Ridiculous Reviews: What I've Been Reading

What I've Been Reading

Friday, July 1, 2011 11:36 AM Posted by Unknown

Oh my...well. Lately I've been so busy. For the last three week I've been helping, along with my family, my grandmother because she just went through surgery recently for a quadruple bypass. I can't believe I spelled that all right the first time. Can you believe that??

Wow :]

Anyway, I thought I'd just give you all an update on what I've been reading lately.

A sharp, sophisticated fantasy dealing with an old problem-temptation-in a new world-Perelandra. The newest planet in C.S. Lewis's celebrated space world, Perelandra (the planet Venus), has been invaded by the devil's agent in the shape of an English physicist, Dr. Weston. Evil joins battle with good, represented by Ransom the philologist, as Perelandra and it's Queen and Lady Mother face the choice between ascending to perfection or following an older world to corruption.

It’s 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. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

Oscar Wilde brings his enormous gifts for astute social observation and sparkling prose to The Picture of Dorian Gray, his dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. This dandy, who remains forever unchanged—petulant, hedonistic, vain, and amoral—while a painting of him ages and grows increasingly hideous with the years, has been horrifying, enchanting, obsessing, even corrupting readers for more than a hundred years.

Taking the reader in and out of London drawing rooms, to the heights of aestheticism, and to the depths of decadence, The Picture of Dorian Gray is not only a melodrama about moral corruption. Laced with bon mots and vivid depictions of upper-class refinement, it is also a fascinating look at the milieu of Wilde’s fin-de-siècle world and a manifesto of the creed “Art for Art’s Sake.”

The ever-quotable Wilde, who once delighted London with his scintillating plays, scandalized readers with this, his only novel. Upon publication, Dorian was condemned as dangerous, poisonous, stupid, vulgar, and immoral, and Wilde as a “driveling pedant.” The novel, in fact, was used against Wilde at his much-publicized trials for “gross indecency,” which led to his imprisonment and exile on the European continent. Even so, The Picture of Dorian Gray firmly established Wilde as one of the great voices of the Aesthetic movement, and endures as a classic that is as timeless as its hero.

Camille Cauti, Ph.D., is an editor and literary critic who lives in New York City. She is a specialist in the Catholic conversion trend among members of the avant-garde in London in the 1890s.

Here's where I pause to say: I love this book!!!!!

^^^And this Picture ^^^

Okay...Moving on....

Godly and Righteous, Peevish and Perverse presents an extraordinary and motley collection of literary and real life characters sharing a common role and a common status, yet capable of every human strength and foible.

It is November. When Meg comes home from school, Charles Wallace tells her he saw dragons in the twin’s vegetable garden. That night Meg, Calvin and C.W. go to the vegetable garden to meet the Teacher (Blajeny) who explains that what they are seeing isn’t a dragon at all, but a cherubim named Proginoskes. It turns out that C.W. is ill and that Blajeny and Proginoskes are there to make him well – by making him well, they will keep the balance of the universe in check and save it from the evil Echthros.

Meg, Calvin and Mr. Jenkins (grade school principal) must travel inside C.W. to have this battle and save Charles’ life as well as the balance of the universe.

In this companion to the Newbery Award winner A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, fifteen-year-old Charles Wallace and the unicorn Gaudior undertake a perilous journey through time in a desperate attempt to stop the destruction of the world by the mad dictator Madog Branzillo. They are not alone in their quest. Charles Wallace's sister, Meg—grown and expecting her first child, but still able to enter her brother's thoughts and emotions by "kything"—goes with him in spirit. Charles Wallace must face the ultimate test of his faith and his will as he is sent within four people from another time, there to search for a way to avert the tragedy threatening them all.

If you haven't guessed yet, I'm ma huge fan of Madeleine L'Engle. One of my favorite quotes from her is :

""I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, "This is what I believe. Finished." What I believe is alive ... and open to growth"

or

"A book comes and says, 'Write me."

or

"If a book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."

Yeah, she's a pretty awesome writer. I'd encourage all to read her books. I don't want to say she reminds me of C.S. Lewis because she's totally her own writer, but in the way that she writes. Everything she writes means something. None of it is just "fill in work". It's a painting and every piece is meant to show or say something. It's amazing really.

Leave me a comment telling me which ones you want reviews on, or which ones you've already read, or anything! I love comments :]

Thanks for stopping by!

Love,
Nonnie

Posted in What I've Been Reading