Wow!

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--Awesome so far!

I'm not really into crime novels, or books that are complicated, or super suspenseful. However, once in a while I get a book in my hands that I have a hard time putting down, that goes quickly, and I can find myself reading a hundred pages at a time without even noticing (The Da Vinci Code comes to mind). So, this one definitely is worth reading, and worth being slightly sidetracked for, as it's not on my original list. I'm only about 150ish pages in (644 pages total) but it's awesome so far.

I also love stories where there are two seemingly unrelated characters whose stories I know are meant to intertwine somehow. Anna Karenina has an example of this. The Two Towers did to an extent, except that there are books that start with two characters who then part, but the author tells us their stories simultaneously after their parting (i.e. The Lovely Bones, The Two Towers). However, I find the first kind more interesting because, apart from the two stories that the author begins telling, there is also the anticipation of how the characters are related enough to be in the same book.

For example, Anna and Levin are the protagonists in Anna Karenina, and they are protagonists of their own stories within the same book. The fact that Anna and Stiva are siblings and Levin is his friend is not enough. The book is titled Anna Karenina, so why even bring Stiva's friend into it at all? However, later in the book, Levin and Anna meet, giving way to an earth shattering comparrisson of the two characters, and an obvious look at each character's journey throughout the book. Anna started well-off and then began a downward spiral when she started her affair with Vronsky. Likewise, Levin started off in total despair when Kitty had turned him down, but eventually married her and began an incline. The meeting of Anna and Levin lets the reader put together the fact that Anna and Levin have stories that are mirror images of each other, which becomes more apparent as the story ends.

I'm anticipating the same to be true with Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. The fact that Lisbeth is investigating Blomkvist is not enough yet...these two must be connected in some way. After all, this book is titled after the female lead just as Anna Karenina is, but so far I have heard the most about Mikael's life on the island with Henrik. We will have to see what Lisbeth is up to soon. I also wonder what all of the facts about domestic violence against women in Sweden is about, seeing as the only thing of that nature to have happened so far is the speculation of murder of Harriet. With the attention this issue, as well as public acclaim for Salander's character, she must take on a larger role in the story as it continues.

Ok! Onward!

The Wind in the Willows: Check!

That brings the total for 2011 up to 4. Woo hoo!

Overall, I don't have that much to say about this book. I had high expectations because I used to like the Disney version. However, the book version left something to be desired. There were a lot of stories that didn't really tie into the main plot or theme, and the overarching story of Toad being reformed only showed up in a few chapters. I wish I had known that going in, but too late now. Not the best book I've read on this list by far (although probably not the worst either).

Next up: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/The Secret Garden (probably...)

The Two Towers: Check!

After a day and a half of straight reading (thanks to some sort of illness I've no doubt picked up from school) I have finally finished The Two Towers! It ended on an interesting note, but unfortunately the next book starts with 140 pages of Pippin, Merry, and Gandalf, which means approximately another month until I get to read about Sam and Frodo again. While I liked the organization in the second book because it helped me keep the adventures of different characters straight, I wish it would be a little more interspersed in the third so that I wouldn't be so reluctant to start it.

Overall, though, I did enjoy thish book, and though I got a little lost in the battle scenes involving the Legolas/Gimli/Aragorn trio, I though the book was overall pretty enjoyable. Most of it made sense, probably because I watched the movie before starting to refresh my memory. I'll probably do that again be starting the third book.

My plan is to finish the series this summer, knocking #3 off my list for good! However, I'm not quite ready to commit to that just yet. My plan now is to finish The Wind in the Willows and then take a break from the list with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Upon finishing that, my choices are

*1984
*Midnight's Children
*Middlemarch
*The Secret Garden
*Sherlock Holmes
*War and Peace (although I'm trying to save that one for last!)

We'll see what happens when I get there, I guess, but ciao for now and I'll probably be back momentarily with a recap of Wind in the Willows.

Itching to read

Even though I'm still in the middle of The Two Towers, I have been itching to read some other books that are sitting on my shelf, untouched. A lot of them seem like springtime titles to me, so I decided to start one of them, hoping I could finish it quickly. That isn't working out to well. I am not in the middle of both The Two Towers AND The Wind in the Willows.
It's not that The Wind in the Willows isn't good; it's just that it's not what I expected. I was expecting something a little more like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride from Disneyland than a book that reads more like Winnie the Pooh. So far all we've seen Toad do is drive his carriage into a ditch and become obsessed with cars. The story is more about Mole at this point, as a new member of the riverside community.

The picture of toad hypnotized by a motercar was more what I was expecting. When I was little we had that movie and I used to watch it over and over. I guess five chapters into the book I would have expected to see toad a little more. But to be fair, we did just meet Badger.

I may do a little snooping to find out why Grahame wrote this book. For this book, I'm having a hard time believing he just decided to write a random book about some animals who live near a river. There are already several mentions of Badger hating society, and toad being obsessed with the latest greatest invention. Additionally, Mole is innocent and knows hardly anything about life on the river. There's something going on in that, I just don't know enough about the historical context of the book. I'll have to look into that a little bit.

I Love The Two Towers?

Seriously! I never thought I would, and actually judging by my enjoyment of the movies, I was preparing to like this one less than The Fellowship, but I am pleasantly surprised! I'm not sure if it's because I'm actually enjoying it, or if it's because I had such low expectations. I'm not sure which and honestly I don't really care.

So far I'm in the middle of chapter 4, in which Pippin and Merry are at the Ent's house, which I am picturing as a walking tree that took them into a cave, but I'm thinking that's not the whole story.

It's really too bad I have so much stinking work to do, because I would really just like to dedicate my time to this book. I'm thinking as spring approaches and things start to wind down for a month or two, I'll have enough time to really enjoy this one and the one that follows. Yay LOTR!! I'm so glad to be enjoying it finally, since everyone else in the world seems to love it. I'm also glad that the nice looking set of Tolkien books I bought was not a waste of money.

The Two Towers

Last night I started The Two Towers (finally)

So far I've read about 10 pages. What I was surprised by so far is the fact that the first half of the book is all about Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, and Pippin and what will happen to the five of them. The second half shows the journey of Frodo and Sam. I’m relieved at this because I was worried about keeping track of the events of 3 or more groups of characters at a time, but it looks like Tolkien has taken care of that worry for me. I was also worried about not remembering the events of the last book since I read it almost a year ago. However, I was surprised how quickly it came back to me. Even though I’ve been dreading this for a while, I’m excited to continue reading and find out what happens. Yay for finally being excited about LOTR (like a normal person, haha)!!

The Lovely Bones: CHECK!

I finished The Lovely Bones this morning. I thought it was pretty good: well written, interesting ideas, realistic (except for the bizzare happenings of the last 20 pages). I'm honestly a little surprised that so many people have read it. There were times where I thought the story was at a little bit of a stand still. At one point, I thought an elaborate plot was going to develop, especially when Lindsey sneaked into George Harvey's house and stole his drawing. Basically, I thought Lindsey and her dad would solve the mystery, but no such luck. Things just went on as usual.

Usually, I like books that go on and on without a whole lot of action or suspense. Remember, my two favorite books are Gone With The Wind and Anna Karenina. Therefore, this book of Suzie watching the earth from Heaven should be up there on my list because it was about a bunch of people dealing with a murder of a loved one. However, I was a little disappointed because my sister told me it was a "page turner." To me, this book wasn't a page turner. It was interesting, intriguing, thought provoking, and there were some exciting parts, but there was never a part that I couldn't put down. Maybe my idea of a page-turner has been tainted by The Hunger Games, which is the ultimate page turner. I'm not sure why, this book just wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be.

I'd have to say my favorite part was when the father was explaining to Buckley, who was 4 or 5 at the time, what happened to Suzie using monopoly pieces. He told him what pieces everyone used, and that Suzie was the shoe and that she was out of the game. And for a while this seemed to work, and Buckley put the shoe on his dresser until one day it disappeared.

My favorite character was Lindsey. I thought her reaction to the news was completely realistic in that she threw herself into exercise. She started with a fitness regime at home, then joined the boys soccer team. This exercise motif ended with the several mile run home in the rain after graduation. I'm not sure if this would have happened had Suzie not been murdered, and perhaps she would have been missing on that day had she not been able to run home.

The Suzie going into Ruth's body part was weird, and we'll just leave it at that.

I've been itching to finish Lord of the Rings, so I think the two towers will be my next book. Tata!