Willoughby's Return by Jane Odiwe

Genre: Romance
Published: Nov. 2009, 352 pgs.
ARC
Review: 3.5/5 stars

Most Jane Austen "sequels" that I've ever seen are about Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. Willoughby's Return: A Tale of Almost Irresistable Temptation continues the story of Marianne and Colonel Brandon. As the title suggests, Willoughby comes back to the neighborhood and stirs up a little mischief for Marianne. The story is predictable and a little cliched at times but I enjoyed it. I wish that Eleanor had played a bigger part in the book but it was fun to get to know Margaret and Marianne a little more (as seen through the eyes of Jane Odiwe). Marianne has matured and grown a little more sensible but she is still very much the old romantic Marianne. If you like Jane Austen sequels, this one would be a fun choice.

Reading this story about Marianne and wishing that there was more about Eleanor made me wonder about what other people think about these characters. When I read or watch Sense and Sensibility, I'm all about Eleanor and Edward. Marianne is just a side story that I don't care about very much. She kind of bugs me, to be honest, but I love everything about Eleanor. What do you think about Marianne and Eleanor?


Rating: 1.1.1 Very clean read

Confessions

For some reason I've been thinking a lot lately about the books I'm ashamed to admit that I've never read. Are there books that you feel like everyone has read except you? Or as a book blogger can you admit to never having read some of the greats? I've decided to make my confessions here.


The one I'm most embarrassed about is To Kill a Mockingbird. I saw the movie in high school but I've never read it and I'm not sure exactly why. I even own a copy but I keep putting it off. What is wrong with me?







The next one is The Scarlett Letter. I did take English in high school but we never had to read this one. We read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain which I didn't really like but we didn't read my next two confessions.

I've never read Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn either.

There are several children's books that I haven't read either. Charlotte's Web and A Wrinkle in Time are two that come to mind but the one that I'm really afraid to admit to never having read is...

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Genre: Horror fiction

Published: 1959, 256 pgs

Review: 3/5 stars

It's hardly fair for me to review this book. I read it over several days in such small snippets that I don't think I really got the true effect. The story is about a group of four people who go to the alleged haunted house named Hill House to do research on paranormal phenomena. This is the only book of this genre that I have ever read (according to my recollections) so it's hard to compare to other similar books but I would guess that this is much more subtle than other horror fiction out there. I found myself more creeped out in the very beginning just in anticipation of what might come than I was when strange, ghostly things started happening. I didn't really enjoy this book but I did think it was pretty interesting. I think I may read it again in a few years when I can devote some solid chunks of time to reading so I can get in the mood and really feel the tension build.

Rating: 1.2.1 Quite a clean read, but dark.

RIP Challenge Wrap-Up

I set my sights a little too high for this one but that's alright. While I set the goal to read 4 books for this challenge I was only able to finish two. I'm in the middle of two more but I'm not going to make it. Here was my original list.

1. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (re-read)
2. Turn of the Screw by Henry James
3. Dracula by Bram Stoker
4. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
5. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
6. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
7. Another book by Agatha Christie
8. Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

I'm in the middle of The Haunting of Hill House and I'm listening to Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier that I think counts because it has vampires in it. I'm enjoying both of them and hope to have reviews for them soon.

This has been a fun challenge and I look forward to next year.

Shelf Discovery Challenge

I found another challenge that I'm afraid I have to join. It is based on the book by Lizzie Skurnick called Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics we Never Stopped Reading. It is a book that Publisher's Weekly calls an "omnibus of meditations on favorite YA novels that dwells mostly among the old-school titles from the late '60s to the early '80s much beloved by now grown-up ladies." The challenge is to read 6 of the novels written about in this book.

Here's the schpeel:
The Shelf Discovery Challenge will run for six months (November 1, 2009 - April 30, 2010). To join me in this challenge, all you need to do is grab a copy of SHELF DISCOVERY and pick out what six books you want to read (of course, you can read more than six!) Then, after you read a book, just write a "book report" to share your thoughts with others!
Sign Up: Grab the challenge button at the top of this page and write a post detailing what six Shelf Discovery books you are going to read within the next six months (you always have the option to change your original list -- I'm flexible like that!) If you don't already have the book, you can browse the table of contents here.

There are several books on the list that I've been meaning to get to so this is my list (for now).

• The Westing Game
• Jacob Have I Loved
• Are You There God? It's me, Margaret.
• Bridge to Terabithia
• Wrinkle in Time
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond

I think this will be very fun. Thanks to Booking Mama for a great reading challenge.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Genre: Mystery

Published: 1939, 173 pgs.

Review: 4.5/5

This was our book club's choice for October. In the past we've chosen books like Frankenstein and Rebecca for their spookiness value. And Then There Were None is pretty creepy too. The story unfolds as 10 very different individuals are brought together on an island. It's a little like the movie Clue but without the comedy aspect. We did something really fun for this meeting. We told everyone to read up through the epilogue but not to read the very last section, a letter to Scotland Yard. By doing this we could read the whole story but not find out "who dun it". Then at book club we read the last ten pages that tell what really happened. The idea was really fun but in actuality almost everyone, for some reason or other, had found out who the murderer was. Even though it didn't work out perfectly, I think it was a great idea.

The book club discussion was definitely not as uplifting as our meetings usually are. We talked about crazy people and murder and how a person can get to the point of committing pre-meditated murder.

If you like mysteries I really recommend Agatha Christie--unpredictable, sometimes humorous, and always clean.

Rating 1.2.1 Includes violence but not graphic.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Category: Classic, Adventure
Published: 1719
Review: 4/5

I missed book club when they chose the next 6 books. When I heard that they had chosen Robinson Crusoe, I thought, "Okay?" Then I started reading it and by the time I was 20 pages in, I thought, "Who the heck suggested this boring book?" I was actually glad we were reading it because it forced me to read a classic that I may never have read otherwise. By the time I got to page 50 and came across a great quote I realized that this book was definitely worth reading even if it was boring and repetitive. Here's the quote:

"Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony that there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the credit side of the account."

About half way through it starts getting interesting and by the time I was finished, I thought it was pretty good. Robinson Crusoe is considered one of the very first English novels so I feel inclined to forgive Daniel Defoe for the problems that exist like repetition and a implausibility. I really liked the lessons of repentance, endurance, faith, hope, and man's relationship with God. I did read a version that had been modernized a bit so that spellings, punctuation, and capitalization are presented in a way consistent with modern English grammar. Others in my book club who read a more historically accurate version were a bit distracted by the old grammar. If you choose to read it, you might try to decide which version would be better for your enjoyment.

Rating: 1.3.1 Contains violence.