The Awakening

After finishing Between the Lines, I was forced to take a reading break to focus on finals. Being a Journalism major, those no longer consist of all night study sessions and 100 question exams, but rather 12 page papers and 10 minute speeches. So basically, I had to give up my reading to do some writing.
When I finally turned in that final paper and ran from the building like my butt was on fire, I got back around to all those books I'd gotten for Christmas and picked up The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
I found The Awakening on a list of books every girl should read in her 20s on Pinterest (where, by the way, I find a ton of awesome books). It is a book that was first published in 1899, but shocked and disturbed society so badly that it was banished for decades. Reading it, it was easy to see why it would have been so disturbing at that time, even though today's reader would hardly blink at what was considered so scandalous.
It's the story of a young wife and mother who feels that she is not living her life for herself. She begins to discover what she wants and the freedom that she craves, but she struggles with society's disapproval.
I think that what keeps this story so popular today, in spite of the cultural differences, is the fact that its so relateable. Sure, as women we no longer have to keep silent and maintain our households and support our husbands in the way they did in 1899, but I think that at one point or another all of us have felt tied down or tried to fit a mold of what others think you should be. Whether that's a high school girl trying to conform to the norm or a business woman trying not to look to masculine, nor too feminine. I think that in one way or another, each of us has felt like Edna Pontellier, and that makes a 100 year old book still relevant today.

Between the Lines

I love Jodi Picoult. The first book of hers that I ever read was, of course, My Sister's Keeper. I know that most people like to read the book before the movie comes out, but I'm the opposite. If I love a book, I'm going to hate the movie, but if I like the movie, I'm going to love the book. Make sense? 

So anyways, I read My Sister's Keeper after the movie came out and I think it started a Jodi Picoult kick for me. I read The Pact and House Rules, and she went on the list of author's I put on my Christmas and birthday lists. Typical nerd, every time my mom asks for a wish list, I google authors I like and pick out some of their books. Which is how I discovered Between the Lines. 

I found this book this past Christmas, and I liked the story line so I added it to my already long list of books. It took me a few months to get around to reading it, because I always manage to have at least five books I want to read at a time. I finally picked it up, and finished it within the week. 

First of all, I found out that Picoult wrote this with her daughter, Samantha Van Leer. Apparently, Van Leer had the idea to write a story about what happens to the characters in a book when the book is closed. Kind of like the Toy Story of books. 

Between the Lines ended up being nothing like I expected. It was such a cool idea to imagine that the characters in a book actually have real lives outside of the one that was written for them. It made me think about Scarlett, and Jo, and Anne at Green Gables and imagine that they were still around even when I wasn't reading their stories. 

As an adult, I enjoyed the book, but it's something young adults would as well. It is a book that I would have liked to read with my mom, and one that I would one day like to read with my daughter. 
It was a very easy read, and it was a very cute story. 

March

I wish that I could remember the first time that I read Little Women. I know I was very young, and it wasn't the original, but the Great Animated Classic's version (loved those!). I read Louisa May Alcott's version in junior high, and I was hooked. Since then, I must have re-read it a hundred times (okay, so probably not a hundred, but enough). If I absolutely had to choose one favorite book, Little Women might be it. My teacher recommended March to me when we were off on a book-loving tangent one day. She said that if I loved Little Women, that I would love March as well. She leant it to me, and here we are.
It's the story of the patriach of the March family. Which in itself is an interesting idea, and something that I'm sure most Little Women fans have not thought much about (myself included). It tells the story of how he met Marmee, and how their family lost their fortune, as well as what Mr. March was doing while Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy were being ingrained into our hearts.
Dealing with the civil war, March also deals with slavery and issues of race. We learn that a young Marmee worked passionately with the underground railroad, and continued this work with her girls. It gave dimension to one of my favorite families, bringing Mr. March, and Marmee, to life and putting a new perspective on Alcotts story. And it made me cry. And we know I'm a sucker for a book that makes me cry.That being said, it also stays true to the original version. Little Women was based so much on Louisa May Alcott's life, and Geraldine Brooks clearly did her research to continue that. The writing is also fantastic. If you're a fan of Little Women, I highly recommend this book. And if for some unexplainable reason you have never read it, I suggest you start there!

I Remember Nothing

 After reading something as heavy as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, I picked up Nora Ephron's I Remember Nothing. I loved it. I finished it in a day. There were so many things that I liked about it that I kept stopping and making notes for what I wanted to mention. 

1. First off, I liked that it was such a light read. I always have to have a book on my bedside table, and sometimes it's nice to have one that I can just breeze through. I Remember Nothing is just a collection of Nora Ephron's reflections and each one was it's own separate story. 

2. I liked the history of it. I firmly believe that I was born at the wrong time, and I should have been living in the 1940's, 50's, and even the 60's. Nora talks about meeting Eleanor Roosevelt and references Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Tippi Hedren, Casablanca, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and The Ed Sullivan Show. I loved that.

3. I liked that it was relatable. There is a whole chapter about forgetting someones name, and that awkward moment when you have to introduce them to someone else. She talks about the cowlick on the back of her head, and the fact that she has to google everything. The things that she talks about are things that I relate to, things my mother could relate to, and things my grandmother good relate to. And the best part is, she does it with humor.

4. I liked that it made me think. I am the girl that always has a journal. I think my dad bought me my first one when I was eight years old, and I have been keeping one ever since. When Nora talks about all the things from her youth that she has forgotten, it made me think about all the things that I write about. It made me think about the kind of things that I am going to want to remember and the things that are not going to matter in the long run. 

5. I liked her reflection on Journalism. As a journalism major, I loved reading about her early experiences as a journalist, and what made her want to do it in the first place. She also gave advice, like "Never begin a story with a quote", "Never use anything but 'said'", and "Never put something you really care about into the last paragraph because it will undoubtedly be cut for space". Great advice.

6. It made me cry. At the very end of the book, Nora Ephron reflects upon the things that she will and will not miss when she dies. They are simple lists, but they made me cry. It made me think about the little things that you take for granted, and she showed me to appreciate life while you are living it.  So, yes, I loved this book. I definitely recommend you pick it up, and gaurantee you'll finish it the same day. 

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

When I thought about starting this blog, I must have thought of a hundred books that I would rather begin with, but here I am posting my first entry about Carson McCuller's The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. If you start to notice a theme in some of the books that I read, it's because I am attempting to read Newsweek's list of the top 100 novels.
     

 Making my way through the first 15 has been...difficult at times. Gone With the Wind was easy, even if it did take a few months. The History of the Peloponneisian War however, is not something I would say I'm exactly looking forward to. To even begin to review the books on this list was not something I planned on doing. After all, who am I to critique Ernest Hemingway or Mark Twain? But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I don't want to critique them. I want to share them. I want to share my experience, and that means you'll just have to take the good with the bad.
     

 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was hardly a bad experience for me. It's the story of 5 individuals who in one way or another feel isolated from society. I think that that may have been why it took me a little longer to get in to, because it was so many separate stories. That, and the fact that I thought the girl on the cover was supposed to be Mick (It's not. It's definitely Carson McCullers).
    

Anyway, the book really turned around for me during the tail end of the story. Looking back, I probably should have been able to predict what would happen, but I didn't and when the story reached climax I literally gasped.
 If you attempt to read it, (And personally, I suggest you attempt to read the entire list) be patient. It was definitely worth it in the end.