The Help

So, I took a little detour from the list. I made a last-minute substitution.

I was persuaded by this article : http://www.more.com/kathryn-stockett-help-best-seller to add  The Help by Kathryn Stockett to the top of my list. And I'm glad I did.

I wasn't planning to read it. I know, every single book club in the country read it and loved it last year. What can I say? I was busy last year.

But then I read how Stockett was turned down by 60 literary agents, and just kept going because she believed in the story she had to tell. And I'm glad she did.

Loose Ends: 1984

Hmmm.

What a strange book. What a heavy-handed message. What unlikable characters.
Seriously—when asked, Winston describes his first impression of Julia by saying he wanted to rape, then murder her. And then she laughs at this. Seriously.

There is so much dystopian lit out there right now, and a lot of it leaves a lot to be desired. But at least most of those stories make us care about the people in them, make us hope for change, make us look into the evils of our own society and think.  

While I'm sure this book was thought-provoking, numbing, terrifying in 1949, this reader found it to fall a little flat today.

1984

The Uglies, The Hunger Games, Unwind, Matched—any of those titles sound familiar? 


If not, just wait a few years. Half of the teen dystopian novels lining bookshelves today will be tomorrow's Hollywood blockbusters. It may surprise you to know that authors have been writing about this for decades—about what happens when you mix a corrupt government and complacent society and give them both a good twist.

I'm not sure how I managed it, but somehow I graduated high school without reading one of the early heavy-hitters of  dystopian fiction, the book that coined the phrase "Big Brother": Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.

So here goes #98 on my list...I'm looking forward to this!

I Capture the Castle

Who knew?—Dodie Smith, the author of #99 on my list also wrote The Hundred and One Dalmatians.


I think I've seen the movie (of Castle, that is) but I'm not sure. All I know is that this book has been making the rounds in my friends' YA reading lists and adult book clubs. So it's time for me to see what the buzz is about.


Upon the novel's reissue, the LA Times had this to say:
"It is an occasion worth celebrating when a sparkling novel, a work of wit, irony and feeling, is brought back into print after an absence of many years. So uncork the champagne for I Capture the Castle."


Santé. Cheers. Here we go. 

Loose Ends: The Book Thief

I finished The Book Thief last night, stayed up far too late to make it to the end.

It was a beautiful story. An original story, full of unique characters that the author made me love, even though I knew I shouldn't get too attached. After all, they lived in a cruel time and Death himself had warned me to be wary.

I can't decide how I feel about Death's role as narrator. At times, it gave the reader a glimpse of the devastation of the fighting and the camps, but at other times, it felt a bit like a gimmick. I wonder if anyone else had the same impression.

Anyway, on to lighter fare. I begin I Capture the Castle tonight. My library copy is a first edition, and smells like it's been sitting on a shelf for the last sixty years. So my Friday night will be spent curled up on the couch, with a good, if musty, book in hand. More later...

The Book Thief

"Its just a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery..."


Yes, my copy of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak has finally arrived. And no, I wouldn't call it a small story. 


But I think it's pretty telling that a book published in 2005 still has a steady holds list at the local library. Not to mention, it's a Prinz honor book and one of my good friend Meg's favorite books of all time. 


Anyone reading with me? I'll stop back by to let you know what I think...

Ready or not...

I've got my list and I'm sticking to it!

How did I come up with this particular list of Top 100 Books, you ask? Well, I began with published lists of classic and contemporary books, genre and foreign novels. Then I cut out any titles I've already read, added several books by notable female authors that don't seem to make the other lists (hmmm...) and, of course, got some great advice both on and off the blog.

In an attempt to tear myself gently away for the world of Children's Literature, I selected novels that are marketed to both YA and Adult readers for the beginning of the list. (Is that cheating?)

I'll remove titles from the sidebar as we go, counting down through all 100 books. Yikes!

So take a minute and note the novels you want to read along with me. I've already requested my copy of The Book Thief; we'll be getting started any day now...

The plan...

For two years now, I've been immersed in the KidLit world--places like Pooh Corner and Middle Earth and Terabithia. Children's literature is the stuff I love to read, and it's what I spend all my free time writing.

But the time has come for me to round things out a bit. I haven't read much adult fiction since my undergrad days, and I want to see what I've been missing. The classics. The new stories so powerful they can't be missed. I'm thinking Steinbeck, Nabokov, O'Connor, Rushdie.

So I poked around a few websites and came up with a pretty solid list of the Top 100 Adult Novels. But I want some input! If you have an opinion, now's the time to chime in. And if you're game, read a few along with me!