Top Ten Tuesday: Topics that Automatically Make Me Pick Up a Book

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish.  Thank you guys for hosting!

This week's topic is: Words or topics that automatically make me pick up/buy a book

So:

1. France (obviously)

2. Ghost story (especially if it's dark and creepy and reminiscent of The Little Stranger)

3. Historian/Antiquarian-I am so drawn to books that have main characters that work in these types of fields

4. World War I or World War II

5. If something is compared to The Time Traveler's Wife

6. Serial killers (which my mom disapproves of..)

7. If someone calls the book a "mind fuck" almost always buy it

8. Rimbaud-I am fascinated by him so if I see his name anywhere it must be purchased

9. If something is classified as a French classic, I need to read it eventually

10. books (both fiction and nonfiction) that are called hilarious, because who doesn't love a good laugh?

Review: Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

This hilarious and relatable book introduces us to Jessica Darling, whose best friend and confidante has just moved far away.  Jessica has no one else to confide in the way she confided in Hope, and she doesn't really enjoy hanging out with any of the other kids at her school.  Struggling without Hope, Jessica slowly gets to know of the school's social outcasts, Marcus Flutie, and things get complicated.

This book is adorable!!  It is not at all the type of book I'd normally read.  I guess it's classified as YA??  But I think grown ups would also love this one.  I actually recommended this book to my little sister maybe a year ago(??) because I just knew it was for her.  I had read Jamie's thoughts (of The Perpetual Page Turner) and immediately knew that my little sister would relate to the main character.  Jessica Darling is a wonderful narrator.  She is such an awkward person, which I can relate to, but her whole personality is so much like my little sister!  So anyway, my little sister devoured it and a few of the other Jessica Darling books and has been begggginnnngggg me to read this one.

So I finally did.

I see that there are quite a few more Jessica Darling books, which I am super excited to read!  It will be so interesting and fun to see her "grow up" (ha, like we ever do..) through the rest of the books.

I really recommend this book.  It is just a super fun read, and you will defiinitely be laughing out loud.  I wish I had known about this book when I was in high school because I know I would have loved it then too!


Title: Sloppy Firsts
Author: Megan McCafferty
Date of Publication: 2001
Number of Pages: 280
Genre: Fiction
Source: Lent to me by my little sister

Review: L'amant by Marguerite Duras

So, this book, which is translated as The Lover, is said to be autobiographical.  Duras group up in French Indochina, which is in southeast Asia and I believe had parts of Vietnam and Cambodia??

Anyway, the book is pretty short.  It's about a young girl. If I remember correctly she was about 15??  And she starts seeing a late 20s or early 30s something year old rich man from China who is there on business.  They have a super strong connection.  The girl herself comes from a broken family.  Her father is dead and her mother has no money.  So at first I think she decides to go with the guy as just something different to do.

I really wasn't a fan of this book.  I just could not get over the whole age difference thing.  It was weird to me.  I know I shouldn't have let that get in the way of the rest of the book, but it did.  And I usually don't get too bothered by things.  But this really bothered me and definitely affected my opinion.

What I did really like was the descriptions of life in French Indochina at the time (which I believe was around 1930-ish?).  There were Europeans and people from other wealthier Asian countries who were living pretty nicely, and then there were the actual native people, who were not living nearly as well as the rest of the inhabitants.  Those descriptions were interesting.

So, as you've probably surmised by now, I didn't really like the book very much.  I think mainly because of the whole age difference thing.  It affected my opinion of the whole book, and then I put off reviewing it because I didn't know what to say, so now most of the details are iffy.

Have you read this book?  Did you enjoy it more than me?  I'd love to hear different opinions!  This is a "classic" francophone book, but it was one I wasn't too fond of.

Title: L'amant
Author: Marguerite Duras
Date of Publication: 1984
Number of Pages: 133
Genre: Autobiographical fiction
Source: Personal copy

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Thought I'd Like More/Less than I Did

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish! 

This week's topic: Books I thought I'd like more/less than I did.

Books I Liked MORE than I thought I would:

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  I put this one down for a few months because I wasn't feeling at after a few chapters, and loved it once I picked it up again.

2. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty.  I thought the Little Sis would love this one and she did, and then she wanted me to read it and I didn't think it was my thing.  But I adored it.

3. Who Was Dracula by Jim Steinmeyer.  I wasn't sure how interesting Bram Stoker and the people in his life would be, but I really liked this one a lot!

4. Enchantments by Kathryn Harrison.  Adored this one, the story was so enchanting.


Books I Liked LESS than I thought I would:

1. The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson.  I just didn't like the husband.  And the way that the main character acted towards him.  It ended up making me not really love this one.

2. The Moment by Douglas Kennedy.  I really liked this book, but I thought there was a lot of parts that were unnecessary and the story dragged in parts because of it.

3. Tout Sweet by Karen Wheeler.  This was filled with great info about moving to France, but there were parts that got to me.  I read it after reading another memoir about moving to Paris, which I adored.  So I think I just noticed more how much I wasn't into this one.

4. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie.  I just was not into the story like I thought I would be.


And that is that!  What books would you add to the list?

Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

I adored this book.  I've owned it for years but never got around to reading it.  And I'm so glad I finally did.  I'm pretty sure you all know the basic story of The Wizard and Dorothy, so I will skip that.  This book, of course, is so different from the movie with Judy Garland.  I think the new Oz movie with James Franco captured a lot of the features of this book though, like the porcelain town, which I was enchanted by in the book.  You really can't compare the book to any Oz movies because they are so very different.

I loved that Dorothy is a little girl in the book, and she is so much more badass, in my opinion.  Not like a bad girl, but super determined to get to the Emerald City and get home.  The fact that she was just a little girl made me love the story more than I would have had Dorothy been older.

My favorite part of the book were the illustrations.  I loved them!  Each chapter has one or two, and I think children reading this book would get a kick out of them.  I think this book was so well loved when it first came out because children who were living "grey" lives like Dorothy on farms, in cities, where ever, loved that Dorothy was able to get picked up by a tornado and land in a completely different world full of talking animals and vibrant colors. 

This is my favorite line from the book:
Page 13: When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side.  Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached the edge of the sky in all directions.  The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it.  Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere.  Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.

Have you read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz?

Title:The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Date of Publication: 1900 originally, my copy is from 2005
Number of Pages: 213
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Review: Enchantments by Kathryn Harrison

So I feel lazy and I'm using the book summary from the back of the book instead of typing up my own summary:
"St. Petersburg, 1917. After Rasputin’s body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin’s healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to her son, the headstrong prince Alyosha, who suffers from hemophilia. Soon after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and the Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest. As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha find solace in each other’s company. To escape the confinement of the palace, and to distract the prince from the pain she cannot heal, Masha tells him stories—some embellished and others entirely imagined—about Nikolay and Alexandra’s courtship, Rasputin’s exploits, and their wild and wonderful country, now on the brink of an irrevocable transformation. In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand."

This was one of those books that I wanted badly and then didn't read for about a year.  I would pick it up and then put it back because I wasn't sure if I would like it.  I love history, but I am not really at all familiar with the Romanov's.  Unless you count the Anastasia movie from the 90s with Meg Ryan as the voice of Anastasia, which I am super sure is not at all historically acurate.  Bats, after all, don't really talk.

And it they do someone better tell me.

So back to what I was saying.  I wasn't sure if I would be captivated by the book.  And I was so wrong.  I fell in love with Alyosha, the heir to the throne, who suffered from hemophilia.  And Masha, one of Rasputin's daughters who basically becomes Alyosha's companion after her father is killed.  Their relationship was beautiful.  They have an obvious connection in the book that was so sweet but also heart wrenching because, well, we all know what happened in real life to the Romanov's. 

I loved Alyosha in this book.  He was constantly sick, but he was very strong on the inside.  I think he guessed what was going to happen to his family before the rest of them. 

As for historical aspects, I really can't say how accurate certain parts were because I no pretty much nothing about this part of Russian history.  But the book was written so well that I was ready to believe that this was a real story, which says something about the writing.

This was a wonderful, enchanting book about innocent love.  I was left pondering for days afterward what would have blossomed between Masha and Alyosha had history been different.  I definitely recommend this one :)

A passage that I adored and personally connected with:
Page 56: Alyosha nodded.  "Are you afraid?" He asked after a moment.
"Of what?"
"Of living without him."
"No.  Maybe.  I don't know what I thought it was before - someone dying.  Someone who isn't a stranger but a person you love.  Now that I do, its...Nothing's the same.  Or it's me that's not the same.  No matter what I'm doing, or even if I'm doing nothing, it's like looking at a picture hanging on the wall and seeing it's crooked.  In my mind, I keep trying to adjust it, whatever it is, and stepping back to consider.  But it's me that's the problem.  I'm listing in some way I can't correct."


Title: Enchantments
Author: Kathryn Harrison
Date of Publication: 2012
Number of Pages: 311
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Top Ten Tuesday: Inspirational Characters

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish!  Don't forget to check out their great site!

This week's topic is: Rewind!  We can choose any past topic.  So I decided on Inspirational Characters.  Here are just a few characters that inspire me:

1. Toby from The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. 

2. Dustfinger, Moe, and Meggie from the Inkheart books by Cornelia Funke.  I figured I'd put them all together since they're all in the books together :)

3. Corrigan from Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

4. Shogo from Battle Royale by Koushun Takami.  LOVED him.

5. Maerad from The Books of Pellinor by Allison Croggon, because she never stops trying.

6. Liesel from The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

7. Manuel from Gouverneurs de la rosee by Jacques Roumain

8. Catherine from Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

9. Leslie from Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

What characters do you think were inspirational??

Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I'm pretty sure the majority of book lovers out there know the premise of The Night Circus and have read more than their share of reviews, so I'll keep this short and sweet :)

I actually had picked this one up at one point.  And I put it down after about 25 pages.  I just wasn't that into it.  I loved the writing, but I wasn't feeling any instant connections.  Then a few months later, my friend from work (the awesome one who has recommended some fantastisc books to me!) read it, and adored it.  And told me that I NEEDED to give it another chance.  I trust her opinion, so I did.  And it turned out to be one of m favorite books ever.

The writing = Fantastic

The story = Sucks you in

I felt like I was at the Cirque des reves.  I felt like I was a part of the story.  It was a magical experience, one that I don't get very often.  It left me in a foggy daze for weeks after finishing it.  I daydreamed about that circus.

So there you have it.  If you tried this book and put it down, maybe try one more time.  Maybe you'll love it and be enchanted by its world as much as I me!

And here is a favorite passage (the book was just so filled with beautiful lines that I decided on just one quote).  I feel that this passage captures perfectly how I would feel without Twin or my little sister.  Anyone who has a twin or a really close sibling or friend I'm sure will agree with me:

Page 186: "I do not see as well without her.  I do not hear as well without her.  I do not feel as well without her.  I would be better off without a hand or a leg than without my sister."


Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Date of Publication: 2011
Number of Pages: 387
Genre: Fiction
Source: Lent to me by my mom

Wisdom Teeth Woes

Just hopping by quickly because I had so much blogging planned for the past week and nothing got done because I got the wisdom teeth removed last Thursday and was really sick from the meds and thought I was finally better and now I have a really freaking painful dry socket.  Like so painful I can't finish any of my bullet pointed or half written reviews and I can't read and I had to go home early from work today.

The oral surgeon can finally see me in the morning so hopefully some relief is on the way!!  And then I can get going on all this fun blog stuff I had planned.

So yeah.

Life can suck sometimes.

And right now I can't even have alcohol to help me feel better.


Annnnnd that's it for the self pity and rant :)  Thank you for letting me vent.

Review: La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life by Elaine Sciolino

My best friend and I are both avid readers and constantly recommend and lend books to each other.  This was the most recent one she wanted me to read.  The author has lived many years in France because of her job as Paris bureau chief for the New York Times, and this book is basically about how French women live and act differently that American women.  It is all of the author's own obvervations, with information from French citizens and expats that she got through interviews. 

I love the premise of this book, and I thought the author handled it very well.  A lot of it is very "cliche French", but as it is all observations that the author has made while living in Paris, it is very interesting and fun to read.  I spent just 1 semester living in France, and I noticed the difference between French women and myself right away.  They dress impeccably even to just run to the store or the market.  They know what looks good on their bodies.  They know how to have a great, long conversation. 

Of course, this isn't to say that all French women are like this.  I have no idea what French women in the suburbs are like because I lived in a city.  And not every city woman dresses to the nines everytime she goes out.  But so many women do.

I remember a conversation I had once with the older woman I visited for hours every Saturday when I lived in France.  She was, of course, a native French woman.  We were talking one afternoon about how fancy all the women at the market look.  Myself and the other American girl there were like "I would never see women like this back home!  I myself would prefer to go in yoga pants!"  And Francoise was like "I would never even think of going out without looking put together".  Of course, her version of looking put together and mine (yoga pants and a teeshirt, ha) were completely different.  She then went on to explain that even as a young girl, her mother always stressed the importance of dressing nicely when going out.  So it was just a part of her life that she has continued to do.

The parts about French conversation I also really loved in this book because I noticed in classes and with Francoise that the French really seem to have the art of conversation.  I suck at conversation.  I'm all like "It's sunny!  How are you?  I like coffee!  You don't??!"  They are all like "What did you think about this thing that this person in this magazine or in this government position said and why do you think that and lets have a conversation that anyone who doesn't follow current events a lot like us will not be able to follow at all!"

Of course, I'm sure not every French person is like this.  It's just something that Sciolino talks about in the book, and something I definitely noticed in France. 

Can I also just mention very quickly that the author is from my lovely city, Buffalo?!  Yay!  Okay, on to better things..

My favorite quote of the whole book which made me laugh out loud so hard I was crying, and is making me laugh again right now rereading it:
Even grim news can be delivered with a frisson of the poetic.  I needed an MRI at one point for a severed hamstring.  Perhaps the radiologist thought it would have been too direct to say, "You have destroyed your hamstring forever."  Instead, he told me, "You really did this beautifully madame."  Pausing for effect, he added, "The tendon.  It floats.  In a sea of blood."

How amazing is that??!


Title: La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life
Author: Elaine Sciolino
Date of Publication: 2012
Number of Pages: 308 without the index and all that
Genre: Nonfiction
Source: Lent to me by one of my bestest friends ever!

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I'd Crush on If I Was Fictional Too

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish.  Don't forget to check out their blog!

This week's topic: Top Ten Characters I would crush on if I was also a fictional character.

Let the book nerdiness begin.

1. Jem from Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier.  I have been crushing so hard on him since first reading this book years ago.  Every time I reread it, the crush grows and grows.

2. Marcus Flutie from Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty because he's Marcus Flutie!!!!!  He wrote Jess a poem!!  A really good one!!

3. Corrigan from Let the Great World Spin.  I don't care if he's a monk or a priest or whatever he is.  LOVE HIM.

4. Olivier from Les Faux Monnayeurs by Andre Gide.  I have no idea why, but when I read this I was totally giddy every time he came into the story.

5. Lucas from A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware.  He completely made me melt because he is a real English gentleman.

6. Cadvan from The Books of Pellinor.  I didn't start out crushing on him, but he is so smart and wise and actually has a big heart, and he totally grew on me.

7. Fred from Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart books.  I know I've talked about my love for him before.  I haven't read these in years but I still remember how much I crushed on him.

8. Brisbane from Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourne.  He is a bit mysterious, but smart.  If I was in Julia's place I'd probably try to act all strong and immune to his charms, but then I would secretly be crushing on him.

What about you??