A Review of 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret' by Brian Selznick

"Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity.  But when his world suddenly interlocks-- like the gears of the clocks he keeps-- with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the train station, Hugo's undercover life and his most precious secret are put in jeopardy.  A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

With 284 pages of original drawings, and combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film, Brian Selznick breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience.  Here is a stunning, cinematic tour de force from a boldly innovative storyteller, artist, and bookmaker."

I've been eyeing this book for quite some time, but the size sort of intimidated me for a while.  Since I'm currently a full-time student, I kept thinking, "When am I ever going to get the time to read this whole thing?"  Fear not, the size of this book is incredibly deceiving.  I sat down and read this book in about three hours-- all 530ish pages of it.

Hugo Cabret is not what I thought it was going to be.  About half of this book is made up of illustrations.  Not only are they absolutely beautiful, but they function differently than the illustrations in your average graphic novel.  Whereas graphic novels like V For Vendetta and Watchmen work hand-in-hand supporting each other to tell the story through the dialogue and limited narration, the illustrations in this book put the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" into action literally, moving the story forward without saying anything.  In between pictures, the book reads like the average novel with paragraphs complete with dialogue, narration, and filler phrases such as "...said Isabelle."  On top of that, the whole experience is like a silent film.  You have pictures but then the "film" cuts to frames with words of dialogue and description.  To top it off, the edges of all the pages are black and the end of the book ends with a fade-out.  This is so cool and completely different to me!  I prefer this experience to my other graphic novel experiences (so far).

I love the setting: Paris in the 1930s.  The pictures make me nostalgic for the city.  I kept thinking, did I enter Paris through Hugo's train station?  Did I pass through that Metro station?  If you've traveled to Paris, you'll want to go back, and if you haven't been there, you'll definitely want to go there by the end of this book, story aside.

I was also surprised that this is historical fiction.  Georges in this book was a real filmmaker, even if Hugo wasn't a real character.  He created automatons and one of them was found in the attic of a museum, damaged by a fire that had occurred.  I didn't see that one coming, that's for sure.

My understanding is that this is another book for younger readers-- I originally found a copy in the fifth grade classroom I volunteer in, so that's what makes me think this.  One more book for younger readers under my belt!  But this is also a book that older audiences will also enjoy.  I certainly enjoyed it.

I give The Invention of Hugo Cabret:

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Holes' by Louis Sachar

"Stanley Yelnats is under a curse.  A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats.  Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep.  There is no lake at Camp Green Lake.  But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake.  The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something.  But what could be buried under a dried-up lake?  Stanley tried to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment-- and redemption."

I had only ever seen the movie (about a billion times) before reading Holes that I was sick to death of this story.  I thought that I knew everything about it, but I stand corrected.  One again, the book proves to be better than the film adaptation.

Compared to Stanley in the movie (played by Shia LaBeouf), I liked book Stanley a lot better.  In the movie, Stanley was insecure, but in the book, Stanley was more insecure.  He was overweight, his family wasn't very financially well-off, and no one at school bothered to be friends with him.  He was clearly in a dark place, which, according to my memory of the movie, Stanley was just awkward with no friends.

Zero was my favorite character in the movie and I liked him better than the Zero in the book.  Maybe it's because we hear from Zero more often in the movie.  You know that he's not a dumb stump.  You can see that he's thinking whereas he's incredibly quiet in the book (no surprise) but he doesn't look like he has anything going on in his head.  This is according to Stanley's perspective, of course, but I'd still like Zero to have more credit than he gets.

I really liked that there are three story lines going on here-- one with Stanley at Camp Green Lake, one with Kate Barlow and Sam, and another with Stanley's distant relative and Madame Zeroni.  The only issue that I had with Kate and Sam's story was that I was really confused about when this was occurring.  One of the people Kate knew (and hated) had a boat with a motor on it, but it sounds like coaches were still used to get around as well as carts pulled by animals.  Maybe this was a western area turning to technology, or this town was not up to speed with the technology used in other towns, but there wasn't really an indication of any of these things... I wish that I had been given more information.

This year, while this isn't a goal of mine indicated on the challenges post I made at the beginning of this year, I want to read more books intended for middle school readers.  I'd consider this to be a middle school book.  It's possible that in my future, I will teach at the middle school level and I want to prepare myself for anything.  I'm excited for this!

If you're looking for a relatively quick and engaging read, Holes would be a good choice.

I give Holes:

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'A Year in the Merde' by Stephen Clarke

"An urban antidote to A Year in Provence, Stephen Clarke's book is a laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of an expat in Paris-- for Francophiles and Francophobes alike.

A Year in the Merde tells the story of Paul West, a twenty-seven-year-old Brit brought to Paris by a French company to open a chain of British 'tea rooms.'  Soon enough, he finds himself juggling a group of grumbling French employees, a treacherous Parisian boss, and a succession of lusty girlfriends (one of whom happens to be the boss's morally challenged daughter).  He soon becomes immersed in the contradictions of French culture: the French are not all cheese-eating surrender monkeys, though they do eat a lot of smelly cheese, and they are still in shock at having been stupid enough to sell Louisiana, thus losing the chance to make French the global language.  the book also reveals the secrets of how to get the best out of the grumpiest Parisian waiter, how to survive a French business meeting, and how not to buy a house in the French countryside.

This book is for everyone who can never quite decide whether they love-- or love to hate-- the French."

I had serious issues with the narrator of this book... the way he treated and talked about women was despicable and a little distracting from the rest of the book.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my rant.  Your regularly scheduled book review will continue after these angsty words.

Maybe it's my ignorance at play and this is how a lot of Englishman are, but it took this narrator the entire book to begin making proper connections with women.  Not just physical connections made by spending the night and having sex (not making love), but an actual "let's be friends" connection.  I would cringe and feel my blood boil a little more when he'd look at a woman on the street and think about what she would look like in lingerie or about how much of a "love machine" he was and how he'd blow her mind in the bedroom.  I know that Paris is the city of love, but does this fact really illicit the number of sex references and jokes that it does?  The narrator is pathetic...  He wonders why he has trouble getting women to stick with him.  He's not very nice to them.  It very much feels like all he wants is sex.  Not only that, but there are only a few things that seem to occupy his mind: sex, tea rooms (his job), and hating France.  It's exhausting when the entire book is taken up by these three things.  He constantly tries to woo the women around him, he's in Paris for business reasons, but doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that he is living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  He is constantly comparing England to France and it feels like he doesn't give the country a chance.

Even though I hate the narrator with a fire-y passion, there are still one or two things that I did like about this book.  I really loved mentally revisiting the places that I saw two years ago-- the Champs-Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, Shakespeare and Company... this book desperately makes me want to visit each of these places again.  Hopefully I will in under a year.

Another thing that I liked was how many French words and phrases were included this book.  I got to bask in my French-snobbiness and pronounce the words as I've learned how and even get a little giddy over the fact that I could still understand most of the French words used (a few were new).  This really added to the atmosphere of the book, making you feel like you were in Paris.  French is such a beautiful language...

I also appreciate the transition that the narrator had when he returned to England and realized that he didn't feel like he really belonged in England anymore, that he had taken on so many French characteristics that there was almost no going back for him.  That's when everything clicked and everything seemed to make sense in his life, even if he was in a low place.

Despite the narrator, I really enjoyed the book.  I give 'A Year in the Merde':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett

"Three ordinary women are about to take on extraordinary step...

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss.  She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger.  Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child.  Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way.  She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi.  She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job.  Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation.  But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk.  And why?  Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times.  And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women-- mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends-- view one another.  A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't."

I'm inspired to read more about the Southern U.S. during the Civil Rights movement.  This is an amazing book, but it has only whet my appetite.

No character is like the other.  They each have their own individual voices.  They are charming, they are strong, smart women.  They each have skills that another character doesn't have.  Aibileen is one of the help that is more nurturing to the white children of the house than anyone else.  Minny is an amazing cook-- no one tops her pies and cakes!  But she also has an awful mouth on her sometimes...  Of the society ladies, Hilly Holbrook is the powerhouse of the group, telling everyone what to do (including firing maids that she didn't hire and getting husbands to fire family members of their maids) and still managing to keep up a somewhat high-class and genteel facade.  That's what scares me.  She's a bomb waiting to go off.  Elizabeth never knows what to do-- she doesn't know how to connect with or take care of her children, she doesn't know

It was really great to read about sort of the other side of what was going on during this time.  There are mentions of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, sit-ins, Kennedy's assassination, but these events aren't the center of the book.  Kathryn Stockett is more focused on the interactions between the Help and the society ladies they work for.  It was wonderful to hear positive stories.  Some of the ladies were generous enough to help the maids send their children to college, help them get a car, and some just made a connection with the children or the society ladies that some couldn't make.  But of course there are issues that this part of the time period dealt with.  Unfair pay, the fear of losing a job forever if they screw up and tick off the lady they work for enough, the fear of not being able to take care of the family for the reason mentioned before... there is this fear, and that's the scariest part of this time.  No one knows what the "other side" is capable of.  The maids have more power than they think they do but the society ladies have too much power and they know how to effectively use it, especially if you're Hilly Holbrook.

This book gives a really powerful insight into what life was like for those who lived during the Civil Rights movement, whether they were black or white.  I really appreciate that the book emphasizes that there is an imaginary difference between everyone.  There are lines that we draw for ourselves, but they only exist as long as we tell them they exist.

This is a book I would love to teach someday.

I give 'The Help':

Thanks for Reading!  Happy New Year!

--Jude

Reading, Blogging, and Life Goals for 2014!

Well folks, we have made it to 2014.  This means that there are more resolutions to be made and goals to be accomplished!  I thought I'd list my goals for my own life, this blog, and goals for reading.  Feel free to tell me your own down below!

Reading Goals

1. Read 50 books in a year.  For the past couple of years, I have come really close, but I haven't reached 50 yet.  I'm determined to find time to do a lot of reading this year (which will be a challenge, being an English major who is assigned books all the time).  As I read, I will list these books below so that I can easily keep track of my progress.

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2. A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke

3. Holes by Louis Sachar

4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

6. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

7. My Life As A Book by Janet Tashjian

8. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
9. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
10. Frindle by Andrew Clements
11. Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
12. She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan
13. The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls by Julie Schumacher
14. Small Acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan
15. Thumped by Megan McCafferty
16. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
17. Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon
18. Witches!  The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer
19. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
20. Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare
21. Dear Diary, I'm Pregnant by Anrenee Englander
22. Witches! by Rosalyn Schanzer
23. The Paris Wedding by Kimberley Petyt
24. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
25. Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli
26. The Lost Boy by Greg Ruth
27. The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman
28. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
29. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
30. This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl
31. Wonder by R.J. Palacio

2. Read more Sci-Fi.  My partner is a physics/astrophysics major, so it really bums him out that I don't really appreciate science fiction more.  My goal is to read at least five books from the science fiction genre.  Again, these titles will be listed below to keep track of my progress.

3. Read more Graphic Novels.  I achieved this goal last year, but now I want to do better.  My goal is to read 10 graphic novels in 2014.

1. The Lost Boy by Greg Ruth

4. Listen to more audio books.  My goal is to listen to 15 audio books.

5. Read more of the books that I already own.  I aim to read 10 of these books this year.

1. A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke

2. Holes by Louis Sachar

3. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Blogging Goals

1. Post one review a week.

2. Post more about the things going on in my life (outside of reading).

3. Chronicle my study abroad experience (before, during, and after).  In August, I will be leaving for a four month stint in the Netherlands.  I created a different blog about this, but I think it'll be much simpler to use this blog to keep my friends and family updated and still keep talking about what I'm reading.

4. Review more movies.  My goal is to review at least 15 movies this year.  They will be listed and linked to below.

Life Goals

1. Do more Yoga.  This is one exercise that I truly enjoy.  But I'm really bad at finding a consistent time to do this.  So I'm going to put more of an effort into making this my routine exercise.  Maybe I'll talk about this on this blog.

2.  Learn basic Dutch.  Read children's books, practice in and out of a classroom setting, practice pronunciation whenever you can.  Throw in Dutch words into English conversation and confuse people, it'll be great.

3. Take more photos.  Document life as it's happening.

What are your goals for 2014?

Thanks for Reading and Happy New Year!

--Jude

A Review of 'The Second Coming' by Walker Percy

"Will Barrett, a lonely widower, suffers from a depression so strange and severe that he decides he doesn't want to continue living.  But then he meets Allison, a mental hospital escapee making a new life for herself, living along in a greenhouse.  What follows is by turns touching and zany, tragic and comic, as Will goes in search of proof of God and winds up finding much more."

This was one of my favorites that we read in Philosophic Themes in Literature class.  Once more, we are dealing with attitudes towards life, but if you've read The Plague and/or Nausea, this view of the world is somewhere in between.  We are randomly given life and we're pretty insignificant, but that doesn't mean that we can't matter or make others feel like they matter to us.  It's a nice happy-medium view of the world and that makes me feel very comfortable.

As my class and I read this, we all agreed that Ally's chapters were better than Will's.  Not that we could relate directly to her, but we were right there with her as she rediscovers the world around her after experiencing several rounds of electroshock therapy.  It was also really nice because she lived so simply, getting only the necessities (food, water, heat), and simply joys to pass the time when needed (books).  I loved reading about this, especially since Will was busy surrounding himself with things that he thought he needed and they didn't even turn out to be needs of his, much less wants.

For class, we also read articles about Walker Percy and I found the writing that appears in his novels to be much more accessible than those articles.  Reading books and learning lessons is a lot easier when reading about them in novel form rather than in article form.

I definitely want to try reading more Walker Percy novels.

I give 'The Second Coming':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'The Colossus and Other Poems' by Sylvia Plath

"With this startling, exhilarating book of poems, which was first published in 1960, Sylvia Plath burst into literature with spectacular force.  In such classics as 'The Beekeeper's Daughter,' 'The Disquieting Muses,' 'I Want, I Want,' and 'Full Fathom Five,' she writes about sows and skeletons, fathers and suicides, about the noisy imperatives of life and the chilly hunger for death.  Graceful in their craftsmanship, wonderfully original in their imagery, and presenting layer after layer of meaning, the forty poems in The Colossus are early artifacts of genius that still possess the power to move, delight, and shock."

I'm not the greatest when it comes to reading or even understanding poetry, but I know that I love Sylvia Plath (or what I've read of her work so far) and so I decided to give her poetry a try.

I found that it was best to read Sylvia's work in chunks as opposed to one sitting.  I felt like I could put in a decent effort to gain meaning for myself and also try and figure out what the words she used meant for her own life if I waited between a handful of poems.  I would definitely recommend this approach.

The image that best sticks with me is the heart beat, I Am, I Am, I am as well as the tips of waves looking like knives.  I don't know how she does it (well, how she did it) but the images she evokes are just so striking and you can't help but be taken in by what Sylvia is saying.

Someday I'll have to go through this book of poems again.  I'd like to get a physical copy of my own so that I can write in it.  This time, I was using my Nook (e-reader) and I was highlighting and typing in notes, but it's just not the same.  I'll try books with my e-reader, but ultimately, I'd like them in my hand, if they're good.

I give 'The Colossus':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'The Plague' by Albert Camus

"A gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times.  In Oran, a coastal town in North African, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people.  It gradually becomes a omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion."

This was one of the books that I had to read for my Philosophy of Literature class this semester.  Incidentally, I wrote a paper about one of the characters, Tarrou.  Just thought I'd mention that.  I'm just very happy with the paper that I cranked out (Note from after the fact: I got a B+ on that paper).

Two things that we talk about a lot in philosophy are Death and Suffering.  This book is chock full of each of these things.

Oran is a fairly average town filled with people going about their business and normal routines.  Suddenly hundreds of thousands of rats start dropping dead for seemingly no reason.  Then it spreads to the people of the town and they start dying in a similar fashion.  This is a novel all about facing hardship and figuring out what makes life worth living, despite the hardships that befall us.

Even though this is a book about suffering, I adore the relatively positive philosophy that comes out of this novel: we're all going to die, so find meaning in where you are and live your life while you can.  This is a message I find a lot more appealing for the New Year, as bleak of a reminder as this is.  But maybe that's just the kick in the pants that some of us need to get out there and actually DO the things that we resolve to do every New Year.

This book takes a while to get into, but once you're in, you're not going to want to let go.

I give 'The Plague':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Nausea' by Jean-Paul Sartre

"Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher, critic, novelist and dramatist, holds a position of singular eminence in the world of French letters.  Among readers and critics familiar with the whole of Sartre's work, it is generally recognized that his earliest novel, La Nausee (first published in 1938), is his finest and most significant.  It is unquestionably a key novel of the Twentieth Century and a landmark in Existentialist fiction.

Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence.  In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogues his every feeling of nausea which 'spreads at the bottom of the viscous puddle, at the bottom of our time-- the time of purple suspenders and broken chair seats; it is made of wide, soft instants, spreading at the edge, like an oil stain.'  Roquentin's efforts to come to terms with life, his philosophical and psychological struggles, give Sartre the opportunity to dramatize the tenets of his Existentialist creed."

This is one of the books that I read for my Philosophic Themes in Literature class.  Because this is a philosophy class, we talk a lot about life and death.  Boy were these big themes...

I have to say, this is a pretty exhausting book.  It feels like Roquentin does a lot of whining and lamenting about the world, how our lives are just a random happenstance and we have no hope of truly mattering in this world.  How's that for an uplifting take-away as we come into the New Year?

The good news is that this is only a perspective and not necessarily a universal truth.

Even though this was an exhausting read, I did find that I liked reading this book.  I think it was the imagery and the way the main character, Roquentin, made relate-able observances.  For example, when his ex-girlfriend tried to create perfect moments and then those moments felt bad and incomplete.  Another time was that frustrating moment when we realize that perfection isn't possible for us, even though we want it so badly and shoot for it so often.

I would recommend that if you're interested in reading this book that you're prepared for a dense read.  It's good, but you'll more than likely need time to sit with it afterwards.

I give 'Nausea':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Austenland' by Shannon Hale

"Jane is a young New York woman who can never seem to find the right man-- perhaps because of her secret obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.  But when a wealthy relative bequeaths to her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-obsessed women, Jane's fantasies become more real than she ever could have imagined.  Is this total immersion in a fake Austenland enough to make Jane kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?  

In this addictive, charming, and compassionate story, Shannon Hale brings out the Jane Austen obsessive in all of us."

This is one of the books that I had to read for my Pride and Prejudice-themed Lit Theory class last semester.  It was a good fit with the class's theme, but it definitely wasn't on the same level as some of the books we were reading.

After reading the original Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, it was really hard to like most of the spin-offs of the book.  Austenland was no exception.  What frustrated my class and I the most was that it was a very shallow book to read.  If you aimed to dig beneath the surface, you didn't have far to go before hitting the core of the book.  This made it really hard to write even a one-page reflection on the book, much less even consider writing our 10-12 page research papers on the book.

While this may not have been a good book to use for a course intended for those entering the English major/minor, this is, however, a light enough read that one might want to take it on vacation with them.  If you're looking to finish a book, not be challenged too much, and enjoy a little Darcy-ness without actually reading Pride and Prejudice, this could be the book for you.

I do like the idea of having a place like Pembrook Park to visit, but it's strange to me that guests would stay there for weeks at a time indulging in this Jane Austen experience.  I'd definitely like to visit for a day or two, however.  Since this is an experience that I don't especially care to have myself, it's nice to read about this experience through Jane, an extreme Pride and Prejudice nut and one who is completely addicted to Darcy (I don't really understand the attraction, personally, but I also wrote an 11-12 page research paper about why Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are a coupling that doesn't work).

One thing that bothered me was how every loose end about the book was tied up at the end.  I finished and I just had this uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.  Some of the loose ends were just too perfectly tied-up, it felt like.  For example, when Henry (Mr. Nobley) comes onto the plane and when Jane asks him why he was speaking as perfectly as he did back in Austenland, he explains that he was hired because he was similar to his character in real life.  What?  No one speaks that way any more.  Even when he allows contractions in his speech, it's still so formal and forced and completely out of Austenland.  I don't blame Jane for not trusting him.  I would have left him at the airport upon landing in New York.  But instead of saying no as she originally said before getting on the plane (by the way, how is Mr. Nobley able to buy a plane ticket on the exact flight minutes before take-off?  It's uncanny), she accepts him and starts a relationship with him.  Grr... for once, I need a version of Pride and Prejudice to end with the lady character saying no and leaving it at that.  I want her to discover her own worth and be okay with that.  A partner will find their way into her life one way or another and then she will be ready for them.  Someone please write that Jane Austen fan fiction, if they haven't already... I don't need another sad and pathetic female character.

This was a nice book to finish up while I'm here on break with no homework to speak of, but I don't think that I'll be reading it again any time soon.

I give Austenland:

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Tuesdays With Morrie' by Mitch Albom

"Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague.  Someone older, patient, and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.

For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder.  Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger?

Mitch Albom had that second chance.  He rediscovered Morrie in the last few months of the older man's life.  Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college.  Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live.

Tuesdays With Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world."

This is quite a heavy read, especially considering the time of year that it is.  Then again, given Morrie's dying message to the world, perhaps this is something that we need to hear soon, regardless of the weather outside  and regardless of whether or not we're spending time with family.  It's never too late to try and get your life back in order.  I have family that have already made New Year's resolutions and they have started already since that is what works for their lifestyle.  They've rejected our cultural norm of making a change on January first.  Really, life does not begin anew on January first.  It only continues.

I have had this book sitting on my bookshelf gathering dust for years now.  I don't really know what possessed me to pick it up this time when I came home, but I'm glad I did.  I read a lot of books about death, but never has anyone been so straightforward about what death is like-- the mental process before death, for example: learning to forgive others, learning to love yourself, finding a purpose that makes you know that life is worth living.  It seems so simple when you're given these answers in book form, but I don't think it could be a harder mission, especially if you feel that you've lost track of yourself somewhere along the way as you went away to college, tried to find a job, attempted to see the world, if you decide to marry someone someday, etc.  All of these things, and others too, are beautiful and wonderful things to do in your life, but you need to do them for the right reasons and sometimes with your own interests in mind.

I'm incredibly happy to have been introduced to such an incredible person as Morrie.  Thank you, Mitch Albom.  Most other readers couldn't have hoped to know him on such an intimate level if it hadn't been for you.  Not even the television networks could give us such a glimpse into Morrie's life.  But that's a matter of personal opinion, I suppose.

This is a book that everyone should read no matter where you are in your walk of life and no matter your religious or cultural background, since we all have the same beginning and the same ending: birth to death.  It's never too late to start thinking about the rest of your life and how you perceive it.  Why not start now?

If you want a book that sticks with you, look no further.

I give 'Tuesdays with Morrie':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language' by Deborah Fallows

"Deborah Fallows has spent much of her life learning languages and traveling around the world.  But nothing prepared her for the surprises involved in learning Mandarin, China's most common language, or in the intensity of living in Shanghai and Beijing.  Over time, she realized that her struggles and triumphs in studying the language of her adopted home provided small clues to deciphering the behavior and habits of its people and conundrums of its culture.  As her skill with Mandarin increased, bits of the language-- a word, a phrase, an oddity of grammar-- became windows into understanding romance, humor, protocol, relationships, and the overflowing humanity of modern China.

In Dreaming in Chinese, Fallows unravels Chinese culture by explaining the intricacies and subtleties of Mandarin, devoting each of her fourteen chapters to a particular linguistic quirk, interwoven into these explanations are wonderful stories of her encounters with everyday life in China-- real, often funny, and always very human.  Fallows learned, for example, that in China, an abrupt, blunt way of speaking is a way to honor the closeness between two friends-- she found that by adhering to an English speaker's standards of politeness, she was actually being rude!  And when Fallows tried to order fast food, she realized that her own difficulty in articulating tones-- the variations in inflection that can change a word's meaning-- was matched by Chinese speakers' inability to understand the meaning of a phrase when foreigners mangle them.

In sharing what she discovered about Mandarin, and how those discoveries helped her understand a culture that had at first seemed impenetrable, Deborah Fallows's Dreaming in Chinese opens up the China of the laobaixing (lau-by-shing) (everyday people) to Western readers in surprising new ways."

I haven't really thought about visiting China, much less living in the country, but after reading Dreaming in Chinese, I'm more interested in visiting now.  I don't think that I will ever become fluent in Mandarin, but it's just fascinating to read about the nuances of the language from the perspective of an American learning Mandarin.  As a linguist, Deborah Fallows interviews native speakers and works hard to get to the bottom of her own language blunders so that she can learn from them and share them with readers like us.

This is a good introduction to Mandarin and some of Chinese culture (because they're interconnected).  Because of Ms. Fallow's book, I'm looking forward to reading more books about China and other countries around it, if I can.

I feel like I don't have a lot to say.  This is a memoir, so you can't critique what she's writing about, because that is what she is feeling, experiencing, and seeing.  Fallows writes clearly and everything she has to say is quite interesting.  You will not regret picking up this book, especially since it's a fairly quick read (I read it in two days, but I bet it could be done in less time, if you were determined).

I give Dreaming in Chinese:

Thanks for Reading!  I'll hopefully be flooding this page with book reviews to catch up and some other posts as well in the next couple weeks.

--Jude

A Review of 'The White Tiger' by Aravind Adiga (Audio Book)

"Balram Halwai is a complicated man.  Servant.  Philosopher.  Entrepreneur.  Murderer.  Over the course of seven nights, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life-- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.  And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem-- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international sensation-- and a startling, provocative debut."

I read this book for my World Englishes class.  When we read this, we were talking about Indian English, since my professor lived there for many years and still chaperones trips to India over January Term.  I had a physical copy of the book, but I found that I needed to find a different way to get the book when I was at a point a little over halfway and I realized that someone had cut out 10-15 pages of the book.  Unacceptable, Amazon.  Next time, I'll check to make sure the books I order through Amazon aren't like that.  The book isn't use-able to anyone at this point.  It must be recycled.  Or turned into an art project.  I like the art project idea better...

And now I turn my attention to the book itself.

I do believe that listening to White Tiger as opposed to merely reading it is a much richer experience.  The narrator speaks with an Indian accent that really helps place you in the setting of the story.  It was especially helpful for me because in class, we were specifically talking about the different between the English that we tend to speak here in the Northern United States compared to how they tend to speak English in India.  It was also helpful because part of what Balram (the main character) talked about was where and how he learned English-- it wasn't really in school and it certainly wasn't with his family).

There are major themes of colonialism in this book and that's another thing that we talk about A LOT in World Englishes class.  British colonists came into countries like India, set up their own government and just left, leaving the Indian people to pick up the pieces and put everything back together.  It's a disastrous situation and India isn't the only country to be affected by such colonialism.

The only bad thing about this book is that it takes time for it to grow on you.  In the beginning, it was difficult to get into the book because of how I imagine Balram sounding (condescending, too smooth for his own good).  But as I kept reading, the story picked up and I became more interested.

This is a very interesting read and a good way to become acquainted with Indian culture.  I don't think that this will be the last book I will read that is set in India, especially now that I have some background information now.

I give 'The White Tiger':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude