Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare

I’ve always wanted to read Shakespeare. Don’t get me wrong, I read Macbeth in school and watched quite a few productions, but actually reading a play without somebody setting essays about what the Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow soliloquy means sounds like fun. After being scarred for life from The End of the Affair I figured I’d go for something I knew had a happy ending. Enter Beatrice...

Aaahhh Beatrice, how I love you... She is the perfect combination of sarcasm and cruelty. You just have to give her credit for that. And I know how everyone says Beatrice and Benedick are equally matched but let us make something clear now: they’re not- Beatrice can make Benedick cry any day of the week. And she does it beautifully. I like Benedick as well, I mean, yes he is a chauvinistic pig, but compared to the rest of them he is a vast improvement.

On the other hand: Hero and Claudio. Hate them. Seriously, I want bad things to happen to them! Claudio is a horrible human being who rejoices at the misfortune of others! He is rude, arrogant and ridiculously gullible! And Hero is a doormat. Can’t believe she married the bloke in the end...

My favourite character from the whole play however has to be Dogberry. The person who manages to report like this:

“Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.”

earns my eternal admiration....

Up next: Richard III

Enjoyed it: Very much.

Read Again: Absolutely.

247 days remaining - 23 books down, 1 unfinished, 77 left.

The End of the Affair - Graham Greene

When was the last time I mentioned I am a moron? Well, let me re-iterate: I am a complete and utter moron who deserved what she got. No, really, I did. So I finished In Cold Blood and that left me with a bit of a bitter taste so I thought I’d go for something a bit lighter. So I looked at the piles of books that people have kindly donated towards my challenge and thought: “Graham Greene! I know him! I read Travels with my Aunt ages ago and that was fun. I’ll go for that!”

Poor deluded moron.

The End of the Affair is most certainly not fun. It is upsetting and tough and a tiny bit claustrophobic. It is the story of a love triangle between Sarah, Henry her husband and the narrator, Bendrix. Both men love Sarah, Sarah loves Bendrix, Bendrix hates Henry, Henry is confused and voila - Love triangle galore. This is the part that I point out how amazed I am by Greene’s skill - he managed to write a story where I did want to know what happened next even though it was populated by seriously unpleasant characters. That takes some skill. Bendrix had the most annoying mental voice since Bella Swan (sorry Twilight fans, Bella annoys me). He played all tough and mighty and what-have-you but the bottom line is he spent most of the book whining! And when he wasn’t whining or feeling sorry for himself he could teach Draco Malfoy a thing or two about smugness (Check me out and my Young Adult references!). So that’s Bendrix out of the way, now for Henry: By far the least annoying of the lot, with very few redeeming qualities other than the fact his heart is in the right place. He needs a spine transplant asap.

And last but certainly not least: Sarah. I don’t know what to say about Sarah. I mean, a Freudian would have a field day about her. I didn’t have to read her father’s abandonement to know she had daddy issues! But that’s really as far as I can tell you about her. There is nothing to her. I didn’t see any character. Nothing that made her Sarah - neither good or bad! Just nothing! If I had been told that in her free time she hunted puppies for sport and made coats out of them I would have been a bit more sympathetic. She would have some personality then! By not having a personality she makes both Bendrix and Henry look like complete fools - I can’t for the life of me tell you what it is they loved about her...

I think the whole point of this was not really the story of Henry/Bendrix/Sarah but Greene’s issues with the Catholic faith. And boy is he sore about it... Bendrix presents such exceptional anger against religion he sort of looks like a caricature. His anger, mixed with serious confusion about what respect for others is, makes him act like he is on the verge of nervous breakdown. Here be spoilers: The bottom line is: Bendrix, who has drilled it into our head how much he loves Sarah, chooses to disregard her last wishes because he thinks he has a score to settle with God. Hmmmm....

Up next: Much Ado About Nothing

Enjoyed it: I don’t know, it made me think.

Read Again: No, not really.

247 days remaining - 22 books down, 1 unfinished, 78 left.

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

You know, I can’t say I didn’t expect this to be hard going, I knew it was going to be a tough read. I mean it is called in Cold Blood for a reason. And I did know the story, I knew it was not going to be pretty. I entered Capote’s realm with my eyes open.

HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

For those of you who don’t know what In Cold Blood is about then let me give you the cliff notes version: the book is based on the true events following the multiple murder of the Clutter family in 1959. It gives a background to the family, the last people to see them alive, the suspects and the perpetrators. It follows the events from before the crime till after the execution of the prisoners.

As I said already, I knew the plot so I wasn’t surprised by the events. What is surprising is even though I knew what was coming, I kept hoping it would somehow be avoided. I really did hope Smith and Hickock would change their minds and that somehow everyone would survive. But that most certainly didn’t happen. And following the murders, I was so worried that they wouldn’t get caught! I suppose it goes to show how amazing Capote’ story telling was, it made me feel very involved.

I am not going to lie, it was a tough read. Although beautifully written and non-judgemental, you had to take it slowly, you just couldn’t sit  down and read it in one afternoon, at least I couldn’t. I really enjoyed it but I found it tough.

The pleasant surprise was that even though I thought that as I grew up as a proud member of the X-files generation nothing could horrify me, this did manage to horrify me. That was a bonus!

Next up: The End of the Affair

Enjoyed it: It was beautifully written. Not exactly entertainment though...

Read again: Probably.

247 days remaining - 21 books down, 1 unfinished, 79 left.

Enigma - Robert Harris

Enigma is the story of about 3 months in the life of a codebreaker, Tom Jericho, in Bletchley Park during the war. The book starts at the end of those three months, mainly the last week and there is a series of flashbacks to fill in the gaps for the reader. I have to say, really not a fan of flash backs. If you need to use more than two flashbacks maybe you should have placed the start of your book earlier as far as I’m concerned. I just feel they interrupt the flow too much.

Fear not however, the plot is packed actually. Tom has been an incredibly busy bee in three months. In the course of three months he managed to meet a girl, go to four dates with her, sleep with her twice, get dumped, mope, have a nervous breakdown, be sent back to Cambridge to recover, return and so on. You may now be getting pissed off because you think I gave away the plot? How wrong you are, I just told you chapter one. Seriously. In other words this book is completely packed.

I like Tom. Tom is, well quite damaged, but nice. He is brilliant, which means he has no common sense at all and the fact that he makes it from day to day is simply proof of how civilised society is a nice place to be if you are a mathematical genius. You just can’t help but really feel for poor Tom. He just gets in the middle of things and faces them with such stoic bravery. It’s very lucky that he has Hester for a sidekick, seeing as she is actually capable of not acting suspicious for two seconds and keeping calm as opposed to him. Hester is a force of nature and without her Tom Jericho, clever as he might be, he wouldn’t get very far.

In terms of plot, the twists are great. you spend your time suspecting one person, then you realise you were blind and then Robert Harris tells you’ve missed the woods for the trees. I love it when that happens. You also get to read a bit about code breaking during the second world war and I found that fascinating. All in all I really enjoyed this book,I strongly recommend it if you can stand flash backs. They do stop by page 175 so if you grin and bear it for the beginning you’re in for a treat!

Next up: In Cold Blood

Enjoyed it: Yes!

Read again: Of course, I’ll get to skip the flashbacks!


270 days remaining - 20 books down, 1 unfinished, 80 left.

A Certain Smile - Francoise Sagan

So I picked this up because I loved Bonjour Tristesse  so much. I thought it was going to have the same refreshing voice, the easy going pace, the well thought out characters of her first novel. It didn’t. It was not good. Dominique was very annoying. Don’t get me wrong, she shares so many great qualities with Cecile like her self absorption, tendency for the dramatic, debatable morality. And yet she is so dull. I just didn’t connect with her at all, I didn’t care if her heart broke, or if she was happy, or ill. I just didn’t care. Something about her made me completely indifferent to her.

So the story is: Girl loves boy, boy introduces her to his uncle, girl falls for said married uncle, uncle and girl have affair. Too bad the girl is as interesting as baked beans.

And as for the uncle: Let me put it out there- he is a creep. There is nothing romantic about him. He is a creep and a boring creep at that!

Over and out!

Next up: Enigma!!! So put your codebreaking hats on!

Enjoyed it: No.

Read again: Absolutely not.

275 days remaining - 19 books down, 1 unfinished,  81 left.

Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan

This is the story of Cécile, a 17 year-old girl living in the 1950’s, spending her summer holiday with her father in the company of one of his many mistresses. As a teenage girl she is described to idolise her father and his chosen life style, lack the direction of solid parenting that was absent in her life and despise anything that tries to unsettle the fragile balance of her life. In fact she is very a much a teenager, trapped between being a child and being an adult and she evidently resents that. Especially when the latest conquest of his father is here to stay, with Anne becoming his fiancee and taking firm control of Cecile’s life in the same sense as a mother figure would.

This very short novel was incredibly well written, honest and very direct in terms of its characters and situations. You can’t help but like Cecile, not because she is a nice human being (she’s not.) but because she is honest and does exactly what you’d expect her to do. With Cecile, what you see is pretty much what you get. She is a great character and her mental voice is very refreshing.

As for the plot, it had a tendency for the dramatic but it was written by a teenager, reflecting a teenager’s view. It was very enjoyable! Highly recommended!

Enjoyed it: Very Much

Read again: Absolutely!

275 days remaining - 18 books down, 1 unfinished,  82 left.

The Death Instinct - Jed Rubenfeld

This book not exactly a sequel to The Interpretation of Murder but it does use the same protagonist and in a sense it gives us the “what Stratham Younger did next” vibe. Set in the 1920’s in New York, it follows two lines: the life of a police detective who witnessed the 1920’s terrorist attack on Wall Street and Stratham Younger, trying to unravel a plot against a young radiochemist. The plot was great, if you ignore the ridiculous parts of it and the shaky science bits, it was fun. But something happened to the book. I’m going to guess it happened at the printers, they accidentaly added to the book another book, called “Memoirs from WWI”. If that’s not what happened then I can’t explain why he spent easily 150 pages telling us, in  a very preachy manner, about the horrors of the First World War. It didn’t add to the plot, it didn’t add to the experience and frankly it was tedious.

The other thing that happened to that book was Stratham Younger turned from a fun nice person to an arrogant jerk that deserves to be run over by a train. I hated everything about him. The worst part was that it wasn’t as if Rubenfeld took his character and then imagined the emotionally scarred version of it and tried to reproduce it. He took his character, shredded it, started again and gave him the same name. Seriously.

The other thing that had bothered me about Jed Rubenfeld before is the outlandish plots. There are parts where his story is simply unbelievable. In a way, he writes such hard to believe story-lines that when he brings out the outlandish spin you are unsurprised because there is nothing that can surprise you anymore.

The nice treat in his books is always the Freud cameos that appear. Now, I know most of Freudian psychology has been disproved but he still looks very cool in a historical novel! That was really a treat. In terms of other characters, Colette was possibly the most confusing character I’ve read: so liberal and yet so sexist at the same time! It was all a bit confused... The only decent character was Detective Littlemore (who I imagine to look like Paul Giammati a la The Illusionist). He was a well written, well thought out character. He is the only character I truly enjoyed reading about!


Enjoyed it: So so.

Read again: Not really.

275 days remaining - 17 books down, 1 unfinished,  83 left.