play a Month" challenge.

January 14, 2011 update - scroll down this post to see my short blurb on A Midsummer Night's Dream

January 2012 Books and Audiocourse

This post will be updated throughout the month as I finish books and write the mini review.

Anne Frank: The book, the life, the afterlife by Francine Prose
Published: 2009
Rating: 3
Goodreads review
Prose decided to re-read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl as research for her new novel whose narrator would be a 13-year old girl.  While reading she came to believe that this was "a consciously crafted work of literature" showcasing Anne's prodigious talent: "her technical proficiency, the novelistic qualities of her diary, her ability to turn living people into characters, her observational powers, her eye for detail, her ear for dialogue and monologue, and the sense of pacing that guides her as she intersperses sections of reflection with dramatized scenes." This is amazing - don't most people go to writing classes to learn how to do this?

I enjoyed the chapters that elaborated on why Prose made the two statements quoted above and skimmed over those which dealt with the drama surrounding the subsequent movie and theatrical productions. The chapters that covered the few short months between the last diary entry and Anne's death were tough.  Like Prose, I also marveled "at the fact that one of the greatest books about the Nazi genocide should have been written by a girl between the ages of thirteen and fifteen."

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Published: 2009
Rating: 5
Goodreads review
Author web site
I saw this book soon after Josh's death, and knew that I would want to read it as the story is about a girl hovering between life and death.  At the time, I was probably reading survivor of suicide and parental bereavement books.  At this point in my grief journey, I am fascinated with questions about death: what happens up to the point of death, what happens afterwards, can my Josh see or hear me?  And since no one knows, fiction is the genre in which this topic can be explored.  As morbid as it sounds, it is what I want to read.

Found in the inner flap is the summary: "While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old, Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death."  The author handled this "in-between" state, the thin line separating life and death in a realistic and believable way.

This tear-jerker, told from Mia's point of view, was a quick read.  The following quotes made me stop and think:

I realize now that dying is easy.  Living is hard.  

I've heard people talk about the sleep of the dead.  Is that what death would feel like?  The nicest, warmest, heaviest never-ending nap?  If that's what it's like, I wouldn't mind.  If that's what dying is like, I wouldn't mind at all.  

I don't know if once you die you remember things that happened to you when you were alive.  It makes a certain logical sense that you wouldn't.  That being dead will feel like before you were born, which is to say, a whole lot of nothingness.

After finishing, I wanted to read the sequel right away so used an iTunes gift card received at Christmas to download it - then stayed up until the wee hours reading.  After I woke up, I grabbed my iPad and finished.  Isn't technology wonderful?

Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Published: 2011
Rating: 5
Goodreads review
In the sequel, Forman chose a different narrator to tell the story: Adam Wilde, Mia's emotionally scarred and vulnerable ex-boyfriend, whom we met in the first book and is another likable character.

The story picks up three years later and is told in present time and in flashbacks.  The writing is simple, direct and powerful.   The books are seamlessly tied together and the ending is extremely satisfying.

On Forman's website is a link to her blog on which the posts are candid and honest, giving a window into the life of a novelist.  The post where she asks readers to comment on whether or not a third book should be written and the one where she compares the launch of her two books are especially interesting.

Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Published: 1740
Rating: 5
Lists: 1,001
My review

The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis by Professor Louis Markos
Audiocourse from The Teaching Company
Rating: 2

While I learned some interesting things about C.S Lewis (he was never given full professorship at Oxford University despite teaching for thirty years) and bought an anthology of his apologetic works, I found the professor to be a bit preachy and did not finish the lectures.  I did, however, find a gem in the bibliography where Prof. Markos referenced Tennyson's epic poem on loss and grief, In Memoriam A.H.H which I am now slowly reading.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Published: 1595
Rating: 3
Goodreads review

I read this for the Shakespeare Reading Month Challenge hosted by Allie at Literary Odyssey.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well I could follow along (only had to check out Wikipedia once and that was in Act 2, Scene 1, to figure out who Oberon and Titania were) and how quickly the story moved along.  When Helena told Demetrius, "And I am sick when I look not on you", I was reminded of what Mr. B said about Pamela, "This lovely creature is my doctor, as her absence was my disease."   I believe that authors write their masterpieces on the shoulders of previous literary giants.  I look forward to making more connections as my foray into the classics continue.

The Giants of Russian Literature: Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekov by Professor Liza Knapp
Audiocourse by The Modern Scholar
Rating: 3

The lower rating has more to do with my unfamiliarity of these author's works than of the course itself for I found the three lectures on Anna Karenina, a recently read novel, to be quite interesting.  The professor notes that not all translations are the same and suggests Constance Garnett or the husband/wife team of Richard Pevear/Larissa Volokhonsky.  She also points out why several names exist for one character, consistent with Russian culture but confusing to many readers.  She gives detailed background on the historical time period of these authors, their own backgrounds, how and when they intersected and what they thought of each other's works.  She also reflects on the following questions: What makes Russian literature unique and timeless and what was its impact on literature from other countries?  

I have been a bit intimidated by such tomes as War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Fathers and Sons but after listening to these lectures, I look forward to tackling them.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Published: 2006
Rating: 3
Goodreads

I'm having a hard time rating this book, alternating between a 2 (it was okay) to a 4 (really liked it) so have settled on a 3 (liked it).

Why the 2?  Overall, I found this to be a heavy, dark and depressing book which could only be read a few sections at a time.  But upon closer reflection, this is not the reason for the low rating. Now that I am working on being a more discerning reader, I find myself reacting to certain things such as 1) uncharacteristic behavior that moves the plot forward but is unbelievable (I am thinking of when Hans does something very impulsive and stupid which puts his whole family and Max at risk); 2) when Death, who is constantly portrayed as a sympathetic character, finds Liesel's book and does not return it to her, an unsympathetic and therefore inconsistent action and 3) when the ending, as an attempt to tie the plot lines together, is too neat and therefore unsatisfactory.

Why the 4?  1) I found the author's choice of Death as the narrator to be interesting and his observations of human behavior, running the gamut from extreme cruelty to kindness, thought-provoking. 2) The character development of Rosa Hubermann was well done, a very round character, to use the definition put forth by E.M. Forster in Aspects of The Novel.  3)  Of course I loved the protagonist, Liesel Meminger, a spunky girl who works hard to overcome her illiteracy, becoming an avid reader and writer.  Because she is a book lover, and can only obtain them by stealing, she becomes a thief, preferring to steal books over food.

There is a character who commits suicide.  Death's comment about him and all those who chose to meet him in this way is haunting, but rings true.

"Have me," they said, and there was no stopping them.  They were frightened, no question, but they were not afraid of me.  It was a fear of messing up and having to face themselves again, and facing the world, and the likes of you.
There was nothing I could do.
They had too many ways, they were too resourceful - and when they did it too well, whatever their chosen method, I was in no position to refuse. 

Would I recommend this book?  It depends on who was asking and I would only do so with some caveats.

Update - I am rereading this review and wonder if it is a bit harsh.  I will leave it for now and see if time makes a difference.