The Perks of Being a Wallflower... THE MOVIE!

So the other day I was looking up how to spell Stephen Chbosky's last name.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of my favourite books, but I can't for the life of me remeber how to spell that name because I always feel like there is something missing...

So anyway, I look it up on "the Googler"and what comes up?  Movie information! Oh my friggin god.

So here is the link to the movie info on IMDB.  The most exciting things are:

1 - It is being directed by the author.  I don't think I have ever seen this with any books I have read and enjoyed.

2 - It is coming out next year.

3 - It actually has some actors I recognize (Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Melanie Lynskey, Kate Walsh)

No trailer yet that I can see.  SOOO excited about this!

Review: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

NOTE: May contain **SPOILERS**

Another great one from my Canadian Literature class!  This book gave me a deeper appreciation of what natives went through in residential schools and how they were treated by colonists.  This is something I was admittedly ignorant of.

The story takes place over three days and slides back and forth with past and present events.  I have decided to stop giving too much of a synopsis of the books I read, and instead share my opinion of the book so that you might be more interested in reading it.  To give you a brief summary, a young man returns from the war quite damaged and over the course of the three day road with his aunt back to his home in the woods, you learn about his experience overseas and the awful consequences of participating in the war.

For someone who doesn't read or seek out war books, this is the second one in a row that I have read and  enjoyed.  It is less about the war and more about native issues, but a lot of the story takes place while two young native men are stationed overseas in the trenches.  I felt that the paralells it pointed out between serving in the military and living in residential schools frightening.  I don't know much about residential schools, but I have no illusions about them being good places.

My favourite part of this book is the regular reference to the lore of the Windigo and how it relates to certain people in the war.  There is something so disturbing about actual canibalism, but when you start to see the similarities that Boyden is showing between actual canibalism and bahivours during the war it is distressing.

I liked this book a lot and recommend it (as I did with Generals) to anyone who might normally hesitate to pick up a war novel like I would but enjoys a good story.   


Title: Three Day Road
Author: Joseph Boyden
Year of publication: 2005
Publisher: Penguin
Rating: 4/5

Holiday Reading List 2012

With a nice long holiday break from school reading and no midterm exam, I am free to read what I want for the next 5 weeks.  I am sharing with you below a few of the books I am hoping to read over the holidays.  The list is probably a little TOO ambitious, but oh well. 

I have put some Canada Reads books on here (The Tiger and Prisoner of Tehran) but not all of them because I don't think I can read non-fiction for 5 straight weeks.

So here are the books I hope to read over the holidays.  Feel free to share your opinions, reviews, etc.  And happy holiday reading!

The Antagonist - Lynn Coady

I am currently reading this book and enjoying it. It was a finalist for the Giller this year.

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

This is the cover of the original 1843 edition (obviously not what I am reading).  I have wanted to read this book every Christmas for a few years and think that this year I might finally do it.

Foundation - Isaac Aminov

I recently found The Hamilton Book Club Meetup Group and this is their book for January.  I am hoping to join this group and would like to participate in January.

Klee Wyck - Emily Carr

 This is the first book I have to read next semester for Can Lit, so I would like to get a head start over the holidays.

Pursuasion - Arlene Dickinson

 I don't read a lot of business books, but I love Arlene Dickinson from Dragon's Den.  She represents everything that I think a good business person should be.

The Tiger - John Vaillant

 This is one of the two Canada Reads 2012 books that I plan to read over the holidays.  This year all of the books are non-fiction.

Prisoner of Tehran - Marina Nemat

This is the second Canada Reads 2012 books that I plan to read over the holidays.








 

The Sense of An Ending - Julian Barnes

This is the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2011. 

Movie Trailer: Hunger Games!!!

And since all of you already know what a psycho I am for anything Hunger Games, here is the first full trailer for the movie (which is releasing March 23rd, 2012):

Review: Generals Die in Bed by Charles Yale Harrison

   I normally don't read war books and would have never picked this up if it hadn't been for my Canadian Literature course.  Now that I have read it, I am happy that it is part of the readings because it is an awesome book.  It also allows me to forgive my professor (only slightly) for leaving Atwood off the reading list.

   It takes place during World War I.  The narrator has no name and is both the "every-man" and the author (Harrison) who served as a machine gunner himself during that same war.  The book goes through the experience of life in the trenches and is an open critique of war and the military.  The imagery is pretty horrifying.  **SPOILER** At one point the reader gets the awful descriptive experience of having a bayonet stuck in between an opposing soldier's ribs.  Without going through all the gory details, the book is filled with horrors like this that inexperienced young soldiers were forced to go through during the war.  At no point do you feel coerced into believing that these descriptions are over the top or exagerated.  The book feels honest, and that makes it so much sadder.

   This book is a good fictional read, but also feels like a documentary about the hell that is war.  Harrison  removes the "other" that is often present in stories that glorify and romanticize war, putting all men forced to fight for their country in the same boat.  As a soldier and an author, Harrison extends sympathy to his ground "enemies" and instead confronts the real enemies in war;  those at the top of the chain of command, lice, and God.

   Even if you are not a fan of war books, I would recommend this book to you for its thought provoking political commentary and great storytelling.  Generals Die in Bed is a book that should be taught in schools and read by book clubs.  It is an important glimpse at history and an all around good read.


Book Information
Title: Generals Die in Bed
Author: Charles Yale Harrison
Year of publication: Originally published as newspaper sectionals, circa 1929?
Publisher: Annick Press
Pages: 168
Rating: 5/5

My affair with comic books

On a recent business trip to Montreal, a co-worker and I stopped by a book store on our walk home from the trade. This was where my affair with comic books began…

It takes nearly no convincing to get me into a book store because I have a chronic book buying habit. I don’t read the books nearly as quickly as I buy them, so I have a large shelf at home of unread books that will probably take me my lifetime to get through. (See photo)

So it’s no surprise that my impulsive buying kicked in immediately when I started looking through the comic section. I left the bookstore that day with four new paperback comics. Suffice it to say, they did not sit on my “to read” shelf for long. This newly discovered realm of fiction has stories that are much faster to read and offers the visuals that you don’t get with books.

The comics I picked up were Astonishing X-Men Volume 1: Gifted, The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye, The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes and The Wonder Woman Chronicles Volume One.
To give you an idea of how quickly I got sucked in, within the few weeks since that bookstore visit I have read several other comics… For Walking Dead alone I am up to Volume 9 (just finished).

My conclusion to this is that I think more people should read comic books. They are fast to read, the artwork offers a great visual supplement to the story, and the stories themselves are generally full of surprises and twists. Also, the stories are often interconnected, which I love. I find it so enjoyable putting the pieces together from different stories and seeing the connections as they happen. You feel like you have “inside information”.

The moral of the story here for all you book lovers (because you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t) is to read comic books. If you don’t want to dive in like I did, at least give one a shot. I hope that you will be as pleased with what you find as I was.

Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games Trilogy - Book #3)

     Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins is the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy and completes the story for those of us who need endings. In my opinion the second and third books in this trilogy are not as good as the first, but they are enjoyable to read nonetheless and quench the thirst of readers who can’t get enough of this dystopian series.

     Katniss, the main character in the series, has now survived the Hunger Games twice.  In Catching Fire (Book #2) she not only survived her second imprisonment in the games, but sparks (hence the title) a revolution of the districts of Panem (the dominant nation where the story takes place) against the Capitol. Mockingjay (Book #3) is the story of the final war of the districts against the Capitol.

     In Mockingjay we see what many of the characters are really capable of and we get resolutions to the pressing questions that have developed over the course of the series. THE most important question for most readers being the choice Katniss must make between Gale and Peeta.

     ** SPOILER ALERT** Like in the conclusions of many book series’, in Mockingjay the reader is faced with the deaths of some major characters; the most jarring being the death of Prim (Katniss’ little sister). What makes this worse is that she is killed by an explosive created by Gale. In the end this is what makes the decision for Katniss between Gale and Peeta. Up until this point it is very difficult (in my opinion) for the reader to pick a side completely.

     This series is meant to be read in order without skipping any books; otherwise you will no doubt be extremely confused. It is easy to read and can satisfy a variety of reading tastes. I highly recommend it to anyone.

     A movie for the first book is due out in 2012. While it is understandably not going to be an R rated movie (the main readers and those mostly responsible for the book’s success are young adults), a small part of me hopes that a violent adult version will be made in the coming years. I realized the irony of this just recently…

     This book hinges on the idea that a society that thoroughly enjoys violence and blood sport will self-destruct. What makes this scary is, how many of you (like me) wanted that R rating as well?


Book Information
Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Year of publication: 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Pages: 400 pages
Rating: 4/5

News: Twitter bookclub coming... or a least that's what a little birdy told me...

If you enjoy book discussions and live social feeds, then you will be excited to find out that The Atlantic has launched an official Twitter book club.

Starting June 1st 2011, tuning in to hashtag #1book140 connects you to thousands of other book lovers just itching to be heard.  The chosen first book?  The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (McClelland, 2000). (LOVE ATWOOD!)

While face-to-face book clubs offer a more intimate space for discussion, online book clubs have become very popular because of variety, high volumes of members, and convenience.  With online book clubs you aren't limited to the people living within a certain distance of you, and you aren't restricted to only discussing once a week or even once a month (depending how often you want people in your house).  Book sites like the hugely popular GoodReads can offer discussions with thousands of people, for a variety of books, anytime, anywhere (with an Internet connection of course).   It also offers hundreds of book lists, trivia, and other fun extras.  There is no question as to why its successful.

Or how about BookCrossing?  The awesome site where you can tag your books (the way a researcher will tag an animal) and "release them into the wild".  Not only do you get to "hunt" for free books (why is that girl digging through that dumpster? She must be hungry... Poor thing...) but you can track your book's migration.

For a lot of people the Internet has brought a new excitement to reading by making it more social and fun, and in some cases, competitive.  (Side note: I am amazed at how many reading savants there are nowadays.  Many "top readers" on GoodReads are at a pace of 2 or 3 novels every day! WOW! Where do I sign up for the pills you guys are taking?)     

But, if the Internet enabled ability to "brag" about reading more than your weight in books before breakfast or the 140 character opinions that #1book140 will generate gets more people reading, then I'm all for it! 

Just one piece of advice to the participants of #1book140... soar like an eagle, don't sh*t like a seagull!

Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I loved this book! A friend told me that she loved it (you know who you are muffin!) so I decided it was something I had to read. I consider this of the “freaky moral” genre. I’m pretty sure I made that up. It has a bit of a surreal fairytale feel to it that held my attention right to the end.

Dorian Gray is a pure young man when he first meets Henry Wotton. Personally, I view Henry as the embodiment of the devil in the story. Henry is the reason that Dorian transforms into the vain and evil man that he becomes by the end of the book. There is also another character, Basil Hallward, who is the embodiment of reason, morality, good and sanity. Like an angel and a devil on each shoulder, Basil and Henry play tug of war with Dorian until finally Henry’s wild and eccentric personality wins, corrupting Dorian forever.

At the beginning of the story Basil paints a picture of Dorian. The picture becomes the embodiment of Dorian’s soul. No one really knows how this happened, it just does by something invisible magical force. During the course of his life, Dorian never ages and changes but the always picture does, reflecting his true self. The picture also changes to reflect Dorian’s soul and the marks left on it by the evil things he does. Dorian is responsible for a young woman’s suicide, for murdering someone else, for blackmail, for drug use, for adultery, and the list goes on. By the end of the book, the picture (Dorian’s soul) is distorted and grotesque. Dorian obsesses about his soul and the picture, refusing to let anyone see it and eventually not even being able to look at it himself. Ultimately, this leads to his complete madness and self-destruction.

This book is also homoerotic. Innuendos aside, many men outwardly profess their love for other male characters in the story. There is no doubt that the reader is intended to question Henry in particular’s sexual orientation. His love for Dorian, as well as Basil’s, are not platonic in nature. It is also implied that Henry is married simply for appearance and we find out that his wife is not only suspicious of the same thing. I am not sure what the purpose was for this, but I definitely enjoyed it. It is not something you expect to find, especially in novels of that time period.

This book’s representation of the human soul is also interesting. The implied frailty of the soul is ever present with the picture and Dorian’s obsession with it. The shame that Dorian experiences when visually faced with his rotting soul is a really interesting concept. It also begs the question, what is a soul and do they really exist?

I would recommend this book. There is no doubt that it is a classic for a reason. Scholarly studies aside, anyone should read this book because it really is a good story.


Book Information
Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Year of publication: 1891
Publisher: Ward London
Purchased at: Free Kobo Book
Reading Time: Rating: 5/5