The Diamond of Darkhold ~ Jeanne Duprau

Book four in the series (I am hoping to get book three tomorrow).  I'll bump this one up to three out of five.  The series as a whole has quite a number of lessons in it, I do think it would be a good read for a preteen/teen.  It's not too difficult to understand, and it does bring to the forefront how very important it is to learn and keep knowledge.

This is the last, that I know of, and everything comes to a nice close.  There's some stretching into the distant future and in all, I would say this was a nice way to end it.

The City of Sparks ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Book two in this series.  Another two and a half out of five, for all the same reasons.

WARNING, this review will be a spoiler if you wanted to read book one!

SPOILER ALERT
Okay, so the kids manage to rescue the townspeople, who were unwittingly living in a cave.  Now that everyone is free from the cave, though, they have to find somewhere to go...  can you guess???  Yes, the city of Sparks finds itself inundated with hundreds of refugee "cave people."  They do their best, or not, well, maybe they hold a little back, but they have to look out for number one, and it's not as though they owe those people anything at all!  So, the people of Sparks sort of help the people of Ember and then grudges build up and they all relearn the lesson that we all need to get along.

On second thought, maybe I shouldn't have rated this one so high, but really, if you have nothing better to do you can read this in a day or so and it must be somewhat interesting, because I'm reading another in the series right now.

The City of Ember ~ Jean DuPrau

This is the first in a series.  I give it two and a half out of five.  It's not complete junk, it is interesting, as far as I know it's a new idea, but it's still young adult, so really fluff.  The city of Ember exists in darkness.  The people live in periods of day and night, controlled by electric lighting throughout their city.  The problem is, the city is old.  Supplies are running out and the generator is breaking down constantly.  Two young adults (12-year-olds) find "Instructions" and with them they hope to rescue their city.

Again, it's a neat little book.  A short read, interesting, but it was easy to figure out what was going on.  Not bad if you have some time to kill.

The Autobiography of Mark Twain

I expected wit and I got it.

I give this book 4 out 5.  There were some rants about the nature of man, versus the laws of man, and some slights against Christianity that made me pretty uncomfortable.  So I docked him.

I was really surprised by how exciting his life had been from beginning to end.  That and how many of his characters were based upon people he knew, things they had done and other real-life happenings.  I have read that fiction should be fiction, not autobiographical, but Twain has shot that theory all to pieces.  Most of what he wrote was relating the stories of other people, or himself.

The amount of death in his life is stunning and the way it comes on out of nowhere.  Reading about the death of his son, who became sick and died within (from what I remember) a day; then the death of his daughter, who was fine and then dead within two days; the death of his wife, who seemed to be getting better (oh the tragedies in that story are big enough to make you sob); finally the death of another daughter, who was alive and healthy the night before...  it's so much.  By the time he'd finished I figured out that his raging against certain machines was a response to this death and in the death of his youngest daughter I found that he believed something, enough to cry out to God.

This was a rollercoaster ride.  One moment you're laughing your fool head off and the next you are teetering on the edge of a deep dark precipice at the bottom gnashes the teeth of death and loss.  I suppose most everyone can relate to loss, so I think most everyone could find a plethora of comforting, understanding, sympathetic quotes in this book.  Twain was a remarkable man.  I wanted to argue with him and embrace him (which he would have hated).  I cried, but I was glad the book was over, because I'm not sure I could have faced the weight of more of his loss.  He is right when he says the dead are the blessed ones.  His death must have brought such relief.

Starting a new book and the beginning is delicious!

I just picked this up this morning!

Have you ever started a book, read the preface and thought....  EGADS!  And then wished you could rent a cabin in the middle of nowhere so you could fully emerse yourself in it?  This is one of those books.

Golly, I adore Mark Twain and his autobiography is more than I expected.  I had to share some quotes.  I'm only on page five as of yet, but I'll post more as I go, hopefully not rewriting the entire book before I'm done!

"When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened.  It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it."  [3]
.....
"It seems a pity that the world should throw away so many good things merely because they are unwholesome.  I doubt if God has given us any refreshment which, taken in moderation, is unwholesome, except microbes.  Yet there are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation.  They pay this price for health.  And health is all they get for it.  How strange it is!  It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry." [4-5]

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ~ Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Five out of Five

I have loved this book.  My first thought, upon seeing that it was all correspondance was, you must be kidding me.  I am terrible at writing letters and reading them, well, not my best moments.  However, this story will sweep you along.  After a few back and forths you start to really hear the characters and being able to see things from everyone's point of view is stirring.  The main character is contacted out of the blue by someone that has bought one of her used book.  The buyer is inquiring into more books by the same author and, because she had her name and address written inside the cover, decided she must be the best person to ask.  That letter starts one of the sweetest stories I've ever read.  The occupation of Guernsey during WWII (the book takes place soon after the end of the war) is gone over from many different points of view.

I'll probably need to collect myself and rewrite this review.  I'm just so...  It's like finding out a dear friend has made millions off of some scrap in their attic.  It's that warm afterglowish feeling of happiness for someone else, someone you love that you know deserves it.  That's how this book has left me.  I could probably just delete the rest of the review, huh?

A huge thank you!

This may seem silly, but if you've ever read a truly excellent book on someone else's recommendation, then I'm sure you will understand.  My never ending gratitude is thus expressed to Dangermom for recommending "The Guernsey Literary and Poato Peel Pie Society."  I have truly enjoyed this book.  Thank you so much!

Two-Part Invention ~ Madeleine L'Engle

This book was simply incredible.  I love the Wrinkle in Time series and have always had a deep affection for Madeleine L'Engle, because of those books.  This book is the fourth in an autobiographical series.  Unfortuneatly, our library did not have the other three available, but they're on my must-read list as of today.

There were connections all over the place for me while reading this book.  First, Jean Kerr, author of Please Don't Eat the Daisies an old favorite of mine, is a friend of L'Engle.  Then, there's the trip to Chicago, when they stay on Lake Shore Drive.  That is where Jurgis, of The Jungle, meets the owner of a large part of the packing district.  Add to that the incredible difficulties L'Engle faces through this book and her words of wisdom, so pertinent to where myself and many of my friends are at this time, and you have a book that I could not have read at a better time.

If you are ever at a loss for how to respond to another's grief or trials, this book will help you.  If you're facing grief or trials, this book will help you.  If you loved 'All My Children,' this book is about Hugh Franklin (L'Engle is his wife).  If you're a writer, a mother, a child, a human being, this book will touch you.  I've laughed, I've cried, I've lived about a million years since starting this on Saturday.

My next step will be to order all four from Amazon. 

5 out of 5, if I was my son I would put 6.  This is such an incredible book.

The Jungle ~ Upton Sinclair

Three out of Five (minus one for tearing down the whole country)

This is my classical for January. I’m aware that most people read it in high school, but they never assigned it to me and I was rather excited to finally read it.

The back cover:

One of the most powerful, provocative, and enduring novels to expose social injustice ever published in the United States. This dramatic and deeply affecting story documents the brutal conditions in the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the century, bringing into sharp moral focus the appalling odds against which immigrants and other working people struggled for their share of the American dream.

This is a very powerful story. The life of Jurgis (the main character) is one that is truly heartbreaking. The struggles of moving to a country where one does not speak the language (figuratively and literally) is brought forth in glaring realism.  His conversion to Socialism is believable.  I ache to think that people that are seeking would find something other than God.

Food for thought:

At one point, Jurgis is freezing and penniless. He resorts to begging. As soon as he is given money he runs into the nearest saloon. “His victim, seeing him do this, would go away, vowing that he would never give a cent to a beggar again. The victim never paused to ask where else Jurgis could have gone under the circumstances… at the saloon Jurgis could not only get more food… but a drink in the bargain to warm him up.” This really gave me pause. How many times have I said, and heard from others, “I don’t want to give them money for booze?” Why did it never occur to me how much ‘warmer’ booze makes you feel, or really, why it’s any of my business? I mean, the purpose is to help and if this the help that they seek and I genuinely just want to help, then why do I care how they spend it?

At another point, Sinclair refers to Jurgis as “one of the new ‘American heroes’” and puts him on par with “those of the martyrs of Lexington and Valley Forge.” This really bothers me, as at this point Jurgis becomes a scab. I know that there is sarcasm there, there must be, but it really bothers me that he would compare a scab to Washington.

This is a novel written, from what I can gather, to bring people to Socialism.  Sinclair originally wrote it for a Socialist newspaper as a serial and changed it a bit, it's much longer, in order to publish it as a novel.  Having found this out after reading it (I don't read the introductions until I'm done with the story) made sense of much that had bothered me.  Using Chicago to write a commentary on the entire country, seems to be the only way once could pander to their socialist ideals.  Even Jurgis, while in the bread basket, lived well and met with good people.  That is really skimped over in the novel, but it's there.  The breadbasket has no need of socialism, the folks are social enough.

People Who Made History, Oskar Schindler ~ Edited by Bruce Thompson

Four out of Five (-1 because this is a compilation of other people's writing, so you have to switch tones and styles as the authors change, as well as some pieces that are only vaguely connected)

A longer review than most I hope to ever post.  This book is so much more than a biography.  The entire book is excerts from many varied sources, thus an editor, rather than an author.  There is so much of history, psychology and even economy in here that it is, for me, impossible to cover in a simple synopsis.  I wish I would've read this with a group, there is so much here for conversation and even conversation points at the end, for every chapter.

The psychological explanations and descriptions of Schindler are both illuminating and irritating.  One says he was changing into an altruist, another that he had fragmented his personality to be both Nazi and a rescuer of Jews, an economist says his goal was saving lives and his financial and political dealings worked towards that goal.  There is an interesting chapter on "modern moral theory" that explains Schindler's actions as being in defiance of the modern moral theory.  There were no absolutes, there was no reason or rational.  He did what he could, when he could.  On the one hand, it was interesting to see how different beliefs would see Schindler in different ways.  On the other hand, I wonder that so many choose to eviscerate this man, who saved over a thousand people, and to question his motives.

The reviews of the movie, "Schindler's List," are almost distracting.  On the one hand you have a compilation of writings that attempt to give the historical, economic and psychological portraits of Schindler and on the other, a movie that, in my newly acquired opinion, hardly does the man justice.  Speilburg fragmented Schindler in his movie, he used Stern to show Schindler's good side and Goeth as his 'Nazi' side.  Those are three different people.  Stern was Stern, not some guardian angel, and the same can be said for Goeth.  Not only that, but Schindler becomes a sort of puppet, twisting and turning according to whom he is with.

All together, lest I go on much longer, I've learned much from this little book.  Beyond learning more about Oskar Schindler, I was reminded of what I already knew of humanity (we're much more than good or bad), much more about the Holocaust and quite a bit of compassion and morality.

Reading list for 52 books in 52 weeks!

I was reading the 52 in 52 blog and she lists the first five of each genre from "The Well-Educated Mind" recommendations.  I borrowed that from the library, but as of yet cannot afford to get my own copy (so 52's list is uber helpful).

Part of the challenge of 52/52 is a classic a month.  Here's what I'm hoping my classics will be:

1.  Alexander Pope "Rape of the Lock"
2.  Sir Walter Scott "Ivanhoe"
3.  Charlotte Bronte "Villette"
4.  John Bunyan "Pilgrim's Progress"
5.  Oscar Wilde "Picture of Dorian Gray"
6.  Mark Twain "The Tragedy of Puddin' Head Wilson"
7.  Mark Twain "The Autobiography of Mark Twain"  My review.
8.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Hounds of Baskervilles"
9.  James Joyce "Ulysses"
10. Virginia Woolf "A Room of One's Own"
11. Upton Sinclair "The Jungle"        One down!  Here's my review.
12. Jonathan Swift "Gulliver's Travels"

(Had to add a few thanks to Tonia  and her wonderful reading lists)

13. Herman Melville "Moby-Dick"
14. Harriet Beecher Stowe "Uncle Tom's Cabin" In Progress :)
15. Gustave Flaubert "Madame Bovary"
I may not read in that order, but those are my classic goal books :)

Okay, I'm compiling a list of other books I want to read.  The titles are followed by the reviews of other bloggers that brought the book to my attention.

16. The Geurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the review that hooked me  My review
17. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven and the review
18. Mistress of the Art of Death and the review
19. Free: The Future of a Radical Price and the review
20. The End of the Alphabet and the review
21. No Country for Old Men and the review
22. The House at Riverton and the review
23. Freakonomics and the review (except it is for Superfreakonomics)
24. Magic Kingdom for Sale and the review
25. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and the review
26. The House at Sugar Beach and the review
27. Your Kids Are Your Own Fault (no review)
28. The Quickening Maze and the review