100 Book Challenge—Book #7: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I’ve been hearing a lot about The Help lately. In fact, last semester, Sr. Helen Prejean (yes, the famous author) recommended it to me personally while we were having dinner (sorry for the bragging, I just feel really cool when I say that). I knew I wanted to read it to see what the hype was all about, but I didn’t get a chance until now. Unfortunately, I cheated and watched the movie over Christmas Break. It’s a great movie, first of all. I loved watching it, and watching it with two of my favorite women (Teresa and Hannah Mugel… best friends forever!) made it even better. So, needless to say my expectations for the book were pretty high. I was not disappointed.

Stockett’s use of multiple viewpoints made the story even more enjoyable. I loved hearing what was going on in Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeters’ heads. The switching back and forth wasn’t too confusing, since they say at the top of the chapter who is narrating and I think that the unique viewpoints that you get are worth the trouble.

It was interesting to me that the author took it upon herself to give the viewpoint of an African American maid when she herself is white, but as she says in the afterward, while she will never truly understand what that was like, trying to understand it is vital. I think that trying to understand is important, and it helps us recognize that we’re really all the same, no matter what seems to separate us.

The story itself is beautiful. The world it takes place in is bittersweet—there is the simplicity of an age now gone, but there is the deep poverty in the human conditions caused by living in a world so dominated by hatred, fear, and inequality. It saddens me greatly that these things happened, it gives me a feeling of relief to know that (mostly) those days are past for the African American community.

But, after a long talk with my dear friend, Sarah, I am reminded that things are very much the same now as then, but instead of the African Americans fighting for their civil rights it is now the Mexican immigrants trying to feed their families. I think that Stockett’s book can open our eyes to the way in which we allow a barrier of race (and, sometimes language) to make us forget that we are all made in God’s image and likeness. I hate to think of how often the same attitude of the women in the book is present in women today who treat their Mexican maids the same way that these women treated Aibileen and Minny. Perhaps this is something to think about.

100 Book Challenge—Book #6: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

100 Book Challenge—Book #6: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

The author of my favorite series, the Percy Jackson series, is back with a new series called The Heroes of Olympus. This new series involves the same characters that I loved in Percy Jackson, plus a new spin on the Grecian world that I love so much: Roma. Even my favorite Roman myth, Lupa (sorry, anyone who lives in Rome long enough falls in love with that statue) shows up.

So, I don’t think I really have to say much about why I love this book. It’s my Greek gods and culture and language with my Roman mythology. I feel like Rick Riordan must love me to write such a book!

Read it. (But read the other series first.)

100 Book Challenge—Book #5: Joshua by Joseph F. Girzone

100 Book Challenge—Book #5: Joshua by Joseph F. Girzone

I started this book as a 6th grader in Sr. Ellen’s class. She loaned it to me, but I had to give it back before I finished it. I had wanted to finish reading it for some time and when I found it in the St. Vincent de Paul booth at UDCM 2011, I knew it was time.

I’m glad I did finally finish reading it. It’s not the best writing ever read and not as fulfilling as I would like, but it delivers a good message and certainly provides a lot to meditate over. The main character, Joshua, is actually Jesus (I’m not spoiling anything here, it’s pretty obvious from the beginning) and he is visiting a small town. The meditations over the Church and the clergy as well as religion in general make the book worth reading, although I find it frustrating that the author is so focused on the problems without giving us any suggestions for solutions. I was also frustrated because I feel like the author must have some personal problems with the Church in their background that they kept bringing in. The big problems that Joshua was talking about in the Church are not the issues that most people have with the Church and I was getting a bit annoyed by the end because the author was putting his agenda into Christ’s mouth (which is really never a good idea).

All things accounted for, I think it’s a good book, but not a perfect one. It’s worth reading if you have some spare time.

100 Book Challenge—Book #4: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

100 Book Challenge—Book #4: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

This book is one that I read as a child, I think in Middle School at St. Pats in Mrs. Meusch’s class, if I remember correctly. I couldn’t remember the plot really, it was all jumbled in my mind. My dear friend, Kevin, was talking about it one night and I admitted that it had been a very long time since I’d read it and he said I should try it again.

I have to admit, I wasn’t as impressed this time as I remember being and I felt that it went by too fast, as though there were an entire section in the middle missing. I did like all the religious language spread throughout that was mixed with the normal sci-fi adventure story. I think it could have been better written, but reading it in one night after finishing Out of the Silent Planet probably wasn’t being fair to the poor book. Besides, it is a children’s story and I was enthralled with it as a child. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys children’s fantasy stories and particularly recommend it to budding young readers.

(Also, perhaps part of my negative reaction is related to the fact that I feel a little too close to Charles Wallace, too understanding of his arrogance in his knowledge… I will admit to that, though perhaps I shouldn’t.)

100 Book Challenge—Book #3: Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis

100 Book Challenge—Book #3: Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis

Since I first began as a philology major at the University of Dallas, people have been telling me I need to read Lewis’ Space Trilogy, which features a philologist (based on my own dear John Ronald Reuel Tolkien) as the main character. I, of course, wanted to read the book, but as a philology major (and later a philology major in exile), I never had the time. Deacon Mike Brooks, my high school youth minister and mentor, insisted that I read it. Daddy bought it for me for Christmas in 2010, but I didn’t get a chance to crack it open until Christmas break 2011. Then, I accidentally left it at home when I came back to Indy and I couldn’t finish it until Hannah brought it to me on my birthday (thanks, Han, you’re a life saver!).

Of course, I loved it. I mean, how could I not love something Lewis wrote? I especially enjoyed the philological ramblings and I seriously would love to know more about the language on Malacandra. Lewis’ language for the book, Old Solar, was fun, though not as complex as the ones Tolkien derived for his world (although, I’m not an expert in Old Solar, so maybe it is. It’s curiously like Latin in its grammar, particularly its pluralization).

Yet, in addition to my own language-geekness, I dearly loved the myth and the story. There was a sort of implicit, not exactly spoken but talked around, explanation of original sin that reminds me greatly of what one finds in The Silmarillion. And when I came to the end and discovered that the “silent planet” was in fact our own, it was quite a revelation.

Lewis did not disappoint me in this one. It’s easy enough to read and enjoyable. I highly recommend it.

100 Book Challenge—Book #2: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

100 Book Challenge—Book #2: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

I first encountered this book in Lit Trad IV with Dr. Roper. We read the chapter “How to Write a True War Story,” which I will admit was a great introduction to the novel even if it came from the middle. After reading the chapter in class, I wanted to read the whole novel last year but didn’t get a chance to. Last semester, one of my housemates mentioned something about the novel and I thought I’d pick up a copy while I was in Dallas over Christmas. I grabbed a copy at Half Price books for $6.98.

I truly loved reading this book. It was a telling narrative not only about the war and the experience of war, but also about the importance of stories: what they mean to those listening, to those telling.

Many of the stories that O’Brien told reminded me of my dad and the experiences he had in Vietnam and Okinawa. Some are sad, some are gruesome. They are very real, whether they actually took place or not.

I highly recommend this book. 

100 Book Challenge—Book #1: The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

100 Book Challenge—Book #1: The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

I thought that I would try to write a short review or blurb about the books I'm reading for the challenge. 

As I have mentioned before, I really read this book by accident. I downloaded the audiobook from librivox, thinking that Wells’ was the one that was on my “Top 100 books” to read list (This list, and many others, are in the back of my reading journal http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Journal-Lovers-Potter-Style/dp/0307591662/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327349173&sr=8-1). Actually, though, I really enjoyed it. I listened to it on my way to and back from TX.

The whole premise, of course, is that there is an invisible man (imagine that) running around the countryside of Britain. We learn the story of how he became invisible around the middle of the book as things reach the climax of the story.

I find it interesting that I enjoyed the book, because there really aren’t any likable characters in the story. The invisible man, Griffin, is too snobby, too aloof, too aware of his genius and too ready to take advantage of his invisibility for an evil purpose to allow him to be really likeable. And the men who stand against him aren’t very likable either. The characters in the town at the beginning of the novel, Iping, are dense and seem unintelligent. They are the basic gossipy country folk of every great British novel. Then, when Griffin meets his old schoolmate, Dr. Kemp, Kemp is almost likable. He is intelligent and able to converse with Griffin and learn his story. Kemp can hardly be the hero of the story because Kemp is undeniably a coward when he hides in fear from Griffin. Yet, at the end, Kemp is the one to show compassion.

I think this is an interesting novel and a good introduction to Wells’ writing. I’m hoping to read his Time Machine.