50 Books in a Year: Book #54 A Study in Scarlet

The only Sherlock Holmes book I've ever read is The Hound of the Baskervilles, I read it, on purpose, in 6th grade after spending many years watching the old black and white version with Basil Rathbone. I was looking forward to reading more Holmes for The Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge, but didn't want to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (as I knew it wasn't the first book). Then a friend turned me on to this...

It just makes sense that after watching Benedict Cumberbatch (Hell-O the Anglophile in me loves him and his name, can we get more British with the name there?) in A Study in Pink  I'd want to read Doyle's A Study in Scarlet.

Um, yeah, while I enjoy the parallels, I should have probably read the book first...

Fun parallels:
1] The titles, of course, are adorable in comparison to each other.
2] The dialogue...there are parts in the book that are word for word in the episode (opening scene, Holmes defending why the cops need him, blood on the walls) the setting and inflections changed, which just makes it more interesting.
3] The Cabbie...of course, one is in a horse-drawn buggy, but still.
4] The choice (don't want to give anything away here).
5] Holmes still vain, still mad, still quite misunderstood by everyone except Watson, and, of course, himself.
6] The Solar System.
and...
7]They both open with Watson having PTS, wounded, back from a military tour in Afghanistan (kid you not, same opener).

A Study in Pink is...
1] Faster paced, there is a whole entire sequence, in the novel, set in The States about Mormons and scandals and murder, that I'm sure we sort of needed, but not really in a rather long chapter flashback...totally ruins the pacing and it's hard to get the pace back or care about the murders after that.
2] Has a Watson that I just adore, second only to Jude as Watson, of course.
3] Devoid of doggie-icide...I'm sure that wouldn't go over well, sick and old dog or not, with a modern audience.
4] devious and creepy, the ending is breath-taking and, well, I didn't have to go through 4 million (slight exaggeration) pages of nonsense to get to to it.

So, while I liked this book is really isn't as good as The Hounds of the Baskerville nor as fun and clever as it's modern version.

4 Stars   

I love this book, but would not give up my first born for it...you should read it though :)

For more Holmes info check out: Holmesian Derivations

50 Books in a Year: Book #53 Twenty Boy Summer

34 years ago my brother died in a car accident, I was  a little over a year old, he was three. I don't remember much about him, save one strange memory of him standing outside the car entertaining me while my mom pumps and pays for gas. I recall the car, the sun sparkling off of the metal on the window and the smell of the summer day mingling with the smell of the gasoline. And, of course, I have the stories, of how he called me Finnie Shell for Stephanie Michelle, how he would chase me around the house, how he could make me laugh...it hurts that I only have these stories and not their memories.

2 years ago I gave birth to a tiny person, I was a little over 33 years old, she was a surprise. I remember everything about the night I found out I was pregnant, everything about the day the doctor confirmed it, showing us the ultrasound of our little girl already 5 months in the making and every moment anxiously awaiting her arrival. And, of course, I have the stories, of how she calls me Mommy and Mom and sometimes Mommy Stephanie, how she comes to school with me on Saturday Publication work days, how she makes me laugh...it hurts to realize I used to think my life was complete without her.

It's these two people, the brother I never knew and the person I didn't know who could make me, well, a better me, that I think about when I think about Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler.

From Goodreads:
"Don’t worry, Anna. I’ll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it." "Okay." "Promise me? Promise you won’t say anything?" "Don’t worry.” I laughed. “It’s our secret, right?"  

According to Anna’s best friend, Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy every day, there’s a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie–she’s already had her romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago. 
TWENTY BOY SUMMER explores what it truly means to love someone, what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every beautiful moment life has to offer.

This book has so much in it and it speaks honestly about love, friendship, family and what it means to grieve the loss of a loved one.

I am more than willing to believe that when you are still grieving the loss of someone you truly love that having sex for the first time helps to heal the wound, that blocking it out and drinking and pretending to have sexual exploits makes it a little easier to be alive and that when your child dies a piece of you dies and living doesn't even seem possible. I believe that each of the characters in this book acts how people act when their hearts hurt so much they can't feel it.

I like that the parents and other grown-ups in this book are ancillary to the true narrative. I do not mind that the girls sneak out of the house to hang out with boys, go to a party by lying and making up imaginary girl friends. I believe that grieving parents who are just as lost as their still alive children, in this case the very lost Frankie, don't know how to act or how to feel, I believe they ignore and believe what they want to believe. Here's what I don't like, here's the part that makes me sad and here's the part that I hope makes me a better parent...neither of the girls talk to their parents about how they feel and I believe Anna's parents, would listen and trying to help. While I don't need to know everything that my daughter is doing or will do I hope that she knows that she can always talk to me and she can always share her most personal thoughts with me. I hope that she knows that I love her no matter what.

Everything in this book is real and honest and tender and I wouldn't change a single word of it.

My niece is reading this book right now and I know that I'm going to make sure this book finds its way into the hands of my daughter and then we can have a talk about love and friendship and when it's appropriate to have sex and I hope that while I am not her peer she sees me as someone to go to when she needs to do so.

While I write this my daughter is singing "Happy Birthday to Mommy", it isn't my birthday until next May, but it sure feels like a celebration.



5 Stars

This book has now become part of my foundation and is an extension of the very essence of me...I laughed, I cried [or some other emotion] and am sad this reading is over...gush, gush, gush...

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 09

Several months ago I found this book challenge (since then I have seen many variations of it, but I like this one best!), and have been intrigued about how I would answer the questions posed. Feel free to comment with your own answer or post the challenge to your own blog.

Best Scene Ever

 When I first read The English Patient there were so many passages that I quoted and shared with anyone who would listen. However, the passage below is my favorite...it is full of the best parts any book the nostalgia and the ability to equate it with your own life instantly. I had known moments like this, at the age of 21, but those that I remember now are more meaningful in their longing.

p299-302
Now where does he sit as he thinks of her? These years later. A stone of history skipping over the water, bouncing up so she and he have aged before it touches the surface again and sinks.

Where does he sit in his garden thinking once again he should go inside and write a letter or go one day down to the telephone depot, fill out a form and try to contact her in another country. It is this garden, this square patch of dry cut grass that triggers him back to the months he spent with Hana and Caravaggio and the English patient north of Florence in the Villa San Girolamo. ...

She will, he realizes now, always have a serious face. She has moved from being a young woman into having the angular look of a queen, someone who has made her face with her desire to be a certain kind of person. He still likes that about her. Her smartness, the fact that she did not inherit that look or that beauty, but that it was something searched for and that it will always reflect a present stage of her character. It seems every month or two he witnesses her this way, as if these moments of revelation are a continuation of the letters she wrote to him for a year, getting no reply, until she stopped sending them, turned away by his silence. His character, he supposed. ...

During the evening meal he watches his daughter struggling with her cutlery, trying to hold the large weapons in her small hands. At this table all of their hands are brown. They move with ease in their customs and habits. And his wife has taught them all a wild humour, which has been inherited by his son. He loves to see his son's wit in this house, how it surprises him constantly, going beyond even his and his wife's knowledge and humour...

And so Hana moves and her face turns and in a regret she lowers her hair. Her shoulder touches the edge of a cupboard and a glass dislodges. Kirpal's left hand swoops down and catches the dropped fork an inch from the floor and gently passes it into the fingers of his daughter, a wrinkle at the edge of his eyes behind his spectacles.

Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)
Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 – The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 – A book or series you hate
Day 06 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 07 – Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08– A book everyone should read at least once 
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 – A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – A book or series of books you’ve read more than five times
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 – Favorite character in a book
Day 15 – Your “comfort” book
Day 16 – Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 – Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 – Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 – Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 – Favorite kiss
Day 21 – Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 – Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 – Most annoying character ever
Day 24 – Best quote from a novel
Day 25 – Any five books from your “to be read” stack
Day 26 – OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 – If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 – First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 – Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 – What book are you reading right now?

50 Books in a Year: Book #52 Dr. No

OK, so this is James Bond book #6 on the list of original books written by Ian Fleming and, so far (I've read 8) this my least favorite. I enjoy campiness and, in relation to James Bond novels, I can tolerate misogyny, racism and impossible plot structures and devices. I could not do that with this book...and, I find it strange that Eon Films elected to pick this book as it's first Bond film (I like the film way loads better), I'm sure that had something to do with Honey Ryder, but I digress.

I'm trying really hard to find something that I liked about this book (and, have just successfully lowered it's stars from 3 to 2), I suppose I can start with what I didn't like.

1] Honey Ryder...there's no white bikini in this book and she spends half her time half-naked looking to James to save her. Now, usually this works and I find myself thinking, yes, James should be in charge here. However, I'm supposed to believe that Honey is so inculcated into the culture that she can live on her own, can go to this remote island alone to fish et cetera, but once James comes along she's weak and helpless...

2] The setting...a remote island off of Jamaica where Chinegros (a Fleming word, not mine...really, I would never use the word Chinegro, what a word!) work for this strange man. The only thing stopping him from taking over the world...bird poop.

3] Dr. No...he sounds asexual and weird and not in a good Blofeld kind of way...I was not scared of this man, nor could I pretend to be intimidated, I was too grossed out.

What I liked (see I knew that if I started writing about what I didn't like these things would come to me):

1] that it's set in Jamaica, I love reading about this country through the eyes of Ian Fleming. I have no desire to go to Jamaica, too darned hot, I have no desire to live in Jamaica, too darned hot, and I also dislike the beach, however, every time I read a passage describe this road or that restaurant I feel a little yearning in my heart.

2] The opening sequence and every detail seems to have been used precisely in the movie. What a fun opener...

Anyway, I could really take or leave this book...and, that makes me sad. I guess out of 14 books, I couldn't be expected to love them all, right!?

Isaiah 43.2

[Source]

Pinterest! *fist of fury* Oh How I Love Thee!

OK, so remember my post about Christmas gifts for my department found here?

Thanks to one of my former students and dear friends, I am now on Pinterest...I have tried not to be on Pinterest because I knew I would never ever leave.

What is Pinterest you ask?

Pinterest appeals to my...
1. deep down need to be organized and my inability to do that anywhere except for on paper
2. craftiness
3. scrapbookishness
4. need to decorate the house so it actually looks like a girl lives here
5. need to make list and then categorize those list and then categorize those sublist
6. need to devote more time to me and what I enjoy
7. love of food, good food...fooooodddd!
8. love of all things seasonal and holiday
9. collecting spirit
10. my internet obsession

If you are so inclined you can follow me here.

Thanks Chrissy!!! And...

Booking Through Thursday (Mood Reading)

         From Booking Through Thursday:

Do you find that your mood affects the things you read? Like, if you’re in a bad mood, do you tend to indulge in reading that will support it or do you try to read things that will cheer you up? Do you pick different types of books on dreary, rainy days than you do on bright sunny ones?

For that matter, does your mood color what you’re reading, so that a funny book isn’t so funny or a serious one not so deep?

     I have found that my mood affects the things that I read. I have also found the the things that I read affect my mood (might I suggest not reading the world's most depressing book over Christmas Break, might I also suggest not reading the end of a book series in the summer, it will just be all sorts of bittersweet while the sun is shining).
    When I am in a bad mood I tend to read books that are light (either in how easy they are to read or in terms of plot, sometimes both)...I find that at the end of each semester, while traveling and during breaks I like to read the fluffy of the fluffiest, I might even indulge in Romance novels when stressed.
    I purposely assign The Scarlet Letter at the beginning of the year and Ethan Frome during January. I don't think that TSL would be absorbed so readily at the end of the year when the brain is weak and there's just something chilling about being stranded in Starkfield that would be lost if we read it in May.
    I have definite opinions about books and where they belong in the course of my reading, especially nowadays when I have so few precious minutes to spare. I like to take those minutes up reading books that enhance me and, well, enhance my mood.

Feel free to share your answers below, on the original post (above), on FB or on your own blog!