Atonement

Atonement by Ian McEwan

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Atonement has given me a lot of cause for thought. I identified with Briony's discovery that other people must each have their own secret lives happening in their head. She views that thought with distaste. I have simply had moments, at work, or the grocery store, where it's as if a light has gone on, and I'm suddenly looking around and thinking that all these people are absorbed in a different story from mine. It is so easy to see people as simple actors in our own private play. It's so easy to be wrapped up in our own head, and forget that others have thoughts and feelings. If we allow that to happen, we run the risk of making the same choices that Briony made. Perhaps in smaller ways, perhaps not.

Another lesson I took away from this book, is that we cannot foresee how our actions have the potential to change the course of another life. Even the possibility of ruining lives. We must always be aware that our actions, no matter how small, will affect others in ways we cannot reverse...and that we may never have the chance for atonement.




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The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Manchurian Candidate is a picture of national fear, family dysfunction, and truly terrible betrayals. Raymond Shaw is one of the least likable main characters I've ever met. But I still had compassion for him, as a product of so many people's desires and psychosis, his character is not his fault. Richard Condon describes him as one with his armor. Which is a sad thing, to be unable to shed that.

Even though I know the sort of brainwashing discussed in this book isn't currently possible (as far as we know) it was still very frightening. The idea of not being in control of yourself, and being unaware of that fact, is particularly repellent. This story gave me a lot to think about, and it has been on my mind for days. I keep coming back to certain parts of it, taking them out, examining them again.

I would suggest this book should be required reading. And I also think that Raymond's mother should be on a list somewhere of fictions most disturbing villanesses!


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The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was utterly amazing. I finished it a few weeks ago, and have still been thinking about it. It's a new twist on your typical romantic story. I was brought to care so deeply for the people in this book. Audrey created a fascinating problem, and forces you to see the world in a different light. It's a hard world, and a hard problem. There is terrible beauty in it. She brings her story full circle in a classic and horrific way. And even so, even with all the tears I cried reading it, I smiled as I cried over the ending. I want to read it again.


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A review

The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was wonderful. I've read the Silmarillion, but it's been a very long time. I knew this was one of the sad tales, but I'm glad to have gotten to read the whole thing. It honestly made me cry in the very end.


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A Goal

I now have a goal. A very big goal. Rachel turned me onto this list of 1000 books that everyone should read. I'm a little skeptical about some of them...I've seen the movies and hated them. (yes, I know, the book is always better than the movie)

This is going to take me a while, but it should be interesting! I'm always needing new books. I should probably post the Commandant's Reading list as well, just so I can have a list that I've read much of already! ;)

Here are the books I've already read:
Louisa May Alcott Little Women
Jane Austin Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austin Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austin Emma
Jane Austin Northanger Abbey
Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre
Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights
Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Kate Chopin The Awakening
Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness
Michael Crichton The Andromeda Strain
Michael Crichton Jurassic Park
Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe
Charles Dickens Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens Great Expectations
Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment
Arthur Conan Doyle A Study in Scarlet
Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles
Daphne du Maurier Rebecca
Alexandre Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas The Three Musketeers
F Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
William Golding Lord of the Flies
Kenneth Grahame The Wind in the Willows
John Grisham A Time to Kill
John Grisham The King of Torts
H Rider Haggard King Solomon's Mines
Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter
Robert A Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land
Ernest Hemingway The Old Man and the Sea
Frank Herbert Dune
Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner
MM Kaye The Far Pavilions
Jack Kerouac On the Road
Rudyard Kipling Kim
CS Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia
Jack London The Call of the Wild
Robert Ludlum The Bourne Identity
Alastair Maclean The Guns of Navarone
Cormac McCarthy The Road
Larry Niven Ringworld
George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-four
Boris Pasternak Doctor Zhivago
Terry Pratchett The Discworld series
JK Rowling Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Mary Shelley Frankenstein
Dodie Smith I Capture the Castle
John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath
Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island
JRR Tolkien The Hobbit
JRR Tolkien The Lord of the Rings
Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Voltaire Candide
HG Wells The War of the Worlds
TH White The Sword in the Stone

Wow... 58 down, only 942 to go. Although, I do think I should get more credit for some of the series' that they are counting as one book! ;)

As I read more, I'm going to start listing them below. I'm going to try and post a little review when I get done with one as well...nothing fancy! :)

Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveler's Wife
Richard Condon The Manchurian Candidate
Ian McEwan Atonement
Evelyn Waugh Brideshead Revisited (not on the list I posted, but others include it.
Margaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale
Jane Austin Mansfield Park
Agatha Christie The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Agatha Christie The Murder at the Vicarage

Goodbye, Ricardo

In memory of Ricardo Montalban. One of the greatest performers of our time.



Rest in peace.