The Other Boleyn Girl

Just as Katherine of Aragon is my least favorite of Henry VIII's wives, Anne Boleyn is my favorite. This is largely due to Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl, which not only tells the story of Anne Boleyn, but also her sister, Mary, one of Henry VIII's many mistresses, and their brother George. 

I really enjoy The Other Boleyn Girl because it's not only an intense faux love story and affair, but it delves into the family relationships of the Boleyn siblings AND it's historical fiction where one learns about the politics and religion, and their relationship, during this portion of Henry VIII's reign. [holy run-on sentence!] Now, of course, given the subject matter and the character of Henry, who is constantly having affairs, it's not necessarily the most chaste book, but it is my favorite by Gregory and I highly recommend it!  

Water for Elephants

I first read Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants many, many moons ago. I love the idea 

of the old circus, the glamour and the sparkle and the majesty, even though I've never 

actually been to the circus! 

Once the movie came out, I meant to read Water for Elephants again to refresh my memory, but life got busy and books get packed (and moved and moved again) and other books get read instead and the movie was never seen. But it finally made it to the top of my pile! 

I enjoyed Water for Elephants as much the second time as I did the first. It encompasses the magic of the circus along with the devastation of The Great Depression.  It's a love story, love for a woman, an elephant, and the circus. It's a touching story with characters who come to life. I really felt like I knew the characters and I cared about what happened to them. 

The only thing I don't like about this novel is the bookending of the past by the present.

 Of course, I always say that about books like this. I don't feel the need for the small story

 of the present. I'm happy with the story of the past. It's enough for me. It's a great story 

and I think you'll like it too! Enjoy! 

Crossed

Last weekend, Cass and I read Ally Condie's Crossed, a sequel to Matched, and my worst fears came true. . . Ally Condie is a Stephanie Meyers. Okay, that was rude. She's not that bad. But my fears of Crossed turning into more of a Twilight than a Hunger Games came true for sure.


Problems:
1. The novel lacks voice -- esp because I read this in-between/at the same time as The Help and Sing You Home [reviews coming soon!] which were also told from different perspectives and done much better.


2. Condie says "says" too much. I know she doesn't want to be all "he exclaimed" & "she gasped" all over the page-- but just cut it out. Just dialogue it. "Blah." Enter. Indent. "Talk-ity-talk." Enter. Indent. Carry on. In all fairness, I may have noticed this one more because I was reading it aloud to Cass. I didn't notice it as much while reading silently. 


3. I'm not sure any of my questions were even answered, other than Ky's back-story. But I guess that's why there is a third book . . .


4. I still do not like Ky. He still just creeps me out.


Overall, meh. I'll still read the third when it comes out, but it's just not my type of book. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about guilty pleasure teen books. This one just isn't for me. I think I'll go read The Giver now. 

Matched

Slated as a cross between Twilight and Hunger Games, I was surprised when Cass brought this home from the library. He read Matched first, said it was clear that Ally Condie is from Utah, and it was reminiscent of The Giver and, despite similarities, he liked it better than Twilight. 

So I read it. It does start out very Giver-esque, with the banquets and the ceremonies. In this society they have the ability to predict everything. They predict who will be your best match. How you will react in a given situation. The figure out what your caloric intake should be and provide appropriate meals. They assign your job, tell you where to live. Tell you when to have children, when to stop having children. And when to die. They have exacted what makes the optimal life and are providing it for their society. Yet there is a mix up at the Matching, and Cassia has been given two matches -- one a mistake, he's an aberration and disallowed to be matched, Ky, and one a childhood friend, a best friend, Xander. See the Twilight similarities? Guess which boy she chooses?? And of course, I like the other one.

So that bothered me. I liked parts of it. I like the idea even though it's not super original. She's also been signed by Disney I guess. She's definitely writing to her target audience -- Twilight -- and it's a little predictable, but I just can't get over the boy problem. I think Ky is a creeper. But there are a lot of occasions where I find boys to be creepers in media and I'm the only one. Overall, I did like this book. And I will read the next one, I'm sure, when Cass brings it home from the library in a month or two. And maybe I won't hate the ending. Hopefully it solves some of the mysteries Condie has laid out for us in the first book and doesn't turn into a ridiculous teenage love story with the cover of having more to it. Because this book, the series I'm sure, is ultimately about free will, agency, the power to choose. It's much deeper than Twilight, and I really hope Condie doesn't sell out just for numbers. Quality over Quantity, right? Please?

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

This novel tells the story of two children, one Chinese and one Japanese but both American, during WWII. They become friends and puppy love takes over. But racial differences during the war make it hard for them to even see one another. And then they start placing the Japanese-Americans into Internment Camps. 

Ford's novel bounces back and forth from the 1980s - "Present" - and the war years as the Panama Hotel is re-opened and belongings from Interned Japanese are found. Memories are sparked. And then the ending is exactly what you would suspect. 

The story had a few good moments and a very sweet succinct ending. Yet at times I was bored by the story and found it rather predictable.  Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. Not sure I would recommend it, but I won't berate you if you love it.

Brave New World

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

"What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder."

This past weekend I read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  It was on my list of books to read, but I had never actually heard anything about it. It is about a new society based on Ford's assembly line. It reminded me a lot of Orwell's 1984, which was my first distopian novel. Huxley clearly sets the stage for his novel and establishes the rules for this community. I completely understood the setting and became acquainted with the society.  In Brave New World, humans do not love, get married, or have children.  Babies are made in factories and raised in group homes.  They are created by caste, with a certain purpose, role, and even general personality or lifestyle associated with each caste. They purposefully create the Alphas to be superior to the other castes, which reach as low as Epsilons, who they create at a disadvantage, so as they will be content with their lives and their work. The people are not identified by themselves individually, but as members of their caste.

The problem with this society, which Huxley was obviously addressing,is that they are creating people to be content in their distinct situations, but they cannot be content because there is no opposition in their lives. They can never be truly happy because they have never truly known sorrow. The government attempts to circumvent this as they promote promiscuity, "everyone belongs to everyone else," and drug use, the soma, which places the user in an alternate state of being. There is no love, and although the society is conditioned to not need it, they still feel an emptiness.  They try to fill this with sexual relations and the soma, but it is not enough. I feel that Brave New World is a reflection of Huxley's time (written in '31), and the fears of the changes by society, but also the need to create a stable society.  With a stable society based around Ford's assembly line, we lose what makes us human and I believe that is the point Huxley is trying to make.

I was frustrated with the ending, however, because I felt as though nothing had changed despite the efforts of the characters in the novel.  But perhaps the change comes afterwards? This is why I look forward to reading The Island, the third alternative Huxley would have chosen to offer the savage, so I can see a proposed alternative, which is also the option offered to those for whom the traditional society does not work.

Brave New World was well written and has a nice storyline, and I do enjoy distopian novels, but because of the purposeful flatness of the characters, I did not create a real bond with the characters and, hence, the story. But I do feel Huxley's point was achieved, an that is the most important thing.