Monday, December 30, 2013
More Books (from the last 24hrs)
A short and sweet post on some more books. Last night I finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and...well...I guess I enjoyed it (I definitely enjoyed the first half of it immensely). But as a whole, not so much. As a lover of Russian literature, which she was obviously using as a springboard here, I would much rather prefer to turn to Crime and Punishment (my favourite book of all time) in order to dig deep into the world of discomfort, lowlife, paranoid delusion, rather than this. To be fair, C&P is entirely brilliant and Tartt is not asking to be compared to Dostoyevsky, however I think she may be secretly hoping for it. For which, of course, I can't blame her. If I could have stopped halfway through I would have thoroughly enjoyed this book.
So I finished that last night, and I decided to read some of Harriet's books today. So first up I read The Garden of Empress Cassia by Gabrielle Wang. I couldn't warm to her writing style - very stark, bare, but not in what felt like a deliberately authorly manner, if that makes sense. There just weren't any parts of the story that seemed to hold any description. For a novel about beauty, I'm guessing there were only a handful of adjectives used. Odd.
Next I read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. The absolute opposite to Gabrielle Wang - stuffed full of some beautiful imagery, but not overblown or flowery enough to keep a younger reader at arms length (now, words are sensitive - one for the Bernie fans out there - ignore this aside if you have no idea!). A sweet, meaningful novel, full of bigger questions and concepts (immortality, morality, cycle of life and death) to facilitate classroom discussion, which is why I imagine it has lasted so well in the American curriculum. Without much dialogue, the reader is confronted with larger blocks of text which isn't necessarily appealing to many young readers. I'd definitely recommend this for the more literate reader from about 9yrs+. The ideas behind it could still easily be used in early high school discussion sessions as well.
And then finally this afternoon I read Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead. This woman is a powerhouse of brilliance. I read When You Reach Me last year, I think it was, and marveled at her ability to write a novel that seemed without genre. Liar & Spy is not anything other than a middle school novel, however it is a brilliant example of it. Yet again she provides a twist at the end that is not just a twist for the sake of plot alone - it draws out greater depth in the characters, causes pause and reflection from the reader on events that have passed and allows a resolution that could not have been previously predicted. With both of her books I have yet to feel manipulated when I read the 'twist' (something I dislike about 'surprise' endings, which is ludicrous and hypocritical since my book has a twist at the end; I can't seem to satisfy myself as a reader *or* a writer!). Back to the novel however - it is first person, 13yr old (I'm guessing) male protagonist who has had to move, is being bullied at school and meets a boy in his new apartment building. Honestly, one of the most refreshing novels I have read in a while.
I'm determined to keep a more thorough record of what I've read throughout the year and despite a lot of 2014 no doubt being about textbooks and theory, I'm hoping to keep up my love of reading children's fiction. Next up is another book I bought for Harriet for Christmas - I Am Malala.
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