Marley and Me

I think to enjoy this book you must have to like dogs.  It was immensely boring and I don't much enjoy authors who over-use words that are not in every-day language.  Like Anne Rice used "preternatural" all the damn time, this guy used "withering" at least 3-4 times in the book.  Everyone was always giving everyone else "withering looks".  I can see why this was a lovely family movie, but as a book-- boring fluff.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

I read this in high school (thank you, Suzy Bolton) and I remember being moved to tears.  Listening to it (read by Michael York) there were again places where I was moved, but it somehow lost its power.  Maybe it is something my friend Jessie says about reading things at different points in your life.  I think that I was more idealistic and less jaded 12 years ago.

If you've never read the book, here is a synopsis and SPOILERS:  A black country priest in South Africa journeys to Johannesburg to find his son, which he does, but too late.  His son has killed a white man who was fighting for native rights during Apartheid.  They go to court.  The son is found guilty.  The crime and punishment (ha!) are not really the point.  After the son is found guilty, the victim's father (who lives in the country near the priest) offers support in various ways for the broken land.  The novel ends with the priest working with a farming instructor who is teaching the natives to work their land.

The novel really explores old issues of racism and imperialism, the invasion of the white man into a society then forcing that people to abandon their ways of life for (in this case) gold-mining.  When issues are huge like this, I tend to shut down.  When something is too big for me to get my mind around, I turn off and ignore the problem, knowing someone else will pick up the slack.  It's shameful and I know it.  The great thing about this novel is that it takes a look at several relationships around one terrible event.  Relationships are how change comes about.  Relationships are how minds and hearts are changed.  Relationships are how GOOD teachers connect with kids and how GOOD parents discipline.  When you think about change happening one relationship at a time, I guess it seems not so scary and maybe I won't shut down.

The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room

Over the past few years, I'v begun picking up books and saying, "Oh, this looks good!"  Then I begin the book and realize that it IS good... and that I read it previously.  So, I am beginning this as a journal for remembering all the reading I do.  :)

My most recent books were checked out on audio from the library in the school I teach for.  In less than a week, I finished them and very much enjoyed them:

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning.  This was read by Tim Curry, which is why I picked it up off the shelf immediately.  The Baudelaire children begin their sad turn of events by receiving news that their parents have died in a house fire while the children were exploring the beach.  They are then passed on to a relative, Count Olaf, who will becoming their nemesis for the rest of the series (I assume... I've only read two of these books).  He stages a marriage to Violet, the oldest, but is thwarted by her cleverly using her left hand to sign the marriage license.  One of the things I love about this book is that the narrator's presence is VERY strong.  He is constantly interrupting to warn the reader that the story has a sad ending or to tell the reader what a word means.  The dry humor is wonderful because you can just imagine parents reading this with their kids and laughing out loud.  At the end of the book there is an interview with the author.  It's odd because I'm not sure if he is actually on the autism spectrum or if he is pretending for the sake of his "character". It reminds me of Andy Kaufmann.  He's pretending that he is not really Lemony Snicket, but simply Daniel Handler, the legal rep. for Lemony Snicket.

The Reptile Room immediately followed the first.  It was significantly less scary, which I think Snicket made up for by killing a character.  I very much appreciated the suspense of this sophomore novel, but you can tell that it is a vehicle for continuing the series and providing a little sunshine after such a negative first book.  The sad part is that I can no find the rest of the series on audio!

I must also admit that I must have finished these at least 6 books ago and have forgotten about this blog.  I'm back on the beat, now.  ;)