Book 6 - Ghost World

Completed January 20th



I first read this in a literature class years ago. In fact, this is the first graphic novel I ever read. There is a movie loosely based on it, but it's VERY different...and this is one of those rare occasions when I like the movie more than the book...though both rock.

This novel is a slice-of-life story involving 2 best friends, Enid and Rebecca. They're cynical hipsters with too much time on their hands. Enid criticizes everything and every body she comes in contact with while Becky does the same, but more mildly. The story starts off pretty much coherent, but by the end each scene is practically 5 panels long and it gets jumbled.

It's a quick read and definitely worth it.

Favorite passage:

• "The trouble is the kind of guy I want to go out with doesn't even exist ---Like a rugged, chain-smoking, intellectual, adventurer guy, who's really serious, but also really funny and mean." -Enid
  

Rating: 7/10

Book 5 - A Clockwork Orange

Completed January 20th



I've attempted this beast before, but quickly decided you need a freakin' cipher to decode it. The language used is an obscure future-slang and you have to use context clues to figure it out. I actually started a list of the words and my definitions...ended up with 3 columns on a post-it.

If you've seen the movie, you know it's super violent, involving rape, people being beaten, and pretty much any graphic content you can imagine. As much as I complained about the slang, that's what saved this book for me. What it has going for it is that the weird language had me unscrambling what they were saying, so I was responding more intellectually than emotionally, if that makes sense. If regular English would have been used, it probably would've been too much.

I ended up enjoying this one, which surprised me. The edition I have includes an extra final chapter that Burgess added to the British version originally...so it ends differently than the film. And I prefer the book ending...but I kind of hated the movie.

Favorite passages:

• "Oh, just to keep walking," I said, "and viddy what turns up, O my little brothers."
• But, brothers, this biting of their toenails over what is the cause of badness is what turns me into a fine laughing malchick. They don't go into what is the cause of goodness, so why of the other shop?
  

Rating: 7/10

Book 4 - The Handmaid's Tale

Finished January 16th

Picked this up at a used bookstore a couple years ago. The only thing that took some getting used to was the massive amount of description. It's like Atwood wants the reader to see exactly what she sees in her head...it leaves little room for imagination and assumption on the reader's part. It was too much for my taste. I felt bound, if that makes sense...not free to see what I wanted. Which, I guess is fitting, now that I think about it. (The Handmaids in the novel wear what I would call "blinders," like race horses, so they are restricted in what they can see and other people cannot see their faces.)

Here's the description on the back of the book:

Offred (of Fred) jumps back and forth between the past and present throughout the novel. Atwood writes in a style that was a bit confusing for me at first because there's generally no segue between the time switches and the dialogue isn't written as I'm used to. Hardly any quotation marks. It's all just a free-association-type thing. But good. I did enjoy it. It got me to thinking about a lot of social themes and how far a government will go to maintain control if they are uncontested.

Memorable quotations:

• It isn't running away they're afraid of. We wouldn't get far. It's those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge.
• We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.
• But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.
  

My rating: 7/10

Book 3 - The Bell Jar

Completed January 12th

I know the book looks a little shabby. I picked it up in a used book store a while back. Also, the paper inside is my book mark...I take notes when I read.

*is a nerd*

This is a book about mental breakdown. It begins with Esther (the main character) starting a summer internship. She's relatively stable and takes the reader through some of her new experiences. But slowly we see her unravel, losing confidence, becoming more depressed, and eventually being committed.

I loved it. Beautifully written. It's like stepping inside someone else's mind in a way I've never experienced. When Esther did or saw something awkward, I felt embarrassed as if I had had the experience as well. It really sucked me into her world. I felt Esther's confusion, sadness, pain, fear. And it was refreshing.

Some of my favorite passages:

• I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn't get myself to react. I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.
• I felt sorry when I came to the last page. I wanted to crawl in between those black lines of print they way you crawl through a fence, and go to sleep under that beautiful big green fig tree.
• So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state.
• I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.
  

Rating: 9 out of 10

Book 2 - Watchmen

Finished January 5th!



No big review this time. I enjoyed it. Draggy in some parts. I did like the extra documents inserted throughout the novel.

Also -> Best. Opening. Ever:




Some of my favorite passages:

• "I'm going to look at the stars. They are so far away, and their light takes so long to reach us...all we ever see of stars are their old photographs." -Dr. Manhattan
• "Children starve while boots costing many thousands of dollars leave their mark upon the surface of the moon. We have labored long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors. It is the oldest of ironies that are still the most satisfying: man, when preparing for bloody war, will orate loudly and most eloquently in the name of peace." -Additional material
• "This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It's us. Only us. -Rorschach

7 of 10

Book 1 - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

So here we are...The 50 Book Challenge!

I'm not going to make a list of books before I read them because I think it'll limit me...and I'm a moody book chooser. I started this one ...



...a couple days before 2011, but finished 3/4 of it on the 1st, so I'm counting it as book number 1!

I first read this novel in an undergrad parody literature class several years ago and it has been a favorite since that time. You know how (or maybe you don’t) the Bible goes from Jesus being ~12 to 30 with no story in between? Well, Jesus’ pal Biff is resurrected to tell the true tale from his point of view in this novel.

Religion aside, at its base this book is just about an awkward kid trying to find himself and figure out his destiny. The journey Joshua (Jesus' name...from the Hebrew Yeshua) and Biff take is epic. It's hilarious without trying too hard, but also deeply moving. Some might think that a new gospel about Jesus' life would be dull and moral. Well, this isn't that kind of gospel. We get to see characters from the Bible like never before...from Joshua's hot mom Mary to the smart and strong Maggie, who is known as Mary Magdalene...not to mention a more up close look at the 3 wise men. Here, this explains it better...




You know how the story ends when you begin it. Joshua is crucified. As an abstract idea it's still powerful to think of crucifixion, but after getting to know Joshua over the last 300 pages--to read about his struggles and all he has learned, about his hope for humanity, the absolute purity of him--it's heartbreaking. Tears. Seriously. Tears for Joshua's end and the end of Biff's gospel in general.

This is a must-read. You even have the author's blessing...



I wanted to start the year off with something I knew I liked and this is in the top 5 for me.

Rating: 10/10