Space Station Mir

Question: Who is the most annoying character ever? My Answer: Holden Caulfield is whiny for sure, but he never haunted me like Lee Fiora from Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep . Lee is simultaneously the most annoying and the most terrifying character I have ever encountered. She reminds me of all the worst parts of myself, plus things that I never imagined all those quiet girls might be thinking behind my back. Lee is aggressively passive, so compliant and impressionable she makes me want to scream. Her real personality, the one she submerges in her thoughts, is judgmental and outright cruel. It's clear that Lee hates herself, but she projects that hate on everyone around her and her prep school world is a nightmare. The only "good" thing is when she finally gets together with her longtime crush, but that turns out to be the most corrupt, tainted thing of all, as she allows him to take advantage of her body and leave her nothing in return. By the first time I finished t...

I'm late (by US Eastern Standard Time), but I'm back for Mailbox Monday. Last week was my birthday. I received the following book in the mail as a gift; My boyfriend knows the author, and it looks really interesting. I've been meaning to read more about Prague for a while now, since I went there last year. Much to my surprise, the copy of Atlas Shrugged I thought I had gotten from Bookmooch turned out to be a set of cassette tapes of Atlas Shrugged. Fortunately, I do have a cassette player, but I've never listened to books on tape before, aside from a couple during family car trips. I haven't quite decided what I'm doing with them. Happy Monday!

Question(s): What do you think was the saddest character death or best/most satisfying character death (or both!) from a book? My Answer: I've had to contemplate a lot of character deaths recently as my class just finished the first book of the children's fantasy series Redwall . The author, Brian Jacques, passed away this year and in fitting tribute to him, we held a memorial service for the dead characters. Rats with magnificent names like Cheesethief (my favorite), Redtooth, Darkclaw, and Mangefur have all bitten the dust along with weasel Scragg and ferret Killconey. With that in mind, the deaths of all the adversaries in this book are particularly satisfying. Cheesethief is mistakenly shot with an arrow while posturing in the clothes of the Rat Chief, Cluny the Scourge. The death of Enemy Number One, Cluny himself, is a resounding example of poetic justice, as the bell which features in his dreams, is cut down by the mouse hero Matthias to crush him. Jacques writes the...

I'm trying this out for the first time, I've been meaning to join more book blogging meme groups. This past week, I received Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisa Peshl in the mail from Bookmooch. It's been on my wishlist for over a year now, and I'm excited to read it along with all my other new books. In other news, has anyone ever gone on a book-buying binge and then just been too overwhelmed at what to read next? That might be my next question for readers!

Last night, I watched the film adaptation of The Time Travelers' Wife . While the actors' appearance and the set of the film were exquisitely appropriate, particularly the meadow and Claire's studio, the film never really captured the emotional tension of the book. As my sister pointed out, the book's real pleasure came from Niffenegger's carefully plotted, non-chronological sequence of events, nearly all of which was missed in the film. The movie instead follows Henry's chronological life (as best it can be followed) with only a couple of flashbacks to Claire's childhood, missing some of the best scenes in the book. Overall, it's not that the movie didn't portray the most important plot points and character background, but mostly that it skipped over the fine details and especially the darker and less palatable ones, that make these characters who they are. For example (SPOILER ALERT), the movie avoids how Henry really convinces his doctor that ...

35. The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni Finally, I've finished The Betrothed , an epic nineteenth century Italian novel that in my version (pictured above) is 720 pages in length. Manzoni, evidently a devoted scholar of sixteenth century Milan, weaves his story into the history of that time and place, including politics, religion, famine, and plague. Renzo and Lucia are our betrothed couple, and their troubles beset them before their intended wedding day, when the local lord, Don Rodrigo, forbids the parish priest, the cowardly Don Abbondio, to perform their marriage. Renzo and Lucia, along with Lucia's mother Agnese, are poor country folk in Pescarenico, a small town in Lecco, a territory belonging to Milan. Renzo tries to achieve justice as the more powerful townsfolk turn a blind eye. Don Rodrigo prepares to kidnap Lucia. The plot is thwarted, but the lovers must go separately into exile. We begin to meet a wide cast of characters, specifically do-gooders and not-so-go...

Question: Do you reread a lot? Why (not)? Name a book you have reread many times. My Answer: Yes. I reread all the time. There are many, many books that I have read more times than I can count. Lately, I've been on a roll with reading new books instead of rereading, and I have so many new books I want to read that that looks far more tempting to me right now. However, the truth of the matter is that I get far more out of a book I read more than once. If I liked it, chances are good I will be reading that book again. If I don't reread a book, it usually means I didn't like it and considered it unworthy of my time. There are books that I initially couldn't get through that I went back and read happily, notably Stephen Hawking's The Theory of Everything , Madeleine L'Engle's A Circle of Quiet , and even Tolkien's The Hobbit. I think the book that I have read the most is probably A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery. There is something about this book th...

I've told myself over and over: no buying new books for myself. Library only, at least until I get a full-time job. Then I deposited my summer paycheck. And my mom decided to use the bathroom in the bookstore. And it was all over. The Damage: And the coup de grace: American Wife I've wanted to read for a long time and snagged at a bargain price. Reading Women I read about at Litlove's blog . It sounded like the type of book that would be a good lead-in to feminist reading for me and it wasn't at the library. I had a strong emotional connection to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, so I couldn't miss this new book about the Sisterhood all grown up, even though I'm not sure how I'll feel about it. And I read Game of Thrones and have been watching the HBO TV series, the 4-book set will be a nice birthday treat. I recently joined Amazon Associates, so the nice links will take you straight to Amazon if you want to read more about th...