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| 0679642420
| 9780679642428
| 0679642420
| 4.21
| 189,511
| 1869
| Apr 08, 2003
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really liked it
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It took me five months and four days to finish this book, I think I took longer reading War and Peace but that is a longer book. Was it worth it? When It took me five months and four days to finish this book, I think I took longer reading War and Peace but that is a longer book. Was it worth it? When I started reading this book I had a feeling that this is probably Fyodor Dostoyevsky's most lighthearted book, not that I am an expert on his works, I only read Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov neither of which are a great source of hilarity. Of course, you don’t read Dostoyevsky for laughs but while reading the first few chapters I thought it was going to be a nice surprise. The early chapters are indeed lighthearted and often funny but the tone becomes increasingly grim towards the end. [image] Portrait of Prince Myshkin by MrsPeggottyArts This is the part of the review I most dreaded, the synopsis. How do I summarize a novel like this in one paragraph? There are so many plots and subplots, boatloads of characters with incredibly long names, complex motivations, and dialogue that is sometimes interminable. The Idiot is the story of Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin who has just arrived in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the book after spending four years in Switzerland being treated for epilepsy. Upon his arrival, he meets various colorful—almost Dickensian—characters, seeks out his distant relations and becomes involved with two women from opposite social spectrums. Throughout the narrative, he generally tries to be nice to everybody, to his own detriment and even those he tries to be nice to! I think that will have to do for a summary, hit up Wikipedia or Spark Notes for a detailed (possibly “TMI”) summary. Like most of the characters in the book, I took an instant liking to Prince Myshkin, a compassionate, quirky, funny, awkward, and very insightful character; indeed, a man too good for this world. I felt that I could breeze through the entire narrative just hanging out with this lovable doofus who is not really a doofus (or indeed an “idiot” at all). After finishing the book I read up a bit on the background of its creation. Dostoyevsky’s basic concept is to put a “positively good and beautiful man” into the terrible world we live in. In a sense, it is a thought experiment, and the result is quite surprising. I won’t go into details as it would spoil the book terribly but, as mentioned earlier, the narrative takes on a darker tone and culminates in… a way I was not expecting. Is it worth reading though? For the litfic fans of intellectual tomes it is a no-brainer, well, more like a yes-brainer I suppose. What about the less well cerebrally endowed individuals like yours truly? Would an idiot enjoy reading The Idiot? Not for the amplitude of philosophical, religious and political themes to mull over, just to read the damn thing from beginning to end and see what happen, which is generally how I approach leisure reading. There is no simple answer that I can offer. While it is generally not that hard to follow there is a huge cast of characters and it is often difficult to remember who so-and-so is when he/she wanders in and out of the narrative, especially with the lengthy and often similarly spelled Russian names. As Dostoyevsky explores his various themes tedium can set in at times. There is a chapter where an irritating character called Hippolyte reads out an account of his not very interesting life and thoughts that almost had me giving up on the book; for someone named like a polite hippo he is not very charming. On a positive note whenever the narrative focuses on Myshkin it is never dull, whatever he does or says is always of some interest and I was fully invested in his fate. I had no idea where Dostoyevsky was going with the way the plot was developing. Myshkin is far from being the only character of interest, several characters spring to vivid, vibrant life whenever they appear, especially the two ladies Myshkin has so much trouble with. I don’t regret spending over five months reading this book (I also read other books over this period). I cannot recommend it unequivocally, it does depend on how patient you are and what you want from a book. I am not a particularly patient (or even discerning) reader but I consider the time reading this book well spent. [image] Note: I read half the book in audiobook format, and the remaining in print (on Kindle). The reason is that I always read Librivox audiobooks because they are all free, the only snag is while some are great, others are not. The Idiot (Part 01 and 02) is wonderfully read by Martin Geeson (thank you), with plenty of nuances and all the different character voices you could want. The only problem is that this is only half the book. The Idiot (Part 03 and 04) is not so well read by Alia Makki and Jan Moorehouse, they graciously read these chapters for free so I won’t criticize them, but after the excellent reading of the first half I just could not bear the change in quality and had to plough through the printed version. [image] Quotes: “The prince's expression was so good-natured at this moment, and so entirely free from even a suspicion of unpleasant feeling was the smile with which he looked at the general as he spoke, that the latter suddenly paused, and appeared to gaze at his guest from quite a new point of view, all in an instant.” “Nastasia Philipovna was quite capable of ruining herself, and even of perpetrating something which would send her to Siberia, for the mere pleasure of injuring a man for whom she had developed so inhuman a sense of loathing and contempt.” “A fool with a heart and no brains is just as unhappy as a fool with brains and no heart. I am one and you are the other, and therefore both of us suffer, both of us are unhappy.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 06, 2018
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Jul 09, 2018
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Jul 09, 2018
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Paperback
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| 0141187042
| 9780141187044
| 0141187042
| 3.78
| 4,213
| Jun 1906
| 2002
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really liked it
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“We are most of us wise after the event. When the wind has blown, we can generally discover a multitude of straws which should have shown us which way
“We are most of us wise after the event. When the wind has blown, we can generally discover a multitude of straws which should have shown us which way it was blowing.” Pearl of wisdom or gem of witticism? Probably both. You can always find memorable lines like this in any Wodehouse book, which is why reading his books is always worthwhile. There are numerous Wodehouse books available in the public domain, to read or download for free online. Unfortunately not all his books are in the public domain, in fact – as far as I know – there are only two Jeeves and Wooster books in Project Gutenberg’s massive catalogue. If you want to explore works of Wodehouse for free you will generally have to make do without this dynamic duo. There are 42 Wodehouse titles listed at Project Gutenberg so the choice is almost bewildering. I came to choose Love Among the Chickens because it is one of the very few Wodehouse titles formatted by the Standard Ebooks.Org, the formatting is very neat and superior to the same book formatted by Project Gutenberg (not that Gutenberg does a terrible job). Love Among the Chickens is the story of Jeremy Garnet, an author of pulp detective novels. Just when Garnet is in need of a change of scene and inspiration his friend Stanley Ukridge entices him to assist him in a chicken farming venture in Combe Regis, in Dorsetshire. Garnet readily agrees and while en route to Combe Regis he meets beautiful Phyllis Derrick and is immediately smitten. He gets on well enough with Phyllis who enjoys reading his fiction, but her father, Professor Derrick is a highly cantankerous gentleman, and getting on his good side is very difficult. Garnet’s attempt to befriend the professor is not helped by the unwanted “assistance” of his friend Ukridge who is a loudmouth idiot without social graces. Desperate to make some headway with the professor Garnet stages a faux-rescue that initially pays dividends until his scheme is rumbled. “The course of true love never did run smooth” but Garnet’s situation is ridiculous. [image] For me any Wodehouse book without Jeeves and Wooster is immediately second tier or below. There is magic in Jeeves’ wonderfully convoluted manner of speaking and his ingenious solutions to problems. The contrast when he is paired with his boss Bertie Wooster whose daft antics always land him “in the soup” makes for some comedy gold. All Wodehouse protagonists land themselves in the soup at some point in the narrative but only Bertie has Jeeves to fish him out. [image] Unfortunately for Garnet he has Ukridge, one of Wodehouse less prepossessing recurring characters. He is extremely stupid, opinionated, and always very insistent on having his ways. He seldom stops talking long enough for anybody to get a word in. For me, Ukridge is the weak link of the novel, he just rubs me the wrong way. I have met people like him in real life and always find them unbearable. However, whatever flaws exist in a Wodehouse novel, the book as a whole is always salvageable, thanks to the author’s wit and charms. In spite of the title Love Among the Chickens does not place much emphasis on the romance, scenes of Garnet’s awkward courting are few and far between. The comedy is more reliant on high jinx involving rampaging chickens or creditors, Wodehouse also gets a lot of mileage from Garnet’s ill-considered scheme to ingratiate himself with the professor. I read Love Among the Chickens as an e-book as well as an audiobook (mostly simultaneously). It makes for pleasant and amiable bus journeys to work. While not exactly side splittingly funny it made me chuckle a few times and is never dull. A second or even third tier Wodehouse is still a worthwhile read. [image] Note: The audiobook is nicely read by Mark Nelson, download free from Librivox. Thank you Mr. Nelson! Quotes: “The sight of the table, when at length we filed into the dining room, sent a chill through me. It was a meal for the very young or the very hungry. The uncompromising coldness and solidity of the viands was enough to appall a man conscious that his digestion needed humouring. A huge cheese faced us in almost a swashbuckling way. I do not know how else to describe it. It wore a blatant, rakish, nemo-me-impune-lacessit air, and I noticed that the professor shivered slightly as he saw it.” “It is a peculiarity of situations of this kind that the ideas of debtor and creditor as to what constitutes a good time never coincide.” “The man who lays a hand upon a woman, save in the way of kindness, is justly disliked by Society; so the woman Muspratt, culpable as she was, was safe from me.” “You are swimming splendidly this morning," I went on perseveringly, feeling that an ounce of flattery is worth a pound of rhetoric.” “I had not imagined Ukridge capable of such an excursion into metaphysics. I saw the truth of his line of argument so clearly that it seemed to me impossible for anyone else to get confused over it. I had certainly pulled the professor out of the water, and the fact that I had first caused him to be pushed in had nothing to do with the case. Either a man is a gallant rescuer or he is not a gallant rescuer. There is no middle course. I had saved his life—for he would certainly have drowned if left to himself—and I was entitled to his gratitude. That was all there was to be said about it.” “If there is one person I dislike, it is the man who tries to air his grievances when I wish to air mine” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 03, 2018
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Jan 15, 2018
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Jan 30, 2018
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Paperback
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| 0809510839
| 9780809510832
| 0809510839
| 3.86
| 125,479
| 1872
| Sep 05, 2000
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liked it
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“I am sure, Carmilla, you have been in love; that there is, at this moment, an affair of the heart going on." "I have been in love with no one, and nev “I am sure, Carmilla, you have been in love; that there is, at this moment, an affair of the heart going on." "I have been in love with no one, and never shall," she whispered, "unless it should be with you." How beautiful she looked in the moonlight!” Very Anne Rice, except that Carmilla predates Rice’s Interview with the Vampire by about a century, so Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu did the "sexy vampire" thing first. He did it even before Bram Stoker unleashed Dracula on the world. Carmilla is one of the earliest work of vampire fiction, apparently not the, I have no idea whose story has that honor (Google is your friend!). [image] First published in 1871 Carmilla tells the story of Laura, a young woman living with her father in a “schloss” (castle) in Styria. One day a carriage transporting a lady and her daughter has an accident outside the castle, the daughter, Carmilla, is a little injured and cannot continue the journey with her mother. Laura’s father, nice fellow that he is, offers to take care of the lady’s daughter while the lady takes care of her business. The two girls (age not mentioned, but Laura is probably about 16-18 years old, Carmilla looks the same age) quickly become BFFs. Laura finds Carmilla to be great company, very pretty, enigmatic and a bit weird. A few days after their association Laura’s health begins to fail, she wakes up feeling more and more anemic every day. She has no idea why but, being a bit of a fool, tries to hide the condition from her father. We, of course, realize the truth immediately, Carmilla, her new BFF has been making happy meals out of her. Though she seems nice, she sucks. The characterization of the eponymous Carmilla is quite well done, even when she is passing herself off as a girl she is creepy and charismatic. I can not say the same for the other characters, they are just there to serve the plot. Laura is too ineffectual to be of any interest and I am surprised Carmilla herself does not feel anemic from consuming her sappy blood. There is a mildly erotic angle to the story, which later authors like Anne Rice refined to an art form. [image] From Victorean Gothic's article Carmilla has a disadvantage often experienced by early practitioners of a new genre of fiction, the writers who followed refined the basic idea and did it much better. So Bram Stoker, Stephen King, Richard Matheson, GRRM, Anne Rice etc. basically wrote much better, more frightening and thrilling vampire stories. Carmilla is not at all bad, the early part of the novella creeped me out a little bit. Unfortunately, as the narrative progresses it seems to run out of steam, and the final encounter with Carmilla feels oddly flat and matter of fact. Still, the novella is too short to outstay its welcome and I kind of enjoyed it; not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it is in the public domain so you may as well give it a shot! [image] “Pardon me miss, do you happen to have a knife sharpener.... Ooer missus!” Notes: • The free Librivox audiobook version I listened to is read by the excellent Elizabeth Klett. • There are several film adaptations of this book, but the most well known is probably The Vampire Lovers (1970) [image] Quotes: “Now the truth is, I felt rather unaccountably towards the beautiful stranger. I did feel, as she said, "drawn towards her," but there was also something of repulsion. In this ambiguous feeling, however, the sense of attraction immensely prevailed. She interested and won me; she was so beautiful and so indescribably engaging.” “Shy and strange was the look with which she quickly hid her face in my neck and hair, with tumultuous sighs, that seemed almost to sob, and pressed in mine a hand that trembled.” “Her soft cheek was glowing against mine. "Darling, darling," she murmured, "I live in you; and you would die for me, I love you so.” “She and I talked a great deal, and very animated she was; and the remainder of that evening passed without any recurrence of what I called her infatuations. I mean her crazy talk and looks, which embarrassed, and even frightened me.” “I saw a solemn, but very pretty face looking at me from the side of the bed. It was that of a young lady who was kneeling, with her hands under the coverlet. I looked at her with a kind of pleased wonder, and ceased whimpering. She caressed me with her hands, and lay down beside me on the bed, and drew me towards her, smiling; I felt immediately delightfully soothed, and fell asleep again. I was wakened by a sensation as if two needles ran into my breast very deep at the same moment, and I cried loudly. The lady started back, with her eyes fixed on me, and then slipped down upon the floor, and, as I thought, hid herself under the bed.” [image] [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 17, 2017
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Oct 20, 2017
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Oct 21, 2017
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Paperback
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| 0744549515
| 3.88
| 63,430
| 1887
| 1997
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really liked it
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“But there is no such thing, sir, as a ghost, and I guess the laws of Nature are not going to be suspended for the British aristocracy.” Says Mr. Hiram “But there is no such thing, sir, as a ghost, and I guess the laws of Nature are not going to be suspended for the British aristocracy.” Says Mr. Hiram B. Otis, the American Minister does not believe in no ghost, but he soon changes his mind when he has his close encounter. Even then, contrary to expectations, he is not particularly bothered. The Canterville Ghost is Oscar Wilde turning the ghost story tradition on its head, I suppose it can be regarded as a parody, but it also works well as a charming children’s story for Halloween. [image] Mr. Otis and family move into Canterville Chase, completely unmindful of the warning from Lord Canterville that the house is haunted. However, he is soon convinced by seeing the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville himself. The first thing he does is to offer Sir Simon a bottle of “Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator” to oil his noisy clanking chains, much to the ghost’s mortification. [image] Soon Sir Simon finds himself the object of bullying and pranks the Otis twins. His continued efforts to scare the Otis family members meet with failure, and humiliation and he ends up being more scared of the living than they are of him. Eventually, Sir Simon is left dejected and depressed, taking to moping in some quiet corner by himself. Fortunately the kindly Virginia Otis, Hiram’s teenage daughter, takes pity on him and befriends him. Aww… Oscar Wilde has a strange notion of the mechanic of the ghostly state, that is how a ghost functions in practical terms. Sir Simon feels out of breath, cold, discomfort and other sensations that you would not expect a non-corporeal being to worry about. He even has a “severe fall, through treading on a butter-slide”. Still, it would be pedantic to worry about such details, if this is how ghosts work in this story then fine. [image] The Canterville Ghost is nice, pleasant, funny, and charming. It lacks the hilarity of The Importance of Being Earnest or the darkness of The Picture of Dorian Gray (also great for a Halloween read), but for children or anyone looking for something Halloweeny to read, just to get into the “spirit” of things, that is not violent, bloody or actually scary in any way, then this is probably the best option. As a ghost story, it is too tame for my taste, but I am always a fan of Wilde’s wit so it made me quite happy. [image] Notes: • The Project Gutenberg e-book of this title comes with wonderful drawings by Wallace Goldsmith (a couple of them are used here). • There is, of course, a free Librivox audiobook version, wonderfully read by David Barnes, thank you. Quotes: “I have come from a modern country, where we have everything that money can buy; and with all our spry young fellows painting the Old World red, and carrying off your best actors and prima-donnas, I reckon that if there were such a thing as a ghost in Europe, we'd have it at home in a very short time in one of our public museums, or on the road as a show.” “Many American ladies on leaving their native land adopt an appearance of chronic ill-health, under the impression that it is a form of European refinement, but Mrs. Otis had never fallen into this error.” “What a monstrous climate!" said the American Minister, calmly, as he lit a long cheroot. "I guess the old country is so overpopulated that they have not enough decent weather for everybody. I have always been of opinion that emigration is the only thing for England.” [image] [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 11, 2017
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Oct 12, 2017
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Oct 12, 2017
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Hardcover
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| 0486298574
| 9780486298573
| 0486298574
| 4.08
| 302,397
| 1892
| Jan 01, 1997
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it was amazing
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“I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye
“I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.” [image] Oh my gawd! This story creeped me out! I have never heard of The Yellow Wallpaper until I saw this post Reddit’s “r/books”, the books discussion forum. After reading a few comments I decided to save it for reading in October when I tend to be in the mood for spooky reads. The Yellow Wallpaper is about a poor lady with a nervous disposition moving into a creepy (but not haunted) mansion with her husband and sister in law. She is left to her own devices much of the time with little to do and she while away the time in her room with its “disturbing” yellow wallpaper. Her husband, a doctor, instructs her to get a lot of rest and refrain from doing any work. In the absence of anything to occupy her mind, she contemplates the colour and pattern of the wallpaper and begins to “see things”. [image] This is a very effective and disturbing 1892 short story. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, wanted to do more than give you the willies, however. The story is her exploration of how women with mental health issues are condescended to and not taken seriously by the medical profession and even men in general, including those who love them. If you are looking for a quick, creepy read in a more psychological horror vein, The Yellow Wallpaper is just what the doctor ordered. F*k the “rest cure”, man. [image] Art by fit51391 Notes: • Sorry I can't review the entire “The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories” collection, only have access to this story. • This story is in the public domain, grab a copy from Project Gutenberg. An audiobook version is also available at Librivox . Quotes: “John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.” “But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it KNEW what a vicious influence it had! There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down.” “Looked at in one way each breadth stands alone, the bloated curves and flourishes—a kind of "debased Romanesque" with delirium tremens—go waddling up and down in isolated columns of fatuity.” [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 2017
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Oct 2017
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Oct 11, 2017
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Paperback
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| 9626344245
| 9789626344248
| 9626344245
| 3.96
| 49,369
| Feb 27, 1915
| Apr 30, 2007
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really liked it
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“I am inclined to think—” said I. “I should do so,” Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently. I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; “I am inclined to think—” said I. “I should do so,” Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently. I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; but I’ll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption. “Really, Holmes,” said I severely, “you are a little trying at times.” An auspicious start to The Valley of Fear where Holmes is trolling Watson, by this point in their timeline they are already like an old married couple. Looking at Goodreads’ ranking (by the number of ratings) of Conan Doyle’s books, including the sans-Holmes Jurassic Park prototype The Lost World (Professor Challenger, #1), The Valley of Fear does not make the top ten. Does this mean it is a bad Sherlock Holmes book? Perish the thought! There is no such thing. However, of the four Holmes full-length novels*, this is the least of them. Still, if you are a Sherlock Holmes fan (as opposed to just a fan of Benedict Crummylunch) there is no excuse to skip this one. The Valley of Fear hits the ground running with Holmes receiving a cipher message which he solves while mocking Watson. “You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself.” LOL! [image] I love his process of decoding the encrypted message, always the most fun part of any Holmes story. The note warns of a man being in imminent danger of pushing up the daisies. The game is, therefore, afoot, and soon Holmes, Watson, and a police inspector are racing off to the countryside to investigate the murder of Mr. John Douglas, whose face has apparently been shot to pieces. A card marked “V.V. 341” is left beside the body. [image] What soon transpire is a massive spoiler so I won’t go into that, suffice it to say that Holmes solves the mystery before the book is even half over. At that point, I wondered what are we left with then, for the rest of the book? What follows for most of the second half of the book is a story set in the Vermissa Valley, the titular “Valley of Fear”, in the US, featuring an evil freemason lodge. In most Holmes novels Conan Doyle structured the books with a beginning involving Holmes and Watson investigating a murder, then the narrative switches to a novella-length flashback section where our two heroes are entirely absent from the narrative, after that ends we are back with Holmes and a denouement or a coda. This is the case here and The Valley of Fear is structurally identical to A Study in Scarlet, there is also another similarity, that book features a community of evil Mormons, this one features an evil freemason lodge. If he had gone on to write a fifth Holmes novel it probably would have featured an evil community of cross-dressing lumberjacks. [image] I cannot help but think that Conan Doyle may have run out of original plot ideas by this point in his career. Certainly every time Doyle pulls this stunt the absence of Holmes and Watson is keenly felt. However, Doyle gets away with it because he was such a gifted storyteller and the Holmes-free narrative section is always somewhat entertaining. Having said that, to me, this narrative structure often leaves me with something like a sandwich with excellent bread but a “meh” filling. Imagine a James Bond movie with Bond shaken but not stirring for half the movie, that is not going to go down very well. In conclusion, if you like Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories you should not miss The Valley of Fear because there are only a limited number of them and there are enough Holmes & Watson shenanigans to make most fans reasonably happy. If you have never read a full-length Holmes novel, start with The Hound of the Baskervilles, it is the best one and even a little spooky! [image] Notes: * I reviewed all the other three Holmes novels, I hope these reviews will be of some interest to you: • A Study in Scarlet • The Hound of the Baskervilles • The Sign of Four • I bought this Kindle edition off Amazon for $0.99, thinking it would have some nice illustrations I could put in this review. Hilariously the pictures inside have nothing to do with the novel or Holmes! If you want a free e-book edition go for the Project Gutenberg one. • I listened to the Librivox audiobook version, brilliantly read (as always) by David Clarke. Thank you! [image] Quotes: “Your thoughts move a bit too quick for me, Mr. Holmes. You leave out a link or two, and I can’t get over the gap.” Said PC Plod. “Dozens of exiguous threads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of the web where the poisonous, motionless creature is lurking.” Lots of shoutouts to Moriarty but the great Mo never shows up! “He brightened and rubbed his thin hands together as he listened to the meagre but remarkable details. A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us, and here at last there was a fitting object for those remarkable powers which, like all special gifts, become irksome to their owner when they are not in use. That razor brain blunted and rusted with inaction.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 20, 2017
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Oct 2017
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Oct 05, 2017
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Audio CD
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| 0007119313
| 9780007119318
| B006VWJ2XC
| 4.20
| 646,677
| Jan 01, 1934
| Jun 04, 2007
|
it was amazing
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“Mon ami, if you wish to catch a rabbit you put a ferret into the hole, and if the rabbit is there he runs. That is all I have done.” Monsieur Poirot i “Mon ami, if you wish to catch a rabbit you put a ferret into the hole, and if the rabbit is there he runs. That is all I have done.” Monsieur Poirot is full of nuggets of wisdom like that, often leaving his listeners completely nonplussed. I recently saw the trailer for the 2017 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, and I figured now may be a good time to reread this book, which I first read decades ago. I recently said in my The Moonstone review that knowing the solution to a murder mystery tend to substantially reduce the entertainment value of the book. I remembered the denouement of The Moonstone very well because it is so outrageous. The same can be said for Murder on the Orient Express, Ms Christie’s solution is equally outrageous. However, this book has some advantages over The Moonstone. The Moonstone is often cited as being the prototype detective novel, by the time Murder on the Orient Express came along Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and other others have also refined the genre into a fine and very popular art. Ms Christie’s secret weapon is her ace detective Hercule Poirot, “a little man with enormous moustaches” and an egg-shaped head. [image] Kenneth Branagh as Poirot, not so little, no egg-shaped head, and the moustache is unfeasibly enormous. The plot of Murder on the Orient Express is wonderfully simple. The famous Orient Express train travelling from Stamboul (Istanbul) to Calais and beyond, runs into a snowdrift and has to stop until the track is cleared. During this long stoppage a passenger is murdered, he apparently died from a dozen stab wounds. Poirot is assisted in his investigation by his pal M. Bouc and Dr Constantine, both of whom are of course completely flummoxed by the seeming impossibility of the crime under the circumstances. Poirot questions the numerous suspects extensively. “Ma foi!” but they are all full of BS that has to be sifted through. After he is done with badgering the passengers he kicks back to do some awesome contemplation (no mention of a “mind palace”), his little grey cells going into overdrive. Poirot is not nearly as cool as Sherlock (I cannot imagine Benedict Crumblebuns as Poirot) but he is very endearing. His methods seem to rely less on forensic evidence than on badgering the suspects until they give themselves away; a technique that may have inspired the eccentric detective Columbo. Christie’s characterization is interesting, there are not lot nuances in the characters, most of them are amusing caricatures of archetypes, like the repressed Brits, the loquacious Italian, the swaggering American, the stern Russian etc. Even Poirot is something of a cartoon, with his small stature, egg-shaped head, gigantic moustaches and distinctive rendition of the English language, not to mention that certain “Je ne sais qui” thing he has going. [image] Pristine, practically perfect Poirot, David Suchet If this sounds like criticism it is not really, I find Christie’s narrative very charming, witty, entertaining, and cosy of course. It has a lovely old school sort of appeal, I love how much Poirot enjoys solving crimes and is always so upbeat. Her plotting, planting of red herrings and generally teasing her readers with misleading info is masterful. These elements are why her fiction is still enduring almost a century later. What I did not notice before when I read her books as a teenager is how she is also often subtly satirical, sending up various kinds of people. I also appreciate that her novels are mostly of moderate length so that she never outstays her welcome. If you never read Agatha Christie start with this one or And Then There Were None. If you have read her before years ago and think her stuff is old hat now, try the hat on again for size. Great hats never go out of fashion 😉 [image] Notes: • Christie’s other ace detective, Miss Marple, has even more unlikely methods, entirely based on observation or something. • Major spoiler discussion: (view spoiler)[I do find the ending of this book morally dubious. Poirot allows the twelve murderers to get away with their crime after he has worked out their intricate plot and motivation because the victim is a murderer of little kids. Was Christie advocating vigilantism? (hide spoiler)] Quotes: “That, to me, is the interest of this case,” he said. “We are cut off from all the normal routes of procedure. Are these people whose evidence we have taken speaking the truth, or lying? We have no means of finding out-except such means as we can devise ourselves. It is an exercise, this, of the brain.” “I like to see an angry Englishman,” said Poirot. “They are very amusing. The more emotional they feel, the less command they have of language.” “Ma foi!” said M. Bouc with violence. “But does everybody on this train tell lies?” “His eyes rested for a moment on Hercule Poirot, but they passed on indifferently. Poirot, reading the English mind correctly, knew that he had said to himself. “Only some damned foreigner.” [image] Peter Ustinov was a fun, upsized Poirot. [image] Alfred Molina as Poirot in a (bad) 2001 adaptation. ...more |
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not set
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not set
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Sep 14, 2017
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| 0140435476
| 9780140435474
| 0140435476
| 3.89
| 16,865
| 1887
| 2014
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really liked it
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“This phenomenal girl will be the light of my life while I am at Hintock; and the special beauty of the situation is that our attitude and relations t
“This phenomenal girl will be the light of my life while I am at Hintock; and the special beauty of the situation is that our attitude and relations to each other will be purely spiritual. Socially we can never be intimate. Anything like matrimonial intentions towards her, charming as she is, would be absurd. They would spoil the ethereal character of my regard. And, indeed, I have other aims on the practical side of my life.” Oh dear, what a cad, and this is a Thomas Hardy novel, so it will surely end in tears. Reading Hardy is not exactly fun but I do keep coming back to read him, I find his novels oddly entertaining, perhaps as a kind of morbid fascination. The Woodlanders is set in a small woodland village called Little Hintock, a place so rustic you would never find a wi-fi signal. This village is part of the county of Wessex, where nothing happy ever seems to happen. [image] The novel is mainly focused on Grace Melbury, the “heroine” of the book. Grace is an unusual girl for Little Hintock, her father sent her away (not sure where) for several years to be educated, and when she comes back (probably with a Ph.D.) Little Hintock just seems kind of lame. [image] Prior to going to college, she had an understanding with Giles Winterborne, a timber-merchant; but in the eyes of Grace v2.0 a timber-merchant is not up to snuff and will never get the ISO certification; so she points him towards the friend zone. Along comes Dr. Edgar (or Edred in some editions) Fitzpiers, handsome mega cad, and philanderer extraordinaire. So they begin courting and – in a spare moment – Dr. Fitz even manages to squeeze in a roll in the hay with another village girl. Soon after they are married the good doctor starts an affair with Mrs. Felice Charmond, a rich widow and another outsider, who comes to stay at Little Hintock from time to time. Heartache, headache, martyrdom, and typhoid ensue… The tragedy of The Woodlanders seems to stem from nobody knowing what they want, or – more accurately –wanting what is very bad for them; they always make a beeline for the absolute worst option. Grace is the worst of Hardy’s female protagonists. She has no agency to speak of, always making bad decisions, and is scared of her own shadow; so much for her education. Fitzpiers is, of course, a terrible fellow, but then he is the villain of the piece and you are not supposed to like him. Giles Winterborne though, poor bloke, much too good for this world; a bit of an idiot to be honest. Hardy’s characterization is first rate for all of them; the characters are very distinct, conflicted and complex. All of Hardy’s favorite themes are accounted for: a rustic, evocative setting, bad marriage, unrequited love, and the class division. Again urban outsiders some “invade” the nice provincial setting and a miserable time is had by all. I am not sure what he is saying about education here if Grace did not go to college and remains a typical country girl she would have married Giles and everybody would be better off. So education does more harm than good in a setting like Little Hintock? Hardy’s plotting is clever and quite intricate, seemingly trivial and random events in the narrative always have significant and unpredictable consequences later on. He often makes the reader reflect on their own relationship with others, though, not just the spouses, but friends and relatives. Be a little kinder, more honest, and more considerate and a heap of troubles can be avoided. If you have never read Thomas Hardy before, start with Tess of the D'Urbervilles or Far from the Madding Crowd. I think they are better stories with more sympathetic protagonists. Having said that The Woodlanders is Hardy’s own favorite of his works so what do I know? I seem to have read all his major works now, though, so I don’t know if I will read the rest. If this is the last Hardy novel I read (rereads notwithstanding) it is a pretty high (but not happy) note to end on. [image] Notes • Wonderful free Librivox audiobook, beautifully read by Tadhg. Thank you! • The trailer for the 1997 film and the movie poster makes it look like a smoldering romantic story. [image] One of the least romantic books I have ever read. [image] Quotes: “So she did as commanded, and opened each of the folded representatives of hard cash that her father put before her. To sow in her heart cravings for social position was obviously his strong desire, though in direct antagonism to a better feeling which had hitherto prevailed with him” “There was in Grace's mind sometimes a certain anticipative satisfaction, the satisfaction of feeling that she would be the heroine of an hour; moreover, she was proud, as a cultivated woman, to be the wife of a cultivated man. It was an opportunity denied very frequently to young women in her position, nowadays not a few; those in whom parental discovery of the value of education has implanted tastes which parental circles fail to gratify.” “Both looked attractive as glassed back by the faithful reflector; but Grace's countenance had the effect of making Mrs. Charmond appear more than her full age. There are complexions which set off each other to great advantage, and there are those which antagonize, the one killing or damaging its neighbor unmercifully.” ...more |
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Jun 06, 2017
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Jul 06, 2017
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Jun 06, 2017
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Paperback
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| 1585676160
| 9781585676163
| 1585676160
| 4.03
| 5,176
| Feb 24, 1917
| Oct 21, 2004
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really liked it
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“Mr. Pett is going to give me a job in his office. I am going to start at the bottom and work my way still further down.” Excellent negative positivity “Mr. Pett is going to give me a job in his office. I am going to start at the bottom and work my way still further down.” Excellent negative positivity (or something). I love reading P.G. Wodehouse, especially on the bus in audio format on the way to work, it puts me in the right frame of mind for the daily grind ahead. Piccadilly Jim is probably the most popular standalone Wodehouse book (no Jeeves, no Blandings, no statistic to back this up). I tend to start off these non-Jeeves Wodehouse books initially missing the presence of Jeeves and Wooster but Wodehouse’s charm is pretty irresistible. Piccadilly Jim is about Jimmy Crocker, another one of Wodehouse’s stock ne'er-do-well young male protagonists. This is not a criticism as their adventures are always a hoot. Besides, the alternative would be a sensible chap who does everything right; that is unlikely to elicit many laughs. At the beginning of the book, Jim lives with his father and step-mother in London where Jim is a notorious party animal. After socking a fellow “sprig of nobility” on the jaw, Jim decides to leave London to spend some time in New York to avoid causing further trouble for his beloved father. He soon meets and falls in love with Ann Chester who recruits him in a scheme to kidnap her super-spoiled fourteen-year-old cousin Ogden, not for money but to confine him at a dogs’ hospital so that the hospital’s keeper can teach him to behave. [image] In order to win Ann’s affections, Jim has to pretend to be somebody else because five years ago he ridiculed Ann’s book of poetry in a newspaper article, and while she never met him before she considers him an enemy. However, in order to carry out Ann’s kidnapping scheme he has to pretend to be impersonating Jimmy Crocker, i.e., himself. If that does not make sense don’t worry about it, while the storyline is simple there are many plot elements that would make for an awfully convoluted synopsis. From a well-intentioned kidnapping to an espionage subplot, numerous imposters at a family mansion, and a larger than life female detective with crazy eyes. Wodehouse throws a lot of crazy notions into Piccadilly Jim. In lesser hands, this many plot elements would result in a hot mess but Wodehouse ingeniously weaves them all into a delightful, comic novel. The outrageously implausible plot defies logic, but I don’t read Wodehouse for logic or plausibility. What I do read him for is a good chuckle, an appreciation of clever language usage, and a generally upbeat feeling. As usual, Wodehouse populates this book with colorful, silly characters. My favorite has to be ace detective, Ms. Trimble, she is tough as nails, and, in spite of not having a sense of humour, everything that comes out of her mouth is pretty hilarious. Here is Wodehouse’s vivid description: “She had thick eyebrows, from beneath which small, glittering eyes looked out like dangerous beasts in undergrowth: and the impressive effect of these was accentuated by the fact that, while the left eye looked straight out at its object, the right eye had a sort of roving commission and was now, while its colleague fixed Mrs. Pett with a gimlet stare, examining the ceiling. As to the rest of the appearance of this remarkable woman, her nose was stubby and aggressive, and her mouth had the coldly forbidding look of the closed door of a subway express when you have just missed the train.” If you have never read P.G. Wodehouse before I would recommend starting with My Man Jeeves, but if you are already a fan Piccadilly Jim will not disappoint you. Everybody should consume more Plums 🤓 [image][image][image][image] Notes: • Free Librivox audiobook read by various readers, all of them have done an acceptable job, some are actually quite good. [image] • Fun(ish) Fact: Piccadilly Jim was adapted into a movie three times. (I have not seen any of them but I like the 1936 poster best). [image][image][image][image] Quotes: “It was pure slush. It was the sort of stuff they filled up pages with in the magazines when the detective story did not run long enough. It was the sort of stuff which long-haired blighters read alone to other long-haired blighters in English suburban drawing-rooms. It was the sort of stuff which—to be brief—gave him the Willies.” “To have secured Willie Partridge, whom he intended to lead gradually into the realms of high finance by way of envelope-addressing.” “From where he stood, outside the barrier which separated visitors to the office from the workers within, Jimmy could see a vista of efficient-looking young men with paper protectors round their cuffs working away at mysterious jobs which seemed to involve the use of a great deal of paper. One in particular was so surrounded by it that he had the appearance of a bather in surf.” "I think the heat must have made him irritable. In his normal state he would not strike a lamb. I've known him to do it." "Do what?" "Not strike lambs." ...more |
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Jun 06, 2017
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Jun 06, 2017
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Hardcover
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| 0451528824
| 9780451528827
| 0451528824
| 4.31
| 1,008,975
| Jan 01, 1908
| May 06, 2003
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it was amazing
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“Oh, I don’t mean just the tree; of course it’s lovely—yes, it’s radiantly lovely—it blooms as if it meant it—but I meant everything, the garden and t
“Oh, I don’t mean just the tree; of course it’s lovely—yes, it’s radiantly lovely—it blooms as if it meant it—but I meant everything, the garden and the orchard and the brook and the woods, the whole big dear world. Don’t you feel as if you just loved the world on a morning like this? And I can hear the brook laughing all the way up here. Have you ever noticed what cheerful things brooks are? They’re always laughing. Even in winter-time I’ve heard them under the ice. I’m so glad there’s a brook near Green Gables. Perhaps you think it doesn’t make any difference to me when you’re not going to keep me, but it does. I shall always like to remember that there is a brook at Green Gables even if I never see it again. If there wasn’t a brook I’d be haunted by the uncomfortable feeling that there ought to be one. I’m not in the depths of despair this morning. I never can be in the morning. Isn’t it a splendid thing that there are mornings? But I feel very sad. I’ve just been imagining that it was really me you wanted after all and that I was to stay here for ever and ever. It was a great comfort while it lasted. But the worst of imagining things is that the time comes when you have to stop and that hurts.” I swear this is a rare French edition of Anne of Green Gables: [image] I jest, but Anne's motormouth gabbing at Green Gables almost unmanned me. Not only does she never shut up, the twee nonsense she was carping on and on about made me cringe so hard I thought I was going to morph into an accordion. Fiddlesticks indeed! I did consider dropping the book after a few pages of Anne’s mind boggling loquaciousness but something about the book grabbed me when I wasn't looking. There is something rather compelling about the narrative which I could not quite put my finger on at that point, so I kept on reading. I am glad I did. This is going to make me sound terribly ignorant but I never heard of Anne of Green Gables until I read that Netflix was about to air a new adaptation of it. This piqued my interest because it is clearly not a kickass show like most of their recent series. Then I looked up the book on Librivox.org and I found that they have an audiobook of it, read by the excellent Karen Savage. That sealed the deal for me; it is free to read (or listen to) after all, there is no risk in giving it a shot. First published in 1908 Anne of Green Gables is about an orphan named Anne Shirley who is adopted by an old woman called Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew. They wanted to adopt a boy to help Matthew with his farm work but through some kind of snafu, the orphanage sent them a girl instead. Marilla wants to send her back immediately but kindhearted Matt enjoys listening to Anne’s crazy-ass chatter. Soon, however, Anne’s peculiar charms begin to get under her skin and she changes her mind. So Anne gets to live with them at their Green Gables house in Avonlea, a little town on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Pastoral mayhem ensues. [image] Anne and her BFF Diana, art by Kasia1989 It took longer with me than with Marilla but Anne eventually got under my skin too. In spite of being bloody irritating she is interesting and her “joie de vivre”, fearlessness and optimism are infectious. I also enjoy the episodic scrapes she gets into over several chapters: almost breaking her neck, almost drowning, accidentally dyeing her hair green, breaking a slate over a boy's head etc. In George Elliott's lovely Silas Marner Elliott mentions an “unfolding of the soul” that resonates with me, it describes the life-changing effect that the introduction of a child into your life has on your perspective, your attitude, your behavior, and your very soul. There is an identical process going on in Anne of Green Gables with the hitherto terse and practical Marilla. I love this theme and enjoyed reading about her gradual transformation. As for Anne’s nonsensical chatter I become desensitized to it after a while and I was happy to let Anne be Anne. The timeline of the book also spans more years than I expected, I thought it was going to be about Anne getting into scrapes after scrapes until the book ends somehow, and that would have been alright with me. However, it turns out that the book depicts Anne’s coming of age, her gradual development from the age of eleven to sixteen. By the end of the book, Anne is much more mature and not so manic. There is a lighthearted and warm tone to Lucy Maud Montgomery which is a pleasure to read. This is “a book for all ages” so it is not exactly challenging to read. The characterization is very well done. The central characters are all believable and even lovable. The book actually becomes quite poignant towards the end and I closed the book with a happy sigh. There are eight sequels to this book I doubt I will read them all but I would be quite happy to check in on Anne again before too long. [image] Notes: • I am a fan of Ms. Karen Savage’s audiobook narrations, she has such a pleasant reading voice. Her narration of Anne of Green Gables is her best yet. Her love for this book really comes through in her enthusiastic and passionate delivery. I am ever so grateful. (Download page). • Anne of Green Gables became so popular and such an important symbol of freedom in Poland that the Polish army issued a copy to every soldier before WWII. • Anne of Green Gables is a sort of Canadian Secret Garden or Silas Marner. • This book is not as widely read as I thought, my extremely well read BFF Cecily has never heard of it until this review, which probably means at least 50% of the world's reading population haven't. Have a look at the Netflix trailer, see if it's your thing (though there's more angst in the TV show than in the book). • Ten things Anne of Green Gables taught this Guardian journo. • Netflix’s adaptation (called Anne with an “E”) has been described as “gritty”, the grits are of their own manufacture; there is about as much grit in Anne of Green Gables as you would find in an average glass of milk. Amybeth McNulty who plays Anne is a fantastic young actress, her portrayal of Anne is top notched. The show looks good but I have to say I don't like the additional dark materials they put in, I think it is tonally at odds with the spirit of the book. I have seen a couple of episodes so far and a fairly minor incident in the book is blown up into a huge melodrama with a galloping horse chasing a train! (See message #17 by Tracey below for more details. Thanks, Tracey! 🤗) [image] • It is called Anne with an “E” because that is her badass spelling of it, and she insists the E is always included even when people are vocalizing the name. • A minor complaint. Anne’s acrimonious relationship with Gilbert Blythe (who she whacks on the head with a slate) goes on too long on too trivial a basis to be reasonable or believable. I mean, he calls her carrot once and that started five years of animosity? [image] [image] Quotes: “The long platform was almost deserted; the only living creature in sight being a girl who was sitting on a pile of shingles at the extreme end. Matthew, barely noting that it was a girl, sidled past her as quickly as possible without looking at her. Had he looked he could hardly have failed to notice the tense rigidity and expectation of her attitude and expression. She was sitting there waiting for something or somebody and, since sitting and waiting was the only thing to do just then, she sat and waited with all her might and main.” “Listen to the trees talking in their sleep,” she whispered, as he lifted her to the ground. “What nice dreams they must have!” “Matthew, much to his own surprise, was enjoying himself. Like most quiet folks he liked talkative people when they were willing to do the talking themselves and did not expect him to keep up his end of it. But he had never expected to enjoy the society of a little girl. Women were bad enough in all conscience, but little girls were worse. He detested the way they had of sidling past him timidly, with sidewise glances, as if they expected him to gobble them up at a mouthful if they ventured to say a word. That was the Avonlea type of well-bred little girl. But this freckled witch was very different, and although he found it rather difficult for his slower intelligence to keep up with her brisk mental processes he thought that he “kind of liked her chatter.” But they shouldn’t call that lovely place the Avenue. There is no meaning in a name like that. They should call it—let me see—the White Way of Delight. Isn’t that a nice imaginative name? When I don’t like the name of a place or a person I always imagine a new one and always think of them so. There was a girl at the asylum whose name was Hepzibah Jenkins, but I always imagined her as Rosalia DeVere. Other people may call that place the Avenue, but I shall always call it the White Way of Delight. [image] Japanese book cover [image] Anime ...more |
Notes are private!
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May 08, 2017
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May 20, 2017
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May 20, 2017
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Paperback
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| 048627263X
| 9780486272634
| 048627263X
| 3.81
| 71,830
| 1884
| Sep 21, 1992
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it was amazing
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“I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around But I couldn't take the punishment and had to settle down Now I'm playing it real straight, and yes, I “I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around But I couldn't take the punishment and had to settle down Now I'm playing it real straight, and yes, I cut my hair You might think I'm crazy, but I don't even care Because I can tell what's going on It's hip to be square” Huey Lewis And The News - Hip To Be Square According to IMDB, several film adaptations have been made of Flatland, but no blockbusting Pixar / DreamWorks extravaganza just yet. If they do make one I can’t imagine a more appropriate theme song than the above Huey Lewis And The News number. Flatland is set in a two-dimensional world and narrated in the first person by a square (or “A Square” as appears on the original edition’s book cover). In the first half of the book Square gives us a tour of his world where women are straight lines and, if you are symmetrical, the more sides you have the better. This means that circles are the elite of this society because they are really polygons with zillions of super tiny sides. Irregular polygons are abominations and isosceles are plebeians. [image] Special laws are applied to women because they are capable of accidentally stabbing people to death due to their pointiness. Use of colours is banned because they can be used as disguises. How these geometric persons move around without legs is deliberately left unexplained (with a bit of "lampshading"). The second half of the book tells the remarkable story of Square’s adventures in lands of different dimensions, one, three and even zero (no trip to the fourth dimension, though; no time, probably). Guided by an enigmatic Sphere who seems to have popped up out of nowhere (and who Square initially mistook to be a circle), these trips to other planes of existence enables Square to not only think outside the box but to introduce him to the existence of boxes. This was a steep learning curve for him but he adapts like a champ and becomes a more rounded individual because of it. [image] Flatland is a very odd novella it is part allegory, part satire, part geometry lessons, part spec fic. I generally avoid reading geometry books because they are full of problems I don’t want to consider (screw the hypotenuse, man!). However, for Flatland I don’t mind making an exception, for once I find the flat characters entirely acceptable and even find the more apparently rounded character to be arrogant and clearly obtuse in their outlook, if not in appearance. The satirical look at the class system makes this all too real issue painfully acute. One thing that blows my mind a bit is that prior to reading the book I visualized it as a story of different geometric shapes moving around going about their business. However, the denizens of the Flatland cannot actually see these different shapes. As the Square (or Edwin Abbott Abbott) mentions early in the book you have to imagine looking at these shapes with your line of sight on the same level as their surface. Mr. Abbott explains it very clearly as follows: “Place a penny on the middle of one of your tables in Space; and leaning over it, look down upon it. It will appear a circle. But now, drawing back to the edge of the table, gradually lower your eye (thus bringing yourself more and more into the condition of the inhabitants of Flatland), and you will find the penny becoming more and more oval to your view, and at last when you have placed your eye exactly on the edge of the table (so that you are, as it were, actually a Flatlander) the penny will then have ceased to appear oval at all, and will have become, so far as you can see, a straight line.” [image] So all they really ever see is straight lines of different lengths, however, they can distinguish the different geometrical shapes by hearing, by touch (done by the working class only), and by sight with the aid of fog for estimating depths (different angles appear to fade differently into fog). In the one-dimensional Lineland everybody looks like a point and sideways movement is impossible; as for the zero-dimensional Pointland, there is only one denizen and he is weird! I really enjoyed Flatland, it is bizarre and thought-provoking; it definitely gave me a new perspective on life. The treatment of women may seem a little sexist but E.A. Abbott is perhaps satirizing sexism rather than perpetuating it. I definitely recommend you read Flatland before you flatline. [image] Notes: • Audiobook credit: Wonderfully read for Librovox (i.e. free) by Ruth Golding. (link) • There are quite a few diagrams scattered over the book, drawn by AbbottX2 himself, they illustrate the geometrical concepts nicely. These should be in all editions as they are intrinsic to the story. • There is one error in the book where Square mentions a cellar: “So I endeavoured to reassure her by some story, invented for the occasion, that I had accidentally fallen through the trap-door of the cellar, and had there lain stunned.”. You can't have a bloody cellar if you only have two dimensions and you can’t “fall through” anything. • Another error (I think) is the existence of cupboards in Flatland. If there is no depth or verticality you can't have cupboards! • The 3D world is called Spaceland, it is not our world. Their most popular singer is probably Britney Sphere. (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) • I initially thought this book was a collaboration between two abbots. [image] Quotes: Yet even in our best regulated and most approximately Circular families I cannot say that the ideal of family life is so high as with you in Spaceland. There is peace, in so far as the absence of slaughter may be called by that name. In a word, to comport oneself with perfect propriety in Polygonal society, one ought to be a Polygon oneself. Such at least is the painful teaching of my experience. Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard. If a man with a triangular front and a polygonal back were allowed to exist and to propagate a still more Irregular posterity, what would become of the arts of life? You, who are blessed with shade as well as light, you, who are gifted with two eyes, endowed with a knowledge of perspective, and charmed with the enjoyment of various colours, you, who can actually SEE an angle, and contemplate the complete circumference of a circle in the happy region of the Three Dimensions—how shall I make clear to you the extreme difficulty which we in Flatland experience in recognizing one another's configuration? [image] Hipster Square ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 21, 2017
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Mar 30, 2017
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Mar 21, 2017
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Paperback
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| 0140436588
| 3.76
| 95,757
| Dec 20, 1819
| Oct 01, 2000
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liked it
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“Hearken,” he (Brian de Bois-Guilbert) said, “Rebecca; I have hitherto spoken mildly to thee, but now my language shall be that of a conqueror. Thou a
“Hearken,” he (Brian de Bois-Guilbert) said, “Rebecca; I have hitherto spoken mildly to thee, but now my language shall be that of a conqueror. Thou art the captive of my bow and spear—subject to my will by the laws of all nations; nor will I abate an inch of my right, or abstain from taking by violence what thou refusest to entreaty or necessity.” “Stand back,” said Rebecca—“which portion of “no” dost thou not comprehend? Kindly desist from thou crapulous Trumpery posthaste!” Some of the above quotes hath indeed been tampered with from Sir Walter Scott’s original text. Apologies to all purists. Honestly, I cannot stand that longwinded de Bois-Guilbert. What a silly bunt (as Eric Idle would say). [image] Brian de Bois-Guilbert and poor Rebecca Took me one month+19 days to read this (audio) book. I would have read it faster if it had been more compelling. but Ivanhoe is not an easy book to read, the olde English dialogue takes getting used to, and while some of it is quite entertaining it often drags, especially when that damned de Bois-Guilbert is delivering his interminable gabble. It is hard to summarize what the novel is about as it is so fragmented. Set in the 12th century the novel (sort of) follows Wilfred Ivanhoe as he returns from the Holy Land after the Third Crusade has ended. He soon entered a jousting tournament and jousted the asses off the other competitors. Ivanhoe wins the tournament but is gravely injured after his foes ganged up on him; fortunately, a mysterious Black Knight shows up to aid him. He is then taken to Rebecca the Jewess. Ivanhoe, his Dad, Rebecca, and others are soon kidnapped by dastardly Norman Maurice de Bracy, a friend of the verbal diarrhea afflicted de Bois-Guilbert. They are taken to Torquilstone, the castle of Front-de-Boeuf (another antagonist). The Black Knight soon comes to the rescue with the help of the sharp shootin’ Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, and many other hipster outlaw types. Many more events follow and await your discovery. [image] The Black Knight (though he retains both arms in this book) OK, now I am going to get medieval on this book. Actually, on reflection, I quite like Ivanhoe, though I was often frustrated when it grinds to a halt (shut up, de Bois-Guilbert!). By the end, I felt it definitely outstayed its welcome. I am surprised we don’t see that much of the eponymous hero, he does not show up until page 50 or so, after his jousting injuries he disappears from the narrative for many pages, only to become active again towards the end. His climactic battle with that damn de Bois-Guilbert is a disappointment and very WTF. [image] Wilfred Sir Walter Scott's prose is a thing pf beauty and I even like the olde English once I got used to it. The story, while fragmented, is good, and not hard to follow. My only complaint is that for a “Romance” (as in “a medieval tale dealing with a hero of chivalry”, not a story of smooches and heartbreaks) it is not very thrilling. Sir Walter does write very good fight scenes but those are too few and far between to effectively liven up the narrative. There is just too much dialogue and that damn de Bois-Guilbert just goes on and on and on, repeating himself in his attempt to get into poor Rebecca’s pants. Apart from him, the characterization is generally very good, I particularly like Wamba the jester, and Robin Hood, especially when he is showing off. The humorous bits work for me but, again, there is too little of them. I can’t really recommend Ivanhoe, personally, I will stick to Alexandre Dumas for medieval badassery. [image][image][image][image][image] Notes: • The Normans and the Saxons have an acrimonious relationship but they agree on one thing, their disdain for the Jews. The most put upon characters in the book. • Richard the Lionheart really lives up to his name, and seems to enjoy ass kicking more than ruling the land. • Audiobook from Librivox, read by various readers, some are pretty good, some are not so good but bearable. Whatchoo want for free, eh? [image][image][image][image][image] Quotes: “I pray thee, uncle,” answered the Jester, “let my folly, for once, protect my roguery. I did but make a mistake between my right hand and my left; and he might have pardoned a greater, who took a fool for his counsellor and guide.” Wamba is the best! “And now,” said Locksley, “I will crave your Grace’s permission to plant such a mark as is used in the North Country; and welcome every brave yeoman who shall try a shot at it to win a smile from the bonny lass he loves best.” “Formed in the best proportions of her sex, Rowena was tall in stature, yet not so much so as to attract observation on account of superior height. Her complexion was exquisitely fair, but the noble cast of her head and features prevented the insipidity which sometimes attaches to fair beauties. Her clear blue eye, which sat enshrined beneath a graceful eyebrow of brown sufficiently marked to give expression to the forehead, seemed capable to kindle as well as melt, to command as well as to beseech.” (etc.) That is the most elaborate description of a woman I have ever seen. “To all true English hearts, and to the confusion of foreign tyrants.” Here is a de Bois-Guilbert special: “No, damsel!” said the proud Templar, springing up, “thou shalt not thus impose on me—if I renounce present fame and future ambition, I renounce it for thy sake, and we will escape in company. Listen to me, Rebecca,” he said, again softening his tone; “England,—Europe,—is not the world. There are spheres in which we may act, ample enough even for my ambition. We will go to Palestine, where Conrade, Marquis of Montserrat, is my friend—a friend free as myself from the doting scruples which fetter our free-born reason—rather with Saladin will we league ourselves, than endure the scorn of the bigots whom we contemn.—I will form new paths to greatness,” he continued, again traversing the room with hasty strides—“Europe shall hear the loud step of him she has driven from her sons!—Not the millions whom her crusaders send to slaughter, can do so much to defend Palestine—not the sabres of the thousands and ten thousands of Saracens can hew their way so deep into that land for which nations are striving, as the strength and policy of me and those brethren, who, in despite of yonder old bigot, will adhere to me in good and evil. Thou shalt be a queen, Rebecca—on Mount Carmel shall we pitch the throne which my valour will gain for you, and I will exchange my long-desired batoon for a sceptre!” STFU! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 02, 2017
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Mar 20, 2017
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Feb 02, 2017
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0553212281
| 9780553212280
| 0553212281
| 4.19
| 241,226
| 1843
| Feb 01, 1983
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really liked it
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“I had always felt aversion to my uncourtly patronymic, and its very common, if not plebeian praenomen.” “It was night, and the rain fell; and falling “I had always felt aversion to my uncourtly patronymic, and its very common, if not plebeian praenomen.” “It was night, and the rain fell; and falling, it was rain, but, having fallen, it was blood. And I stood in the morass among the tall and the rain fell upon my head—and the lilies sighed one unto the other in the solemnity of their desolation.” Say what?? Is it rain or is it blood, or is it a plebeian praenomen? And WTF is a praenomen anyway? Edgar Allan Poe is not the easiest author to get on with. From time to time he lapses into writing weird indecipherable passages like the ones above. People often accuse H.P. Lovecraft of writing purple prose, but Lovecraft has nothing on Poe whose prose is so purple he is probably Prince’s [image] (RIP) favorite author*. Still, the stories in this collection are mostly great if you can get through “the language barrier”. Certainly for Halloween you would be hard pressed to find a better anthology. When professional reviewers review an anthology they don't normally review each story in the book. Fortunately I am not a pro and this is how I like to do it, so here we go: 1. The Tell-Tale Heart One of Poe’s best known stories. Our unreliable narrator decides to kill his granddad because he has an annoyingly weird eye. That is just the beginning of the story, what transpires is literally insane and quite disturbing. [image] 2. The Black Cat Another unnamed psychotic narrator /protagonist kills his pet cat and later his wife. Trouble starts for him when he attempts to kill a second cat. [image] The most violent story in the book, lots of madness, mayhem, and spooky felines. Gives me the willies. An excellent Halloween read. 3. The Cask of Amontillado [image] A story of revenge for unknown offences. Whathisname lures his friendenemy to his creepy wine cellar with the promise of a cask of vintage Amontillado. Interestingly this story seems to have brought Poe back into vogue with the Tumblr generation. The Cask of Amontillado has become a meme! (Thank you, Cecily for the info). 4. Fall of the House of Usher Probably as famous as The Tell-Tale Heart. Quite sane unnamed protagonist visits his almost sane friend Roderick Usher at his creepy creaky and cracked in the middle house, where he lives with his dying sister Madeline. The poor lady soon dies and things go from bad to…. OMG! That ending! [image] Read twice for full effect. Don’t miss hilarious Thug Notes Summary & Analysis of this story (Youtube clip) 5. The Masque of the Red Death One of Poe’s more overtly supernatural stories (most of them seem to be psychological horror). Prince Prospero throws a masquerade ball during a time when the “Red Death” plague has gone more viral than Rick Rolling. Different coloured rooms, a creepy clock that chimes every hour and unfailingly stops all the partiers in their track as they can never get used to it. At midnight, as the party is in full swing, a mysterious hooded figure in a horrible robe and wearing a scary mask gatecrashes… [image] Very spooky. 6. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar “My attention, for the last three years, had been repeatedly drawn to the subject of Mesmerism; and, about nine months ago it occurred to me, quite suddenly, that in the series of experiments made hitherto, there had been a very remarkable and most unaccountable omission:—no person had as yet been mesmerized in articulo mortis.” LOL! Well, that is going to work out well for him – not! Some people just have very strange hobbies. Our unnamed narrator is very much into hypnotism and conducts an experiment on his pal M. Valdemar who is literally at death’s door. The results are unexpected and horrifying. [image] 7. Ligeia A bit of a long-winded ghost story. Opium-fueled hallucination or supernatural shenanigan. You decide! 8. The Murders in the Rue Morgue Aha! Surely you have heard of this one! Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, prototype pre-Holmes ace detective investigates an impossible murder in Paris while mocking the The Parisian police for their lack of imagination. “The Parisian police, so much extolled for acumen, are cunning, but no more. There is no method in their proceedings, beyond the method of the moment.” Inspector Lestrade probably has a cousin working there. There is even a prototype Watson narrating the story, unfortunately he is a Poe narrator so he does not get a name. Dupin is awesome but a very long-winded fellow. His elaborate explanations go on and on and 9. The Purloined Letter Dupin is back! (and he barely just left) “That is another of your odd notions," said the Prefect, who had a fashion of calling every thing "odd" that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of "oddities." ” Burn! A story of a stolen important letter that can be used for blackmail purposes and destroy careers of public figures. It is not very fast-paced and Dupin is even more long-winded here. Excellent denouement, though. Clever stuff and quite entertaining, Dupin’s super long-winded expositions notwithstandiung. [image] The old "look over there!" trick from sneaky Dupin Conan Doyle's tribute to Poe is Holmes dissing Dupin!† 10. A Descent into the Maelström A stunningly boring tale of a whirlpool, it sucked me down its vortex and left me unconscious on my chair for at least 15 minutes. An excellent soporific. In all fairness you may enjoy it, I just find an entire story based on a whirlpool very dull. 11. The Pit and the Pendulum Our unnamed narrator finds himself—quite unexpectedly—in the clutches of the Spanish Inquisition. [image] OK, got that out of my system! Alas, no comfy chair for the poor fellow. More this sort of thing: [image] No sexy girlie to watch over him, though (damn Hollywood!) A fantastic and very visceral story, beautifully constructed and the creepiness builds and builds. You can just about feel the pendulum’s blade swishing over your chest. 12. MS. Found in a Bottle I thought it was going to be about a genie in a bottle, turned out to be a dull ghost ship story. How can a ghost ship story be dull? Poe was so versatile and talented he could do anything; including writing dull ghost ship stories. 13. The Premature Burial A weird story about our unnamed narrator’s obsession with being buried alive by mistake. The narrative starts with Whathisname regaling the readers with documented cases of people being buried in error when they were still alive. The narrator suffers from a rare (of course) disorder that puts him into a state of death-like catalepsy. So his biggest fear is becoming cataleptic in places where he is not known, he imagines that he may one day wake up to find himself six feet under, struggling to get out. [image] (not a spoiler) Great story! 14. William Wilson A bizarre Twilight Zone-ish story. I did not like it to begin with, as Poe was rambling again earlier on, but I quickly changed my mind when weirdness ensues. A strange, possibly allegorical story of a doppelganger. Supernatural or psychological? Again, you decide! I tend to favor the supernatural explanation because that is the kind of guy I am! 15. Eleonora A fable with an unexpected non-twist. WTF? LOL! Poe got me there, I find it kind of hilarious when I got to the end (not sure if that is the effect Poe has in mind). 16. Silence - A Fable Mine eyes glazed over this story from beginning to end, and I can’t really tell you anything about it. Read my friend Glenn's erudite review of this story instead. 17. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket This is Poe’s only full length novel. I have not read it yet, I am sorry to say. I suspect Poe – like Lovecraft - is better in small doses. I may get around to it one day. You will be the first to know (well, top ten at least!) [image][image][image][image][image][image] As mentioned earlier Poe prose is sometimes hard to read, or even downright impenetrable. He often starts his stories with pages of rambling to set the scene to his stories. Fortunately, the stories often take wing after he is done setting the scene. Occasionally that does not happen and he just rambles on until the end. At his best, his stories are fascinating and often horrifying. The images that his best stories conjure up are indelible in my mind. Better still, the very best ones can be read again and again; sometimes even immediately after having just read them. It is all too easy to miss details on the first read because his prose is often convoluted> However, rereading these stories often yields greater understanding and appreciation. [image][image][image][image][image][image] * He is a much better prose stylist then Lovecraft, though. Poe is naturally eloquent whereas I feel Lovecraft tries too hard and often end up with verbiage. I have not reviewed the poems in this book because I have not yet read them (except The Raven, which is awesome). I don’t think I should attempt reviewing poems, I will leave that to my friend Cecily. [image][image][image][image][image][image] Spooky Quotes: “It was not a groan of pain or of grief—oh, no!—it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe.” “That perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart—one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?” “He who has never swooned, is not he who finds strange palaces and wildly familiar faces in coals that glow; is not he who beholds floating in mid-air the sad visions that the many may not view; is not he who ponders over the perfume of some novel flower—is not he whose brain grows bewildered with the meaning of some musical cadence which has never before arrested his attention.” (WTF?) † External quote: Sherlock Holmes dissing Dupin: “No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin,” he observed. “Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends’ thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour’s silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine.” From A Study In Scarlet ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 16, 2016
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Oct 21, 2016
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Oct 21, 2016
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 0140439242
| 9780140439243
| B01BITA736
| 3.99
| 77,858
| Jan 01, 1845
| Jan 01, 2003
|
really liked it
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Parbleu! Morbleu! Corboeuf! Ma foi! Mordioux! Not to mention Cordieu! (I think they are variations of OMG). I usually prefer to know as little as possi Parbleu! Morbleu! Corboeuf! Ma foi! Mordioux! Not to mention Cordieu! (I think they are variations of OMG). I usually prefer to know as little as possible about the book I am about to read, including avoid reading the synopsis, or if I have read the synopsis in order to decide whether to read the book I try to forget it (and do very well in the forgetting department, there is a character in this book called M. Fouquet, a name I would like to adopt for future social media shenanigans). Anyway, sometimes this policy backfires. I thought The Man in the Iron Mask was the final volume of The D'Artagnan Romances, alas I was only one third right, The Man in the Iron Mask is the final part of a much longer book, The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. However, it is the best known part and published in the UK separately as a separate book. This means that I missed out on quite a lot of backstory and plot developments. Fortunately, The Man in the Iron Mask can be read without much difficulty outside of its parent book. You should, however, at least read The Three Musketeers first. Anyway, by the time I realized my mistake I was already well into the book and I didn’t feel like backtracking. The Man in the Iron Mask is set thirty-five years after The Three Musketeers. In that first book of The D'Artagnan Romances, D’Artagnan was something of a young cocky upstart musketeer, in this book he is in his fifties and the renowned captain of the king's musketeers. His three ex-musketeer BFFs, Aramis, Porthos and Athos, are also of advancing years and living lives of luxury. None of these three are working for King Louis XIV, not having much of a taste for this king who—from his playboy-like behavior—seems unworthy of their services and loyalty. In fact, Aramis is so unimpressed that he elaborately plots to replace Louise with his identical twin brother Philippe, his plan goes smoothly up to a point, the king is put in prison at Bastille and secretly replaced with Philippe. Unfortunately, he then makes the fatal error of confiding in Superintendent M. Fouquet, who, as a [image] Looking like You may be thinking I am spoiling the book terribly with the above summary but The Man in the Iron Mask is so densely plotted I have barely scratched the surface of the entire plot. It is not surprising that Dumas was so popular and remains so to this day, the man really knew how to write a fast pace narrative when he wants to, this book is stuffed to the gills with action and intrigues. The scene of D’Artagnan chasing M. Fouquet on horseback is particularly hair-raising, and the conclusion of the chase confounded my expectations. There are several other scenes of similar intensity, but, for me, this one is the most badass. Dumas’ skill with character development is remarkable. His main characters are all lively, vibrant and believable. Of the original three musketeers the only real mover and shaker is Aramis, who is too clever and ambitious for his own good. His ingenious subterfuges and elaborate schemes are both audacious and hilarious in execution. Porthos is his lovable, not too bright, faithful sidekick who follows him blindly to his own detriment; as for Athos, he does not have much to do in the narrative except growing old and sad. The series’ hero, D’Artagnan, is loyal to the king to a fault, he would carry out the king's orders even if he knows them to be wrong and that innocents will suffer. However, he finally draws the line at killing any of his Three Musketeers friends. The Man in the Iron Mask is much darker in tone than The Three Musketeers. Several good characters come to a bad end through no fault of their own. Philippe’s fate is particularly miserable (though there is no real evidence that the real historical mysterious Man in the Iron Mask is in anyway related to the king). While the book is a great read, I believe it suffers a bit from being serialized. As authors of serialized books are paid by the word it often cause them to overwrite (hello Mr. Dickens!). Dumas overwrote some parts which drag on unnecessarily, and some of the subplots do not really go anywhere, and have little relationship to the main storyline. Still, the book kept my interest throughout. The writing is a thing of beauty though the dialogue is over elaborate at times. It has been decades since I read The Three Musketeers (this is my first reading of The Man in the Iron Mask) and it makes me want to reread it soon. [image] Notes: • Fabulous Librivox free audio book, read by Mark F. Smith. Amazing job! Different character voices, and narrated with plenty of passion and enthusiasm. Thank you so much! • I always thought the title of The Three Musketeers was something of a misnomer, as the book was about four of them; though it could be argued that it is really about D'Artagnan’s encounter and friendship with them. However, The Man in the Iron Mask is even more of a misnomer because the eponymous Man (poor Phillippe) is barely in the narrative, and by the second half of the book Dumas seems to have lost interest in him. I have no idea who to credit for the translation of this public domain edition. It seems very good in term of conveying the story, whether it is a good translation of Dumas’ original text I am not in a position to evaluate. [image] Quotes: “Then if you wish me to tell what crime I have committed, explain to me in what a crime consists. For as my conscience does not accuse me, I aver that I am not a criminal.” “M. Mouston, whose personal corpulency, quite enough at any time to hide one man from another, was effectually doubled by a scarlet coat which the intendant was holding up for his master's inspection, by the sleeves, that he might the better see it all over.” “D'Artagnan recoiled, as though the sesquipedalian syllables had knocked the breath out of his body.” [image] Driven insane by his undeserved incarceration, Philippe sayz "Come On Feel The Noize!" ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 18, 2016
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Nov 06, 2016
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Sep 18, 2016
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Unknown Binding
| ||||||||||||||
| 0517189607
| 9780517189603
| 0517189607
| 4.16
| 1,202,515
| Aug 1911
| Sep 01, 1998
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it was amazing
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“The cholera had broken out in its most fatal form and people were dying like flies.” There, is a cheery start to one of the most optimistic novels I h “The cholera had broken out in its most fatal form and people were dying like flies.” There, is a cheery start to one of the most optimistic novels I have ever read. Occasionally I pick a Librivox audiobook book based on who the reader is, for this version of The Secret Garden, it is read by Karen Savage, one of the few professional level readers who have graciously narrated entire books for Librivox’s public domain audiobooks. Listen to a sample and you will understand. I didn’t really know anything about The Secret Garden, the title did ring a bell but I had no idea what it is about. I was hoping it is a garden where weirdness ensues and corpses pile up, perhaps with a trowel embedded. Alas, no, quite the opposite really. Had I known that it is a children’s book I would not have read it, but by the time shockingly nice things happen I was already under the book’s—and Karen Savage’s—spell. I was thinking “looks like I’m in for a nice time, oh dear”. Like a lot of people today I am somewhat cynical, I think you would have to be insane to think the world is a particularly nice place to live in at the moment. Still, that is what escapism through fiction is all about. So, OK, I’m game, just let me put these on. [image] That’s better! In this wonderful world that we live in there are often delightful surprises, discount coupons for our favorite snacks, gift cards, terrific free audiobooks etc. (I’ve run out of examples). The Secret Garden is about that, if you look at life with a kind eye and optimism, you will surprise at what the universe will give back to you (especially if you have the glasses I’m wearing). At the beginning of The Secret Garden ten-year-old Mary Lennox is living with her mother in India, lording over the poor natives. One fine morning she wakes to find everybody in her house either dead from cholera or gone off to look for some places without quite so much cholera in them. Fortunately, some British soldiers pick her up and she is soon transported to her uncle’s isolated mansion called Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire, pre-Brexit UK. Little Mary is sometimes called “Mistress Mary Quite Contrary” because in those bygone days the term “pain in the ass” has yet to be coined. She basically hates everybody she comes across, mostly due to parental neglect. “Perhaps if her mother had carried her pretty face and her pretty manners oftener into the nursery Mary might have learned some pretty ways too” [image] However, she soon finds the lovely clean air of Yorkshire agrees with her, and a nice maid gives her a skipping rope which is “th' sensiblest toy a child can have”. She soon begins to mellow and even find that some people are not so bad. “I like you, and you make the fifth person. I never thought I should like five people.”. One day when Mary Less-Contrary-Than-Before is skipping around she finds the eponymous locked up secret garden and a little robin helps her finds the key, because that is what robins do. Mary is enchanted by the neglected garden, she sees all sorts of possibilities in it, [image] As someone who is not keen on gardening (I just don’t dig ‘em) I had to suspend my disbelief that pottering and frolicking about a garden can bring so many psychological and health benefits. Colin is introduced as an invalid and Mary’s secret garden project turns out to be just what the doctor failed to order. If you are a fan of this book you may get the impression that I am mocking it in my 21st century cynical ways, but really I am not. I am quite charmed by the “magical realism” of this book with its semi-Disneyesque animals psychic-linked to Dikon, subtly supernatural goings on, and kids slowly recovering their health and humanity. What’s not to like? It is all very nice and the ending is very pat (if somewhat abrupt) but I don’t need to be a cynic 24/7. [image] My favorite aspect of The Secret Garden is what George Eliot describes as “unfolding of the soul” in Silas Marner. It is a wonderful thing when you see it in real life, in fiction—when it is effectively depicted—it can be quite moving and even inspirational. I like how Mary learns to get on and even like people through receiving their kindness and how Colin finds his humanity through making a friend and getting some fresh air. If I was a hypochondriac the idea of gardening would not appeal to me, but I am not a character in this book and I am glad gardening has this therapeutic effect for them. Finally, I ought to say something about Frances Hodgson Burnett's writing; this is my first experience of it. It is not high literature like Dickens or Austen, but it is a thing of beauty. Deceptively simple yet full of charm, warmth, sincerity and even goodwill to all man. The Yorkshire dialect in some of the dialogue is delightfully written and the meaning is never obscured (some of the harder to guess ones are directly explained). Her style is clearly not for the hardcore cynic, but then if you are a hardcore cynic perhaps you should give it a rest. Do I recommend this book? Of course I do, either read it or go run about in the sun, it will do you a world of good! _____________________ Note: There is an abridged audiobook version* read by nonother than the time traveling and very lovely Jenna Coleman, I have that version too. Our [image] *A copy of this review has been automatically mirrored there by the GR Gremlin. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 07, 2016
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Sep 16, 2016
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Sep 16, 2016
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0375761144
| 9780375761140
| 0375761144
| 4.09
| 29,997
| Nov 1865
| Sep 10, 2002
|
it was amazing
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“No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.” I have certainly been looking at Our Mutual Friend on my TB “No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.” I have certainly been looking at Our Mutual Friend on my TBR shelf for years. He kept shaking my fist at it, muttering “One day, damn you! One day!” Started July 5th, finished August 20th, that is almost two months. It took so long because it is over 800 pages in length, and I read it mostly it in audiobook format. On my commutes to work, which means no progress most weekends. Towards the end of the book, I also started playing Pokemon Go on the bus so that caused further delays. Our Mutual Friend is epic in length but smallish in scale. Unlike most of Dickens’ novels, it does not—for the most part—have an obvious protagonist but several central characters that the narrative switches between. That is, until the last third of the book that I realized it is John Rokesmith’s story more than anybody else’s. I suppose the fact that he is the eponymous “mutual friend”—as indicated by Mr. Boffin early in the book—should have clued me in! John Rokesmith is the secretary of Mr. Boffin, a former servant of a rich miser who inherited his master’s wealth upon the man’s death, his only son having apparently drowned en route back from overseas. Mr. Boffin starts off the book as an extremely amiable chappie, one of Dickens’ colorful, comical and vivid characters. [image] Noddy Boffin Unfortunately, he is soon to be seen completely corrupted by wealth and—in an amazing 180 ° personality shift of “Jekyll & Hyde” proportions—becomes something of a beastly scumbag*. His secretary, on the other hand, is the novel’s moral centre and becomes the brunt of beastly Boffin’s abuses and accusations. In contrast to Mr. Boffin, another potential protagonist Lizzie Hexam, appears to be completely incorruptible and not in the least tempted by wealth if the opportunity seems to go against her moral conviction. Lizzie is one of Dickens’ stock impossibly angelic female characters, but damn if he doesn’t always manage to make them all quite lovable in spite of being too good to be true. [image] Lizzie Hexam The plotline of Our Mutual Friend is not possible to outline succinctly, it is quite densely plotted, full of mysteries, twists and turns; not to mention laughs. The central theme, however, is the effect of wealth. How it can corrupt even decent people; but also how it can not corrupt people with moral fortitude. A similar theme is the effect of love, depending on whether love is selfish or selfless it can also corrupt or redeem. Bradley Headstone is introduced to the readers as a hard working schoolmaster but later on an unrequited love turns him into a scheming psychopath. On the other hand, Mr. Eugene Wrayburn, a handsome, roguish, insolent (not to mention uppity!) young barrister, is redeemed by the love of a good woman. If all this sounds terribly serious Our Mutual Friend is actually often very funny. One of the reasons I often return to read Dickens is that he always populates his books with colorful, eccentric and often hilarious characters. Top prize for the most colorful character in this book goes to Jenny Wren, a dolls’ dressmaker. She is crippled with a bad back, and walks with the aid of a stick but is always of a sunny disposition and treats practically every man she meets like an imbecile. She is also one of the book’s most perceptive characters and nobody seems to be able to the better of her. [image] Jenny Wren Also very memorable is the aforementioned Boffin, whether he is good or evil, he is never less than entertaining. There is also the even more villainous Silas Wegg, ballad merchant extraordinaire, with a wooden leg, and “Fascination Fledgeby” who really lives up to his name; a man with any redeemable quality but is still almost sympathetic because he does get the stuffing beaten out of him and almost literally gets salt rubbed in his wounds afterward. There are numerous other interesting characters, but I don’t want to spend all day writing this review, and you would have much more fun discovering them for yourself. At more than 800 pages I would say Dickens-once again-overwrote. However, as he published his novels in monthly installments in magazines the length is understandable. Also, unlike Victor Hugo’s catatonia-inducing expositions about the Paris sewage system and whatnot in Les Misérables, Dickens does nor over indulge with the “TMI” expositions. Our Mutual Friend is always readable and I never felt any urge to skip even one paragraph. I have recommended every Dickens’ book I review, this one is no different. It may not be as much fun as Pokemon Go but probably more rewarding _______________ Notes: * Boffin’s sudden 180° moral change did initially seem more like a plot device than a realistic character development, but it eventually makes sense, and even kind of hilarious. • Audiobook credit: Another excellent professional-level narration by Mil Nicholson. Thank you! • Thank you Shmoop for their helpful notes, though Our Mutual Friend is not as hard to read as they mention; no harder than any of the Dickens books I read so far. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 05, 2016
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Aug 20, 2016
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Jul 05, 2016
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 039460430X
| 9780394604305
| 039460430X
| 3.50
| 128,570
| 1928
| Jun 12, 1983
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liked it
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Idle: Is, uh,...Is your wife a goer, eh? Know whatahmean, know whatahmean, nudge nudge, know whatahmean, say no more? Jones: I, uh, I beg your pardon? I Idle: Is, uh,...Is your wife a goer, eh? Know whatahmean, know whatahmean, nudge nudge, know whatahmean, say no more? Jones: I, uh, I beg your pardon? Idle: Your, uh, your wife, does she go, eh, does she go, eh? Jones: Well, she sometimes 'goes', yes. Idle: I bet she does, I bet she does, say no more, say no more, know whatahmean, nudge nudge? - Monty Python’s “Nudge Nudge” sketch [image] Why did I just quote that? I don’t know, it seems oddly appropriate somehow (but probably isn’t!) From its reputation, I was half expecting Lady Chatterley's Lover to be wall-to-wall sex. As it happened this is not the case, floors and beds are sometimes included in the configuration—nudge nudge! Well, OK, not really, if you are looking for “porn-fic” from this novel you had better look elsewhere*. I would not know where to direct you, though. As always, Google is your friend! D. H. Lawrence was a serious novelist, I am not even sure he had a sense of humour**. The last thing he would do is write a salacious novel to titillate the masses. My only other experience of his fiction is the beautiful and moving Sons and Lovers, a moving portrayal of a mother and son relationship, with myriad relatable themes. Lady Chatterley's Lover is equally serious, packed to the gills with Lawrence’s ideological messages. The basic plot is very straight forward, Constance is married to invalid aristocrat Clifford Chatterley, who was injured and became paralyzed during the Great War. Unfortunately, the paralysis seems to have spread to his humanity also. This is very depressing for Lady Constance Chatterley who finds her married life entirely devoid of warmth or happiness. She has a brief fling with a German boy whose wurst turns out to be unsatisfactory and also dies unexpectedly, then she has an affair with Michaelis, an Irish playwright, and an aristocrat wannabe. This ends when Connie finds that she can not love him. Eventually, she meets the real love of her life, gamekeeper Oliver Mellors who is rather plebian but has a heart of gold. So begins their affairs and several scenes of these two famously having it off. Of course, one day the cat gets out of the bag… Unlike Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley's Lover does not resonate much with me. I cannot relate to any of the characters. Connie—when fully clothed— spends most of the time fretting, feeling sorry for herself. Sir Clifford is entirely unsympathetic and unfeeling, and Oliver Mellors, like Connie, is always moping when he is in a vertical position. The sex is portrayed as something rather silly and awkward. As for the aforementioned ideological messages, Lawrence has plenty to say about the class system, intellectuality vs. passion and the battle of the sexes, but I cannot relate to the characters and their plight so I don’t have a feel for the nuances. For me, Lady Chatterley's Lover is readable but a little bit of a chore to get through. I don’t care for the characters and the plot is just not interesting enough, it seems the nuances are more important than the plot. There are a lot of rambling narration and dialogue which is only made more bearable by the audio format (easier to zone out or just doze off until something interesting happen). I can’t exactly recommend the book but if you are particularly curious about it, it is not too hard to get through. Of course, you may like it a lot more than I do, it just is not up my street, not even in the same time zone. ______________________________ * I was expecting to write “More like Lady Shaggerty, nudge nudge!” Alas, no. ** I think Sons and Lovers may have some funny bits but I don’t really remember! Notes: • Free Audiobook read by Jan McLaughlin. Quite nicely read on the whole, some strange pauses during the first couple of chapters but she seems to settle down after a while. Anyway, I am very grateful for her effort. The whole audiobook in one ZIP file can be downloaded here. • I am not really into Lady Chatterley's Lover but I am interested to read more from D.H. Lawrence, he does write very nice prose. Next time I’ll check out the synopsis first. Quotes: “It would be wonderful to be intelligent: then one would be alive in all the parts mentioned and unmentionable. The penis rouses his head and says: How do you do?--to any really intelligent person. Renoir said he painted his pictures with his penis...he did too, lovely pictures!” 'All the darned women are like that,' he said. 'Either they don't go off at all, as if they were dead in there...or else they wait till a chap's really done, and then they start in to bring themselves off, and a chap's got to hang on. I never had a woman yet who went off just at the same moment as I did.' “A woman wants you to like her and talk to her, and at the same time love her and desire her; and it seems to me the two things are mutually exclusive.” ...more |
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1
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May 23, 2016
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Jun 05, 2016
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May 23, 2016
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Hardcover
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| 3.91
| 230,571
| 1852
| Aug 05, 1999
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really liked it
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I jist done readin thar book, why, Mas’r, it don’t make no sense to me. Why a man get treated like a dog by another man and the law is all right with
I jist done readin thar book, why, Mas’r, it don’t make no sense to me. Why a man get treated like a dog by another man and the law is all right with that? I knoe it dont mean nuthin now we is all civilased with iPads and lor knows what, but whar was it ever OK? Slave narratives are morbidly fascinating to me, it amazes me that slavery was ever “a thing” in civilized countries. Uncle Tom's Cabin tells the story of a faithful, kind and extremely pious “Uncle Tom” and several characters associated with him. At the beginning of the book, Tom is one of the more fortunate slaves working for the very kind Shelby family who treat their slaves as human beings. Unfortunately, the head of the family, Arthur Shelby, is considerably less kind than his wife and son and one day decides to sell Tom, Eliza (a pretty slave girl), and Eliza’s young son Harry, to a slave trader. Eliza makes a run for it, taking her son with her, but Tom—incredibly pious man that he is—stays put and meekly goes with the slave trader. During his voyage with the slave trader down the Mississippi River Tom lucks out again and meets Augustine St. Clare, a very kind man traveling with his angelic little daughter Eva. Augustine buys Tom and takes him to his home in New Orleans where Tom lives happily for a couple of years, and is promised his freedom by Augustine. Before the emancipation could happen, however, Tom’s luck runs out. Augustine dies and Tom is sold again—in an auction—by the nasty Mrs. Marie St. Clare. This time, he is bought by the irredeemably evil plantation owner named Simon Legree, leading to the most harrowing part of the book. Besides being fascinating Uncle Tom's Cabin is also harrowing, disturbing and heartbreaking. This is one of the most historically significant slave narratives ever, it played a major part in helping to bring about the abolition of slavery in the US. It reminds me of the TV adaptation of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the more recent film adaptation of Twelve Years a Slave. I have not read either of these books, though I found the TV series and the film very moving. The only other slave narrative I have read is Octavia Butler’s beautiful, harrowing and heartbreaking novel Kindred. What these narratives have in common is the shocking portrayal of an era when people are so unenlightened as to treat fellow human beings as mere tools; buying and selling them like animals, splitting up families, in order to sell the individual members as separate items. The slave traders put a price tag on the slaves on the basis of their physical attributes. One thought kept occurring to me, “why was this ever OK?”. OK, in the sense of "sanctioned by law", with certificates of "ownership" and everything, so the people can legitimately own what they could not possibly own; human beings are "unownable". The book is not wall to wall “man’s inhumanity to man” however, Harriet Beecher Stowe put in some lighter moments to balance the grimness of the story. Still, the lighter moments are overwhelmed by the tragic lives of the enslaved characters. Besides being a slave narrative Uncle Tom's Cabin also clearly belongs to the Christian fiction genre. Any atheist reading this book to find out more about slavery in the nineteenth century America is likely to be put off by the Christian piety which underpins just about every page of the book. There are even scenes which verges on the miraculous or divine intervention. The book’s religiosity doesn’t bother me at all but I think it is fair warning for potential readers looking for a more secular narrative. The characters are very vividly drawn but the eponymous Tom, and the spooky little girl, Eva St. Clare, are too Christ-like to be entirely believable. In any case Uncle Tom's Cabin, as a novel, is very readable, there is not a dull moment and Harriet Beecher Stowe knew what buttons to push to connect with the readers on an emotional level. However, the novel is literally “preachy” in many places—not to mention sentimental and melodramatic. If you are OK with all that then the book is highly recommended. ______________________ Notes: • Audiobook credit: Free Librivox audiobook of Uncle Tom's Cabin, brilliantly read by Mr. John Greenman. Thank you! • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is, in some ways, a slave narrative, and as it is a Mark Twain book you don't have to worry about overwhelming piety! • For some reason, the name “Uncle Tom” has become a derogatory term to suggest “a subservient fool who bows down to the white man”. This is not how Tom is portrayed in the novel at all, he meekly accepts abuses aimed at himself, but draws the line at being ordered to abuse other slaves. (view spoiler)[He literally stands up for his fellow slaves until his last breath. (hide spoiler)] (Thanks for the tip Kevin!) • There is a pro-slavery genre called Anti-Tom literature written by authors in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's book. According to Wikipedia there are more than twenty books of this kind, they generally portray slavery as beneficial for the African Americans who will come a cropper without the white man's supervision. I don't know what these authors are smoking but I don't want any! ______________________ Quotes: “These critters ain't like white folks, you know; they gets over things, only manage right. Now, they say," said Haley, assuming a candid and confidential air, "that this kind o' trade is hardening to the feelings; but I never found it so. Fact is, I never could do things up the way some fellers manage the business. I've seen 'em as would pull a woman's child out of her arms, and set him up to sell, and she screechin' like mad all the time;—very bad policy—damages the article—makes 'em quite unfit for service sometimes.” “He was possessed of a handsome person and pleasing manners, and was a general favorite in the factory. Nevertheless, as this young man was in the eye of the law not a man, but a thing, all these superior qualifications were subject to the control of a vulgar, narrow-minded, tyrannical master. ” “That is to say, the Lord made 'em men, and it's a hard squeeze gettin 'em down into beasts” “For, sir, he was a man,—and you are but another man. And, woman, though dressed in silk and jewels, you are but a woman, and, in life's great straits and mighty griefs, ye feel but one sorrow!” “I defy anybody on earth to read our slave-code, as it stands in our law-books, and make anything else of it. Talk of the abuses of slavery! Humbug! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse! And the only reason why the land don't sink under it, like Sodom and Gomorrah, is because it is used in a way infinitely better than it is. For pity's sake, for shame's sake, because we are men born of women, and not savage beasts, many of us do not, and dare not,—we would scorn to use the full power which our savage laws put into our hands. And he who goes the furthest, and does the worst, only uses within limits the power that the law gives him.” “Why, because my brother Quashy is ignorant and weak, and I am intelligent and strong,—because I know how, and can do it,—therefore, I may steal all he has, keep it, and give him only such and so much as suits my fancy. Whatever is too hard, too dirty, too disagreeable, for me, I may set Quashy to doing. Because I don't like work, Quashy shall work. Because the sun burns me, Quashy shall stay in the sun. Quashy shall earn the money, and I will spend it. Quashy shall lie down in every puddle, that I may walk over dry-shod. Quashy shall do my will, and not his, all the days of his mortal life, and have such chance of getting to heaven, at last, as I find convenient.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 17, 2016
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May 10, 2016
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Apr 17, 2016
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Paperback
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| 0140183523
| 9780140183528
| 0140183523
| 3.70
| 38,274
| Oct 1901
| 1981
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liked it
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“We'd go down to the river And into the river we'd dive Oh down to the river we'd ride” That’s Bruce Springsteen, not Rudyard Kipling. All the mentions “We'd go down to the river And into the river we'd dive Oh down to the river we'd ride” That’s Bruce Springsteen, not Rudyard Kipling. All the mentions of The River just reminds me of this song. So Kim is all about the adventures of a young Irish boy, Kimball O'Hara, in British colonial India. Kim starts off as a Tom Sawyer-ish, or Bart Simpson-esq, little scamp. One day he encounters an elderly Tibetan Lama and volunteers to become his disciple in order to go adventuring on the monk’s pilgrimage in his quest for the mystical River of the Arrow. En route he encounters British, Russian and French spies, and decides to become one himself (for the Brits of course); to participate in “the Great Game” (of espionage). Ooh, I dunno about this. I like the colorful characters of Kim, the Lama, and the various spies. I am particularly intrigued by the Lama, is he a true mystic or just an old loony? I really like the cosmic and somewhat ambiguous ending, it’s like, totally Woodstock man! My slight problem with Kim, the book, not the character, is that—as a Boy’s Own adventure—it’s a bit boring really. Sorry. The espionage side of it really falls flat for me. I was not expecting Kim to order martinis, shaken but not stirred, race around in a Ferrari that morphs into a submarine, or have it off with tons of supermodelly girls in formal gowns. No, I did not expect all that, but what I did get was not all that (apologies to my grammar sensei, Cecily, for this appalling sentence). As a spy thriller Kim just did not thrill me, my eyebrows remain disappointingly unelevated throughout. On the other hand, the philosophical side of Kim is very interesting. His crisis of identity and his eventual coming to terms with his duality is thought provoking stuff. I also admire how Kipling portrays the Lama’s pacifist nature and his vague mystical ramblings are interesting and often humorous. His angst at almost wanting to punch someone is adorable. At the end of the day, on the whole, when push comes to shove, to cut a long story short, without beating around the bush, or barking up the wrong tree, or cutting off my nose to spite my face, I kinda like this book. I think. ______________________ Note Librivox Audiobook very nicely read by Adrian Praetzellis. Thank you! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 07, 2016
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Mar 17, 2016
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Mar 16, 2016
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 1585678759
| 9781585678754
| 1585678759
| 4.06
| 44,138
| May 01, 1919
| May 10, 2007
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it was amazing
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What ho! This Goodreads review lark is a rummy thing. Here I sit, drinking buckets of tea, that indispensable tissue restorative, waiting for the old
What ho! This Goodreads review lark is a rummy thing. Here I sit, drinking buckets of tea, that indispensable tissue restorative, waiting for the old muse to come up with something, squeezing the old bean until it turns purple, and the blighted screen remains stubbornly blank. What is a frightful chump like me to do? How interesting it must be to be one of those animal-trainer Johnnies: to stimulate the dawning intelligence, and that sort of thing. [image] Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, best portrayal of J&W ever. OK, if I keep that sort of faux-Wodehouse business up the old bean will surely explode—or possibly implode. Still, one must endeavor to give satisfaction and all that sort of rot. It’s been many years since I read a Wodehouse book, there was a time when I could not get enough of them. Unfortunately if you read to many of them one after the other they do tend to seem very similar and the magic fades. Better to not over indulge, don’t you know. P.G. Wodehouse’s books are kind of magical, though, there is never any substance to them that I can discern, no moral lessons or in-depth exploration of the human condition. They are just fun and astonishingly written. Wodehouse wrote several series of books, but the most popular one by far is clearly the “Jeeves and Wooster” series. Fortunately, quite a few of Wodehouse’s books are in the public domain including My Man Jeeves. My Man Jeeves is a collection of eight short stories, half of them featuring Jeeves and Wooster, the others feature Reggie Pepper, one of Wodehouse’s less well known (and less funny) protagonists. In any event, none of the stories fail to raise a smile or the odd chuckles. I don’t expect to split my sides reading a Wodehouse book, his humour is not in the style of Douglas Adams or Monty Python, though he may have been an inspiration for both of them. It is enough that his stories are “extremely diverting”, uplifting, and it is wonderful just to soak up the language, don’t you know. It has been said—by some literary Johnnies—that Wodehouse did not simply write but orchestrated the English language. Who am I to argue with these brainy blighters? All the stories are about helping a friend out of a difficult situation, usually disinheritance; and they tend to involve deception, stealing or a harebrained scheme of some kind. If the scheme is Jeeves’ it usually works, sometimes with unexpected results, if it is anybody else’s they go pear-shaped—landing the schemer “in the soup”. Reggie Pepper—like Bertie Wooster—is a “gentleman of leisure”, living off an inheritance and spends all his time amusing himself. Reggie is a little bit brighter than Bertie and also has a butler called Voules, who speaks like Jeeves but is not nearly as intelligent or concerned about his employer’s wellbeing. Reggie’s schemes for helping his friends always go awry. The most memorable one is when he kidnaps a child in order for his friend to present said child back to his cute auntie, and be regarded as a hero. It transpires that the child is not related to the girl at all. The Jeeves and Wooster stories are all set in New York, where Bertie is on the run from his irate Aunt Agatha. My favorite of the four stories is “The Aunt and the Sluggard” which involves his friend Rocky Todd and Rocky’s formidable aunt. Bertie has to pretend that Rocky owns his flat which results in his being evicted from his own residence by the aunt who takes an immediate dislike to him: “The aunt took the chair which I'd forgotten to offer her. She looked at me in rather a rummy way. It was a nasty look. It made me feel as if I were something the dog had brought in and intended to bury later on, when he had time. My own Aunt Agatha, back in England, has looked at me in exactly the same way many a time, and it never fails to make my spine curl.” When I review a short story collection I usually write a brief note for each individual story. Not this time, old scout, the stories tend to be fairly similar. “The cases are in some respects parallel, sir”, as Jeeves would say. They are all pretty much top-hole. If you are feeling down and need cheering up it occurs to me that reading My Man Jeeves might prove efficacious. Toodle-oo! [image] Note: Librivox audiobook read by Mark Nelson, an American chappie, don’t you know, but he did a corking job. American accent for all the British characters notwithstanding, but narrated with plenty of vim! Quotes: Wodehouse is one of the most quotable authors ever. Here are some of my favorites from this book: Thick Bertie “I'm a bit short on brain myself; the old bean would appear to have been constructed more for ornament than for use, don't you know.” Superhero Jeeves “He's like one of those weird chappies in India who dissolve themselves into thin air and nip through space in a sort of disembodied way and assemble the parts again just where they want them.” “He flowed silently out of the room—he always gives you the impression of being some liquid substance when he moves.” Jeeves’ enigmatic smile “Jeeves smiled paternally. Or, rather, he had a kind of paternal muscular spasm about the mouth, which is the nearest he ever gets to smiling.” Reggie Pepper “A fellow who may have been a perfect knight-errant to a girl when he was engaged to her, doesn't feel nearly so keen on spreading himself in that direction when she has given him the miss-in-baulk, and gone and married a man who reason and instinct both tell him is a decided blighter.” [image] ...more |
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Feb 22, 2016
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Feb 26, 2016
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Feb 25, 2016
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Hardcover
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my rating |
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| 4.21
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really liked it
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Jul 09, 2018
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Jul 09, 2018
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| 3.78
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really liked it
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Jan 15, 2018
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Jan 30, 2018
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| 3.86
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liked it
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Oct 20, 2017
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Oct 21, 2017
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| 3.88
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really liked it
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Oct 12, 2017
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Oct 12, 2017
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| 4.08
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it was amazing
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Oct 2017
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Oct 11, 2017
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| 3.96
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really liked it
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Oct 2017
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Oct 05, 2017
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| 4.20
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it was amazing
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not set
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Sep 14, 2017
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| 3.89
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really liked it
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Jul 06, 2017
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Jun 06, 2017
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| 4.03
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really liked it
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Jun 06, 2017
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Jun 06, 2017
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| 4.31
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it was amazing
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May 20, 2017
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May 20, 2017
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| 3.81
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it was amazing
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Mar 30, 2017
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Mar 21, 2017
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| 3.76
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liked it
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Mar 20, 2017
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Feb 02, 2017
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| 4.19
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really liked it
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Oct 21, 2016
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Oct 21, 2016
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| 3.99
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really liked it
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Nov 06, 2016
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Sep 18, 2016
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| 4.16
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it was amazing
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Sep 16, 2016
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Sep 16, 2016
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| 4.09
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it was amazing
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Aug 20, 2016
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Jul 05, 2016
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| 3.50
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liked it
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Jun 05, 2016
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May 23, 2016
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| 3.91
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really liked it
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May 10, 2016
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Apr 17, 2016
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| 3.70
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liked it
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Mar 17, 2016
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Mar 16, 2016
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| 4.06
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it was amazing
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Feb 26, 2016
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Feb 25, 2016
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