A MUST READ!! (Book #4)

The Casual Vacancy: J.K. Rowling

This book is not like J.K. Rowling’s previous books.  And in case you have been living under a rock this past decade, she is the brilliant writer behind the Harry Potter Series.  Let me be clear, she is not necessarily responsible for the movies (I dunno about the logistics behind the movies); people tend to have mixed reviews about the movies.  But I have found that people who have those mixed reviews haven’t read a single book.  Or they read the first book and claimed that it was childish—but as any avid Potter fan will say, “when you read the books you start at age 10, and you grow up with Harry and his friends…”  Well, something to that effect.  Anyway, that is part of the genius behind Rowling.  Her characters are complex people who grow up and learn from things that have happened to them; they make mistakes and don’t necessarily choose what seems like an obvious solution.

This book takes place in the British country area of Pagford and Yarvil.  There is a definite sense of realism and modernity, with the characters aptly using things such as social media, (i.e., facebook).

“The Casual Vacancy” is a social commentary on today’s society; and it’s not big picture (super political level/whole country), it’s little picture (small town, neighborhood sort of thing). Now, I am not too familiar with everything that is going on in the UK, but throughout the world there is a lot of socio-economic turmoil; a huge deviation formally known in the US as the 1% versus the 99%.  People are constantly pre-judging everyone that appears to come from a “lower class,” and as a result people kind of get stuck in their economic situation.  What I love about this book is how it emphasizes the roles that are forced on children and how they react to this illusion world that their parents live in; there are actions to their consequences, but it is definitely satisfaction to see their parents idealistic world fall apart.

Spoiler alert : Barry Fairbrother dies (but it’s okay you will read it in the first chapter).   As the book progresses, you get the sense that he is part of the “1” that fought for the “99.”  He tried to make people see past their own prejudices and stereotypes, by showing that with nurture and support anybody can do anything; but if there is a whole town of people, including your own family, telling you that you are a worthless whore, you will start to believe that is all you can become. 

What Rowling did with this book, was take this one fighter for the unwanted and she killed him.  It is really interesting to see what kind of effect this has on this small community of Pagford (and to a lesser extent Yarvil).  It seems as if Fairbrother was the lynch pin of the town, and if you take away the lynch pin, shit hits the fan, as you will see when you read this book.

Hopefully, this intrigued you enough to want to read the book.  If it didn’t, you should read it anyway, because it is well written, captivating, and interesting even if you don’t get a lot out of it…which you should, because otherwise you suck.

Book # 3: Persepolis 2...say whaaaat?

Book #3: Persepolis 2: Marjane Satrapi

I am fairly sure, my avid readers, that you are thinking what I am thinking—another book, really?  Before the end of January (well, by the time you read this/I post this it will be February)…

However, as this book is a graphic novel, it isn’t what you would consider a slow read.  The graphics are very enjoyable, though, and you should take the time to look at them.

“Persepolis 2” is actually a combination of the original books 3 and 4, but when the book was translated from it’s original language, they (the omnipresent they) decided to combine into one book.  This book isn’t a newer one; in fact it is kind of funny how I stumbled onto this find.

So there I was, sitting in a steam sauna, steaming it up, waiting for 15 minutes to go by when I noticed a magazine.  I picked it up, glanced through it and saw a review for “Persepolis.”  Seems interesting enough.  When I looked at the date when the magazine was printed it was from 2007 (obviously the gym’s magazine was a little dated); the book was originally translated in 2004.  I ended up putting it on hold at my local Multnomah County library the next day.

All of the "Persepolis" books are really interesting to read.  I believe that when the author wrote it she wrote it to inform white people that not all middle easterners are terrorists - of course she doesn't say it quite so forthright in her interviews, but I do have an English minor and I can read between the lines: this book is for all the ignoramuses out there who are internally racist.  Now of course I know this doesn't apply to all you who are reading this; you are much more cultured.  And a lot has happened in the last 10 years, so that there are more people who understand culture and its various functions, even though we cultured may sometimes be more silent in the crowd.

With that tangential rant in mind, you should read this book.  It is really well written and captivating.  The author goes through many trials in her life, including identity crises (moving form an eastern culture to a western culture, growing up, etc.,), and several devastating losses that no child should endure, but happens more often than people care to admit.

Enjoy this book, and if you have any recommendations for me I'd be happy to read them.

Peace and read with fervency!

Book #2 Game of Thrones: Need I say More?

So, as some of you may know I am slightly obsessed with "Game of Thrones."  Maybe you don't know this, but I am sure you will find out soon enough.  I love Game of Thrones, the HBO TV Show, and "Game of Thrones" the book by George R.R. Martin.  I mean, I became so excited about this TV show that I contacted some form of a producer/director/manager of the TV series to see if I could become an extra -- unfortunately only people with an international insurance number (aka Brits) are only allowed to be extras.  But I am fairly certain that if it weren't for my nationality, I'd be all up on the TV show as an extra!

First of all, this is one of those rare combinations of book meets TV show where it works.  It follows the plot, the characters don't deviate from the descriptions in the book, and the blood, gore and sex you see in the TV show are actually described in the book.  I was kind of surprised by this because there is a lot of raunchy stuff.  It's even more descriptive in the book than the show.  (Oh and just FYI I saw the show before I read the book.)

As with many book to TV show productions, there are some things left out.  For example, in the book you get a lot better read on the character Bran.  The book better describes his thoughts and desires.  It's a hard thing to communicate on TV, however, the actor portraying him and the crew involved in production, still manage to do a phenomenal job.

The only other major difference in the book versus the TV show (that is currently in mind) is that the characters in the book are a lot younger.  The character of Daenerys Targaryen is supposed to be a 13 year old girl, and when she becomes pregnant it is on her 14th name day; however, I am sure due to a lot of legal reasons and disturbances to the general public, you can't watch on TV a 13 year old girl go through what is essentially (initially rape), and being beaten and molested by her brother.   Even though they don't show this on the TV show, you do watch her character evolve into a woman and a strong Kaleesi.  (In general, the children on the show are older, with a few exceptions.)

That is one of the reasons why the book and the TV show work so well - the character development is believable, and it's really interesting to see how certain characters (like Tyrion Lannister) react to certain situations.  It's not necessarily what you would consider a "normal human reaction," i.e., when The Kingslayer pushes an 8 year old boy out of a tall castle window.  Tyrion Lannister is probably my favorite character in both the book and the show, because he is to some extent an underdog.  But he is so fucking smart and manipulative, it is fun to watch and read about.  He is clever, like most of the Lannister family, but he isn't necessarily evil.  However, I've only read book one, so I'm not sure how the war will affect his personality.

The other thing that I really love about this book is that it is not a difficult read; it's really long, but the language used isn't so convoluted and embellished like you find with some fantasy novels. Another enjoyable aspect is that there are characters that you find yourself despising.  A good book always has someone that the reader dislikes; that is one thing that really torments me and disturbs my reading habit.  If there is a character that I don't like and I think they are being really stupid, I get frustrated and stop reading.  I think overall the book took me something like 2 weeks to finish, so the time frame isn't too bad.  It would probably vary depending on your reading habits.

I hope you all enjoy and check out this book.  If you have little impressionables, don't watch the TV show with them!

Read on!
-Jackie

#GeorgeRRMartin #gameofthrones

What Not To Read

So as most of you know, vampires are everywhere.  EVERYWHERE!  Of course not in real life, I mean on the shelf.  The shelf of a bookstore the shelf of a movie store--vampires have officially taken over main topic events, and while sometimes it works I find it often does not.  Especially when you read a vampire novel that has been translated from another language.

Now you have to understand I didn't choose this book (what book you ask? well you will find out).  It was left in my apartment's "free book" book shelf.  The cover and the title caught my eye, so I thought, hey, why not?  "Let Me In" (aka "Let The Right One In") sounds like it could be a good book about something, and on the cover there are two kids, holding hands looking towards the woods standing in snow.  For some reason it didn't dawn on me that this would be a vampire book.  Mainly because most vampire books are about sex and stuff.  Is this one?  I don't know, I didn't finish it.

Here is why this book doesn't work.  It is translated from it's original language, Swedish, to English.  Whenever you translate a book of course there are going to be misunderstandings; however, there have been many novels translated from one language to another and have been translated well - this just isn't.  Whenever I read a book I read it for enjoyment.  As soon as I find myself with a pen in my hand, scratching out words and rewriting the sentences in the correct tense, I realize it's time to give up.

Another reason why this doesn't work is because it's slightly disturbing.  I mean, I get it.  It's hard to put in a shock and awe factor in today's modern, fucked up society, BUT that doesn't mean you should be gross and write about messed up things.  Try being creative instead of writing about how this 12 year old boy hates life so much he imagines himself killing people (it's with fleshy details).  I got to Chapter "Friday" before I gave up and decided I didn't need this.

If this sounds interesting to you, go ahead and read it.  Maybe let me know how it goes, but I'm fairly certain it loses a lot in translation.

Book # 1 in 2013: This is How You Lose Her

I've decided this year that I am going to try harder to write a review on each book that I read (which should also help me keep track of how many I've read and what they are about), and I realize could potentially be a lot of writing.  However, I need the practice and the discipline, and to be able to follow through with one of my thousands of writing projects/ideas.  That being said, some of these may be really sloppy until I figure out a good rhythm and how to write a solid book review.

This is a review of Junot Diaz's book "This Is How You Lose Her."  Junot Diaz is best known for his novel, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," which I've not read, but have heard good things about.

Anyway, as you may have guessed, "This Is How You Loser Her" is about how Yunior, the main character of the story, loses the love of his life.  Yunior is Dominican, moved to the states as a child, and grew up in the United States' Dominican culture.  It is written in a semi-autobiographical form, although I don't think it is necessarily a reflection of Junot's biography.  (In fact, I know nothing about Junot Diaz.)  The book begins with the author expressing the idea that all Dominican men are the same, they have this "gene" that ends up ruining relationships, because they can't help themselves but to love and fuck women.  The story then continues with small stories and interludes of events in his life that possibly influenced his behavior.  At times we see Yunior through the eyes of the women he is sleeping with, which brings a really interesting perspective.

If you don't have a good grasp of the Spanish language, I don't recommend reading this because Junot code switches throughout the entire book (code switching is when you use one or more words of one language throughout your dominant language.  For example, if you use Espanol in a sentence like this, esta es considered "code switching").

This book overall is really interesting; however, it takes about 100 pages before you can really get into the story.  I felt like when this book started to get good was when it was finished, but that is probably just the writing and artistic style of this particular author.

Why not give it a read, it's relatively short and easy to get through if you have few days off.  It took me four days of off and on reading.

Enjoy!

Oh, also if you have any feedback of what you would like to see in book reviews in the future, that would be great.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Isn't that such a great title?  Too bad I didn't come up with it!  "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" is a mostly true memoir about and by Jenny Lawson,

Have you ever been on a bus, or sitting around somewhere and you hear people's conversations, and you wish you could write this down because seriously?  This is going on?  That is basically what this book is, except it happened to the author AND she wrote it down into a nice mostly consecutive order.  And it is so goddamn funny!  Like, seriously funny.  This is one of the only novels that I have ever read that probably had me laughing throughout most of it.  And don't get me wrong, not at her, well kind of at her, but at the situations that she has been in throughout her life.  For example, her dad is a taxidermist, and this resulted in her playing with a lot of dead animals as a child, which kind of grew to a weird obsession in her later years.  Not with any gross taxidermy stuff, but like the mouse in clothes on the cover of her book.  She decided/has decided to collect small taxidermic animals that have some sort of anthropomorphic feeling to them.

I don't want to give too much away, but it's interesting how Jenny juxtaposes stuff that happened in her life.  Like she had an eating disorder when she was younger, which she acknowledges, but she talks about it in a way that is not "oh pity me," but more like, "man that was stupid."

Anyway, I read this book a while ago, and thought it would be a good holiday read for anyone with a few hours to themselves.  Heck you could probably even turn it into a family affair, although there are some parts that are more PG13.

Happy reading, and remember, share this with your friends!

Yay for Lana Del Rey!

So as most of you know I have been on hiatus from my blog as I have had a complete early life crisis of sorts - nothing too crazy, but there were definitely tears shed and desperation felt.  Yet through it all I managed to watch movies and listen to music.

I realize that with this particular artist I am not on the bandwagon, but hitching a ride from the horse and buggy.  (Yes I know I've used that saying before, but dang it, I like it!)  Anyway, you indie listeners may recognize the name Lana Del Rey, but for those of you who don't you should definitely listen to her at least once.  And for your convenience I have linked up not only her website, but a youtube video of her song "Born To Die," 

Lana Del Rey has a unique vocal range, and as someone who has a limited vocal range, I love being able to sing along with her.  She sings in a lower tone, which a lot of people liken to Janis Joplin, but I think the comparison stops there.  Her songs are very smoky and sultry.  Also, her songs are kind of sad, but easily relatable to life situations.  A lot of other reviewers/critics agree that she gives off this 1920's/1930's prohibition era vibe, which I really like.

I really like "Born To Die" because it's one of those songs that is about living in the moment.  It is kind of unique because it doesn't imply that you have to be a superstar to enjoy life.  The message that I take away from it is that some people are meant for greatness, but a lot aren't and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as you are living in and enjoying the moment.  I think there is a lot more to this song than I am mentioning.  Whoever listens to it will get out of it what they need, and that is something that is really cool about Lana Del Rey as an artist - complex songs speak to people on different levels, and that is what I love about this type of music.  

Anyway, I hope you check out her website or her youtube video.  I tried to keep this short and sweet (like me), and will try to write more frequently.  Oh and as a special bonus I included the lyrics to the song below.  

Feet don’t fail me now

Take me to the finish line

Oh my heart it breaks every step that I take

But I’m hoping at the gates,

They’ll tell me that you’re mine

Walking through the city streets

Is it by mistake or design

I feel so alone on the Friday nights

Can you make it feel like home, if I tell you you’re mine

It's like I told you honey

Don’t make me sad, don’t make me cry

Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough

I don’t know why

Keep making me laugh

Let’s go get high

The road is long, we carry on

Try to have fun in the meantime

Come on take a walk on the wild side

Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain

You like your girls insane

Choose your last words, this is the last time

Cause you and I, we were born to die

Lost but now I am found

I can see but once I was blind

I was so confused as a little child

Trying to take what I could get

Scared that I couldn't find

All the answers honey

Don’t make me sad, don’t make me cry

Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough

I don’t know why

Keep making me laugh

Let's go get high

The road is long, we carry on

Try to have fun in the meantime

Come on take a walk on the wild side

Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain

You like your girls insane

Choose your last words,

This is the last time

Cause you and I

We were born to die [x3]

Come on and take a walk on the wild side

Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain

You like your girls insane

Don’t make me sad, don’t make me cry

Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough

I don’t know why

Keep making me laugh

Let's go get high

The road is long, we carry on

Try to have fun in the meantime

Come on take a walk on the wild side

Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain

You like your girls insane...

Choose your last words,

This is the last time

Cause you and I

We were born to die