Wrap it up...

Okay, so I've been done with the Chunckster Challenge since forever (well, since July) and I'm tired of looking at it on my blog so I'm writing the wrap up and getting rid of it.
For this challenge, we were to read four books in 2008 that were over 450 pages long. These are the first four. I'm sure I've read more than that since July, but those were the first and they're the ones I counted.

I read...

1. LA Confidential - James Ellroy 4/5
2. The Red and the Black - Stendhal 4/5
3. Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg 4/5
4. The Virgin's Lover - Phillipa Gregory 4/5

Okay. So they were all consistently pretty good all across the board. I think Standing in the Rainbow was my favorite. All good reads.

I have also just finished up the Book to Movie Challenge. Between September 1st and December 1st, read three books that have been turned into movies.

I read...

1. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott 5/5
2. The Pilgrim of Hate - Ellis Peters 4/5
3. The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury 4/5

All good, but Little Women was the best.

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

little women
louisa may alcott
c. 1868
669 pages
completed 9/22/2008

*may contain spoilers*

This was read for several challenges: the Decades Challenge, the Classics Challenge, and the Book to Movie Challenge (see sidebar for all).

I can't believe I haven't read this book before now. I saw the movie (with Winona Ryder and Christian Bale) forever ago and even without having seen it I knew all the spoilers from Friends seeing as my favorite episode is "The One Where Monica and Richard Are Friends" (where Rachel and Joey trade books and then spoil the books for each other...and then in the end Joey has to put Little Women in the freezer since he's so upset about Beth). So this fitting into so many challenges seemed like a good time to finally read it.

I was a little worried I would find the book boring, especially since I already knew the story, but thankfully that turned out not to be the case. I was not expecting this book to be so focused on morals. The first half especially, it seemed like every chapter ended with one of the girls learning some kind of moral life lesson. And the lessons were sweet and you fell in love with the girls for learning them in their funny little ways, like Meg burning off her hair. I know Jo was supposed to be the heroine, but I think I liked Meg the best. She was sweet and she was funny and I enjoyed reading about the scrapes she got into the most. I couldn't stand Amy. Occasionally I felt sorry for her, like when she was embarrassed at school or when she had to man the flower booth instead of the art booth, but for the most part I just thought she was a brat. Yes, she grew up and learned what was really important in the end, but I had spent so much time not liking her that for me it was too late. She may have changed her ways, but by that time I didn't care. I skipped over the whole chapter that was just her letters home from her trip abroad. I just didn't care.

5/5

The Virgin's Lover - Phillippa Gregory

the virgin's lover
philippa gregory
c. 2004
450 pages
completed 7/14/2008

*may contain spoilers*

I love Philippa Gregory. Well, I love her Tudor series. So far I have not been wild about her other novels.

The Virgin's Lover is the story of Queen Elizabeth I's first two years of rule and her alleged affair with Robert Dudley. Which I, for one, totally believed happened. It's interesting to me that she is known as the Virgin Queen, that her purity is so revered, and yet the rumors during her time and much of the literature about her today call her...less than chaste.

This was a very different depiction of Elizabeth than I've ever read before. Normally she is shown to be the strong queen that she is known for. Yes she was vane and self-centered, but she was still intelligent and loved her country. This book portrayed her as flighty, scared, and temperamental. She couldn't make up her mind on anything. She wouldn't listen to her councilmen. She was so besotted with Dudley that she couldn't rule her country. I really didn't like her.

This was the first time I really saw Amy as a character. So far before I've only read people talking about her, but here we got to know her. I feel sure she was murdered, and out of the three main suspects, I think this book made the most sense with their choice. I felt bad for her. She tried, but she was just not in the same league as Dudley. She wanted a quiet, simple life. They could never make each other happy. Though I was proud that she could stand up to Dudley in the end and not give him a divorce.

Probably not my favorite Philippa Gregory, but still good.

4/5

Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg

standing in the rainbow
fannie flagg
c. 2003
544 pages
completed 6/18/2008

*may contain spoilers*

As a disclaimer before I actually review this book I want to point out that it was read primarily for the Southern Reading Challenge (see sidebar), however, during the reading of this book I learned that according to the author this book is NOT set in the South. I didn't realize Missouri wasn't considered the South. I have always considered it part of the South. Not the Deep South, like Alabama and Georgia and South Carolina, but the South none the less.

I have done some research and apparently it is one of the border states, like West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, something to do with them being part of Southern region of the US according to the Census Bureau but they didn't secede from the Union during the Civil War. So sometimes Missouri is part of the South and sometimes it's part of the Midwest. I guess they get to pick and choose. Being as I was born in West Virginia and grew up in Delaware I feel I also get to pick and choose and since my roots are in South Georgia and North Carolina, I like to think of myself as a bit of a Southerner. And for the purpose of this challenge, Missouri gets to be Southern, too.

I'm not going to lie, I was a little wary going into this book seeing as I wasn't totally thrilled with the other Fannie Flagg novel I tried, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (despite my total love of the film), but it turns out I was pleasantly surprised. One of my main issues with Fried Green Tomatoes was it's lack of structure, that each chapter jumped from story line to story line and jumped back in forth in time. The book similarly jumped between characters and story lines, but seemed to follow a much more stable flow of time. Time was always moving in basically one direction.

I thought this book was mostly very sweet. Most of the characters were completely lovable. There was no big plot, just little life stories from people in a small town. I think I loved reading about Mackey and Norma and their Aunt Elner the best. The Oatmans were a little too much at times, but I think that was part of their charm. The Smith Family was charming and entertaining, especially the misadventures Bobby would get himself into as a child.

I think probably the most involved storyline was that of Hamm Sparks and Betty Raye and the political races. This was a little unfortunate since this was the storyline I liked the least. I just couldn't like Hamm Sparks. I thought there was just nothing redeemable about him. I think the author tried to portray him as someone honest and unbiased in politics, but I think she fell short of that goal. The author tried to portray him as honest in his politics, but he lost all credibility to the reader for continually not keeping his word to his wife and eventually taking a mistress. And he was supposedly unbiased towards this "little man" (I know he said there's no such thing as the "little man"), but his politics continually painted those who were well off as nothing but evil and corrupt which is a bias in itself. And I think his character really unraveled at his speech about the Vietnam War at (I think) UC Berkley, though I actually think (due to the reaction of the people in the story) that the author intended for his speech to make him look better. To me, it made him seem uneducated and thoughtless.

Even when Hamm Sparks first made his appearance, I thought he was a little too slick. His courtship of Betty Raye was not romantic, it was borderline harassment. Yes, at the end of the courtship the author said Batty Raye was in love, but I almost think she wasn't. That she said yes partly out of exhaustion or not knowing what else to say. Also, I thought from that first Valentine's Day during her senior year in high school that Betty Raye should someday marry Jimmy. I like to think that they did in the end, when he went to live with her in her little red brick house.

One other part of the book that bothered me was the character of Cecil Figgs. I didn't like his depiction. To be honest, I was at times a little offended. I...THINK he was supposed to be a gay character, but this was never expressly said. If I remember correctly, I think when we went to New Orleans it was mentioned that he wanted to stay because of the pretty boys. But I didn't like that he was on more than one occasion referred to as a fairy. And he was portrayed as annoying, not really a man, obsessed with decorations and planning events. And then he ended his life by pretending to be dead so he could recreate himself as Mrs. Boom Boom and headline a nightclub. As if that great joy was the best thing a gay man could aspire to. I don't know. I wanted to like his character, but he got more and more ridiculous as time went on. And maybe I'm reading to much into his character.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed that it was basically a series of anecdotes, almost as if you were reading the "best of the neighbor Dorothy show."

4/5

The Red and the Black - Stendhal

the red and the black

stendhal
c.1830
485 pages
completed 5/7/08

*may contain spoilers*

I am pretty sure I liked this book.

I was never sure of Julien's character. I had trouble deciding if I liked him or not. I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to like him. There were times when he was super shy and bumbling and terrified of everything, or where he was so passionate and completely in awe of someone he respected. But there were other times when he was so selfish, so arrogant, and full of so much self love and self pity. Stendhal kept referring to him as 'our hero' so I think I should like him, but I don't know.

I was never sure if he was actually in love with Madame de Renal or Mademoiselle de la Mole or just obsessed with the idea of possessing their love, the love of those in a superior class. I felt bad for both women. I didn't really like either of them, I thought they were too weak and petty and small minded, but I did feel for them. They had such passion for this man and were risking so much for his love and he could really take it or leave it. He loved them when he wanted to, not constantly.

His hypocrisy irritated me. He held the upper class with such disdain, as I think most peasant like him did in those days, yet he so much wanted to be a part of them.

I think there is probably a lot of this book that I didn't get, especially some of the French politics and Julien's psychological structure. As for the story itself, I enjoyed it.

4/5

LA Confidential - James Ellroy

la confidential
james ellroy
c. 1990
496 pages

*may contain spoilers*

Read this book for both the Chunkster Challenge and 100 Greatest Novels (see sidebar for both). I had started it once before, but hadn't even gotten past the prologue. This time, by about half way through, I realized I couldn't put it down. I brought it with me everywhere I went.

I love cop shows, Law and Order, Numbers, etc. But I've never been one to READ cop stories. This is a first. And while I completely engrossed in the story and the characters, I got really confused sometimes. I think this will have to be one that I reread at some point. I need to make a character chart to keep track of everybody, how everyone's connected and who knows what.

I was so mad at the ending. While reading, I fell in love with Jack Vincennes, even more so when I looked up the movie and saw he was played by Kevin Spacey, which is somewhat odd seeing as I never knew I was such a Kevin Spacey fan. I think I've only seen two of him movies all the way through (American Beauty and Superman Returns, in case anyone was wondering). Apparently he has made quite an impression on me. ANYWAY. I was so mad when he died. However, one of them had to go, I guess. My vote was for Bud, but seeing as Ed and Jack were the ones who had a secret in their past that showed them not quite the hero they were supposed to be, he was let go. And I guess you knew it would happen to Jack and not Ed. He got his absolution, divulging his secret to Ed and Karen, and both forgave him. And as soon as he put that Hawaiian shirt on underneath his clothes, you knew he was a goner.

I hated that they didn't get Dudley, too. Jack died and they couldn't get Dudley.

4/5

Who wants a chunky?

And so I'm at it again. I've just signed up for the Chunkster Challenge 2008! In this challenge, from now until December 20th, I need to read four chunky books (books over 450 pages long). Really there are no other requirements. AND I can cross over, so books that I'm reading for other challenges, I can read for this. Sounds good to me!

The List:

LA Confidential - James Ellroy
The Red and the Black - Stendhal
The Virgin's Lover - Phillippa Gregroy
Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg