bookrblog

end of year post

Sunday, December 27th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

It doesn’t look as though I read very much this year, but it’s more I haven’t posted very much. I haven’t written reviews of all my re-reads or the books that were pretty poor. Best finds this year include:

• Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashores
• On Human Bondage - fantastic.
• Roger Deakin. What an amazing man.
• John Muir! A wonderful person and writer.
• The Mitford sisters, incredible writers and unbelievable people - if they were fictional no one would believe them
• A Story Like the Wind - a beautiful tale.

These in no particular order, but all wonderful. Good to know that each year I can discover new and marvellous stories.

The Other Side of Paradise

Sunday, December 27th, 2009 | American Literature | No Comments

I reread Gatsby this year - this is F Scott Fitzgerald’s earlier novel, his first, in fact. It’s an odd novel about a rich boy who he labels “the egotist” . It’s autobiographical I suppose, as Fitzgerald also went to a “prep” school, Princeton, and the war. I don’t really know what to say about it - it’s coming of age, but where, at the end, you don’t feel that the character has changed at all. He espouses Socialism at the end whereas he had previously pushed for the aristocracy to have all the power, but it’s still all talk. However, the book isn’t really about a boy, but a time, an age, where the rich were rich and unaware, and people were hopeful about the future. Long time ago.

Endal

Sunday, December 27th, 2009 | British Literature | No Comments

This unusual story is written by husband and wife Allen & Sandra Parton. Allen was an officer in the British Navy when he had a car accident and ended up with severe head injuries. Quick smart the Navy kicked him out without barely a penny, and the badly injured man - who lost all memory of his past, used a wheelchair and needed full-time help - had to rely on his wife and two children to care for him. He became rude and uncaring, partly due to his head injury dulling his emotions. Then Sandra decided to do puppy-training for assistance dogs. Endal came into their lives and transformed them forever; helping Allen become more independent and get in touch with his emotions.

This story was shocking, mostly because of the way the Navy treated Allen. They claimed they couldn’t “remember” whose car Allen had been in, so that the family couldn’t claim compensation; tried to refuse Allen a pension; and stopped his salary and kicked the family out of their house with no warning. Even more disgusting was the lack of proper health care - Allen’s obvious neurological problems are never referred to a neurologist, instead he was considered to have psychiatric problems! I still feel disgusted by the way he was treated, and the way Sandra was expected to handle everything. While this is a book about an amazing dog - who could use an atm, understand words and sign language, and saved Allen when he was hit by a car - the real hero is Sandra. She sacrificed her life simply because she knew Allen had no one else.

The Writing Class

Sunday, December 27th, 2009 | American Literature | No Comments

I was a little sceptical about this book by Jincy Willett, but it was actually really good - funny, clever, and quite informative. Amy Gallup is a reclusive once-published writer who holds a writing class each week. It’s actually the only time she ever leaves the house or has any social contact with others, apart from her blog, of course. Anyhow, while the latest writing class is filled with the usual hopeful misfits, this time there’s a creepy weirdo who ends up being a murderer.

This was a nice book about friendship, with good tips about writing, and some very funny moments. Because the main character is as much a misfit as the others, there was a warm feeling of cameraderie about the book, rather than a sense of someone being nasty about others. I enjoyed this, and definitely did not predict the murderer!

The Last American Man

Sunday, December 20th, 2009 | American Literature | No Comments

I loathed Elizabeth Gilbert’s earlier book (Eat Pray Love) but this one was good, mostly because it wasn’t about her. It was about a real person, Eustace Conway, an idealist, who not only developed a deep love of the land, but wanted to share it with others. He believed that by sharing his love of nature with others he  could change the entire world. Sadly the opposite happened; he became changed by the world instead, greedy and harsh, more interested in proving points that living the way he believed. In the end he was lonely and bitter, and most of all confused as to how he’d ended up that way. Gilbert blames it all on his relationship with his father, but I think that that’s a little simplistic. As is the title.