My first completed book for 50 Book Challenge starting July 09, is Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.  Gaskell is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and if you like Austen, I highly recommend her work.  Sadly, Wives and Daughters is incomplete because she died before she could finish it.  However, it is still worth reading, it is easy to make presumptions about where the story would have gone if she could have finished it.

The story is about a country Doctor and his daughter in 19th century England.  Molly Gibson’s mother died when she was very young, and now she is 17 and her father is starting to feel the effects of trying to raise a daughter alone at a time in her life where young men are going to start forming romantic attachments to her.  His first step is to send her off to live with an invalid patient of his, who just happens to be the wife of a squire.  She is lonely with her two sons out of the house, and needs the company.  And Molly needs the maternal attention.  While Molly is staying with them, Mr. Gibson discovers a woman that could take on the role of stepmother.  It just so happens, this woman also has a daughter Molly’s age.  There are complicated romantic attachments, intrigues, and 19th century social commentary.  Which are all a few of my favorite things!

The final count was exactly 20.  Sadly, that’s not even two books a month.  In my defense, I became obsessed with the Twilight series, and read all four book five times each.  Yes, I realize, I have a problem.

My final book for this year was a suggestion from Ellen, and a fabulous suggestion indeed.  Girls In Trucks by Katie Crouch
follows a southern debutante as she unsuccessfully navigates her way through the complicated world of love.   Sarah is unexceptional in every conceivable way but one, she has a knack for picking the wrong guy.  I really enjoyed this novel, primarily because Crouch’s writing style was so unique.  Its difficult to describe, she used a number of different writing techniques, but it didn’t feel disjointed.  There were a lot of characters, but they were all so solid that it didn’t get confusing or busy.  All in all, it was a fun read.  (It was also a quick read, I think I finished it in three hours.)

Anyway, I am going to try the 50 book challenge again this year, starting with Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.  She is a Jane Austen-esqu author.  I previously read North and South by her, and I loved it.  So I was thrilled when I discovered Wives and Daughters online FOR FREE!  (The link above takes you there, in case you are interested.)  There is also a BBC mini-series by the same title that is a lot of fun.

For those readers I do have (and I realize I have probably lost a few because of my lack of consistency with posting) if I should continue to write reviews of the novels I am reading, or should I just list them?  Or do you not even care?  Just wondering.

Dark Side of the Moon by Sharrilyn Kenyon.

Okay, so, my mom loves to give presents.  I think this is well established.  And, she tends to choose her gifts kind of like Amazon suggestions:  “If you liked this book, than you might like these five books.”  You get the idea…I hope.

Anyway, so I assume my mom chose this particular book because I liked the Twilight series, and this book was about vampires.  Okay, I get that.  But, OMG!  This was what John would call a “Bodice ripper” that was disguised as a book about vampires.  There were sex scene’s in this novel that, quite frankly, made me blush.  The rest of the novel was a convoluted attempt to create a mythology which included Greek Gods, vampires, and vampire hunters.  She also throws in demi-gods and shape shifters for good measure.  I couldn’t keep up!  There was SO much going on that it got to the point where I just stopped trying.  This was the first book in a series, and I can ensure you I won’t bother with the rest of them, so I didn’t feel the need to keep track.

In addition, the dialogue was completely absurd.  I have never read a book where there were SO many cliche’s.  The 3000 year old shape shifting vampire hunter actually said to his tabloid reporter girl friend, “Don’t worry, Babe.”  And told her his previous girl friend got “wiggy.”  It just didn’t fit with the rest of the mythology or the characters Kenyon was trying to create.

Sadly, this was NOT a good book.  I would NOT recommend it to anyone.  I only give it one star, because even though I didn’t like the book, I was able to finish it which is at least something.

Anyway, I just finished Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.

Frank and April Wheeler are a married couple raising two kids in 1950′s suburban Connecticut.  They are seemingly a perfect couple, but in reality they are both unfulfilled and desperately lonely.  Frank has a dead end and boring job in the same company his father worked at his entire life.  Frank took the job to support the inconveniently pregnant April, and “got stuck.”  April was an aspiring actress, who gave it up for the husband and the family and the boring life in the suburbs.  The novel opens with April trying to realize her dream as an actress by participating in a local theater production.  The show is a flop, and she begins to tailspin, reevaluating her life and the decisions she and Frank made after she got pregnant.  In their attempt to save their relationship, they come up with a scheme to move to Europe, but are thwarted with disastrous consequences.

I liked this novel, primarily for the eloquence of the prose and Yates ability to offer a snap shot of the social morays of this time period.   I also enjoyed the complexity of the relationships between the characters.  Nothing is black and white, no one is good or evil, and no one is either completely happy or miserable.  I was trying to describe the book to John, and he said, “Its a man hater book.”  And even though Frank can be quite the jerk, April is just as bad.  But they are also fascinating characters, which makes the novel an interesting read.  I give it three stars.

I, of course, didn’t’ take into account all the life that would be getting in the way of my book a week goal.  I also didn’t take into consideration that I wasn’t going to really like some of the books I have tried to read.  However, I have still been reading, and have read 16 (and a half, still trying to finish “The Duchess”) books.  We are on week 35.  Sigh.

The last two are:

The Girls that Went Away by Ann Fessler.

This book was written by a woman who had been adopted in the 50′s.  She always wondered why her biological mother gave her away, so she did several studies and discovered some truly horrific things.  Her book focuses on the women of the 50′s, 60′s, and early 70′s (before Roe vs Wade) who gave children up for adoption.  What she discovered was a subculture of sexual promiscuity, social expectations, and double standards where these women had little to no choice when it came to keeping their babies.  Her book covers all aspects of unplanned pregnancies, and she allows woman who gave their children up a chance to share their story.  In addition, she weaves in startling facts and statistics based on what was going on in our country during this time period.

I really enjoyed this book.  I wasn’t sure if I would, considering I have never had an unplanned pregnancy and I am not adopted.  It was still fascinating.  I think this is an important book for woman to read.  It gives an excellent pictures of what these poor women went through and why.

Firefly Lane by Kirstin Hannah

Bring kleenex.  I CRIED, literally tears streaming down my face uncontrollably, for the last 200 pages of this book.  It also scared the crap out of me, on many many levels.  But, given all that, I really enjoyed it.  Sometimes the books that make the biggest impression are those you have a visceral reaction to.  I loved and hated the characters; their actions made me happy, sad, and angry.

The story is based on the lifelong friendship of two very different woman, and how their friendship influenced every major decision they made.  And yet, I bonded most with the relationship of mothers and daughters.  One woman has a terrible mother who pops in and out of her life, leaving a lasting scar each time.  The other woman has a loving, caring mother who tries to help both girls become women she can respect.  (I know this is vague, but I don’t want to say too much in case you want to read the book.)  Then, top it all off with one of them has a daughter herself.

I don’t think I am alone when I say, this book made me want to call up my Mommy and apologize for how horrible I treated her in middle school and high school.  I also wanted to hug my little girl, give her a thousand kisses, and then put her in a time machine so we could skip right over her teen years.

In any account, it was an excellent book.  I hope I am not saying too much when I say a lot of the parts that weren’t about Mothers and daughters reminded me of Beaches, which is of course one of my favorite movies.  I also have the movie that will surely be made from this novel, cast in my head.

All I have to say is “Vampires with superpowers,” and no more.  However, in case that doesn’t hook ya, I will also add, “eternal love,” “werewolves,” and “secret societies.”  Recipe for the ultimate teenage goth’s fantasy!  Now, I realize I am not a teenage goth.  But I was once (sort of, wanna-a-be anyway), and I still find these situations completely fascinating.

So, the writing wasn’t Pulitzer worthy, but man were they fun books!  I highly recommend them if you want to read for some cheap thrills.  I give them 4 stars, because vegetarian vampires with superpowers rock my world.

This book was confusing for me.  Of course, the subject disgusted me, which didn’t help.  But, I actually kind of enjoyed the style of writing.  It was raw, and honest.  It was painful to read because the narrator didn’t hold anything back.  It was written as a confession of his misdeeds, as an explanation for why he did what he did.  He talks about his obsessions with young girls in poetic and romantic terms, sexualizing the innocent actions of adolescents.  He is despicable, but pathetic enough where you almost almost forgive him.  (Of course, I still wanted to see him eaten by dogs.)

One major issue I had with this novel is it felt a little over written.  Some of the phrasing was too calculating.  At times it was confusing because the narrator had different names for each of the characters and he used them interchangeably, so if you aren’t paying attention, you have NO IDEA who he’s talking about.  Oh, and he frequently speaks in French.  I don’t speak French, so I had to skip over a lot of that.  If I was still in one of my college lit classes, I would have found a French dictionary, or used the Internet, to translate it all.  But, I wasn’t, and so I didn’t.

Anyway, it was a tough read, but I am proud of myself for finishing it.

I give it 3 stars, mostly because it made my brian and my soul hurt.

Well, as per usual, my extensive TV watching habits have interfered with my reading.  (Damn the new fall season!)

In addition to that, I am trying to read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov in preparation for Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, a book I attempted to read a year ago, but found it difficult to follow since I had never read Lolita.

Which, I got to say, is a difficult book to stomach.  It’s all about glorifying pedophilia, and I am having a hard time with that.

Anyway, I am done making excuses.  I will try to get back with the program.  If anybody out there has read Lolita, it would help me to know that the narrator gets run over or eaten by dogs or something.  That might make it easier to stomach.

The multigenerational search for Vlad the Impaler’s (AKA: Dracula) tomb.  John made fun of me for this one.  But, it was a DENSE novel full of Eastern European history.  And, yes, there were a few vampires, but there were also intrigues, puzzles, mysteries and a touch of romance.

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn’t an easy read.  The historical perspective was fascinating, but complicated and difficult to wade through.  The characters were smart, but seemed to lack compassion, and in essence, they were a little cold.  Whatever the characters were lacking, the mysteries surrounding Vlad’s tomb more than made up for it.  The “goth” in me really wanted to believe this was a true story.

So, I would recommend it, but give yourself several long, quite, uninterrupted hours to read it.

First of all, let me apologize to Becky.  She gave me this book FIVE YEARS AGO (I could tell because she used the receipt for the book as a bookmark and it had a date stamp) and I just picked it up.  Sometimes I procrastinate like that.  It’s one of the reasons I rarely if ever get books from a library, I will find books that I think are interesting and I really do want to read them, just not right NOW.  I like to have the books on my shelf for when I finally get the motivation to read them.

That being said, she told me when she gave it to me that I would like it, and she was right.  It was another quick read, I think it only took me 4-5 hours to finish it (aka:  two nap times) and that was mainly because I had a really hard time putting it down.

This is the fictional account of Italian artist Artemesia Gentileschi, who was “one of the first female artists to achieve recognition in the male-dominated world of post-Renaissance art.“  When she was eighteen, she was raped by her art teacher.  Her father insisted on a very public trial, where she was accused of being a whore, tortured with thumb screws, and examined by midwives in the courtroom while all of Rome watched.  Even though her rapist was found guilty, his punishment was merely banishment from Rome.  Her punishment was far more severe, her reputation as a woman was destroyed, and her reputation as an artist was sullied.  She was also forced to flee Rome with the aid of a hastily arranged marriage to an artist from Florence.

Vreeland’s Artemesia was truly a remarkable woman.  She never allowed the stuffy and old fashioned men who ruled the art world ignore her.  She continued to create remarkable masterpieces that intrigued wealthy and influential people (such as Michelangelo the younger, and Cosimo de’ Medici II) forcing academia to accept her has a talented artist.  She was the first female accepted into the Accedemia dell’ Arte Disegno.

However, her recognition and acclaim quickly became a source of jealousy and resentment among her peers, and her talent didn’t always pay the bills.  She constantly had to relocate herself and her daughter in order to find patrons willing to hire her.

She struggled her entire life, but she was so passionate about her art, and leaving behind a legacy, that she never gave up.

I think it is really easy to forget that women have always fought to receive the same chances as men.  Even in a field as subjective as art, women had to fight to even be considered artists.  I read novels like this, and I am so grateful that my daughter was born in a time when she truly can be anything she wants to be!

A little housekeeping, awhile ago I wrote that I would be finising books for the 50 book challenge.  Well, apparently I have absolutely no interest in finishing those books.  I tried, and my heart wasn’t in it.  I would pull the book of the bookshelf, it would sit there for a week and I would find new and improved excuses for not reading.  I have had a lot more success finding new books.  So, for the sake of this challenge, I have been reading full books.  I just wanted to make that clear so nobody thinks I am “cheating.”