Book 50: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

My poor book cover is in bad shape, but I like the design so I decided to scan it and post it anyway.  This was a short, little book, 284 pages, which belies it's content which is amazingly deep.

The characters are very deep and very human.  Atticus is a model gentleman and father.  He struggles with himself and believes he should do more for his children than he's able, but isn't that how all fathers should be?  His children are intelligent and curious and he pulls no punches in explaining reality to them.  He believes that they are capable of understanding it and, for the most part, they are.  Exploring complex ideas from the point-of-view of a child is a big part of what makes this book so good.

The real plot to the book starts in the second half, though there are signals from near the beginning that it is coming.  It centers on the trial of a black workhand accused of the attempted rape of a white woman.  The book addresses a multitude of themes simultaneously from this point forward.  While the subplot of Boo Radley shows the attitudes of the children toward someone different: from fear to curiosity to understanding, the main plot addresses other, higher themes.  Atticus, being the consummate gentleman, finds his beliefs leading him from fair play to equal rights while the town battles itself between racism and social discrimination.  The black defendant is clearly innocent, but the accuser, though poor, white trash, is still white.  How the town deals with these attitudes is explored well and realistically while the children view the events from an innocent point of view, calling into question social norms and why they exist.

This is now one of my favorite books of all times.  It addresses many important themes and does it in a way that doesn't feel exceptionally heavy.  It gets the message across without feeling preachy.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone, no matter their reading preferences.

10 out of 10.

Book 49: Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

While the title of this book is in French, it is actually written in English.  In fact, it is one of the oldest known pieces of literature in English.  Written around 1500, Malory compiles here many of the French and English Arthurian romances.  It has since become, probably, the foremost reference for Arthurian legend and has become source material for newer works.  I know a bit of Arthurian legend from The Sword in the Stone, the movie Excalibur and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (more accurate than you'd think), but I'm interested to see some of the stories that I don't know.

It's in two volumes and I could break it up into two parts, but I'm going to read both.  Volume 1 is 468 pages and Volume 2 is 533 pages, giving 1001 pages or 143 pages per day.  Ouch.


REVIEW:

This was a very interesting read to me.  I've always been interested in Arthurian legends, but have gotten most of my knowledge of Arthur and his knights from much more modern sources:  The Sword in the Stone, Excalibur and Monty Python.  This book was written around 1500 and is one of the oldest known pieces of literature in English, though the title is in French.  This book and other books like it served to really begin the idea of chivalry, a concept that didn't really exist outside of literature.

Possibly due to it's age, the book reminded me most of Gargantua and Pantagruel.  It was a collection of short adventures loosely structured into a narrative.  There were some events that were covered from more than one point of view and a couple of conflicting stories.  Overall, however, it serves as a very comprehensive collection of almost all of the stories of Arthur and his knights.  From the marriage of King Arthur to Gwenyvere to the tales of Arthur's greatest knights: Launcelot, Tristram and Gareth, to the Search for the Holy Grail to the death of Arthur himself, it's all here.

The book was huge, in fact it was two books.  I probably should have broken them up into two entries here, but I really wanted to do it all in one go.  I'm rather glad that I did as the stories kept me interested and carried me along through the end.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring King Arthur, chivalry or knights and adventures as well as history in general and England in particular.  It could probably do with some modern editing, but I'd be afraid that they'd cut out something interesting in order to make it move faster.

8 out of 10.

Book 48: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I have not seen much about this book, but what I have seen has all been positive.  It is, apparently, a book about wizards and witches in an alternate England with supernatural overtones.  It has something in common with Harry Potter in that respect, but it is supposed to be a more mature, more peculiar take on the idea with more alternate history than fantasy.  Also in common with Harry Potter, this book is massive at 782 pages.

I'm looking forward to reading a book with no preconceptions.  It can sometimes backfire if the book ends up being terrible, but I'm hoping for the best.

782 pages means 112 pages per day.


REVIEW:

On paper, this book sounds like a Harry Potter-type book.  An award-winning, 800-page book about an alternate, magical England.  It's even written by a woman.  However, it becomes very quickly evident that this is NOT Harry Potter.  The book is set in the early 1800s and more accurately, is written as a book of that time.  As such, it comes off as more of an alternate history book than a magical fantasy book.  The writing is very good and you never get the impression that it's a modern author trying to write in an older style.  I've read a number of books from the period and other books attempting to fit themselves into the period and this book feels a lot like those.  Magic is treated, almost, as a natural science and the practitioners of  magic behave accordingly.  The story started out slow but eventually picked up and led down more interesting paths.  One of the most interesting aspects of the book were the footnotes.  Extended footnotes are almost a hallmark of Regency / Victorian writing, especially scientific writing, and the footnotes in this novel are some of the most interesting ideas in the book.

Unfortunately, for me, very little can save a book set in this time period.  The reserved manners, somewhat pompous speech affectations and utter civilization of the characters does not lend itself well to action.  Neal Stephenson tried really hard to stay faithful to the Regency Era in his Baroque Cycle, a novel focusing on the early history of Science.  But even his books, though well-written and full of interesting information, fell flat.  I just found it boring and this book was having the same problem.  Someone like Jane Austen is able to overcome these limitations by showing the passions behind the characters' manners and Charles Dickens is able to (sometimes) overcome them with the emotional situations of his underprivileged protagonists but it's a very tricky feat.

The book was an interesting read but was a challenge to finish.  While I respect Susanna Clarke's ability as a writer and her subject matter is deep and interesting, the period of time just doesn't lend itself well to anything exciting, which is what this book lacked most.

6 out of 10.

Book 47: Lady Susan by Jane Austen

This is the final Jane Austen novel on my list.  I believe that she's written other short stories, etc. but I've now read all of her novels.  It's an extremely short piece (80 pages) and one that I've not really heard much about before.  I have heard that this was the first novel that Jane Austen started but the last to be completed.  Some of that roughness is bound to come through.

80 pages in one week;  12 pages per day... might finish a little early.


REVIEW:

This book was a lot different than I thought that it would be.  The book is written entirely in the form of letters between the characters.  The main character is Lady Susan Vernon who has just recently been widowed and is seeking an advantageous second marriage.  She's been chased out of the house of some friends due to her flirting and meddling and is now preparing to move to the house of her brother and his family.

The character of Lady Susan is one of the worst seen in Austen's work.  She has very few redeeming qualities. But she is attractive, intelligent and shrewd; and expert at manipulating people and events in her favor.  She likes to play the innocent card, but her letters to her friends show her true nature.  Which shows the true brilliance of this style novel.

Because of the limitations of scope inherent in a set of letters you don't get to see the events as they unfold, only the after-effects and the reactions of the characters.  You do get to see their more private feelings and motivations, however, so you have a mix of limited point of view but enhanced personal insight.  It's really quite interesting.

The ending was good, but a little rushed and I wish that the fate of the characters had been more thoroughly explored.  I'm going to miss Jane Austen and it's been a great time reading her work.  She's still one of my favorite authors and reading all seven of these books has given me a good view of her range and limitations.  This book in particular was not one of her best but was definitely one of her most creative.

7 out of 10.