Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell

This is supposed to be her masterpiece. It's mostly about a girl and her father and what happens when he decides (after being a widower for many years) to remarry. It's very slow-paced, which is fine in the beginning when you're still getting a feel for the characters and the setting. It starts to drag, though, when the action gets going, and you want to know how things are going to resolve themselves and she takes 300 pages to do it!

The main problem: Gaskell died before she finished the book! No one told me and the story ends with only a chapter or two to go. It was really frustrating after investing myself for 650 pages. Maybe other versions have added an ending, but mine didn't.

But I've got my name in for the DVD at the library. I've heard the movie version is very good, so if you don't want to slog through the text, that is another option because it really is a good story. :)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I am not quite done with this one yet, but if I didn't have to put it down, I wouldn't. It is an awesome book. Our book club read it last month, but I am only just now getting to it. It is based in the deep south of Mississippi, during the days of MLK. It is about the racial tensions of the time, mostly through the perception of the black maids in a town. It switches around from chapter to chapter telling the story in a different maid's "voice", or that of a young society woman who is getting tired of how the "help" is being treated, and is secretly writing a book about it. Anyway, it is really well-written, not too wordy, but interesting. It is on the best seller list, so if you are like me and borrow from the library, you'll probably have a bit of a wait, but it is well worth it.

Some reading I've done lately:

Eragon, Christopher Paolini:

This one was a media darling and best seller. It's a fantasy novel that's basically a ripoff of Tolkien (Aragorn vs. Eragon -- coincidence? I think not) and some other fantasy authors. It's ok as a middle school level read, but I didn't love it and I'm not planning on reading the rest of the series. I hear they get more violent and less middle-schoolish. I liked Eragon's dragon, though. She was the best character in the book.

Cotillion, Georgette Heyer:

This was recommended by a friend. It's set in Jane Austen's Regency England. It took me a while to get into it. She's a little heavy on the period slang, esp her main male character, but once you get past that, it's a fun story. Very light, but good characterizations and it made me giggle. She's written about 50 books, so it's nice to know I have a fall back when I need some escapist reading.

North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell:

Despite the title, it's not about the Civil War! :) It's set in England in about 1850 and Gaskell is contrasting the old rural, aristocratic England with the new Industrial England in Manchester. It was really interesting because that's exactly where the Lukes were and what they were doing in 1850: working in the mills in Manchester, and also because it's just a well-written book. I liked the main characters a lot. I liked the romance part; it reminded me of Pride and Prejudice several times. Gaskell is a really good writer, and I hear the BBC movie version is great, too!

Happy New Year!

My Favorite Christmas Books

I have a few books I like to read in December, plus many children's books, but that's another post!

One book that is hilarious is Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. It was made into a movie, Christmas With the Kranks, which follows the book pretty well. Even the librarian, when I checked the book out, said she laughed out loud reading it. It is funny, pretty short, and easy to read.

I also like The Christmas Wish by Richard Siddoway. There is a second book, The Christmas Quest. I think The Christmas Wish was also made into a movie, but I haven't seen it.

And then Donna VanLiere wrote a series of books, the first one is The Christmas Shoes, it's based on the song Christmas Shoes. She has now 5 books in the series. They are pretty fast reads too.

Constance by Patricia Clapp

This is a great Thanksgiving book. It's about a 15 year old girl Constance (mostly true story, a few parts I guess were made up but basically true, written by her descendent), who came over on the Mayflower, and how they started life here. It covers about 7 years of her life. I believe it's written for young adults, but I thought it was a good story talking about the reality of their first few years in Plymouth. It was pretty hard for them! I tried to explain to Ian that the Pilgrims didn't have cars and grocery stores and heating and things like that - they really had to do with what they could gather or grow.

Various Titles

Something Familiar by Pamela Carrington Reid

Who doesn't love a good clean romance every once and a while. I really liked this one because it wasn't as sappy and predictable as some. Although, if you don't like romance novels don't go for this one.(remember I said not AS sappy and predictable...not that it WASN'T sappy and predictable!) I really enjoyed it. I think what I really liked about it was, I could put it down. Some romance novels keep me reading into the wee hours of the morning. I devour them like a chocolate candy bar. This book was more like chocolate cake, I could eat it one bite at a time.

Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

I listen to this one on CD and enjoyed it as much as the first. It's very different, but still lots of fun! I love that these books appeal to such a wide variety of people and ages.

The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau

This is another one I listen to. It too was different then it's predecessor, but I still really liked it! It's such an interesting look into human nature and its frailties. It's amazing how much our perspective taints what we see. My dad was an investigator and I remember him coming home once telling me to read a particular news article and when I had finished, him saying, "That's not what happened, I can't tell you what happened, but that's not true." Another thing he use to say was, "You can have 5 eye witnesses to a crime, and they will tell 5 completely different accounts of the same event, often contradicting one another." Knowing this makes it pretty easy to dismiss a lot of negative accounts of the prophet Joseph. It also makes me wonder how much of the news stories we hear or read about, are actually what really happened. As you can see, this book really made me think. I'm looking forward to reading the 4th one.(the 3rd is a prequel to the 1st, and I'm not sure if I'll read it.)

The Mysterious Benedict Society

I second Kellie's recommendation of this book. It was really fun. It's probably aimed at kids aged 8 or 9 to 11 or 12. It's an easy read but good plot and good characters.

I also reread The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas) recently, which I loved as a teenager, but now I thought it was kind of depressing. The plot gets pretty dark at the end. It's a good book, but I'm not sure I'll be reading it again.

And I reread The Hobbit, just for fun. I'm already looking forward to the boys getting old enough to read aloud with me because it's really a fun adventure, much lighter than The Lord of the Rings trilogy.