Around the World in Eighty Days

I have never had the chance to read something by Jules Verne, though he is the only author one friend of mine will even try to read. Finally, I saw a lovely little copy in one of the Barnes and Noble classics that are small enough to fit in my back pocket and I decided I should try it.

Should I also mention that the only film version I had seen of this book was one with Jackie Chan playing the role of Passepartout? Which means I was very pleasantly surprised by the plot of the real story - it really is a good story.

I don't know how much I can say about this novel but I had a good time reading it. As I am sure you know, Around the World in Eighty Days is about a man, Phileas Fogg, who makes a bet that he can travel around the entire globe in eighty days. Going along with him is his new valet, Passpartout, and there are a few others who join him in his voyage as Fogg travels. Verne describes a lot and that sometime broke into the rhythm of the story and I felt that Phileas Fogg (how exactly do you pronounce his first name?) was a bit flat but it was a fun adventure story. I can see why it has come to be remembered as a classic. I am not sure I want to read more of Verne's work but Around the World in Eighty Days was short enough that it was enjoyable to read, even if it wasn't my normal fare.

Rating: 4.5

The Princess Bride

I think almost everyone has seen The Princess Bride with Cary Elwes and Robin Wright playing the main characters of Westley and Buttercup. I mean, who can forget Andre the Giant playing the role of Fezzik, and Mandy Patinkin saying those classic lines: "Hello, my name is Inogo Montoya; you killed my father; prepare to die." And that's not to mention Miracle Max and his wife, Prince Humperdinck, Vizzini, and the evil Count Rugen. This movie is a classic and I absolutely love it. Thus, when I saw that there was a book, I had to buy and read it.

William Goldman presents The Princess Bride as an abridgement of a work by Florin author S. Morgenstern, who wrote the book as a political satire mocking the monarchy. Goldman also presents the story of his father reading this story to him when he was a small boy sick with pneumonia. Of course, all of it is false but it is an enjoyable plot device, for the most part. There were points when I wanted to skip the fictional Goldman parts to read the basic story but it wasn't often enough that I actually did skip anything.

The book and the movie are very similar; very few changes were made by the film crew when the adapted Goldman's book but, to be honest, where the two diverge, I tend to like the movie better. This is still a great book, full of humor and adventure, but this is one of the few examples where the movie may be better. Perhaps that is because, for me, Mandy Patinkin will always be Inigo, and Andre the Giant will always be slow, sweet Fezzik, and so on. I will say that the reader gets more of the back story in the book and it all adds to understand the characters.

To sum it up, the movie is iconic but the book is still pretty darn good. If you liked one, you will probably like the other.

Rating: 4.0

The Goose Girl

I am not sure why I grabbed this book. It might be because I have looked at in the bookstore about ten times and hadn't bought it yet. It might be because I have heard several people speak very highly of Shannon Hale's work. It may be that my friend told me to go back and get it since I couldn't find anything else I wanted. Either way, I am very glad I got this book.

The Goose Girl is a retelling of a fairy tale by the same name by the Brothers Grimm. It is the story of the Crown Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee (more commonly known as Ani), who was the first daughter born to the king and queen of Kildenree. When she was a child, her aunt spent a lot of time with her and taught her about the world. Her aunt also teaches her how to speak to the birds, telling her that each person is born with a word on their lips - the ability to speak to people, animals, or perhaps the elements themselves. I don't want to give to much away but you can read the fairy tale and know the general plot-line. Then again, even after I had done so, I didn't see everything that was coming in this book. Hale's characters were interesting and it was nice to see a fairy-tale princess that wasn't perfect and articulate.

While I did find this book in the YA section, where I seldom go, it didn't seem to me that it was a book that could only fit within the realms of YA novels. Since there is a sequel, called Enna Burning, I think I know what I will get next time I am at the local bookstore.

Rating: 4.0

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

To be honest, I didn't think I was going to like this book. It was short but it also isn't my normal fare. Still, the idea of it, that of a young immigrant's experience in America changing after the September 11 attacks, held interest for me.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Moshin Hamid, is the story of Changez, a young Pakistani man who, in May of 2001, has just graduated from Princeton, found a great job, and has met a girl. Life seems to be going very well for him and he looks to be on the way to happiness. Of course, the September 11 attacks happen and, in his home country of Pakistan, war with India seems increasingly possible and eminant. All of this drives Changez to look around and reassess his life.

One of the best things about this book was the narrative style. Changez is telling his story to a mysterious American as they eat dinner in a Lahore cafe. We hear it from Changez's point of view.

There is also a good deal of suspence in the novel and there are definitely questions remaining at the end of the book. Sometimes I like that and sometimes it annoys me. I am not sure whether I like having these questions left but the device has made me think and ruminate on the book.

End thoughts: this is a good, suspenceful read that is very relevant to the current world situation. I am very glad I picked this one up and I recommend it to people who aren't put off but current issue type reads.

Rating: 5.0

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance

In Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis wrote about a book he found on a train station when he was a young man. This book, written by George MacDonald, left such an impression upon Lewis that when he wrote The Great Divorce, his guide through Heaven is MacDonald himself. With such a recommendation, I felt that I simply had to try reading it myself.

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance chronicles the travels of a young man, known to the readers only as Anodos, who found himself in Fairy Land the morning after his birthday. In Fairy Land, he meets many beings, from the kind Beech tree to the evil Ash who seeks to devour him. Soon though, he is followed by his own Shadow, a dark, malevolent creature that he cannot escape. All the while, he is traveling through Fairy Land, seeking his white woman, a woman he loves.

I will admit that I found Phantastes rather difficult at times but that is probably due to the language used and how descriptive MacDonald gets at points. It was written in 1856, so some of the words and usage are archaic but once the reader gets past that, this is a wonderful tale.

I also found my favorite quote in this book:

Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stopping and wan, and flingth wide the doors she may not enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for very love.

Isn't that just lovely.

Rating: 4.5

The Fourth Bear

In the world of The Fourth Bear, characters from novels, nursery tales, and other ideas are made real. In fact, those characters originating from nursery tales have their own police department, called the Nursery Crime Division. The NCD is headed by Jack Spratt who was last seen solving the mystery of the murder of Humpty Dumpty, in The Big Over Easy, along with Sergent Mary Mary, and Constable Ashley, an alien from Rambosia. Now, Jack has had a few bad breaks (letting Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother get eaten isn't good for a inspector's career) and Goldilocks goes missing, followed by the escape of the Gingerbread Man, a psychotic killer. Add to that a car bought from a man named Dorian Grey and the fact that Punch and his wife, Judy, have moved next door, and Jack's life is going to be interesting.

Jasper Fforde authors wonderfully amusing reads with his quirky style and his visions of many of our favorite childhood characters. Talking bears who have won the right to live among men and use honey and porridge as a euphoria-inducing substance and seven foot tall cookies (or is he a cake?) that tend to murder random people are stand-out examples of Fforde's anthropomorphication efforts. The characters understand that they are in a story and often ask what plot device they will use. Will they decide to go with number twenty-six, garnering glory by solving the mystery behind the backs of their superiors, or number thirty-eight, waiting until they are begged for help and then saving the day? There is also a point at which a joke is finally fully revealed and Spratt and Mary comment that they don't know how the author gets away with such lame jokes. All of it works well towards making a good detective story that also amuses till the very end and makes you look forward to the next Nursery Crime novel.

Rating: 5.0

Manual Labor - BTT

It's time for another Booking Through Thursday and the question this week is:

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

Let's see... If I haven't thrown it out, I believe I have a small guide from college but that's it. Well, other than a dictionary and thesaurus, also from college. That's if you are only counting books on English. I have several guides, dictionaries, and workbooks on French but that is to help me continue to learn the language and not forget the little that I learned in school.

Tangled Webs

I have a really bad habit of opening a book, with no intention of reading any more than the first page or so, just to see how it looks, and getting sucked in. Like yesterday. I started one book and then a friend lent me Tangled Webs, which takes place in the same world and with the same characters as the Black Jeweled Trilogy, a series which I love and have posted on before. I meant to read Tangled Webs after I had finished the first book but I wanted to see how it started. And then I couldn't stop reading it. One of these days, I will learn that this is what happens when I so much read the first sentence of some books.

Anyway, this book really was good. If you haven't read the Black Jewels Trilogy, you might want to read them before trying this one out, as most of the characters are fleshed out in the series and a brief reintroduction is all that is found in the narrative. I love the characters, though some of the ones I love the most have very little time in the main story. Surreal is one of the main characters and though we see a good bit of Jaenelle, Daemon, Saetan, and Lucivar, I wanted more time with them and less with Surreal. We have little or no time with most of the old coven and that made me sad too. Personal preference, surely, but it annoyed me a little to have no Karla (Kiss, kiss.) and so little time with the kindred.

We are also introduced to an author who was raised as a landen (non-magical people) and has now found out he is a member of the Blood (the people with magical abilities who rule the land). Add to that some arrogance and pretensions, a healthy dose of disappointment with his reception by the rest of the Blood, and a good deal of stupidity and you have the recipe for a man who is probably going to have some very bad ideas and make some bad decisions.

I enjoyed this story but there were problems with it. Some of the dialogue, especially near the beginning felt a bit wooden, like Bishop was trying to reintroduce the characters quickly and didn't want to waste time with it so she could get back to the story. Also, the sexuality that was in the series but not seen was brought out more, which was disappointing to me. Little things like that lessened the book for me but only a little. I still enjoyed this foray back into the world of the Black Jewels and I am only too eager for anything else Ms. Bishop may write in the future concerning this world and it's characters.

Rating: 4.5

Mayday! - BTT

Another Thursday and another question from Booking Through Thursday:

Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??

And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember...

No book? In the waiting area and no book? I usually have as many as I can pack with me so I don't have to worry about finishing one. But in this case, I would probably end up checking the bookstore for anything decent looking or just grab a pencil and a puzzle book.

Of course, I would also be concerned with the fact that I didn't get to pack clothes amd it looks like I'll be shopping even more when I get to my destination...