Book Review: Middlesex

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From Goodreads: In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop physically - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.
The explanation for this shocking state of affairs is a rare genetic mutation - and a guilty secret - that have followed Callie's grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to Prohibition-era Detroit and beyond, outlasting the glory days of the Motor City, the race riots of 1967, and the family's second migration, into the foreign country known as suburbia. Thanks to the gene, Callie is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have ended, her own odyssey has only begun.
Spanning eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenides' long-awaited second novel is a grand, original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.

Thoughts: I really wanted to have this finished by the end of 2014 as it was part of my 100 Best Book List Challenge 2014. I missed by a day so I'm including it anyway - it's my challenge and I can cheat if I want to! 
To tell you the truth I had no idea what the book was about. Like a few other reviewers before me, the title suggested to me English, 1920's or 30's. To say I was incredibly wrong is an understatement!
Middlesex did however, draw me in. From the beginning where Callie tells you

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974

to the end I was enthralled, first by Lefty and Desdemona's story and then by Callie's. The depth and breadth of the novel was captivating. I found Eugenides writing lovely. For me his phrasing and pace had me completely believing I was reading the story of someone who just needed to get their story on paper. When life was going well for Callie, it was smooth and calming. More troubled times and the writing was rougher and anxious.

This year I'm going to rate all  my books. I'm going to use the same scale as Goodreads, as I rate all my books there as well. They use the following five star system:

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it
*****   It was amazing

For this, my first review, I'm giving it a 4. Not a bad start to the year!

Book Review: Norwegian Wood

From Goodreads: Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before.  Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable.  As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.
A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.

Thoughts:  I read this as part of my 100 Best Books List challenge for the love category.
I was vaguely aware of this before I read it. One of those things where you know it's been made into a movie, you know it's been raved about, but you don't actually have any idea what it's about. With this huge sum of knowledge, I entered the world of Toru Watanabe, student, survivor of his friend's suicide, searcher of...who knows. Watanabe comes across to me as I imagine many people are at 18/19 - not really sure what they want and just killing time until it becomes obvious. His friendship of Naoko is a tortured exploration of first love, complicated by her mental illness. Add into this mix Toru's friendship with the rebellious Midori and you have a story that takes many twists and turns and leaves the reader feeling just as confused and unsure as any one was at this stage of their life.
It's hard to judge Murakami's writing as this is a translation. In reality you are judging the ability of the translator to convey the original meaning. If it's any reflection of Murakami's writing, it's lyrical and moving. Reviews and other information I've read suggests this is the most straight forward of Murakami's books which makes me wary of reading anything else he's written.
Norwegian Wood is a unique love story. I'm not sure you could call it beautiful, although I found the prose to be so. If Murakami's other writing is more "out there" than this I think I will steer clear. I find translated books often lose something in the translation and I feel a story not so straight forward could lose much of it's impact.

Book Review: And Then There Were None

From Goodreads: The World's Bestselling Mystery
"Ten . . ."
Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious "U.N. Owen."
"Nine . . ."
At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead.
"Eight . . ."
Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . one by one they begin to die.
"Seven . . ."
Who among them is the killer and will any of them survive?

Thoughts: Another read for 100 Best Books List Challenge, this time in the crime category. I've never read an Agatha Christie before, not sure why – most probably because while they aren't your high brow literature classics, they are still classed as classics and let's face it, it's taken me a little while to get over that hurdle!

And Then There Were None was originally published as Ten Little Niggers and then as Ten Little Indians. Not hard to see why and in my opinion, one of the few justifiable changes to a books original texts. (I never understood the need to stop Noddy and Big Ears sharing a bed or having Harry Potter look for the Sorcerer's Stone rather than the Philosopher's Stone).

I chose this particular Christie title because it was on the list. My dilemma now is which one to read next – do a read in chronological order or series order? Suggestions welcomed!

I liked this for several reasons – mostly because it was clever and not full of guns and car chases. At no point did I have any idea who the murderer was. Maybe as I read more Christie I'll pick up her style and be able to make more educated guesses, but for this moment I love being completely in the dark. I was totally perplexed until the end.

My biggest issue was at the same time I was reading this, my husband I started watching The Walking Dead. As I am wont to do with things that make an impression on me, I dream about them. Can I just let you know a dream that is a mash up between Agatha Christie and The Walking Dead results in zombies walking around a old English country house drinking whiskey and speaking in plum English accents is in equal parts of hilarious and frightening!

Book Review: Dracula

From Goodreads: The aristocratic vampire that haunts the Transylvanian countryside has captivated readers' imaginations since it was first published in 1897. Hindle asserts that Dracula depicts an embattled man's struggle to recover his "deepest sense of himself as a man", making it the "ultimate terror myth".

Thoughts: I read this as part of my 100 best books list challenge, the classic category. Dracula is a proper vampire - no glittering, love lorn pretty boys here, just pure blood sucking evil!

Using diaries, letters and personal recounts, Stoker leads the reader down the dark paths the characters follow to track and destroy Dracula. When reading the classics I often have to remind myself about the realities of being a woman in the time to the book is set. This of course means that often they have little, if any power and their gentle sensibilities need to be taken into account. Female characters in Dracula were no different. Mina obviously has a brain and used it, but in the end, all the heavy lifting is left to the men. The men however, did have their own weaknesses and foibles and in the end they had the best interests of Mina and the rest of humanity at heart.

Anyone who claims to be a fan of vampire fiction needs to read this. While it may not be the first book to feature vampires, it was the first widely popular one and as such, it set many of the vampire conventions – blood sucking, stake through the heart, aversion to garlic.

I don't know if I'm getting better at classics as I found this easier to read than I normally do. Maybe there is hope for me yet! Glad I took the time to read it.

Book Review: American Gods

From Goodreads: Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost – the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.
More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not. --Therese Littleton

Thoughts: Gaiman, I think is either a love him or hate him author. You're either going to get a mass of enjoyment and reflection out of what he writes or you going to think it's a complete waste of time. Me, I loved it. I loved it because it makes your mind twist and turn in directions it normally wouldn't. It makes you think about the world around us and how we react to it - either passively or actively.
Reality is if you are looking for a book that takes a nice linear line, where you never go "hang on, what the hell happened there!", where your characters always make sense and the story comes together in a nice, cohesive way, this is not the book for you.
It's also an incredibly hard book to review for all of those reasons. David Monroe on Goodreads summed it up beautifully for me. He said:


Much like any Neil Gaiman story, the devil is in the details, and you just have to resolve yourself to coming along for the ride or you'll miss it. It's not one story, or two, it's many, and it's all complete...and you have to just read it, and enjoy it, and accept it. Or just don't bother.

The devil is in the details and if you can give yourself over to just taking the journey Gaiman wants to take you on, it's fabulous. On the other hand, you could just not bother - it's completely up to you.

This book completes the Fantasy aspect of my 100 Best Books List challenge. 

Book Review: Me Talk Pretty One Day

From Goodreads: David Sedaris' move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious pieces, including the title essay, about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section. His family is another inspiration. You Can't Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers of food and cashiers with six-inch fingernails.

Thoughts: I can't remember where I first heard about this book, but it stuck with me enough to include it as one of my back up books for my Five from Forever challenge. Just as well I had a back up because I cannot track down a copy of my 5th book - Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman. Me Talk Pretty One Day also has the added bonus of being a book in my 100 Best Books List Challenge - one book, two challenges! Excellent!
Me Talk Pretty One Day is a collection of short essays, columns written by David Sedaris about his life. The first half is in America and includes stories on his family, his life in college and his foray into experimental art and drugs. The second part of the book concentrates on his adventures in France after he moved there with his boyfriend.
The book provided some genuine laugh-out-loud moments and several wry chuckles. Many of the reviews on Goodreads are either scathing or full of love - I can see both points of view. One review relates a story about the mother of the reviewer pretty much being snubbed by Sedaris at a book reading/ signing. Any one who had read the book should not have been surprised by his reaction to the mother's behaviour.
I'm don't think I'd like David Sedaris. I think I would find him self centred and obnoxious. I'm equally certain he wouldn't care what I thought. I think it's this aspect of him that makes the book what it is. Not sure I'd recommend it to anyone, but if I did I would suggest they proceed with caution.

Challenges:  Five from Forever, 100 Best Books List

Book Review: My Brilliant Career

From Goodreads: This classic Australian novel was written by Miles Franklin, and details her life being born of the bush in Australia. A fantastic, well-written book with lively descriptions of a girl's life that can't be passed up by anybody who is drawn by good stories with captivating details. This novel should be required reading by anyone interested in Australia or important female writers and novelists in history.
Thoughts: I read this as part of my 100 Best Books List Challenge, covering the Australian category.
This is one of those books taht as an Australian, I have heard about over the year but somehow have never picked it up or had it set as  a text at school. Most probably the most surprising thing for me was the ease with which it was read. Franklin's writing is light and breezy, but not trivial.
Sybylla is a wonderfully complex character. I loved her refusal to compromise, to become someone she knew she wasn't. Her determination to follow her own path obviously made her mother and grandmother despair!  Given it's setting of the late 1800's, she set herself a very difficult path being against marriage (for herself) and an atheist. You want a strong female character? You've got one here! On the other side she has plenty of self esteem issues. She constantly refers to herself as ugly, stating no-one could want someone as ugly as her. This continues even when others disagree with her. It's not helped by her mother though who is more than eager to agree. I read one review which suggested she seem to have manic depressive traits - high highs and soul destroying lows - and I can agree with that point of view.
Written when she was just 16 and published when she was 21. My Brilliant Career is a literary feat way beyond the author's years. The speculation around whether the book was autobiographical caused her much grief and she put off the publication of the sequel - My Career Goes Bung. I glad she did publish it, as I look forward to read it and other titles from one of Australia's greats.

Challenges: 100 Best Books List Challenge

Book Review: Brave New World

From Goodreads: Far in the future, the World Controllers have finally created the ideal society. In laboratories worldwide, genetic science has brought the human race to perfection. From the Alpha-Plus mandarin class to the Epsilon-Minus Semi-Morons, designed to perform menial tasks, man is bred and educated to be blissfully content with his pre-destined role.
But, in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, Bernard Marx is unhappy. Harbouring an unnatural desire for solitude, feeling only distaste for the endless pleasures of compulsory promiscuity, Bernard has an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress…

Thoughts: This is one of those books I've been meaning to read for years and thanks to both the 5 from forever in '14 and 100 Best Book list challenges, I've finally done it!
Like many dystopian novels, Huxley's vision of the future is quite scary. While the idea of a world where everyone is happy all the time sounds great, there are of course issues.
What I often find interesting in reading classics is what they were unable to predict or see happening. In this hight scientifically controlled world, the recording each embryo and child are subjected to are off a paper roll. Written today, it would of course be computer based, most probably directly into the brain! There is no mention of environmental issues and the "feelies" today would more likely be an interactive, holographic event.
I enjoyed the book, but quite often found myself wondering exactly where it was going. I assumed a protagonist who bucked the system and met resistance. Of course what I got was a slightly disillusioned character and an outsider bought into an incredibly synthetic situation. The sudden focus on The Savage towards the end kind of came out of nowhere for me. It was interesting, but I thought it could have been explored more. The ending was abrupt and jolting. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I'm glad I've read it, but think I will need to think about it some more.

Challenges: 5 from forever in '14, 100 Best Book List Challenge.

100 Best Book List Challenge 2014

Through out the year you frequently see Best Book lists. Best books of all time, best books from Australia, best books of the 20th Century, books to read before you die. I always look at them and tally. I also look at them and think "I'd like to read that one, and that one, oh and that one." So this year I have issued myself (and anyone else who wants to join in) the 100 Best Book List Challenge. It's really easy. Pick any best 100 book list. You can use the one I'm using, or another. Give yourself a goal (anything from 1 book off the list to the whole list!), set up a page with a link to your list and to keep track and off you go!

My tracking page is here.

If you're looking for some ideas on lists to choose from, here's a few.

100 Books to Read Before You Die (this is the list I am using)

All-Time 100 Novels

Australia's Top 100 Favourite Home Grown Reads

100 Best Novels

101 Best Selling Books of All Time

Dymock's 101 Club 2013 list

To see how I'm structuring the challenge for myself, hop over to my tracking page.

Want to join in? Just leave a comment below with a link to your tracking page, or, if you don't have a blog, let me know which list you are using. Feel free to grab the button as well!

Happy reading!