Category: Genre

Categories
2008 Crime Richard and Judy Book Club

The Brutal Art – Jesse Kellerman

The Brutal Art begins when art dealer, Ethan Muller discovers a large number of pictures in an abandoned New York apartment. The pictures were the discovery of a lifetime:

Electrified, unnerved, I stared for six or seven minutes, a long time to look at a sheet of 8 1/2-by-11 paper; and before I could censor myself, I decided that whoever had drawn this was sick. Because the composition had a psychotic quality, the fever of action taken to warm oneself from the chill of solitude.

Ethan soon realises that he has stumbled across the work of a murderer, and tries to use the pictures to solve the 40-year-old crime.

The first third of the book was OK, as although the characters failed to engage me, the plot was interesting enough to pull me onwards. As the book progressed, I began to lose interest; the plot petered out to a virtual standstill, and chapters about Ethan’s past made the book seem dis-jointed.

There seemed to be too much arguing over how much everyone was going to pay for these paintings, and not enough crime-solving action.

I was really disappointed.

Categories
Classics

Wuthering Heights – Discussion on chapters 16 – 34

WARNING!!! CONTAINS SPOLIERS!!

For discussion of the first 15 chapters see here.

1. What is your opinion of Linton? Do you feel any sympathy towards him?

He just come across as pathetic! Weak, moany and irritating. I suppose I can give a tiny bit of sympathy to him, as I don’t wish physical or mental abuse on anyone. I’m glad that nothing good happened to him in the end, as he did nothing to earn it. I’m not sure I wished death on him, but it didn’t really bother me when he did die!

2. Why is Cathy so vulnerable to Linton’s appeal for pity, when she is otherwise strong-willed and independent?

I never thought of Cathy as particularly strong willed or independent. If she was so independent, why did she do just about everything she was told, and stay in the Grange? An independent person would have left home, and made a nice life for her self elsewhere.

I don’t think Linton had any appeal for her, he just happened to be the only person around at the time. 

3. Do you think that Nelly ever recognizes the part she has played in everything that has happened?

I don’t think she has a clue! I think that she isn’t the brightest of sparks, and would probably deny everything, even if confronted with the evidence!

4. Why do you think Heathcliff finally lets go of his animosity and his obsession with revenge at the end of the story? Do you feel any sympathy for him?

I think he just gives up. He realises that it hasn’t been worth it, and nothing he has fought for has made him happy. So he wishes himself dead, so he can return to Catherine – as Sandy points out, they all wish themselves dead – weird!! It would be much more realistic if they committed suicide.

5. What was your last emotion in finishing the last page of the book?

Relief! I was just so happy to have made it to the end of the book. Sandy is right, I do have to give some credit to Emily Bronte for being able to create a book in which I actively dislike just about every character – I don’t think I have ever read a book where there isn’t at least one tiny ray of light somewhere!

I was intrigued to read James’s comment on Sandy’s post that Heathcliffe may be Catherine’s half-brother. That makes a lot of sense, and if I’d only known that to be true from the beginning, then I may have had a lot more sympathy for everyone. It would have put a whole new twist on lots of things. Unfortunately I’m not clever enough to work these things out for myself, so need the author to point me in the right direction.

I don’t think I’ll ever read this book again, but I may have a quick glance through a study guide, to see if I’ve missed any other major revelations! I’m really glad that I read it with a couple of other people though, as I’d probably have been tempted to give it up if I’d been on my own.

If I’d been reading this by myself, then it would probably have got 1 or 2 stars out of 5, but as I’ve gained a little more insight, I think I can stretch to:

Categories
Classics

Wuthering Heights – Discussion on the first 15 chapters

 
Sandy at You’ve Gotta Read This! is hosting a group read of Wuthering Heights. Apart from the few I read at school, I have read only a couple of classics. I am trying to change this, and put classics, as one of my titles in the 999 challenge this year. I jumped at the chance to have a few people to encourage me through the book, and hopefully make the reading of it more enjoyable.

The idea was to read the first half of the book this week, and hopefully finish it by next Friday. We’ll all stop to compare notes halfway through.

I have to admit that I’m not really enjoying the book so far though. The characters are all miserable, the writing style is slow and difficult to follow in places and there isn’t any action, or emotional depth – not much to like really!! I hope everyone else is enjoying it more than me!

1. What was your first impression of the inhabitants of Thrushcross Grange, as described by Mr. Lockwood?

First impressions were actually quite good. It took a few pages to get used to the writing style. I quickly realised that this book required my full concentration, so I found myself a quiet corner and dedicated several hours for each reading sitting. I found the initial setting very atmospheric, and I enjoyed the character introductions. They all came across as interesting characters, with lots of nice flaws to make for a good book!

2. Do you think the ghost of Catherine was real or a product of Mr. Lockwood’s imagination?

I think the ghost must have been real. I can’t see any reason why Mr Lockwood would be prone to hallucinations. I also think ghosts make any story more interesting!

3. Can we rely on Nelly’s account of events?

I don’t see why not. As a servant in the household she knew all that was going on there, and it this point in the story I see no reason why she would want to mislead Mr Lockwood.

4. Do you think Catherine really knows the true meaning of love?

Not at all! Her only thoughts seem to be of the wealth a husband could give her.

5. Which character so far do you like the least? The most? Why?

The character I like the least is Catherine. She just comes across as a spoilt, ungrateful person, whose only interest in people is how much money they possess!

The character I like most at the moment is Mr. Lockwood, not because he has done anything to endear me to him, but because he hasn’t managed to do anything especially irritating yet!

6. If you had to come up with one word that represented Heathcliff, what would it be?

Outsider. It seems that he just spends his whole life trying to be accepted by the family. He just wants to belong, but as he must compete for affection with everyone else in the household I think he feels a bit left out.

For discussion on chapters 16 – 34 see here.

Categories
Chunkster Other

The Chunkster Challenge

I love reading long books – they tend to have more depth, and a more interesting plot, so this is a great challenge for me.
The rules for the Chunkster Challenge are:
*A chunkster is 450 pages or more of ADULT literature (fiction or nonfiction) Don’t complain folks, I read all thousands of pages of the Twilight series and they were good, but not a challenge. A chunkster should be a challenge. 
*If you read large type books your book will need to be 525 pages or more I asked around and  the average LT book is 10-15% longer or more so I think that was a fair estimate.
*No Audio books in the chunkster. It just doesn’t seem right. Words on paper for this one folks.
* You may start any time after signing up. You must complete your reads before or on Nov 15th.
*Short Stories and Essay collections will not be counted. 
*Books may crossover with other challenges (see option 4 for a collaborative effort with TBR challenge)
*Only option 4 requires that you make a set list of books to complete the challenge
Those are the basics. Here are your options:
*The Chubby Chunkster – this option is for the reader who has a large tome or two to read, but really doesn’t want to commit to more than that. 2 books is all you need to finish this challenge. 
*Do These Books Make my Butt Look Big? – this option is for the slightly heavier reader who wants to commit to 3-5 Chunksters over the next ten months.
*Mor-book-ly Obese – This is for the truly out of control chunkster. For this level of challenge you must commit to 6 or more chunksters OR three tomes of 750 pages or more. You know you want to…..go on and give in to your cravings.
 And lastly, in an intriguing collaboration with the wildly popular Miz B of the TBR Challenge we have:
*Too Big To Ignore Anymore – this option is for those chunksters on your TBR list. You may select any number of books over 450 pages but you must LIST THEM to complete the challenge and they must be on your TBR list as well (honor code folk, I don’t have time to be the challenge police)
I’m going to opt for the *Mor-book-ly Obese option, as I love chunksters, and this will encourage me to read more of them.
My Chunky Reads are:
The 19th Wife completed 5th Feb. 2009
The Moonstone completed 21st Feb. 2009
Categories
Books in Translation Other

Lost in Translation Reading Challenge

I read a few books in translation in 2008, but to encourage me to read a few more I’m going to join the Lost in Translation Reading Challenge.

The aim is to read six books in translation in 2009. Hopefully, I’ll manage a few extra on top, but I won’t commit to that at the moment!

The ones I’d like to read first are:

  1.  The Bride From Odessa by Edgardo Cozarinsky completed 27th January 2009
  2.  The Lost Estate by Alain Fournier completed 14th Febuary 2009
  3.  Blindness by Jose Saramago completed 5th March 2009
  4. The Book of Fathers by Miklos Vamos
  5. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
  6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larrson

7+ To be decided!

Categories
2000 - 2007 Thriller

The Halo Effect by M.J. Rose

I first heard about M. J. Rose a few weeks ago, when I spotted reviews for her new release The Memorist. It was getting very good reviews, so I decided to try one of her books. ‘The Halo Effect’ also seemed to have good reviews, so I decided to fulfill my desire for a thriller by reading it.

It was a very basic thriller. Characters were two dimensional, and followed typical thiller stereotypes. The plot didn’t seem very realistic, and everything was very formulaic. The murder suspects were described one after the other, so there wasn’t much opportunity to guess who was committing the crimes, as each seemed equally likely to have done it.

It was a light read, so was good for me to read when I couldn’t concentrate fully. It was OK, but but nothing special.