30 Books Before I'm 30: Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility 

by Jane Austen

"Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition."

It turns out that I have read this book, hated it, and repressed the memory. This is definitely not one of Austen's better works. Her characters are not exceptionally believable (or likable), and I didn't care whether the sisters ultimately ended up with their rich-but-humble love interests. They do, of course, but    is there a less likable character than Marianne Dashwood? Blech. How could anyone, let alone two handsome bachelors, want to marry her? So, thank you Jane Austen, for perpetuating the myth that you can have a crummy personality and yet still get married as long as you're attractive.

Things I Liked: Austen novels are generally feel-good and uncomplicated. Bad people get comeuppanced and good people get married.

Things I Didn't Like: I hated the characters. Also, everyone has the same name because they are all related, and, yes, it was confusing.

This Book Would be Best If Read: In an airplane, on a long car-ride, NOT in the gym (once again).

If you Liked This Book, You May Also Like: Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, Jane Eyre (pretty much all the books that make for teary-eyed, Friday night PBS/BBC-watching)

This Book Wins My Award For: Resulting in the most boring 30BBI30 review so far. (Super sorry. This book was just as boring to read as it was to review).

Up Next: Women of Covenant (for reals this time) 

14 down, 16 to go!

30 Books Before I'm 30: Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights 
by Emily Bronte
"It was a strange way of killing: not by inches, but by fractions of hairbreadths, to beguile me with the spectre of hope through eighteen years!"

For some reason, I always thought Wuthering Heights was a gothic romance; I figured it would be similar to Jane Eyre or Sense and Sensibility. I thought Heathcliff was supposed to be a tragic, yet romantic man who pulls himself up by his bootstraps to make something of himself in society.

Um. Not quite. The entire time I was reading it, I kept asking myself, "Where is the part where people are not crazy?" Because everyone in this book is absolutely nuts. The story follows the course of the Earnshaw and Linton families, who lives across the moors from each other. The Earnshaw pater familias dies after bringing home an orphan boy (Heathcliff) who may or may not have Antisocial Personality Disorder. The other Earnshaw kids-- older son Hindley and daughter Catherine-- have a spectrum of feelings for Heathcliff-- mostly negative, though Catherine apparently falls in love with him (because they were close during childhood), even though she treats him like a jerk and marries another man for his money. Heathcliff takes revenge by being a general a-hole. The narrator is Mr. Lockwood, who rents Thrushcross Grange (the Linton home), and may or may not be gay, but he is told the story of the Earnshaw and Linton families by the head housekeeper, Ellen Dean. Lots of people die, but no one is murdered. There may have been a ghost or two.

What I Liked: I prefer this book to Jane Eyre because, though all of the characters are awful, they stay awful. Heathcliff is only redeemed (spoiler alert!) when he dies, and Catherine Jr. and Hareton are able to love each other because they were never actually terrible people themselves but were only raised by terrible people. There is more depth to this book than I gave it credit in the beginning, and I probably shouldn't have read half of it on a treadmill because I would have gotten more out of it.

What I Didn't Like: I can't decide whether I liked or hated the narrative device. I realize that it was a stylistic choice that reflected the time period, but it felt removed to be getting the story from the housekeeper.

I wish I had known from the beginning that the story wasn't really a romance (in the way I conceptualize romances) and that Heathcliff wasn't going to be a likable character. I kept waiting for him to get nicer (and was a bit shocked when he hanged a puppy), but he didn't. 

This Book Would Be Best When Read: On a sunny Sunday in your favorite reading chair, or wherever you read when you're comfortable (NOT THE GYM!)

I Would Recommend this Book to: Anyone feeling slightly morbid (as the characters are all pretty awful and abusive).

In my Psychological Opinion*: I would diagnose Catherine Earnshaw with Borderline Personality Disorder due to the following criteria: pervasive pattern of interpersonal instability (I mean, come on, she marries one guy, has an affair with her adopted brother, and hardly reacts when her father dies while stroking her hair), frantic efforts to avoid abandonment (locking herself in her room and wailing that she's dying until someone notices), pattern of unstable relationships characterized by vacillation between idealization and devaluation (her entire relationship with Heathcliff), impulsivity, affective instability, and inappropriate and intense anger. 


Examples from the book: "There she (Catherine Earnshaw) lay dashing her head against the arm of the sofa, and grinding her teeth, so that you might fancy she would crash them to splinters! Mr. Linton stood looking at her in sudden compunction and fear" (inappropriate anger and self-harm behaviors?) and "A minute previously she (Catherine Earnshaw) was violent; now, supported on one arm, and not noticing my refusal to obey her, she seemed to find childish diversion in pulling feathers from the rents she had just made, and ranging them on the sheet according to their different species: her mind had strayed to other associations" (possible dissociation?)

This Book Wins my Award for: Most intolerably incomprehensible colloquial language used by the servants (except, thankfully for Ellen Dean who tells most of the story). For example: "They's nowt norther dry nor mensful abaht t' place: nowt there isn't!" 

Up Next: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, though I'm currently reading a non-30BBI30 (see what I did there?), At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie. I needed a palate-cleanser.


*Note: This section is intended as a joke only; I would never diagnose someone, real or imagined, without an appropriate clinical interview.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Sophie's World

Sophie's World 

by Jostein Gaarder

"Dear Hilde, If the human brain was simple enough for us to understand, we would still be so stupid that we couldn't understand it. Love, Dad."

I put this book on my list because it seemed like everyone from my IHS program in high school had read it but me, and even at nearly 30 years old I still felt left out. Sophie's World is essentially non-fiction encased in fiction; the meat of the story is an intro to philosophy from the Greeks to the Absurdists and the fluff of the story is about a girl named Sophie who gets tutored about philosophy by an initially-unknown weirdo/philosopher named Alberto Knox. The rest of this review contains spoilers, so if you're planning to read this book then discontinue reading this post.

Okay? Here's what happens: the philosopher sends Sophie anonymous notes, brought by his dog Hermes, until the dog leads her to the philosopher's creepy cabin in the woods. There was also a whole subplot where Sophie kept finding postcards for some chick name Hilde from Hilde's father. Then Alberto kept talking about Hilde's dad as the creator of the world and Hermes the dog started talking like a person. We finally discover that Sophie and Alberto are actually characters in a book written for Hilde by her father, who is in Lebanon with the UN during Hilde's 15th birthday. Hilarity ensues.

Honestly, I only read this book right now because I can't read my kindle in the tub. This was really important.

What I Liked: I really think I would have liked this book more if I had read it in high school. It's an interesting way to introduce philosophy at a basic level. It made me nostalgic for high school when my brain had just developed the capacity for complex abstract thought and my friends and I would get together and excitedly discuss philosophy as though we had invented it. These conversations usually occurred late at night, sometimes took place at Dairy Queen or backstage during whatever play we were all in at the time, and were completely drug-free and hilarious (but you had to have been there).

Also, the initial mystery of who the philosopher could be kind of sucked me in at the beginning. 

What I Didn't Like: I took Intro to Philosophy my freshman year of college, and during the course of my 10 years of college (yes, with this term it's official), I have learned about everything in this book already. (That doesn't mean that I actually know anything, it just means that the philosophical concepts in this novel are very basic). I admit I skipped the section on Freud. I just couldn't do it again.

This Book Would be Best if Read: In the bathtub, obviously.

I Would Recommend This Book to: A high schooler interested in philosophy or someone who has never had a philosophy class who might like to learn.

If You Liked This Book, You Might Also Like: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

This Book Wins my Award for: Most use of my new least favorite word "bagatelle." Yuck.
P.S. For some reason I misplaced this book more often than any of the other 30 Books Before I'm 30. I think it took me so long to read it because half the time I couldn't even find it! It would have won my award for "Most Misplaced Book," except that the word "bagatelle" grated so much on my nerves.

In my Professional Psychological Opinion: (Note: This section is a joke and I would never officially diagnose a person, real or imagined, without an appropriate clinical interview.) I would diagnose Sophie and Alberto Knox with Shared Psychotic Disorder (or folie a deux) for believing that they are characters in a book who then break free and wander the earth as spirits.

Up Next: Wuthering Heights-- I'm already a quarter finished because I've been going to the gym more often and my kindle fits perfectly on both the elliptical machine and the treadmill.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Suite Francaise

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

"She remembered the defeated soldiers of the French army who a year before had fled through the town, dirty, exhausted, dragging their combat boots in the dust. Oh, my God, so this is war... An enemy soldier never seemed to be alone-- one human being like any other-- but followed, crushed from all directions by innumerable ghosts, the missing and the dead. Speaking to him wasn't like speaking to a solitary man, but to an invisible multitude..."

"Suite" refers to an ordered set of orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert rather than as accompaniment. Nemirovsky planned to write a five-piece novel, but only finished the first two parts before she was detained in a concentration camp and killed. Previous to her death she was a successful writer in Paris. Her daughters kept her notebooks but they weren't read until 1998. 

This novel starts on the evening of the German occupation of Paris and follows a series of people whose lives intertwine. The first part ("Storm in June") is about the people leaving the city and coming back, and the second book ("Dolce") is about the German occupation of a small town. 

Things I Liked: I got into this book almost right away. It's short (okay, 367 pages but it felt short), quick, and offers a view of WWII that is very relatable in a way that stories about concentration camps are not for me. The terror and horror of a concentration camp-- the threat of being found (like The Diary of Anne Frank) or living in one (like a play I was in during college-- Playing for Time) is so blindingly scary, it's hard for me not to turn off immediately and not allow myself to be emotionally involved in the stories (additionally, I've been told more than once [and I am not kidding here] that I have a perfect Aryan face and would have survived the holocaust). But I can relate to this book. I can imagine myself fleeing from bombs, and while the characters were choosing which possessions to bring with them as they fled, I mentally listed the things that I, also, could not leave without (Josh, cats, pictures, maybe my good china). 

Things I Didn't Like: There are a lot of characters in this book. A lot. Some of them make multiple appearances, some of them are only meaningful for a couple of pages. I did a lot of flipping back to try to remember who did what and where (there's a particularly bad guy who I kept confusing with a different, similarly bad guy). The second part pretty much stays on the same people, though, and was a much more engaging read.

I also didn't like that the book is unfinished, but I guess I can blame the Nazis for that.

This Book Would be Best if Read: During a long car ride (if you don't get carsick), on a beach, before bed. The chapters are short, though if you take too long to read it you might forget some of the characters who make reappearances.

I Would Recommend this Book to: Anyone and everyone. I'm not sure how stereotypically "manly" it is, but there are plenty of soldiers, lots of action, and more than half the characters are male. There are a few "kind of" love stories that are slightly sappy, but it takes place during WWII, so you know there won't be a happy ending.

If You Liked This Book, You Might Also Like: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, the movie Swing Kids (yeah, I'm recommending it).

Up Next: I really have no idea what I'm going to read next. Does anyone have suggestions from this pre-selected list of books? 

I'm 11 down, with 19 and a little more than 6 months to go. Unfortunately, I've been sneaking in some books for pleasure, as well as dissertation articles and textbooks, so it's been going a lot slower than I thought it would. 

30 Books Before I'm 30: The Blind Assassin

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

"Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off a bridge. The bridge was being repaired: she went right through the Danger sign. [...] I was informed of the accident by a policeman: the car was mine, and they'd traced the license. His tone was respectful: no doubt he recognized Richard's name."

I need to start out by saying that I loved this book, but I had a hard time getting into it. The book is set up both with chapters of the general narrative and also chapters from a science fiction novel entitled The Blind Assassin that one of the characters has written. It took me a few chapters before I got into the flow of it. The story is about two sisters from a wealthy Canadian family during the 1920s and beyond. There's a bit of mystery to it, but Atwood doesn't underestimate her readers by assuming the "reveal" will be a huge shock. There's love, there's death, there's evil and greed-- the whole gamut of human emotions. 

What I Liked: I became very invested in the characters and the setting and the storyline. I genuinely wanted to find out what happened, and even though I wasn't completely surprised by the ending, but there was something I didn't quite expect (I'm not going to give you a hint-- you need to read it for yourself).

What I Didn't Like: It was long (500+ pages). Also, as with any novel that addresses two storylines (in this case the narrative and the science fiction novel), it can be a bit jarring to go back and forth. 

This Book Would Be Best if Read: Over a long weekend, without breaks.

I Would Recommend This Book to: Anyone with an interest in the Depression and/or female protagonists. Although this is technically a love story, it isn't sappy, and the main focus is the relationship between the protagonist and her sister.

If You Liked This Book, I Would Also Recommend: Dancing Girls, also by Margaret Atwood. I've heard that The Robber Bride and The Handmaid's Tale are good, but I haven't read them. Atonement by Ian McEwan.

Up Next: Suite Francaise (because I'm already halfway done)

10 down, 20 to go

30 Books Before I'm 30: The Dante Club

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

"Do not ask what brings Dante to man but what brings man to Dante-- to personally enter his sphere, though it is forever severe and unforgiving."

I couldn't quite pinpoint, at first, what it was that made this book so difficult for me to finish. I mean, one would think (as I did when I bought it) that this type of thing would be like manna for me-- mystery and literature references!? How could I not be in heaven? But this book was a slow-starter and it took me no less than five tries to get through it all. And toward the end, I plowed through only because I had a pile of library books I needed to read before their return date.

The Dante Club is a story about a series of fictional murders that took place using Dante's Inferno as a blueprint. The main characters (Longfellow, Lowell, O.W. Holmes, etc.) were all real people, and the story centers around Longfellow's translation of Dante to English, but none of the action really took place. I don't know if I found that more confusing or annoying, but I had a really hard time at first keeping people straight and trying to determine how much about everyone I needed to know beforehand (nothing, as it turned out). The ending was interesting and not necessarily more or less predictable than other murder mysteries. I'm not sure that I would recommend this book to anyone.

What I Liked: The action of this book takes place in Boston around the end of the Civil War, and I really liked the depiction of these soldiers coming home and not really knowing what to do with themselves or where to go for help. This was several decades before PTSD was even described as "shell-shock," and I thought that it was an interesting glimpse into the lives of Civil War soldiers without actually reading a book (or watching Ken Burns's fabulous documentary). 

What I Didn't Like: There was a lot I didn't like. There were too many characters introduced too quickly, and I didn't know whether I was supposed to remember them all or whether the action in the first 20 or so pages was of utmost importance (it wasn't). Also, the author clearly did a lot of research (and tells you so in the "Historical Note," but that might have caused him to include unimportant details just to show off his knowledge. I felt like the book dragged in (lots of) places. 

I Would Recommend this Book to: No one. Not even Dante fans. Sorry.

Up Next: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood because I checked it out of the library and  I've already started it. Holy cow, it's thick.

Side-note: I'm starting to get worried I might not finish my list since it is already 5 months past my 29th birthday and I haven't even read a third of what I had planned. Can I blame it on grad school and just have another 29th birthday next year? We'll see.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy M. Montgomery

"There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I were just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."

I loved this story about an orphan who is mistakenly sent to an elderly brother and sister who wanted a boy to help with the farm. Of course from seeing the movie I loved it for the romantic aspects (Gilbert Blythe! Swoon!), but reading the book made me appreciate this beautiful world Montgomery created where the worst thing that can happen is that a girl can get accidentally drunk on what she thought was raspberry cordial. 

What I Liked: Of course I loved that the main character is a dreamer who wins over the hearts of the surly people in her town. I actually really like that she has a major flaw (red hair and a red-hot anger when people make fun of her for it) and that she is beautiful in her own way. I love that she's smart and that people love her for who she is. 

I like that, though there is a hint of romance between Anne and Gilbert, the first book isn't really about that. Instead, it's about Anne's relationships with other people and their relationships with her. It's about stubbornness and compromise, friendship and redefining family.

No wonder this book is such a comforting read! It transported me back to an earlier time in my development where I didn't worry about things the way I do now. 

What I Didn't Like: I have to admit that I cried. And it was in public, which was embarrassing. If you know the story then you'll know when during the story it was, but I'm not going to spoil anything. I even knew it was coming and I still cried. So, beware.

Gems of Wisdom: Kindle books highlight things for you sometimes, and this particular book had a lot of highlights. So I thought I'd share some of these gems of wisdom.

"Isn't is splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive-- it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything would it? THere's be no scope for imagination then, would there?"

"Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there ae so many of them in the world."

"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

"I get tired od other girls-- there is such a provoking and eternal sameness about them. Anne has as any shades as a rainbow and every shade is the prettiest while it lasts. I don't know that she is as amusing as she was when she was a child, but she makes me love her, and I like people who make me love them. It saves me so much more trouble in making myself love them."

"Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing."

"We resent the thought that anything can please us when someone we love is no longer here to share the pleasure with us, and we almost feel as if we were unfaithful to our sorrow when we find our interest in life returning to us."

This Book Would be Best if Read: Before bed. The chapters are short and they usually leave a good feeling in the gut. I read this book almost entirely on my plane ride from Portland to Austin. It's really short and really easy to read.

I Would Recommend This Book To: Pre-pubescent girls (younger than 13 because my niece is 13 and would probably think this book was way corny).

If You Like This Book, You Might Also Like: The films, of course, Anne of Avonlea (which I immediately began after finishing the first one) and other books in the series, Road to Avonlea (the television series)

Up Next: I've given up on Women of Covenant for the time being, so next (after finishing Anne of Avonlea) I'll be moving on to either The Dante Club, The House of the Spirits, or The Poisonwood Bible. Just keeping my options open.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Balancing Act

Balancing Act: The Authorized Biography of Angela Lansbury by Martin Gottfried

"As to her self-editing and reserved nature, it does not qualify the genuineness of her warmth. Angela Lansbury is as concerned, as sensitive, and as sympathetic as anyone might want in a friend. It is just that while she can offer compassion, she cannot readily give of herself. 'I don't have a best friend,' she says. 'I never did,' and she adds, genuinely puzzled, 'Why would I?'"

All right, so I know I said I was reading this next, but it was really dry. So I started reading Balancing Act instead (concurrently, really, though I pretty much stopped reading the other one for awhile).

This book was written by a good friend of Lansbury's (a stage critic, apparently, who never wrote her a bad review), so of course the book is (mostly) complimentary. It's a general biography, and unless you're interested in her, this book probably won't be your cup of tea. Also, because this is an "authorized" biography, there are zero juicy details (and considering I've become addicted to this, it was kind of a let-down).

What I Liked: I like Angela Lansbury, so all of this book was interesting since I knew practically zero about her private life. I liked that there were details about her theater career that I wouldn't otherwise know (since I've only seen her on Broadway once and wasn't around for the Mame-era Lansbury).

What I Didn't Like: The problem with this author is that he is a friend of Lansbury's so he only wrote what she allowed him to write (not that she was standing over him at the computer, but I wouldn't write nasty things about my friends either). He was also a theater critic, so he wrote predominantly about her theater life. He wrote off Bedknobs and Broomsticks as a piece of fluff (which made me sad, since that movie was such a positive part of my childhood-- I mean, how can you be sad when people are dancing around with clothing and cartoon fish?) He also devoted less than 30 pages on Murder, She Wrote, and most of that was about how Lansbury resented being compared to Jessica Fletcher (though, in fairness to her, she took that comparison seriously and made sure to choose future projects that would be in keeping with her Jessica Fletcher persona). 


I'm glad I read this book, but I think sometimes the less you know about a person, the better. The Angela Lansbury that exists in my head is much more comforting than the one that exists in real life. And I know the two aren't comparable, I'm not an idiot, but I wish I didn't read in print that Lansbury resents people for idealizing her. 

This Book Would be Best if Read: During a long weekend, while cuddling with cats and listening to the original Broadway cast recording of Sweeney Todd.

I Would Recommend This Book To: Someone who knows who Angela Lansbury is. I mean, that's helpful.

If You Like This Book, You May Also Like: The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), Sweeney Todd

Up Next: Anne of Green Gables (I kind of need a comfort read).

30 Books Before I'm 30: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

"Ill or well, she would always be plain. The grace and harmony of beauty are quite wanting in those features."

I am surprised that I never previously read Jane Eyre because it, at first, seems like a book I would love; the main character is a plain-looking (and, yes, it is mentioned quite often how unremarkable Jane is), loves reading, and eschews marrying young (she held out until the ripe-old-age of 20). Jane is brought up in unfortunate circumstances-- an orphan, adopted by her evil aunt, forced to live with her equally evil cousins, and sent off to a boarding school where the girls are starved until they die from a tuberculosis epidemic. Then Jane, using a healthy helping of spit and gumption, makes her place in the world by hiring on as a governess for the ward (illegitimate daughter) of a (surprise, surprise) dashingly unhandsome (but disgustingly rich and noble) middle-aged gentleman who (spoiler alert) immediately falls in love with her, despite that she is 18, ugly, and his employee.

This review is going to be big on spoilers because, quite frankly, I don't think you should bother reading this book. Also, I have to complain about the ending. So stop reading this now if you want to be shocked and awed when you read Jane Eyre on your own

What I Liked: This book was easy to read, though the Kindle still makes me antsy. It took me about two weeks to finish, but I didn't read every day or for very long. I liked that Jane was (somewhat) realistic. I would have loved this book in middle school or high school, back when I thought novels about love at first sight weren't irresponsible. I liked that Bronte referred to her audience as "dear reader." At first it bothered me, but then it kind of made me feel like a confidant. I liked that Bronte was able to define her characters, set up the love story, then separate the lovers. I liked that the bad guys (and gals) were bad and the good guys were good. I never felt bad, for instance, about Mr. Rochester's wife (though Bronte had to go to huge lengths to make him sympathetic after he tried to commit bigamy) or St. John the Jerk. 

What I Didn't Like: It bothered me how much of an emphasis there was put on Jane's plainness, though it was nice that Mr. Rochester was described as similarly ugly. I got the impression that Jane wasn't expected to do any better than Mr. Rochester. It bothered me that Mr. Rochester was such a cad and yet was supposed to be this excellent catch. He had a child out of wedlock that he claimed wasn't his, he locked up his wife in the attic rather than seek proper mental health care (did they have sanitariums in those days?), tried to marry Jane even though he was already married (to a woman living UNDER THE SAME ROOF!), and refused to pay Jane a proper wage when she was going to travel see her dying aunt (yes, I know that this was supposed to be "romantic" because he was trying to ensure she came back, but I also found it creepy). Bronte had to redeem him by: having his current wife be a homicidal maniac who later commits suicide by jumping from the roof of the house as it burns from a fire she set, having him lose sight in both eyes after they were destroyed/infected during the same fire, having him lose his hand, and describing him as near-suicidal with depression following Jane's departure.

So, after she was treated so poorly by Mr. Rochester, Jane comes back to find him crippled and depressed, so she gets to BE HIS CONSTANT NURSEMAID! She gets to take such good care of him, in fact, that she doesn't even have time to take care of Adele, his illegitimate child (so she gets sent to boarding school at age 8-- though not to the crummy place Mr. Rochester originally sent her to where they starved her and were generally mean).

I know, I know. Different time, different place. How dare I impose by 21st century values on a book published 163 years ago, etc. I get it.  There was a time I would have swooned over this book, but it definitely isn't now.

Words I Learned From Reading this Book: (One of the best features of the Kindle is that it has a built-in dictionary, so I have made note of the words I had to look up)  captious (fault-finding, difficult to please), opprobrium (the disgrace or reproach incurred by conduct considered shameful), vassalage (dependence, subjection, or servitude), resurgam (Latin for "I shall rise again"), inditing (to compose or write, as with a poem), genii (plural of genius), contumacy (stubborn perverseness or rebelliousness), contumelious (humiliatingly insulting), girandoles (an ornate bracket for a candelabra, sometimes with a reflecting mirror at the back of the shelf), diablerie (reckless mischief, devilry), deglutition (to swallow down), philter (a magic potion for any purpose, most commonly a love potion), pertinaciously (holding firmly to an opinion or course of action), seraglio (the woman's apartments in a harem), suttee (a Hindu practice whereby a widow throws herself on the funeral pyre of her husband, now abolished by law), dudgeon (the feeling of offense or anger), and, my favorite, spoony (foolishly or sentimentally amorous). 

How many of those words did you know? Because even the spell-check recognized only about half of those as actual words.

This Book Would be Best if Read: In 1847. 

I Would Recommend this Book to: Overly sentimental grandmas and teenage girls who like to read rather than date. Also, perhaps, young, Mormon housewives with some time on their hands.

If you Like this Book, you May also Enjoy: Anything by Jane Austen, possibly Wuthering Heights (though I have yet to read it).

Up Next: Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society by Janath Russell Canon, Jill Mulvay Derr, and Maureen Ursenback Beecher.

6 Down, 24 to go!

P.S. I did most of my reading of this book while Josh was playing "Red Dead Redemption." I thought his look of determination in the above picture was funny.

30 Books Before I'm 30: Blonde

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates

"Impossible to know the simplest of truths. Except that death is no solution to the riddle of life."

This book is a fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe's life, but the problem is that Oates did (presumably) a lot of research, so I was a little unclear about which parts were legitimate fiction. But maybe that's the point? That no one can ever truly know the whole of a person, even if that person is wildly famous. I liked that at the end of the book I still didn't know whether Norma Jean/Marilyn was a smart woman who knew how to please people (mostly men, though Oates points out that Miller's parents like her-- a detail that falls into the "I don't know if this is actually true but I wish it was" category) or a dumb woman that was popular because she capitalized on her sexuality. I know I am super clichéd by commenting that it's possible no one knew her, and even that she had no idea who she was or what she had to offer to people. (Yuck. By making that observation, I feel like I'm back in Intro to Literature my freshman year of undergrad).

Before reading this book, I knew practically nothing about Monroe, except that her real name was Norma Jean Baker and that she was married to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller (who was apparently really tall, which surprised me because I always imagined him as a teeny man with coke-bottle glasses) and that she probably slept with JFK. I do, however, know that Oates often writes about women who are victimized or brutalized by men, so I guessed what the tone of this book would be. And it was. The stupid psychologist in me kept imagining what it would be like to have Norma Jean/Marilyn as a client, and I kept thinking of how her outcome made perfect sense if even half of Oates' fictionalized history was true. 

Things I Liked: I think this book is a page-turner. Although it dragged on at times, I was at times amazed to look at the page number and find myself 20 pages from where I started (which is a gigantic difference from The Madness of Mary Lincoln which was nearly 1/7th shorter but took me four times the time to finish). 

I liked that sometimes I liked Norma Jean/Marilyn and felt like she was sympathetic, and at other times I hated her and thought she was a self-centered monster. I always find it to be a sign of a good book when I have an emotional reaction to it (an emotion other than boredom, that is). 

Things I Didn't Like: The book is 738 pages long, and Oates is, I feel, unnecessarily verbose. She uses the same metaphors, similes, and adjective multiple times (though I didn't think to make note of it to use as an example). It made me wonder about Oates' editor and what the novel looked like before it was edited. How much more could there have been?

The book is also sometimes nonlinear and disjointed. Oates incorporates conversations that I wasn't quite sure were real (by "real" I mean, non-fiction in the sense that the people could have had them rather than being dead or nonexistent). She also used odd nicknames for people, such as the first initial of their last name. My guess is that she did it so the reader wouldn't be taken out of the story thinking, "Tony Curtis really hated Marilyn Monroe!" (despite his real-life assertion that he fathered a baby that she then aborted). It was just annoying because I kept having to look things up on Wikipedia. 

This Book Would be Good to Read: Before bed (the chapters are short), though if you don't read much at a time this book will take awhile.

I Would Recommend This Book to: Anyone interested in film or Hollywood during the 1950s (spoiler alert: there was much use of the "casting couch").

If This Book Sounds Interesting, You Might Also Like: The movies Niagara (1953), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), or The Misfits (1961). The latter was written for Monroe by her then-husband Arthur Miller. The former is a shockingly good performance (for me this means minimal breathy baby voicedness) and is on Netflix streaming right now. If you're not sure you want to put in the time for this book but are intrigued by Oates as a writer, I recommend the short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" 

P.S. I carted my paperback of Blonde with me for six moves and before two weeks ago it was in book-store-returnable condition (the spine wasn't even broken!) but ONE DAY of carting the book around with me at Disneyland (hence the picture) the book got wet on Pirates of the Caribbean and half of it expanded to twice its original size. Despite spending half an hour in the bathroom blow drying it, it took almost a week for it to actually dry off. True story.

Up Next: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte-- another Kindle book. Is it shocking that I don't know anything about the plot? I've never even seen a film version (not even from the BBC)!

30 Books Before I'm 30: The Madness of Mary Lincoln

The Madness of Mary Lincoln by James Emerson

"Mary Lincoln was a woman who knew how to hold a grudge, or, as one historian aptly characterized her, she was always a 'good hater.'"

It's possible that I'm the only person on this planet who didn't realize that Mary Lincoln was nuts-o (that's a technical term), but she was declared insane by a jury of her peers following the assassination of her husband and death of her youngest child Tad.* Past biographers have theorized that Mary's oldest child Robert had her committed because she was too much of a burden and he wanted control of her money. There is certainly evidence of that, but Emerson found a series of letters to ML's friend (and the woman credited with getting ML released from Bellevue) Myra Bradwell. These letters are referred to as the "lost insanity letters" because, well, they were lost letters chronicling the years during and following her commitment. 

A few things appear to be true: Mary Lincoln had a lot of trauma in her life. Her mother died unexpectedly when she was seven, one son (Eddie) died in childhood, another son (Willie) died while they lived in the White House, and her last son (Tad) died following a ship ride from England to America-- not to mention the obvious fact that her husband was assassinated while she was sitting right next to him. If I had her as a client, I would be glad she was even getting out of bed in the morning. But it also seems clear that ML displayed Bipolar Disorder symptomology throughout her life. She was a hoarder, compulsive shopper, and easily angered. At one point she was traveling around (because she didn't stay too long in one place) with nearly 70 trunks of clothes she never wore, tons of curtain fabric she never used, and apparently a bunch of footstools (?). She was so angry at Robert, she demanded he return everything she ever gave him, including gifts and things he inherited with the death of his father. 

Things I Liked: The narrative was easy to follow and definitely interesting. After visiting DC last year and being in Ford's Theater and the Peterson house, the Lincoln history feels more real to me than before. Not being a Presidential Scholar, I didn't know anything about anything in the book aside from ML's obsession with spirituality and her sadness following the deaths of nearly her entire family. The research that went into this book appears exhaustive and apparently finding the lost insanity letters was a coup. 

Things I Didn't Like: It took me forever to read, which doesn't make sense because it's only 155 pages (not including appendices). I think it was because the pages are so big and the print is small. It's definitely not a page turner. 

This Book Would Be Good to Read: When you have a lot of time on your hands or if you don't mind reading the same book for awhile.

I Would Recommend this Book to: Someone interested in American history or real-life examples of mental health diagnoses.

I Would Also Recommend: National Geographic's documentary Inside the White House.


4 down, 26 to go!

*As an anecdotal story, Tad Lincoln is credited with starting the tradition of pardoning the Thanksgiving turkeys at the White House. Supposedly he made friends with one of the turkeys and was inconsolably upset at the idea that this turkey would soon be eaten for dinner. To placate him, Lincoln decided to pardon the turkey and the tradition was born. 

30 Books Before I'm 30: Les Miserables

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
"azure in the sky does not prevent rags on man"

This book marks my first foray into Kindledom. I absolutely love my kindle because it's lightweight and easy to travel with, but I hate it because I can't read with it in the pool or the bath and it has "location" numbers rather than page numbers, which means that I could only see what percentage I had read rather than how many pages I had left. It's probably not as frustrating with shorter books, but it really drove me crazy with this book (though once I figured out how to make the font smaller it went by faster). Consequently, it took me four months to finish. I didn't even have it read in time for book club. Shameful.

I was simultaneously drawn in and repelled by this book. Drawn in by the characters and their endless moral quandaries, and repelled by the endless philosophizing and expatiation on the part of Hugo. I was told to read the full version rather than the abridged version and I do not recommend it! Read the abridged version! Unless you have a bewildering interest in the history of 1830 French politics, you do not have the need to read the didactic rantings of a man long since dead.

Briefly, this book is the account of a convict, Jean Valjean, who is on an endless route of escape; escape from jail, escape from his police pursuer Javert, escape from his own conscience and God's judgment. Through a series of wacky events, he ends up the primary caregiver for an abused girl (Cosette) who falls in love with a lawyer and revolutionary (Marius). Spoiler alert: Jean Valjean is pretty miserable and a lot of people die.

Things I liked: The characters are wonderfully painted, and I got a real sense of their internal struggles (except for Cosette, who was pretty one-dimensional the entire time; Hugo does not write women well). If I had been reading this book for a class, there were endless things that would have fostered great discussions (e.g. the relationship between morality and forgiveness, the question of whether people can change their true nature juxtaposing Valjean and Thenardier, or, my favorite standy-by, comparing and contrasting the female characters-- especially Cosette vs. Eponine and Fantine vs. Mrs. Thenardier).

I also liked that I was exposed to a whole slew of words I had never seen before (and the Kindle has a built-in dictionary, so all you have to do is move the cursor to the word), such as: inexorable (unyeilding or not to be pursuaded), brigand (a bandit or lightly-armed foot soldier), mousquetaire (musketeer), valetudinarian (invalid or person who believes himself to be chronically sick [hypochondriacal]), assiduity (constant or close application of effort), tergiversation (to change one's attitude repeatedly), and, my favorite, canaille (riff-raff).

Things I didn't like: Aside from my complaints about Hugo's rambling political dogma, I had a hard time with this book because I have seen the musical so many times. I knew that the first 20% of the book really didn't have a ton of importance in the overall plot (aside from setting the moral tone), and I knew that I didn't need to remember the students' names, and I had "Master of the House" stuck in my head for weeks.

Hugo used freakishly long chapter headings, such as "Chapter VIII-- Many Interrogation Points With Regard to a Certain Le Cabuc Whose Name May Not Have Been Le Cabuc."

This quote, about Cosette: "A little girl without a doll is almost as unhappy, and quite as impossible, as a woman without children." Also, "One of woman's magnanimities is to yield." Hm. I have a million responses to that, none of which are Blog Appropriate.

This book would be good to read: while you're also reading other books. It is relatively episodic, which made it easy to pick up and put down, and it's really too long to hold one's attention for too long.

I would recommend this book to: anyone who likes French history, depressing storylines, and hates women. Okay, maybe not the hating women part (and I'm sorry if I've offended my audience of three), but this is definitely not a book for feminists.

I would also recommend: Les Miserables: The Musical! Just don't watch it first, because then the whole story will be ruined and you'll spend your whole time humming "Castle on a Cloud." Though, if you liked the political part of this book, you may also like Stendhal's The Red and the Black.


Coming up next: The Madness of Mary Lincoln. Lunatic or victim of the patriarchy? We'll find out!

30 Books Before I'm 30: My Life in France

My Life in France by Julia Child

This book was written with the help of Childs' grandnephew, Alex Prud'homme. He writes in the forward that the book came about from a series of conversations he had with her in August 2004 about her life in France during the 1950s. Because of this, the book is written in a very conversational style, and is more a series of recollections than a cohesive "this happened and then this happened"-type autobiography. The book starts with Childs' time in France, but extends beyond and to her husbands' death.

I realized while I was reading this book that there were a couple of things working against me. #1: I hate cooking (in fact, when Josh went camping with his scouts I mostly just ate uncooked egg noodles and didn't even notice until the end of the week that I hadn't eaten much of anything else), and #2: I've never been to France (even though my family thinks I have). But I still really enjoyed this book. 

Things I Liked: Although I know I wouldn't have been friends with Julia Child if we had ever met (mostly because I think she would have felt I was boring), her joie de vivre is contagious. She was a woman who loved her life and reading this book makes it obvious.

Since this book is episodic, it makes it really easy to pick it up and put it down again. I tend to bring books around with me so I can read whenever I have time, and with this book that was really easy.


Things I Didn't Like: Julia Child makes me feel really inadequate, though it makes me feel better that she didn't really start her cooking career until her mid-30s. I wish I was more like her-- indiscriminantly friendly, outgoing, and singularly-minded (writing her first cookbook took something like 12 years of solid work, and I can't even get through vaccuuming the upstairs hallway without getting distracted halfway through). So I don't like that this book made me feel bad about myself, but that's my thing more than the fault of the narration.


This book would be great to read: in the bathtub, or anywhere that you want to read a little at a time and don't necessarily need to keep track of plot points.

I would recommend this book to: anyone with even a quasi interest in food, France, or biographies. I would also recommend this book to my mother, who said she doesn't like to read anything depressing or stressful.

This book is an incredibly easy read, though Childs' narrative voice may be annoying to some people.

If you liked this book, you might also like: the movie Julie & Julia (2009), which was based in part on this book, or the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (Washington DC), where you can find a model of Childs' test kitchen. She had a thing for pegboard, on which she would outline her pots so she would know where everything went. 

30 Books Before I'm 30: The Devil in the White City

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

This novel is the factual account of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. In the forward, Larson notes that everything that is in quotes comes from either letters or written statements, and that everything else comes from extensive research. He focuses the story on two men: Daniel Burnham, who was the brains behind the construction and presentation of the World's Fair buildings, and Dr. H.H. Holmes, who used the fair as a way to funnel single females into his Murder Motel. Holmes is considered to be America's first serial killer, and his exploits are disturbing. 

It was really easy to get through this book once I really made the commitment, but it was initially difficult because Larson vacillates between two essentially unrelated topics. He even says explicitly that Burnham and Holmes never met. I couldn't tell whether Larson set out to tell a story about Holmes but needed to flesh it out (pardon the pun) with information about the cultural climate that led to such atrocities (not just the murders, but that Holmes got away with it for a ridiculous amount of time), or that he wanted to write about the World's Fair and needed something to spice it up. Either way, it is incredibly fascinating but disjointed and at times very frustrating when I get into a storyline and then have it switched in the next chapter.

Things I Liked: Once it got going, this book was hard to put down. I zoomed through it. Larson did an impressive amount of research and gives details that color the landscape well. I love stories about America at the turn of the century, and this book made me desperately wish to travel back in time and attend the World's Fair and walk around in the buildings that were described. 

Things I Didn't Like: In an effort to make his novel a page-turner, Larson gives little nuggets of information and then hints at the importance it will play later in the story. For instance, Holmes had an assistant that had a few kids, and Larson says, essentially, "These kids are important! I'll be coming back to them!" But toward the end of the book Larson had so many storylines going it was hard to keep them all straight. I couldn't remember all of the people he had told me were important! 

Also, there weren't enough pictures. For fiction novels I hate pictures, but when the author is writing about real people that really designed real buildings? I want to see more of it. Perhaps if the book had been about one man or the other (Burnham or Holmes) then there would have been more room for more pictures, but it's also possible that he just couldn't get the picture reprinting rights.

Best Place to Read this Book: On the beach or anywhere that you can be undisturbed for several hours (it can be engrossing).

I would recommend this book to: people with an interest in history, architecture, or serial killers and psychology.

I would also recommend: the documentary H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer by John Borowski. It's on Netflix streaming right now.

30 Books Before I'm 30

I have thought for a long time about what momentous thing I wanted to do before I turn the big "three oh," and I figured that I would end my third decade the way I started it, which is reading. While putting together our new bookshelves, I realized that I own a lot of books I have intended to read but have always put off. And then there are all those books that I avoided reading because I was never motivated to do so. 


Without further ado, here are the 30 books I plan to read before I'm 30 (in a year and a day):

Classics (things I should have read, but haven't):

1. Les Miserables (it helps that this is a book club book--two birds, etc.)

2.  Wuthering Heights (I'm a little squeamish about characters named "Heathcliff"-- unless they are tabby cats)

3. Great Expectations (I'm kind of anti-Dickens ever since... well... I'm not sure why. I probably had a good reason when I formed my opinion as an English undergrad).

4. A Tale of Two Cities (As long as I'm making a list of books I wouldn't otherwise read, I figured there's a place for two Dickens novels).

5. Moby Dick (I hate, hate, HATE Herman Melville, and I generally pretend to have read this just to avoid people asking me why I haven't-- I mean, I know how it ends and all-- but I figured that now is the time to do finally buck up and read the effing thing).

6. Sense and Sensibility (I've seen the movie and didn't like it, so I never read the book. I've always felt guilty about not reading it).

7. The Importance of Being Earnest (just never have read it. Don't know why).

8. War and Peace (It's my dad's favorite book. I hate Russian authors, so I've avoided this one).

9. Jane Eyre (no reason, just haven't read it).

Books I've Always Wanted to Read But For Which I Have Never Found Time

10. Anne of Green Gables (I've seen the movie a million times, have a neverending crush on Gilbert, but have still never read the book).

11. The Blind Assassin (I love Margaret Atwood's short stories, but have always found her novels a little difficult to get into. But this one sounds good, so I'm giving Atwood another chance).

12. The Fountainhead (I've read Atlas Shrugged, but never got around to this one).

13. Return of the Native (I love Thomas Hardy. I have read everything else except this one).

Books Other People Have Recommended

14. The Poisonwood Bible (I tried to read it once, but only got about five pages in).

15. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (My sister Tasha's favorite book. She let me borrow it once, but I never opened it).

16. The House of the Spirits (my brother was incensed when I told him I've never read anything by Allende).

Books I Own But Have Never Read

17. The Dante Club (I have tried reading this book about half a dozen times and always get distracted. So now I'm finally going to finish it!)

18. Suite Francaise (Josh finally bought this book for me after it had been on my Wishlist for a few years, and then I never read it).

19. The Lost Language of Symbolism (about symbolism in the scriptures).

20. If Only I Had Known... Avoiding Common Mistakes in Couples Therapy (you know, for the learning of something).

21. Psychotherapy with "Impossible" Cases (also for the learning).

22. Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society (about the women in the early years of the church).

23. The Devil in the White City (I've heard from a million people that this is good, and I bought it way before anyone else I have ever known read it).

24. Balancing Act: The Authorized Biography of Angela Lansbury (Josh bought it for me for Christmas after I begged for it, but then I never read it).

25. The Madness of Mary Lincoln (I made Josh buy this for me after we went to DC and I saw it in the Ford's Theater gift shop. Mary Lincoln was crazy? Awesome!)

26. My Life in France (for various reasons I have put this off, even though I really want to read it).
27. Blonde (I bought this book more than 5 years ago when I went through a Joyce Carol Oats phase but then never opened it).
28. Sometimes a Great Notion (the other Ken Kesey novel)
29. Sophie's World (this book was required in my high school program, but somehow I got out of reading it. I'm not sure how. So I guess I'll read it now!)
Books I've Never Thought of Reading But Made an Effort to Include on This List
30. Their Eyes Were Watching God (I realized that my book list was a bit White).

I don't know yet what order in which I'll read these. I suppose it will depend on my mood. Because of my newly acquired Kindle, I can get some of these books for free from Amazon (Best. Present. Ever!) I'll keep everyone updated, because of course I'm reading these so you don't have to.