Persuasion by Jane Austen (#10, Classic)

Why did it take me two months to read Jane Austen's Persuasion? That is the question indeed. It took me a little while to get into it. I tried reading it in the pool in Costa Rica, but I don't think such classic literature is a good choice for lounging in the pool. I needed a trashier novel, like Klein's Straight Up and Dirty, to quench that vacation thirst for some juicy reading. But I did finally get into the book, and sped through the second half of it, crazy to know which male suitor was the decoy and which one was the gem for Anne Elliot. It is always a mystery, although I knew for a while who she was going to end up with. The end of the book was more about the build-up to the reckoning, when all feelings are made known and everything gets tidied up.

I really enjoyed this book, but I found it hard to really like Anne, the female heroine. Quiet, reserved, and happier to be reflecting on her thoughts alone than among company, she is an interesting choice on Austen's part. I will probably read all the other Jane Austen novels, just to see what the other heroines are like. These characters are the first chick lit characters, precursors to the Bridget Jones' of the current chick lit world. Personally, I prefer Austen's austere creations to today's annoying slew of feminine catastrophes.

Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker (#9, Reader's Choice)

No will ever know the trouble I went through to get this picture! The copy of Hallucinating Foucault that I read had no pretty artwork. It was quite plainly a hardcover missing its pretty jacket. Did it affect how I read the novel? Perhaps. I always am attracted by bright and beautiful cover art.

We read this novel for my Politics and Economics of the Canon, and I had a hard time placing it in a category. Reader's Choice is misleading because I definitely didn't choose this book, but its not a classic, nor is it nonfiction so I guess it has to go there. I will stop complaining though because I really enjoyed this book. It is a treat for English majors, those of us stuck reading crazy literary theorists like Foucault--whose name I finally know how to spell thanks to seeing it on the cover multiple times--and Barthes. This novel offers a (fictional) sneak peek into what it would be like to meet and fall in love with the object of your study. What reader doesn't at one point fantasize, or even just wonder, what it would be like to meet your favorite writer and be able to ask them anything?

Hallucinating Foucault deals with the long debated literary question of reader and author. Duncker's novel, though teasing at times with this theme as it seems she might just let reader and author coexist happily, but in the end she upholds the Barthes' theory of the death of the author. A literary work depends not on the author, but on the reader with all his/her experiences, perceptions, and ideological systems.

*On a side note, one out of nine books I have read so far have caused crying. I am going to keep a tally of how many of the 50 books bring tears to my eyes.

Blindsided by Richard M. Cohen (#9, Nonfiction)

I am not sure whether I think of this book as a complete downer or as an inspiration. Clearly it is an extraordinary story--a man's tale of living three decades with multiple sclerosis, not to mention two bouts of colon cancer added into the mix. All the while Cohen continues his career as a news producer for a major network and takes the reader with him on his journeys to Beirut and El Salvador in the midst of war zones.

I do not envy Richard Cohen, and I certainly wouldn't want to be in his shoes. But I admire and respect the accomplishments he has achieved with such huge physical barriers in his way. Hopefully his memoir will inspire both those with similar ailments, as well as those without, to continue striving for everything they deserve as well as everything they believe to be out of reach.

Blindsided made me a bit of a hypochondriac and a bit sad, but it also made me appreciate everything that I already have right in front of me. I think I am fairly good about embracing the small things in life and not dwelling on the trivial, but it's always nice to be reminded that life is good.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (#8, Reader's Choice)

Oh where has the last month gone? For the past two weeks I tried over and over to make a dent in the Blind Assassin, and finally, last night I got hooked and sped through 300 pages to the finish line.

Margaret Atwood is a great writer with innovative ideas. Steph let me borrow The Handmaid's Tale over the summer, which was very 1984-esque, and although I found it creepy it was a good read. In her more recent novel, The Blind Assassin, the theme is more traditional--the rise and fall of a once prosperous yet twisted family--but Atwood still manages to weave a story within a story within a story. Yes, you read correctly, three stories for the price of one.

I haven't talked with Steph yet about her thoughts on the book, but when she gave it to me she said it had a mystery to it. Within the last chapter the narrator reveals the big "secret" and everything falls into place. But I am not sure if it was actually supposed to be mysterious or not because I had already decided that the cryptic lines were not actually cryptic, but obvious. So either I am really smart (obviously) or Atwood didn't intend to make her readers wait on the edge of their seat for all the answers. Either way, I enjoyed the book and I would happily recommend Atwood to all types of readers.

The Revenger's Tragedy by Cyril Tourneur (#8, Classic)

I never quite know what to write about the books I read for class. This was a really strange play. Reading it had me thirsting for the delightfulness of a Shakespearean piece. At least when Will was vulgar he did it with style and flair. In this play--I don't even really know how to describe it. Let's just say it is about a man, Vindice, who seeks revenge against a Duke who raped and killed his woman. It is a rather sick display of crazy as there is a scene where Vindice carries around the skull of his deceased fiancee, talking to her and then later tricking the Duke into kissing the veiled skull so as to poison him. Oh and don't forget the other subplot where Vindice consents to trying to convince his mother (he is in a disguise of course) to let the Duke's son have sex with his sister. Yeah.

So, that's about all I got for that. I suppose I should reserve my critical observations for an imminent paper. Up next--I hope it is Persuasion, as I have been slowly progressing through what is not a bad book at all--I just have lots of non-book things to read for school. If only short stories, poems, and scholarly articles counted.

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult (#7, Reader's Choice)

A few years ago I read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, and although I never really got into her continuous narrator change, the book as a whole made me think. Thinking is good. When I saw Vanishing Acts sitting on my roommate's bookcase I thought it would be the perfect beach read for my trip to Costa Rica. Apparently, some time in the past few years I became a book snob and I found almost no redeeming qualities in this book.

I could appreciate the legal jargon in My Sister's Keeper but not in Vanishing Acts. To be fair, maybe I enjoyed it more because I find the topic of medical legal rights more interesting than family law, which is all a matter of taste. But, on the other hand, I found most of Vanishing Acts unbelievable and trite. I had a really hard time seeing the dad in jail teaching his cellmate how to make Crystal Meth. And the whole happily ever after ending?!? In what world does the best friend who has been pining over the girl for their whole lives finally get her and everyone is happy??? I don't think so.

Side Note: The night before my flight to Costa Rica I couldn't fall asleep (big surprise) so I picked up another book belonging to my roommate (I'm starting to entirely question her taste) just to pass the time, and I feel like I need to warn anyone and everyone against reading Every Sunday by Peter Pezzelli. Just don't do it. Unless you're in the mood for an obvious unfolding of the plot and awful writing stay away.

Straight Up & Dirty by Stephanie Klein ( #7, Nonfiction)

Oh what felicity it was for me to find this book in a closet of orphaned beach reads at our house in Costa Rica. I nearly jumped for joy. Yes, I am a fan of Stephanie Klein's website, Greek Tragedy--have been for a couple years--but for some reason I never really felt the need to purchase her memoir. Perhaps I sensed how much of it I had already read by obsessively checking her blog. Klein's blog is the only one I started reading and was so intrigued and fascinated by her stories that I went back to the beginning posts and read everything she had written. If you don't know her story, it is a compelling one.

I wouldn't put this book into the hands of any men because her stuff is on the girly side, but it is pretty hilarious at times. Becky gave me many a strange look as I sat next to her in the pool reading Klein's tell-all memoir. It is definitely not for those who blush easily. The title really means what it says: straight up and dirty accounts of Klein's bad marriage to a cheater and her subsequent struggle to put a horrible relationship behind her and find herself again. It is inspirational, if not a bit tedious. A lot of sections seemed like they could have been trimmed, as there are countless passages where she tells us the same things, over and over again. But those scenes are interspersed with the juicy scenes that make you crack up--like the time she let out a huge fart in front of her boyfriend for the first time and then got what she calls 'rhea, which is short for diarrhea, right before running a race with him. Good stuff.