Wednesday, April 15, 2009

THE Great Read

Do you have any books that you re-read over and over again? And I don't mean the ones that your children might make you read for them.

I think a book that you dive into more than once is the sign of a great read. The story never gets old, even when you know how it is going to end. I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you - and hope that some of you might give me your favorites. I am ALWAYS looking for the next great read.

* The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder - I admit that I haven't read this in years, but I am going to take it out again as my daughter gets closer to the age to enjoy it. I don't know how many times I read these books, MANY many times for sure.

* Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh - sci fi and just an amazing story.

* The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein - need I say more? I actually didn't read this book until I was a freshman at Wake Forest. It was assigned reading for a religion class called "Faith and Imagination".

* Mama Day by Gloria Naylor - I cried and cried at the end of this book because I knew I would never have the experience of reading it for the first time again.

* One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - just a beautiful book.

* The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan - fantasy and I only regret that this series after 13 books is still not finished yet and I am waiting and waiting for the next book to come out.

* Kushiel's Dart, and the books that follow in Phedre's story by Jacqueline Carey - Revisionist history with a twist on religion that is fresh and new and lovely.

* I am currently plowing through Philip Pullmans trilogy - The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and His Dark Materials. I don't think I had noticed how anti religion it was on the first read. Really enjoying it again. Want to see the movie.

* The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - King Arthur's story retold from the point of view of the women. Big focus on the druids and goddess worship and how they were forced out by the church which destroyed the ties the people had with the land and the magic. Can you see a theme here?

* Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I like the books that follow as well. Sci Fi - a great story.

* The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling - what can I say? I love them along with the rest of the world.

* My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok - story of a devout, Hassidic jewish boy in Brooklyn that has a true gift for art and how that tears him, his family and his community apart.

* The Ruins of Ambrai and The Mageborn Traitor by Melanie Rawn. Such an awesome, awesome story. Supposed to be a trilogy but the third book has yet to come out. I have been waiting for YEARS.

* The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I read all of the books in the series, but this is the only one I actually re-read over and over again. I can't wait until my kids are old enough for me to read it to them.

* A Wrinkle in TIme, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, The Arm of the Starfish, and A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle. Loved them as a child, loved them as an adolescent, love them still as an adult.

* The Awakening by Kate Chopin - an author ahead of her time. Timeless story about the oppression of women and reminds me how many more choices and options I have now because of women like Chopin.

* Dune by Frank Herbert - an epic classic. I love this book. Not so much the ones that follow - just this one.

* The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Near future - oppressed women, writing is excellent, story is gripping.

* Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. My favorite, by far, of Austen's works.

* Geek Love by Katherine Dunn - crazy story of a carnival couple that intentionally does things during pregnancy to mutate their children for the carnival. Told from the point of view of the kids.

* Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins - Which reminds me that I need to read this again...

* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - by Roald Dahl - love the book to bits, hates, hates, HATES the movie(s).

* The Cider House Rules by John Irving - my favorite of his books, but I really like everything he has ever put to paper.

* The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway - I think I love this most because it takes place in Spain.

* To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Need I really say more?

* Snow Crash and The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson - He is awesome. Still slogging my way through the Baroque Cycle...

I think the one thing all these books have in common is that I was complete caught up in and consumed by the different worlds the author creates... I like to lose myself completely in a book. If you see my Good Reads bookshelf there are a lot of 5 star books there - but these are the ones that I keep re-reading.

What are your favorites? Do you re-read them?

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Blindness

I just finished reading Blindness by Jose Saramago. Amazing book. Although I did it backwards. I saw the movie first (imagine me hiding under a chair in embarrassment here). I have to admit, the movie was incredibly true to the book and I think I liked it better than the book. It may have been the writing style. It was kind of free flowing, no paragraph breaks or quotation marks to break up the dialogue at all so I really had to pay attention to understand who was saying what.

But the thing that was most interesting to me is that no character had a proper name. It was "the doctor", "the first blind man", "the girl with the dark glasses", because when everyone is blind, names aren't important anymore.

So if you haven't read the book, I suggest that you do so. And if you have, put it in your netflix queue. Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo are both amazing, but especially Julianne Moore. Can she act badly? I don't think so.