Sunday, 30 October 2011

100 books to read before you die

Every once in awhile I go back to the thought that I should be reading more classic books again. In high school and college I used to be quite stern with myself and would read a classic book between the more contemporary and throw-away novels. In this spirit I'm going to take a look at which books I've read on the list of 100 books you should read before you die. The ones that I've read are in bold.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling 
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck 
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne 
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold 
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White 
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

So as of right now I've read 37 of the 100 books. Let's see how I do from now on!

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Miral

At the Amsterdam airport I picked up the novel Miral by Rula Jebreal. I liked that the back said that it was based on a true story and portrays a pretty specular woman who started an orphanage and school in Jerusalem amongst the backdrop of strife between the Jewish and Muslims.

The story was different than I expected because I thought that the entire story would center around the character of Hind, the motivated and influential woman who made the orphanage and school (Dar-El-Teifel)out of nothing. Instead the story has many characters and the plot spans many years. The actual main character, Miral, is an impulsive and outgoing girl and from her eyes we see the protests around the political and religious fighting of that time.

I enjoyed the interesting mix of characters and the author's descriptions of Jerusalem at that time. I particularly enjoyed the good hearted Jamal and of course the level-headed and inspiring Hind. I'm not sure about the validity of the story or the general history that accompanies it but I do feel like I now have some insight into that city and views of a young Muslim girl at that time.

I would recommend giving it a read because any story that gives you look into another culture and time can teach something and open your eyes. Also! it is being made into a movie... so let's see how that goes :)

Saturday, 24 September 2011

The Language of Flowers

I just finished The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.

To say that I finished it in the past 3 days on my holiday (which is as busy as always) should tell you that I liked it :)

I thought it was unique from any novel that I've read before. The story is about a young girl coming out of care and the challenges she faces with her identity, facing her past, and becoming a woman. The story in itself is layed out in an interesting way, going back and forth between the past and the present and not divulging too much information to fast as the story unfolds.

The unique bit comes in with flowers component of the story. The main character, Victoria, has learned the meanings of different flowers in the context of romance and emotions. It comes from the idea that different colored roses each have a different message... but this goes further to saying that any flower in existence has a meaning and it is possible to share your emotions with someone you care about (or don't).I felt that this is interwoven delicately throughout the story enhancing it rather than taking from the original story line.

The characters are strong without having to delve too much into individual histories and are a great supported to a complicated main character.

I thought is a was a really good book and a great book in it's genre.. as it has a bit more to sink your teeth into than an ordinary literary drama.

So my advice is to check it out!

Sunday, 4 September 2011

One Day- David Nicholls

It's the book a lot of people are talking about since the rumors started about the film version. I had picked the book up a few times in the book shop read the back and decided not to get it. I'm not proud to say this but unknowingly... I bought this book due to it having a different cover, the film version cover. It wasn't until after I finished did I realize that it was the same orange and white covered book that I'd picked up so many times before.

In this instance I'm glad that my affinity for books turned movie has pushed me. I really enjoyed the book :)

As I'm sure you've seen in the movie trailer or read in the numerous magazine articles now out about this book/film... this is the story of two friends, Emma and Dexter, and their story over the period of 20 years. It is a complicated web of friendship, love, humor, growing up, following your dreams, and picking yourself up. It is interesting in the concept of popping into both of their lives on the same day of each year and the author manages to make their situations understandable and the story flow despite the time lapses.

My favorite part of any book or film are the relationships and how people interact individually or as part of a group. This story played into that for me including surprisingly few characters but tapping into Emma and Dexter's emotions individually and towards each other.

I'm not sure how to write entirely how I feel about the book without giving too much away so I will stop here. You'll hear from me again soon after I see the film ;)

Sunday, 7 August 2011

Water for Elephants

When in Wisconsin I found the book 'Water for Elephants' by Sara Gruen in a used book shop. I was really excited because I really want to see the movie that was recently out... and I'm not gonna hide that it is because I love Robert Pattinson! I was wonderfully surprised to find that I also LOVED the book.

I really liked the characters and that it is set in a circus. It was not what I expected about a circus story but instead a entirely other perspective. It is the side of the circus that you normally don't see and is set in the times of the traveling circus. It's the stories of the people who set up the tents and feed the tigers and about the juxpostion of the performers and workmen. I appreciate the work that the author did to research that culture at that time and the characters that came out of that. The circus being set during the prohibition also adds an interesting element to the story.

The array of characters was sensational. So many different personalities in this misfit group and the lead character's sense of right and wrong running through the interactions makes for excellent reading.A moody ringmaster, an angry clown, a caring horse performer, and an elephant with a language barrier just to name a few. I also really liked the two different time periods. The crotchety old man who had such a history made me smile. His spunkiness and outlook were entertaining and it was a great perspective on a life.

I'm not gonna say much more other than you should definitely read this book if you haven't and I'm even more excited to see the film!!

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Half of a Yellow Sun

I’m stealing this idea from a friend of mine… but since I do so much reading I thought maybe I’ll share some impressions of some books that I read. Here goes!!

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This book is set in the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967-1970 and the years leading up to that point. Although this is fiction I always feel that I learn something from books like this. The authors bring history to life with made-up characters and relationships that live a life that was true to many people during that time.

I thought the characters were well rounded and liked that they showed different lifestyles and perceptions of people during that time. I like the believabity and vulnerability of the relationships and thought it was interesting to see how decisions and tragedies affected those dynamics.

I found myself drawn to the relationship of the twin sisters the most. They had such different personalities and I guess that in their differences and struggles to create their relationship as adults reminded me of my own life in some ways.. and puts things in perspective to what is important and what shouldn’t be sacraficed.

The story was based on the war time and of course that meant a lot of loss of belongings, homes, jobs, security, and loved ones. I know this is reality and this is based on a true time in Nigeria’s history but I do wish it wasn’t so sad…

So if I were to rank it 1-10… I would give this book an 8 only because I found parts in the first half of the book a big slow but I’m definitely glad that I stuck with it :)