Two Challenges Completed!!

I just realized that I've been finished with Dana's Chunkster Challenge for a while now. Oops! :) I switched out one of my original books, but since it was for a longer book I don't feel bad. This challenge is great because I tend to read shorter books because I can read more of them. I keep saying I'll finish with my current challenges, not join any more, then just read my big fat chunksters the rest of the year. Probably not going to happen...bleh! I really enjoyed all of these books:

The Book Thief (my favorite of the group)
The Other Boleyn Girl
Snow Crash
The Robber Bride
**********************************************************************************



I also finished Annie's What's in a Name Challenge. I loved this creative idea and would definitely be eager to join again next year (hint hint Annie!). :) Honestly, I'm not sure what my favorite or least favorite was for this challenge because all the books were so incredibly different.

For this challenge we had to read six books with a different element in each title: weather, color, animal, first name, place, and flower:

Snow Crash
Mother of Pearl
All the Pretty Horses
Angela's Ashes
Salem Falls
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Mother of Pearl - Melinda Haynes

Title: Mother of Pearl
Author: Melinda Haynes
Date Finished: June 5, 2008
Yearly Count: 29
Pages: 445
Rating: 4/5

I've had this book sitting on my shelf for at least five years knowing nothing about it. I'm glad that a friend informed me that it was set in the south so I could add it to one more challenge--because sometimes I need that motivation to finally read a book. Really? Yes.

Mother of Pearl, set in the deep south of Mississippi, is about a number of characters who couldn't be more different from each other. However, an event brings the characters together in an unlikely bond--one that changes everyone's life forever. At the center of the group is a teenage girl, Valuable Korner, who is struggling to know herself and find her place in the world, and a young man, Even Grade, who is searching for meaning in his life as well as a family of his own. Through these two characters, the plot winds together melding the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the religious and spiritual, the gay and straight, and the black and the white during the 1950s when tolerance was sometimes difficult to find.

While some of the symbolism of the book was lost on me, I couldn't help but be swept away in Haynes' rich Southern language. I think I read somewhere that she is also an artist? and it shows in her careful attention to landscape and setting. When I opened the book to read, I was transported from my hot, muggy Dallas to hot, muggy Petal, Mississippi, but everything was so much more beautiful there that I wanted to grab and ice tea (which I don't drink) and sit on a rocker on my front porch (which I don't have) to take everything in.

In addition to her ability to write the landscape, Haynes wrote characters that were flawed, funny, sad, heart breaking, and hopeful. I grew to care about the people in this book--including Valuable's colorful lesbian aunts, Even's neighbor Canaan who philosophizes on the nature of man, and Joleb, a troubled soul who finally finds his way. I would recommend this book, but I think it would work best in a book club setting where all of the different themes and ideas can be teased out. The book was a little slow getting in to and there is a little bit of language and sex (including taboos such as incest), but the message that we are all human--part of one common world instead of little tiny circles--is one that we can all relate to and learn from.

Laura at Reading Reflections also reviewed it. Have you read it?

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See

Title: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Author: Lisa See
Date Finished: April 25, 2008
Yearly Count: 22
Pages: 258
Rating: 3.5/5

When Lily is seven years old, a diviner comes to visit her household and realizes how perfect her feet are--they will make perfect lilies when bound and will be the source of great fortune in her life. On his next visit he brings a matchmaker--not to find a husband--but rather a laotong, a contractual friendship with a "old same" which will last a lifetime and be more powerful and important than perhaps even her marriage. Her "old same" laotong is to be a wealthy and refined girl of the same age, Snow Flower.

Lily and Snow Flower become fast friends, despite the many differences between them--especially Snow Flower's higher social status. When they are together their bond is strong even in the most intimate ways. When they are apart, they write messages back to one another on a fan in the secret language of women--nu shu. The story follows the joys and pains of their lives through marriage and childbirth, but a terrible misunderstanding threatens to end their sacred friendship. This story is about love, happiness, friendship, sorrow, and forgiveness.

Alright--down to the nitty gritty. :) The story is told from Lily's point of view as an elderly woman. Because the events are happening in hindsight rather than in real time, it felt as though the events were simply glossed over. In 258 pages, Lisa See writes the lives of these women over roughly 50+ years. Plain and simple, I thought the book was too short. This is a beautiful story, but I wasn't sucked into it mostly because their wasn't enough there to really pull out the emotion. While I got to know these women and really began to care about them and their relationship, I would liked to have seen a deeper study their lives, emotions, etc. But, maybe this is a cultural thing?

What I really enjoyed about the book was a look into nineteenth-century rural China. The practice of footbinding is fascinating and horrifying at the same time. It amazes me that an act such as this can determine a woman's worth--if her feet are perfectly bound then she can possibly secure a better marriage. Also, the art of nu shu was also very interesting--this woman's language was essentially kept secret from men for centuries. There are so many customs and rituals explained in the novel that really brought this novel to life. At the end of my copy there is a narrative of See's journey and research while writing this book, which in many ways was more interesting than the book itself. I really enjoyed the extras in this book--China has such a rich history that I don't know very much about.

Do I recommend the book? Yes. Most reviews I have read are very positive--and I liked this book as well, I just wanted more. The story is a strong one, but what I love about reading is when a book can speak to my emotional side and I didn't get that. I will say, though, when I got to the end I realized that I want to read See's next book, Peony in Love--so that says something, right?

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

Title: Snow Crash
Author: Neal Stephenson
Date Finished: March 30, 2008
Yearly Count: 16
Pages: 468
Rating: 4.5/5

I was assigned this book a few years ago for a Post-Modern grad course, but I wasn't able to finish due to strange circumstances. So, I had a little taste of what this book contained--and I can't believe I waited so long to finish this one!

Hiro Protagonist (you guessed it: the lead character) is a pizza delivery boy in Reality, but when he plugs into the Metaverse (think of a primative version of Second Life) he is a champion swordsman and revered hacker. One day when Hiro is in the Metaverse, one of his hacker friends, Da5id, is infected with a type of drug/virus that has not only affected his avatar in the Metaverse but also in Reality. Hiro thus begins his search for answers about the drug/virus, Snow Crash, and a pursuit to stop the virus from spreading and creating mass chaos.

Fast-paced, in your face, action packed, this book is a rollarcoaster! Set in the near future where America has shrunk in size and what has taken its place are small business-like franchise-cities such as Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong. There are no laws, Kouriers on skateboards harpoon cars like parasites, and the only difference between the Metaverse and Reality is a set of goggles. There is a name for this type of science fiction: cyberpunk. (Originally published in 1992)

Although I sometimes had a difficult time figuring out the time-frame and whether something was happening in Reality or in the Metaverse, I was hooked to this book. It is strange and humorous and interesting and it even made my brain hurt with thinking. Not only is it about technology, but Stephenson discusses theories on linguistics and mythology and religion and pulls it all together into a suspenseful thriller. At the end, I have to admit that my attention waned a little. There was a strange relationship between Hiro's sometime partner, Y.T., and the psychokiller Raven. Also, with every action scene with helicopter and car and boat chases, my mind wanders and I get bored. What? I know!

It is one that I could certainly read again in a few years and pick up so much that I missed. If this sounds like your type of book, I recommend it! You're certainly in for a thrilling ride.

Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult [and a new challenge]

Title: Salem Falls
Author: Jodi Picoult
Date Finished: March 12, 2008
Yearly Count: 12
Pages: 434
Rating: 4.25/5

Since starting my blog in June I've written about three other Picoult books and before that I had read three, so I'm not going to go into whole lot of detail with this one. I really enjoyed the book, which was almost a relief after feeling wishy washy about Plain Truth (review here). I just picked up her new book Change of Heart and hope to read it in a few weeks (or months--eeks!).

Salem Falls begins with Jack St. Bride being released from prison after serving time for a rape he did not commit. He leaves his old life behind and heads to the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls to start anew. Unfortunately, though, he finds himself in the middle of another rape case--one where the lines of truth are blurred and nothing is what it seems.

It's true that Picoult's books seem very formulaic, but the formula worked very well for this book. She was able to withhold enough secrets to keep me guessing and biting my nails through the entire book. At the end I even had to cover the text with my hand so my eyes wouldn't cheat--I LOVE THAT!! This is the first book I've read since The Book Thief (review here) that I absolutely could not put down. Part of the reason why this book was so interesting to me is because the girl who accuses Jack of rape is the priestess of a teenage Wiccan coven (forgive me for butchering the terminology if I am). I don't know very much about this religion and have only known one person who openly practices, but from what I know I find it to be fascinating. I can't pretend to know how accurate Picoult is in her descriptions (although she usually does her homework), but I was intrigued by this storyline.

While still not my favorite Picoult book, I would recommend it to fans of hers.

Gautami Tripathy also reviewed this book here

On another note:

ORBIS TERRANUM CHALLENGE

I have joined another challenge. I'm feeling *really* good about my reading so far this year, so I thought why not! And I've wanted to stretch my horizons a bit. Plus, a new-to-book-blogging-blogger is hosting the challenge! How cool is that? Go to B&b ex libris to see Bethany's Orbis Terrarum Challenge and the rules.

I'm cross-posting a few books with other challenges, and my list is NOT set in stone, but here is what I've put together so far:

*Zorba the Greek (Greece)

*Half of a Yellow Sun (Nigeria/Biafran)

*A Long Way Gone (Sierra Leone)

*The Robber Bride (Canada)

*The Swiss Family Robinson (Switzerland)

*The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux (France)

*The God of Small Things (India)

*The Picture of Dorian Gray (Ireland)

*Anne Frank Remembered (Austria)

All The Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy

Title: All the Pretty Horses
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Date Finished: March 5, 2008
Yearly Count: 11
Pages: 302
Rating: 4.25/5

Cormac McCarthy is fast becoming one of my favorite authors (see my thoughts on No Country for Old Men here). All the Pretty Horses is my third McCarthy book and as with finishing the other two, I was left with his prose haunting me. This book is the first in the Border Triology; I've already read the second book, The Crossing, so now I'll be looking forward to Cities of the Plain where the "heroes" of each book come together.

All the Pretty Horses is the story of John Grady Cole, the last in a long family line of Texas ranchers. Set in West Texas (San Angelo--see the picture below of the town I just moved from which is about 30 miles or so from San Angelo--yes, there is a brush fire in the background) and Mexico, the landscape plays a large role in the novel. At the beginning of the story, John Grady’s grandfather dies leaving his ranch which is too expensive to keep. His mother has no interest in the ranch, so she sells it and John Grady decides to leave with his friend Lacey Rawlins to find work as vaqueros in Mexico.

As with The Crossing, All the Pretty Horses is the story of a young man learning life’s injustices and coming to terms with his manhood. During John Grady’s journey, he encounters a troublesome youth who nearly costs John Grady his freedom and life, enters into a forbidden love affair with a Mexican Don’s daughter which can only end in heartache, and struggles to make his way back to a home and way of life that no longer exist.

What I love about McCarthy is his honesty in the way that he writes about life, but I also love his style. I can’t explain what it is about his prose that I love so much, but for some reason it provides me with a feeling of nostalgia. Again, of what, I’m not sure—nostalgia for Texas—particularly the wide open country of Texas. His style is a little reminiscent of Faulkner in that he writes long sentences that go on and on, but McCarthy has a rhythm to his writing that is so packed with emotion:

"...she rode all seeming unaware down through the low hills while the first spits of rain blew on the wind and onto the upper pasturelands and past the pale and reedy lakes riding erect and stately until the rain caught her up and shrouded her figure away in that wild summer landscape: real horse, real rider, real land and sky and yet a dream withal" (132).

I’ve noticed that my posts are starting to get longer and longer (which is kind of annoying to me since I prefer to read shorter posts because of my time constraints), but this is a book that I can’t write about in a paragraph or two. I don’t recommend it to everyone—I think a lot of people find McCarthy’s prose long-winded and boring, but to me it is so fitting for the land that he writes of—strangely beautiful.

Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

Title: Angela's Ashes
Author: Frank McCourt
Date Finished: Feb 10, 2008
Yearly Count: 7
Pages 460
Rating: 3/5

I picked this book up probably almost 10 years ago (when the movie was being released) and have tried to read it two or three times in that span. According to my dog-eared page, my last attempt took me to page 60. I don’t remember exactly why I gave up on the book, but probably because I thought it was incredibly boring. :) I was determined to get this book off my TBR shelf once and for all—and I did!!

Angela’s Ashes is Frank McCourt’s memoir of his coming of age. His memoir begins when he is a small child growing up in New York; his family keeps growing in number despite their extreme poverty, and eventually his aunt’s pay for their way back to Ireland to live. The McCourt’s situation continues on a desperate path in Ireland as his father, Malachy, finds it difficult to keep a job and when he does have a job, he drinks his paycheck before his family can see a dime (or shilling?? I am a little fuzzy on my foreign currency in the early 1930s-40s). Frank must endure daily ridicule from his classmates, members of the Catholic church, and others in general as he tries to make sense of his life and make the most of the little he has been given.

The book outlines Frank’s desire to become a man and be able to do the things that adults do—such as drink the pint, earn a living and his way to America, and do other things that I don’t need to mention. Angela’s Ashes is written from Frank’s point of view at the various stages of his life—so the narrative becomes much more detailed the older Frank is. While this type of narration was difficult at the beginning of the book when Frank is a small child (and also a great part of why I dislike James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist…), Frank’s perspective became one of the things that I enjoyed most about the book. Sometimes it was funny to see Frank trying to make sense out of his life and some of the “rules” that he had to endure, but at other times it is heartbreaking as Frank doesn’t really quite understand what is happening to his family as they continue to struggle to survive.

So what’s up with the rating? There were times when I was really interested in the narrative, and to be fair, I never truly struggled with the prose (except the first chapter, maybe). As I got further into the book I found myself reading more and more, which could have been because of my 6+ hours in the car this weekend or because I was more interested. But, it came to a point where I could only hear about so much more heartache. I often forgot that I was reading someone’s memoirs rather than a fictional account—but for most of the book, it was just more of the same. Dad is a big fat loser. And I don’t want to diminish what Frank went through as a child, but the parts of the book that I enjoyed the most were the ones where he got away from the narrative of his dad spending all of the money in the bar and coming home drunk. I felt there was more meat to his stories about church and classroom and dancing lessons and looking for a job and becoming a man.

Do I recommend Angela’s Ashes? With caution—although I think I’ve seen more positive than negative reviews. Will I read his follow-up memoir, ‘Tis? If I can get my hands on a copy for cheap cheap cheap—but I’m not running out to store anytime soon for it.