Dracula by Bram Stoker

Finally, this book has been on my list practically forever, I finally got to it! Can you believe that although I've heard of Dracula of course, I'd never seen the films so I didn't actually know the story? Seriously, you'd think I've been living under a rock or something.

The main thing that I didn't expect from Bram Stoker's Dracula was that it wasn't about Dracula, in that it wasn't a story told from his perspective. I kind of assumed that it would be. So I was surprised at how many other characters were involved and that it was a tale of a whole bunch of people.

Once I got used to that, I really, really liked it. I liked the historical side of it and I enjoyed the pretty-society-meets-vampire aspect of it. I loved that it was written as a series of journal entries by various characters and that it had things like letters and newspaper clipping thrown in as well.

I didn't find it spooky, but I imagine that the films took care of that. :-) It's an interesting classic that I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did.

Oh, but just like in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, the attitude towards women sometimes really made me angry. Every time a woman made progress in the case or came up with a brilliant idea (which was often), the men would think things like 'She thinks like a man'. How did we ever manage to overcome such widely spread prejudice? Did we overcome it at all?

Bram Stoker is another author who I didn't know was Irish. I feel like I'm being led towards Irish authors lately, I'm not sure why. The other author I recently read and didn't know was Irish was Oscar Wilde - Stoker and Wilde knew each other too, which I think is a really bizarre coincidence in my recent reading.

Challenges: R.I.P. Challenge, 1% Well-Read Challenge

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Beautiful book. I don't always like books that win big awards, they tend to be too heavy or artsy and just go right over my head, but this winner of the 2009 Pulitzer is a real gem. Heartwarming, familiar, deep - it's not exactly a page turner and yet I couldn't put it down.

Olive Kitteridge is a 'novel in stories', a collection of 13 stories of a community in Maine. Each is about a different person in the town but Olive Kitteridge appears in all. Through the stories where she's the central character we come to see (and sometimes understand) how she views the world and how she's coping with getting older and the associated changes to her life. Through the other storied, the comments of the townspeople, we have a glimpse of how she looks to others, what others think of her. Often, I'd read about Olive in another person's story and I'd think she was horrible. Then when I read a chapter specifically about her, I suddenly understood and forgave her. If only we had such insight into the souls of those around us!

It made me think about the adjustments that we all need to make as we get older and then old. It made me think of my Grandma for example in a different light. It also made me think of my own future, about the kind of old person I would like to be.

Elizabeth Strout is seriously going onto my list of favorite authors ever. Her writing here was amazing. Actually alive. Beautifully chosen words, yet it didn't read like she was trying too hard. It all described life and people's inner life wonderfully. I really felt like I knew the characters, like I understood the very basis of them. It was a nice feeling.

Have you read anything else by this author?

If you haven't read this, go do so right now, you won't regret it!

Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge

What Mothers Do, Especially When it Looks Like Nothing by Naomi Stadlen

If you're a new Mom, this book is really, really, really worth reading. At a time that I found very difficult, this book was often the only thing that would give me any comfort. Because it includes loads of quotes from mothers, it made me feel less alone in what I was feeling. The way the author phrased and explained things gave me recognition in a situation where I often felt like I was doing nothing.


Books like this are so important. I must say that no matter how many questions I asked beforehand and how many books I read, nothing could have prepared me for those first weeks/months of being a mother. It's hard, frustrating, tiring and often lonesome, as well as being a beautiful time. All the things you're feeling are really intense and for some reason difficult to explain properly. And you can't really complain because something wonderful has happened in your life and you should be happy. Naomi Stadlen's book offered the honesty of other mothers that I needed to hear - it's not easy, you don't always like it or handle it well, and that's ok. 


I picked up several things that made life easier for me. For example, one mother in the book remarked how much simpler life became once she stopped fighting against what her baby wanted. Once she accepted that whatever the baby wanted was fine, things became easier. I have to remind myself to stop trying to control the situation all the time and I have to say that if I manage to let go everything improves.


One of the more interesting ideas in the book is a discussion of language and how it's lacking the vocabulary to explain certain things about motherhood. The author argues that this is because in the past certain behaviors and realities were the norm and now society is very different. Life has changed but language has remained the same and a gap now exists. The book is worth reading even only for these language observations, very interesting.


I recommend this one whole-heartedly and will be buying it for any new mothers that I know.


Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge, Women Unbound Challenge

Chicken with Plums

Oh my, I read this so long ago now that I can't remember that much about it! I know I loved it when I read it as it's marked as a favorite on my list. And I know that it's written by Marjane Satrapi, who also wrote the fantastic Persepolis. Chicken with Plums was just as good in terms of the genius of coupling serious subject matter with the graphic medium and complicated issues with the simple drawings.

I got this book from the lovely Melody, my secret santa. Thanks Melody, I really enjoyed it!

If you're not into comics but would like to try them, Marjane Satrapi is a good place to start and Chicken with Plums is a good one of hers to start with, as it's short but endearing.

Anyway, enough vague comments! I hope that all of you are well. I'm fine, back at work now and trying to find a balance between that and family life and my own stuff. It's hard but I'm having a great time!

Challenges: Graphic Novels Challenge, 2010 Countdown Challenge

Everything is Illuminated

Ha, I actually finished one! :-)

I'd been looking forward to Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated for literally years. Joe raved about it but lent the book to someone so I couldn't read it at the time... In the meantime I read the author's other book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and was very impressed. Now I finally got to the original recommendation.

And I was slightly disappointed. I liked it, but I didn't love it. And I wanted to (and expected to) love it.

I absolutely loved the language used by Alex, the Ukrainian translator. The way he expresses himself, using English words that don't quite belong together, is wonderful. Unique and clever, this way of using language is certainly impressive.

I also liked the various techniques the author used to talk about the various characters who lived during the war, and even way before. In these parts too, his use of language is beautiful and amazing. The phrasing sometimes made me wonder how long it took him to write this book - do such imaginative ways of portraying things really come naturally to some people? Or do they have to work at it?

I did not like the parts about the distant history of the main village and quickly became frustrated with how frequent/long they were at the beginning of the book. I really think that the second half was better for me because the timelines merged more and there was no more of this strange history.

If it wasn't for these parts I would have loved this sad book. It certainly is a different way of talking about the horrible nature of war and what it does to regular human nature. I'd recommend it to everyone out there, it's one of these books that I think you should try for yourself.

Challenges: 1% Well-Read, 2010 Countdown Challenge, 2nds Challenge, 999 Challenge, A-Z Challenge, War through the Generations

The Little Prince

I read this (or re-read it actually) by accident, because I still didn't have anything read for the Celebrate the Author challenge and today, June 29, is the birthday of Antoine De Saint-Exupery. I read it online here and although I know that it's much nicer to read it in book format and probably also in the original French, it was still as delightful as I remembered it to be.

The Little Prince is one of those children's books with a simple story and a magical message that appeals to adults as well. If it doesn't appeal then you've left it too long between re-readings. :-)

Basically, a little prince ends up on Earth and encounters an airman whose plane has crashed in the desert. They start an unlikely friendship and the airman gets to hear about the little prince's adventures on his own planet and on the planets he visited on his way to Earth.

The messages about children and how much of the beauty of childhood we lose when we become adults are wonderful. Only children understand certain things, see certain things. As adults we forget to look with our hearts, for example. We forget what's really important.

I'm sure you've all read this at some point, but if you haven't then you must.

Oh and the illustrations are fantastic. Really a part of the story.

I feel all young and innocent now! :-)

Challenges: 999 Challenge, Celebrate the Author, Classics Challenge, Orbis Terrarum

A Midsummer Night's Dream

I haven't read any Shakespeare for ages, but I needed a book for the Every Month is a Holiday challenge and it also increased my numbers of the Once Upon a Time III challenge, so I went for it.

I remember why I don't read a lot of Shakespeare - although I understand the story through the strange wordings, I still don't understand every single line. That in itself isn't a problem, but I WANT to understand every single line. Every single word even.

When I was in college we had an English Lit professor who taught Shakespeare plays as a class - one play per semester. You went through the play word by word and got to understand it all. I loved that level of detail. Reading A Midsummer Night's Dream in a more relaxed way, like I just did, feels like I cheated and like I've been cheated too.

I liked it though. I'm pagan so anything about the magical Midsummer would appeal to me anyway and I loved reading about the havoc wreaked by these particular fairies. I'd never read any of Shakespeare's 'lighter' plays so this was new territory for me... who knew that he'd have fairies in his plays? Although he does have witches and ghosts so maybe it shouldn't have been that surprising.

Anyway. I won't go through the plot because most of you probably know it. But I will say that if you have never read it, it's worth picking it up. It's especially worth it to follow Carl's lead and read it in June, around Midsummer itself. Makes you feel magical yourself!

Challenges: 999 Challenge, Centuries Challenge, Classics Challenge, Every Month is a Holiday, Once Upon a Time III, Orbis Terrarum

Anatomy of a Boyfriend

Boy, did this bring me back! Daria Snadowsky's coming-of-age book caught all the emotions on paper so well, that I couldn't help but reminisce to that time in my own life... That's always a sign of a good book!

Dominique is 17 and doesn't really have much experience with boys - until she meets Wes. They start dating and then fooling around. Their time together has many firsts for them both and the I thought that the author described them to a T. The strength of Dominique's emotions was so apparent and so raw, it hurt to remember that intensity sometimes.

Snadowsky also added an extra dimension to the story - choosing a college and going off to college - without your high school boyfriend. So hard when you think that your high school boyfriend is all that there is to life.

This book has been comopared to Judy Blume's Forever and Judy Blume liked it herself - can you get better praise than that?

If you like teen literature then I highly recommend this. But be warned, it'll probably take you back to when you were young (and stupid) too! :-)

Challenges: YA Romance, Young Adult Challenge

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This beautiful book by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is definitely one of favorite books of the year. I wondered about it because it's received so many fantastic reviews and I hate when there's that much hype about a book and then I hate it... but this one is beautiful and touching and interesting and really, really deserves all the praise.

The story is told through letters between the various characters. There are in fact two stories - one of Juliet who is living in London in 1946 trying to come up with an idea for a novel and one is about some inhabitants of Guernsey and what German occupation looked like for them during the war. The two come together because one of the Guernsey men finds a book that had once belonged to Juliet and writes to her.

As the stories of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society unfold, Juliet starts to care about the people involved and begins to realise something about what's important in others and in life. The stories are wonderful, the characters are engaging, the writing is charming.

The way the occupation is described reminds me of the second part of Suite Francaise - the Germans and the locals start to get to know each other and it turns out that they are all human beings who don't want to be in that situation. It doesn't seem to matter who started it...

Here are a few of my favorite quotes - there were way too many good ones to write down though!

Juliet on her old flat being destroyed in a bombing:

"I know that I am fortunate to have any place at all to live in London, but I much prefer whining to counting my blessings."

Juliet on not being able to buy new shoes to go with her new dress:

"...doesn't it seem shocking to hqve more stringent rationing after the war than during the war? I realise that hundreds of thousands of people all over Europe must be fed, housed and clothed, but privately I resent it that so many of them are Germans."

Juliet on finding out more about the German occupation of Guernsey:

"I want to talk to people like him (...) and hear about their war, because that's what I'd like to read, instead of statistics about grain."

The comments on the back cover say that you won't want it to end and it's true. I now want to visit Guernsey and I will be very, very disappointed if the characters from this book don't live there!

Challenges: 999 Challenge, Countdown Challenge, War through the Generations

The Complete Persepolis

Wow. It's really original of Marjane Satrapi to choose to write her memoir as a graphic novel. It really worked. I'm glad I liked it so much, because it's my first 'real' graphic novel. I read the first Buffy Season 8 ones earlier this year, but that was an easy way to get started since I'm such a huge Buffy fan. I consider Persepolis the real deal.

So, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's memoir about growing up in revolutionary Iran - war, revolution, repression, persecution... what can these do to a willful teenager? I thought it was fascinating on so many levels. The coming-of-age storyline is one I usually like. I didn't know anything (and I mean anything) about Iran and learned so much. I want to read more about this interesting country.

I didn't know details of the fundamentalist repression either. I just can't imagine it, to be living like a 'normal' teenager and for everything to be taken away. All her dreams - of being free, of going to university, of going to the US - everything was taken away. I suppose that's when we find out what we're really made of but still.

It was strange to read about all the horrors in comic strip format. I somehow thought it would be lighter, even though that doesn't really make sense since I knew it would be about Iran. We're so used to graphic descriptions in books and we're so used to violent films and even cartoons, but we know that they're not real. It's strange when you look at the pictures, in the same format as Superman, and know that they are real. Does that make any sense? The simplicity reinforces the message, I know, but it was still weird to me.

I thought her story was beautiful and inspirational. To survive so much and to tell the world about it in such a meaningful way is amazing. I could empathise with her when she moved to Vienna - I know what it's like to be on your own when you're too young to be on your own, to be foreign, to miss that understanding from others of the same background.

And I loved the art. I loved that it wad black and white and simple. The emotions kind of jumped out at you. The hopeless romantic in me loved the page about how she and Reza are total opposites but they complete each other. Still makes me smile when I think about it.

This is certainly going to be on my list of favorites this year. If you haven't yet, you should definitely get this one.

Challenges: A-Z, 999, Countdown, Graphic Novels, In Their Shoes, Lost in Translation, My Year of Reading Dangerously, New Authors, Well-Seasoned Reader, World Citizen, Dewey Decimal

The Bad Beginning

The Bad Beginning is the first book in the series called A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It's about kids and for kids and reads so quickly that I had it finished during my bedtime reading the other night.

This first book introduces the Baudelaire siblings, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, and starts off their story. Unfortunately, their story starts off sadly with their parents dying in a fire and with them being carted off to a distant relative no one has ever heard of. Needless to say that they are mistreated there. Why? Well, their parents had been very wealthy so maybe someone is out for their money!

I borrowed this from a friend's son, as I was intrigued. I was told that if I liked the Harry Potter series then I'd like this too. We'll see, I'm planning on getting the next one on audio.

One thing I did like about the book is the way it how it includes more difficult vocabulary and explains the words as part of the narrative. I didn't find it obtrusive, in fact I liked the way some of the definitions were phrased. It seems a good way to get some vocab development in!

Lemony Snicket is a pseudonym of author Daniel Handler - he's also one of the characters in the books. I haven't seen him there yet, but he's the narrator too so his voice is there!

I'm curious to read about these children's next adventures. And I really hope they manage to escape from this relative they are living with!

Challenges: 1st in a series, A-Z Challenge, 999 Challenge, Young Adult Challenge

SeinLanguage

I needed a happy book, so my friend Elaine brought me SeinLanguage by Jerry Seinfeld. It's a short book, but it sure made me laugh! I really needed that while I was waiting in our cold apartment for someone to come and fix the heating!

I love Jerry Seinfeld - I've recently started renting Seinfeld on DVD and it's still SO funny. His books reads very easily - you can picture him actually saying everything live, my brain was doing accents on certain words and everything.

Here are a few passages that cracked me up:

Or, you ever move a TV set in the back of your car? Then you've got to leave the car in the street for a couple of minutes, you put a sweater over the TV. "It's a couple of sweaters, that's all. One of them happens to be square with an antenna coming out of it."

This one is also great:

According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that seem right? That means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy."

And this one totally cracked me up, probably because I'm preparing to move and this is exactly how I feel!

When you're moving, your whole world is boxes. That's all you think about. "Boxes, where are the boxes?" You just wander down the street going in and out of stores, "Are there any boxes here? Have you seen any boxes?" It's all you think about. You can't even talk to people, you can't concentrate. "Will you shut up? I'm looking for boxes!"

If you don't know Jerry Seinfeld, you should really check him out, he's one of my favorite comedians.

Challenges: 999 Challenge, A-Z Challenge

On Beauty

I received On Beauty by Zadie Smith from a friend and since I heard lots of people say they loved it, I was really excited to read it. Plus I've been on a quest to find quality books which aren't miserable and I was told that this was such a book - a happy book. For these reasons and some others, I thought I would love it. I wanted to love it. But as sometimes happens when you hear too much hype, I didn't love it. That makes me very sad but there it is.

On Beauty is basically about the Belsey family and a litttle bit about the Kipps family. The two have a feud going, but some members are drawn to each other despite this. First and foremost there's Howard, head of the Belseys. Intellectual, professor at a liberal arts college, going through a midlife crisis, he loves his family but is dissatisfied with his life in general. I suppose he gets to thinking that there must be more. There's his wife Kiki who has to deal with Howard's crisis, as well as the varied crises of their children and her own disappointments. There are the Belsey children who are trying to find their place in the world. The opposing Kipps family is similar, except that their beliefs are right-wing, so very much unwanted in Howard's liberal arts world.

This book is about so many things that it's hard to know where to start. It's about people - regular people who want to achieve something in life, who want to be happy who want others to think of them in a certain way. It's about belonging, that incredible need to feel part of something, but it's also about the need to be an individual and to follow one's own course.

It's about the differences between men and women, in their actions and their reactions. I love this following thought of a male character: "He had not seen her since that afternoon. And with the miracke that is male compartmentalization he had barely thought of her either."

It's about love and how it survives and changes and breaks. Not only about romantic and sexual love, but also about sibling love. Here is a passage that really touched me, the thoughts of Jerome about his sister Zora and his brother Levi:

"Before the world existed, before it was populated, and before there were wars and jobs and colleges and movies and clothes and opinions and foreign travel - before all of these things there had been only one person, Zora, and only one place: a tent in the living room made from chairs and bed-sheets. After a few years, Levi arrived; space was made for him; it was as if he had always been."

On Beauty also has a political edge, a racial aspect. The Belseys are an inter-racial family and one of the Belsey children wants to be only Black. He wants to belong with his 'brothers'. But Howard is white and a professor and he and Kiki (who once said that she gave up everything Black for her husband) built a regular, white middle-class life for their family. Whether this is actually possible or not is also a theme that runs through this book, as is whether we should help 'our' people. This passage really struck me:

"...but this self-hatred. When I look at Condoleeza, and Co-lin - God! I want to be sick - I see this rabid need to separate themselves away from the rest of us - it's like "We got the opportunity and now the quota's full and thank you very much, adios."

I've gone on long enough, but there is more to say! The book is about so much more but I guess you'll have to read it yourself. And I think you should read it - Zadie Smith's amazingly original use of language warrants it. I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to for many reasons - the main one is probably that I really wanted a happy book and this was recommended to me as such. It's Certainly not a happy book - all the characters are dissatisfied with their lives and are struggling to find/accept their place in the world.

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, 999 Challenge, Countdown Challenge, New Authors

The Dangerous Husband

I picked Jane Shapiro's book up at the library - I really wanted to read something that wasn't for a challenge! Unfortunately, The Dangerous Husband was only ok... It's the story of a marriage gone sour and dangerous. It's described as funny, but I thought it was more sad than funny. The amusing feeling was only superficial, underneath that the topic was serious. Maybe it's me.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

I just finished Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - an engaging quick read. The story is about Miss Jean Brodie, teacher at an all-girls' school in the 1930s. Miss Brodie pays special attention to a few of the girls and tries her best to give them an ecucation that's beyond math and history. She tells them about her own life and her own ideas about life. Under Miss Brodie's influence, the girls begin to stand out from the rest of the Junior School and continue do be on the sidelines in Senior School. There is always something different about them.

The character of Miss Brodie is interesting and bizarre, worth meeting I think. The book was turned into a stage play and a film, so others must have seen something different in the story too!

4 stars - it's quick and fun, I'd recommend it.

Oh and this is my 4th book for the Novella Challenge.