Whatcha Reading- The Sequel

Hiya!
This week I'm gonna tell ya what I've been reading! I thought I would wait to continue with this until I've read something good enough to actually have something to talk about. So I'm not rambling on. Like I am right now :-)

 Any ways I've read two really good books lately.

So the first is Anna Karenina. I know, I know. Intense right? Not really. For those of you who aren't book nerds, Anna Karenina was written a couple hundred years ago by a Russian guy named Leo Tolstoy. It's about a woman named Anna Karenina (Quelle surprise! :-) ) who has an affair with a Count and has to deal with the consequences of her decision. At least that's what it's about on the surface.

 A lot of people are scared of Tolstoy. This is understandable. An 800 page book written originally in Russian is a little intimidating. At least I thought it was. But I was wrong. Anna Karenina was surprisingly easy to read. I got completely lost in it. I think Tolstoy was very brave to write so frankly about a subject that was so taboo at the time. I sometimes find that books written in the same time period as Anna Karenina are a little unrealistic. I sometimes wonder if people really spoke that way. But in Anna Karenina I had not problem imagining the characters yelling at each other, laughing, crying.

 It's definitely a great book.
                                             
I also just finished reading Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen. It was amazing!
It's about a young vet named Jacob who joined a circus during the Depression. It has a little bit of everything. It's happy, sad and moving all at once. I don't want to give anything away. All I can say is you need to read it!

Me, Myself and Anne Frank

There are some books that help us become who we are. These books change our way of thinking forever and keep doing so every time we read them. For me this book is Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

We all know the story: a young girl writes a diary while hiding in a small attic apartment from the Nazi's because she happens to be Jewish. The first time I read it was the summer going in to grade 7. I was just a year shy of when Anne began writing her diary at the age of 13.Since  then I think I've read it about 4 times. Each time I read it I learn something different. However there are a couple of things that always stand out to me. One thing I always appreciate is how Anne always finds the good in her situation. While living conditions must of us can't even IMAGINE  Anne finds joy in the littlest things, like a glimpse of the sky through the attic window. Despite the horrible things going on around her, Anne found the good. She wasn't always optimistic, of course. Quite often she was terrified but she always tried to find ways to be happy. All of us need to do this. We need to stop being so caught up in our selves and find the joy that comes from simply looking up at a blue sky.

Another thing that always occurs to me when I re-read Anne's diary is how different the person we are on the outside is from the person we are on the inside. The people around her thought that Anne was light hearted and unthinking when in reality she was the complete and total opposite. We need to think about how other people could really be feeling before we judge.

I just finished reading Annexed by Sharon Dogar. It's the story of Anne Frank from the point of view of Peter Van Peels, the son of the family who were in hiding with the Franks. It's very moving and definitely a must read as is Ann's diary. In my opinion Anne Frank's diary not only gives voice to the millions of Holocaust victims, it also shows us the strength of the human spirit in the face of tragedy.

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."
— Anne Frank

The Pillars of the Earth

In the summer I was wondering aimlessly through a book store when I came across Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. It seemed interesting and funnily enough I found it's roughly 1000 pages more comforting than daunting. So I read it.

Over the course of the next two weeks or so I ate, slept, and breathed in Kingsbridge (where the book takes place). It was completely engrossing. The basic plot is built around the...well, building :-p,  of Kingsbridge Cathedral. It follows the lives of character's involved in the building of the cathedral. Most of it is centred on Jack, a young builder and Aliena, the daughter of an earl. There's a whole bunch of other character's and stories going on ,though. Pretty much all lots of life are presented from the Prior of Kingsbridge to the King. It's an amazing book and before long you believe completely in the characters. The second volume World Without End also kicks butt!

I realize that this might sound boring (so what? Their building a church. Good for them!) But don't take my word for it. I can't do it justice. You should just read it and see what you think. They're really is something for everyone, trust me on this one!

If ya don't feel like reading an 1000 page book, would could always watch the miniseries. It's really great! They did a very good job of bringing the novel to life. I'm a big fan of The Tudors and I was really glad that I had something to replace it with. Almost, at least! Unfortunately this week is the last episode :-( so if you want to check it out you  had better be fast!

                                                                                                                                                  

What You're Reading This Week...Right?

So since I started off my blog by rambling on about what I've been reading, Mr J came up with the awesome idea that I should post The New York Times Bestsellers List and talk about it a bit... so here it goes...
Here is the combined Print and e-book Fiction List for this week

This Week		Last Week	Combined Print & E-Book Fiction	Weeks on List
1		1	TICK TOCK, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. (Little, Brown.) The New York detective Michael Bennett enlists the help of a former colleague to solve a rash of horrifying crimes that are throwing the city into chaos.	3
2			ALONE, by Lisa Gardner. (Random House.) A woman who survived a horrible childhood abduction may have tricked the Massachusetts police sniper Bobby Dodge into killing her husband.	1
3		2	THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson. (Knopf Doubleday.) A hacker and a journalist investigate the disappearance of a Swedish heiress 40 years earlier; the first volume in the Millennium trilogy.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Books of The Times Review
4			A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES, by Deborah Harkness. (Penguin Group.) The recovery of a lost ancient manuscript in a library at Oxford sets a fantastical underworld stirring.	1
5		4	THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, by Stieg Larsson. (Knopf Doubleday.) The third volume of the Millennium trilogy, about a Swedish hacker and a journalist.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Books of The Times Review | Excerpt | Related Article
6		3	THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, by Stieg Larsson. (Knopf Doubleday.) In the second volume of the Millennium trilogy, a Swedish hacker becomes a murder suspect.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Books of The Times Review | Excerpt
7		5	WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by Sara Gruen. (Algonquin.) After his parents die in a car accident, young veterinary student — and an elephant — save a Depression-era circus.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Related Article
8		6	CUTTING FOR STONE, by Abraham Verghese. (Knopf Doubleday.) Twin brothers, conjoined at birth and then separated, grow up amid the political turmoil of Ethiopia.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Excerpt
9		7	THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. (Penguin Group.) A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s Mississippi.	3
			Books of The Times Review
10		8	THE CONFESSION, by John Grisham. (Knopf Doubleday.) A criminal wants to save an innocent man on death row, but he must convince the authorities he’s telling the truth.	3
			Books of The Times Review
11		11	DEAD OR ALIVE, by Tom Clancy with Grant Blackwood. (Penguin Group.) Familiar Clancy characters appear as an intelligence group tracks a vicious terrorist called the Emir.	3
12		13	ROOM, by Emma Donoghue. (Little, Brown.) The entire world of the 5-year-old boy who narrates this novel is the 11-by-11-foot room in which his mother is being held prisoner.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Books of The Times Review
13		9	MARRYING DAISY BELLAMY, by Susan Wiggs. (Harlequin.) A woman struggles for years to choose between two men. And then, one fateful day, the decision is made for her.	3
14			THE SECRET SOLDIER, by Alex Berenson. (Penguin Group.) When the king of Saudi Arabia is threatened, the former C.I.A. operative John Wells goes undercover to help.	1
15		12	STRATEGIC MOVES, by Stuart Woods. (Penguin Group.) In the 19th Stone Barrington novel, the New York lawyer works with the C.I.A. to transport a fugitive.	3

So scanning through this list I realized that I haven't read any of these books. I've heard of a few of them or seen them in stores but I haven't actually read any. Maybe I should...

I sometimes wonder if bestseller lists in general are all that accurate. Authors seem so proud if they get on the New York Times Bestsellers list. But does it really mean anything?I mean yes they sell; but do people actually enjoy reading them? I've bought quite a few books that I thought I would enjoy that ending up being flops. Would a most enjoyed books list be better?

I need help from you guys here. Has anyone read these books? Are they any good? What am I missing?

If It Ain't Broke, Should Ya Fix It?

Alright, so I was minding my own business, flipping through a reccent issue of Chatelaine when I came across something that stopped me in my tracks and demanded to be read.

It was in the book club section (anyone who read my first blog shouldn't be surprised that I gravitated toward this section:-)) that I stumbled across it. It seemed innocent enough: a review of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. 'So? Wasn't that book written like 200 hundered years ago?' you may ask. But this edition was somewhat different. The full title read, 'Pride and Prejudice: The WILD AND WANTON Edition'.

Currently there is a fad for playing with the classics. Out of this fad came such titles as Pride and Prejudice and Zoombies, Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters as well as Wuthuring Bites. Personally these novels make me feel sick. To me they seem like a last ditch attempt to get teenagers to read the classics by using the vampire/zoombie/whatever fad. I think that they are in extremly poor taste. As for the other books that use historical figures in the same way, such as Abraham Lincon: Vampire Hunter, Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter and Henry VIII: Wolfman don't even get me started....

But to this wild and wanton thing is a whole other level. Adding vampires and seamonsters to the classics seemly...well, silly. But adding sex just seems wrong. It really says something about socieity when you need to add sex to make people read a book. I guess the adage that sex sells is true. It's really sad, If you ask me.

The point could be made that this wild and wanton series (there is also a wild and wanton wuthuring heights) is written for modern audiences, it's giving these books a wider readership, times have changed. Well all I really have to say to that is that they are classics for a reason. People have loved them before they included vampires, zoombies or even sex. And I think people will contine to love then in the future, sans vampires.

I think we should be teaching future generations to appreciate the classics the way they are and leave the classics alone. They're already great!

What do you think?
VS

VS 

Letters to Juliet

So I read this book not that long ago called "Letters to Juliet"(the book the movie was based on) and it got me thinking.

The book is all about the letters that people have been writing to "Juliet" since sometime during the 1930's. The are a group of people of answer all these thousands of letters. People write to Juliet for advice on their love problems and Juliet's secertaries, as the people who answer are called, write them back. At the face value this idea might seem a little silly. Juliet isn't real, she is a fictional character. Why do people write to her when they know she isn't real?

It's human nature to look for help with your problems. Writing to Juliet makes people feel like they don't have to face their problems alone. And after years of experince and thousands of letters every year, Juliet's secertaries are pretty good at answering calls for help :-)

Another reason why so many people write to Juliet  is because they want to belive that she is real. Everyone wants to have something to believe in. Even though you know in your head Juliet isn't real, there will always be a part of you that seceretly thinks she exists. That's just the way we are.

And maybe, just maybe, she is real. Maybe this whole idea of writing Juliet letters makes her real. Maybe each and everyone of those letters sent by all those thousands of people, has made her real.

In Spite of All the Danger

Here is a video of my favourite scene from the movie Nowhere Boy as well as the original version by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. This is the first song they ever wrote and recorded. Enjoy!