Monday, August 31, 2009

Day One Hundred and Fifty-One

8/31

The Book: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

ISBN: 978-1-59448-329-5

Suggested By: Ed Vela

Where: Home

When: 7-8P

Music: None

Company: Alone, except for Church jumping on the edge of the couch

Pages: 68-123 (55)


The Lead In: Ok, this is turning into a generational tale, which is interesting because I just read 100 Year of Solitude (another generational tale, also by an “ethnic” writer). Not sure what I think about this book now.


The 411 on the 55: I realize that yesterday I used the phrase “sack of crap” twice and to describe two different people. I will attempt to be more eloquent and intelligent in my analysis.


Oscar Wao’s sister is stuck. Ran away from home, she finally breaks down and calls her brother, Oscar, to steal money from their mother and bring it to her. He does, but also brings along her mother. She fights with her mom, but gives in and heads back home. As a way to fix her issues, her mother (who I cannot point out enough, is a horrible horrible parent) ships her to live with her family in the D.R. And she does seem to sort her mind out, coming to grips with who she is.


And now a chapter on Oscar’s mother. She is a really dark girl (skin tone, I mean) and is mocked at the private school that she is sent to. Regardless of the mockery, she is extremely prideful and arrogant. She is very much in love with a boy, Pujols (not Albert, sadly) but he has no time for her. Then over one summer, she gets a big rack (36DDD). Suddenly, he can’t get enough of her. They are caught having sex in the closet of the school. He is sent to military school and she is kicked out. She becomes a waitress and seems to adjust better to life. One night, in a club, she meets Oscar’s dad, one of Trujillo’s cronies.


Line of the Day: “No amount of wishful thinking was changing the cold hard fact that she was a teenage girl live in the Dominican Republic of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, the Dictatingest Dictator who ever Dictated.” pg 80


Fact on the Fiction: Trujillo’s cult of personality in the D.R. “Statues of "El Jefe" were mass produced and erected across the Republic, and bridges and public buildings were named in his honor. The nation's newspapers now had praise for Trujillo as part of the front page, and license plates included the slogan "Viva Trujillo!" An electric sign was erected in Ciudad Trujillo so that "Dios y Trujillo" could be seen at night as well as in the day. Eventually, even churches were required to post the slogan, "Dios en cielo, Trujillo en tierra" (God in Heaven, Trujillo on Earth).” Wikipedia

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Day One Hundred and Fifty

8/30

The Book: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

ISBN: 978-1-59448-329-5

Suggested By: Ed Vela

Where: Home

When: 5-6P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 12-67 (55)


The Lead In: Excited about this book. Ed recommended it with glee. If you know Ed, you know the glee I am talking about.


The 411 on the 55: Oscar Wao is a fat sack of crap. He loves comic books, fantasy novels, D&D, stereotypical nerd. Can’t get with a chick, and when he thinks he is a bout to, he finds out she is back with her old boyfriend who has a large member, so to speak. Oscar is incredibly unhappy with his life. His mother is bossy and doesn’t understand him not being like every other guy. His sister is punky and off to college. At the end of today’s reading, Oscar is off to college where again, he doesn’t fit in.


The second “chapter” of today’s reading tells the story of Oscar’s sister. Her struggles with her mother’s dominating personality lead her to run off and live with a boyfriend. Once there, she realizes he is a sack of crap and is unhappy with her situation as well.


Line of the Day: “Jesus Christ, he whispered. I’m a Morlock.” pg 30


Fact on the Fiction: This book won a Pulitzer. Wikipedia

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Day One Hundred and Forty-Nine

8/29

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 6-630P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 278-324 (55)


The Lead In: I was poisoned. After finding out some of the less appealing aspects of the author, I didn’t enjoy the book as much. I have to say, the ending was weird....Well, more on that next.


The 411 on the 55: On the asteroid training base, Ender has to play complicated games fighting against his trainer, a veteran of the original bugger wars. With his crew of friends, Ender wins each battle, but is losing his health as the wars continue. Losing sleep, blacking out, losing the desire to eat, finally he is brought in for the last battle. And, oh, you guess it? He wins.


And guess what? It was actually real battles he was fighting, he was commanding ships already at the bugger universe. They are all wiped out, hooray, Ender is the best.


The resolution? Ender’s brother is now running the show on Earth, using his persona, Locke, that he created in writing on the Nets. Valentine bails on him and joins Ender at the asteroid. Because all the buggers are dead, their worlds are available for colonization and humans are rolling out, including Valentine, who talks Ender into it, as well.


Once on the bugger world, Ender is traveling around, discovers a building built out of his memories, by the buggers. There he is greeted with a large bunch of memories not his own. Flooded with memories of the buggers, and given a pupa to protect (to eventually release on a future bugger world), he writes a book about the bugger race. It becomes a religion and influences people all across the universe, the end.


The 20/20: So the book was marginal at best. I didn’t enjoy the ending, I felt that it was a bit underwhelming. It should have ended with Ender killing the buggers. Instead it dragged on for 30 pages of heart-tugging (or at least attempted heart-tugging) about buggers. I would have like the book better had it ended with Ender losing and the buggers ruling Earth. Now that would be a twist!


Line of the Day: “And always Ender carried with hi a dry white cocoon, looking for the world where the hive-queen could awaken and thrive in peace.” pg 324 Cheese.


Fact on the Fiction: You know, you read something like, “Ender’s Game is in the top 100 novels of all-time” and you think “Really?” After going to the link you find it was all voted on by “regular” people rather than experts and Ayn Rand and L Ron Hubbard take up has 7 of the top 10 ten spots. Spare me. Do check out the Board’s list, though. MLA

Day One Hundred and Forty-Eight

8/28

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 10-10:30P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 222-277 (55)


The Lead In: Discovering Card’s faith makes me curious as to what influence it has had on his writing. Check out the Fact on the Fiction for today, excellent quote and link to a great interview.


The 411 on the 55: After the fight, Bonzo is shipped out of school and so is Ender. Ender is returned to Earth with Graff (the commander of the training school). Bonzo, by the way, is dead.


On Earth, Ender curls in on himself, unconcerned with the “game”, unconcerned with life altogether. To fix things, the I.F. brings in Valentine. They have an incredibly long conversation on a raft (which, in my mind, was a tad incestuous, though I bet the people that love this book will be angry for that comment). At the end of the conversation, Ender has had enough, count him in to fight the buggers.


Off to an asteroid he is shipped to be trained by the best. But he needs a crew. Who do they send him, but the kids he has been training with, including his boy, Bean. How sweet.


Line of the Day: “In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him.” pg 238 Hahahahahaha. Shoot me.


Fact on the Fiction: To quote Mr. Card: "I find the comparison between civil rights based on race and supposed new rights being granted for what amounts to deviant behavior to be really kind of ridiculous. There is no comparison. A black as a person does not by being black harm anyone. Gay rights is a collective delusion that's being attempted. And the idea of 'gay marriage' -- it's hard to find a ridiculous enough comparison. By the way, I'd really hate it if your piece wound up focusing on the old charge that I'm a homophobe." Salon.com


Day One Hundred and Forty-Seven

8/27

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 9-9:45P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 168-221 (55)


The Lead In: I feel that too much is happening in this book. Like the book should be much longer to encompass all the time and events that are unfolding in the book.


The 411 on the 55: So as you might have guessed already, Ender is the most badass commander of all time, he takes his band of nobodies and defeats each team, systematically. The director of the training school begins upping the ante, scheduling matches the next day (typically they were given a week to practice), 7 days in a row, eventually making Ender’s group fight 2 teams at once, in the dark, without prior notice, etc, etc, etc. And yet Ender continues to win. So pissed off are the other boy commanders that they decide to beat Ender.


Well, Bonzo, Ender’s first commander when arriving at the training school, is the leader of the pack of boys who are going to beat him up. And rather than beat him up, he wants to kill him. Right. I felt like that was a stretch. Bonzo is all about pride but, in the end, he is still a 13 year old. They kicked Ender’s brother out of school because he was malicious and mean, wouldn’t they have done the same thing to Bonzo?


Again, predictably, Ender is against long odds, and still wins. He beats the living crap out of Bonzo, including kicking him in the testicles (while they are both naked in a shower)...um, ok.


Line of the Day: “After that, if he had asked them to follow him to the moon without space suits, they would have done it.” pg 186 (ok, maybe worst line of the day. I thought i was incredibly cheesy and badly written)


Fact on the Fiction: (I smell a Mormon) “Orson Scott Card is an award winning science fiction author who grew up in Utah and attended Brigham Young University. There he studied drama, which contributed to his writing of plays. Card had his own theatre company, which was a success for a number of years. He learnt to speak Portuguese as a result of his missionary years in Brazil.” Ender.com

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Day One Hundred and Forty-Six

8/26

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 2-3P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 112-167 (55)


The Lead In: The book is readable. That is all I will say.


The 411 on the 55: The side story of Peter and Valentine begins to emerge today. Peter has recruited Valentine to help him in an article writing project on-line, meant to change the course of events in the world. Valentine gives in because she is passive, though worried about where it is headed.


Ender is handed his own squad, making him an incredibly young (9) commander of Dragon. His first practice ends with the emergence of another character, Bean, also small and young who is scrappy and very Ender-like.


Line of the Day: “She had thought that only fools would follow him.” pg 138


Fact on the Fiction: Ender’s Game received both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1985.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Five

8/25

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 9:30-10:15P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 56-111 (55)


The Lead In: This book is science fiction, obviously, but it is also annoying in the way the supposed 6 year olds think and speak. No six year old talks the way Ender does. I guess supporters of Card would argue that Ender is exceptional in every way, But I think that’s still a stretch.


The 411 on the 55: Just as Ender begins to make friends in his unit, he is transferred to another unit, also led by a kid who resents his presence. Of course, Ender betters his commander by disobeying a direct order in mock combat. He fires on the other team at the last moment, turning a loss into a stalemate. Sadly, his commander, sees that as insubordination and eventually transfers him to another squad.


Two things emerge as important from this section of the book. 1, Ender enjoys playing a psychological game. The more he plays, the deeper it ventures into his subconscious, revealing more of him to the generals, who monitor the game. 2, Each commander Ender serves under offers a model to glean from, making Ender better after each experience.


Line of the Day: “As he thought of it, though, he could not imagine what “just living,” might actually be.” pg 74


Fact on the Fiction: Science fiction fans who love videogames, start your rejoicing. Later today, award-winning author Orson Scott Card and Chair Entertainment--the creative team responsible for Advent Rising and Undertow--will officially announce plans to turn Card's beloved novel "Ender's Game" into a, well, game. Newsweek

Day One Hundred and Forty-Four

8/24

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 10-11A

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 1-55 (55)


The Lead In: Science fiction was something I gave up on a long time ago. I judge it very harshly because the author’s can create situations and settings which no other author can duplicate, which I guess might be harder, but to me seems easier. You can operate outside all the rules. Come on.


The 411 on the 55: Ender is the third child in a country that has strict limits on births. He’s an exception to the rule, he’s a third. His older brother, Peter, and his sister, Valentine, each had great potential but failed at the government administered tests for the I.F., a starfleet-type program to protect Earth from aliens (buggers). Ender passed.


He joins the I.F. training school and promptly makes an enemy out of his commander, an older boy with a bad attitude.


Line of the Day: “He was afraid, and fear made him serious.” pg 28


Fact on the Fiction: “There hasn't been any news on the movie recently. However, it has been announced that there will be a comic book based on Ender's Game, published by Marvel comics, that will be released this fall.” Endersgamemovie


Monday, August 24, 2009

Day One Hundred and Forty-Three


8/23

The Book: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

ISBN: 978-0-06-135096-2

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When: 10-11P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 456- 519(63)


The Lead In: Looking at this book, deciding to just smash it out tonight.


The 411 on the 55: So the story ends the way you would expect it to end. Elphaba returns to her castle, awaiting the arrival of Dorothy and her group of travelers. Of course, they arrive, hijinks ensue and the Witch is killed with a flying bucket of water.


The 20/20: When I mentioned I would be reading Wicked, someone said “I can’t wait to see what you think of it!” I’m not sure if they were just looking for me to bash it or love it. So this is what I think of Wicked: the book was an interesting but I’m not crazy about it. It seems to be much ado about nothing. The story is Baum’s and Maguire just gave substance to secondary characters. Is it that groundbreaking? Not to me. It was funny, witty and irreverent, but in this era of cheap plastic throw-away books this doesn't stand out as unique. Maybe that thought was disjointed. I’m trying to say that the Wizard of Oz didn’t need to be retold, it’s a classic for a reason. If you retell the story and flavor it with a bunch of aspects that the original never included, I think you weaken it. Sort of like the Manga Bible. Or Pop-Up Moby-Dick. This modern world cheapens everything, and maybe Baum’s classic would have been better off without a rewriting.


Line of the Day: “The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation.” pg 514


Fact on the Fiction: Oh yeah, check it out. Manga Bible!



Apparently, the story of Moses. Manga Bible

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Day One Hundred and Forty-Two

8/22

The Book: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

ISBN: 978-0-06-135096-2

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When: 2-3P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 402-457 (55)


The Lead In: Reading during the day is such a great alternative to trying to read just before bed. My mind is sharper. Too bad the schedule doesn’t always work that way.


The 411 on the 55: Nessarose is ruling Munchkinland well enough, I guess, but Elphaba is fed up with the way Animals (talking animals) are treated. They are being treated as dumb animals rather than sentient beings. Nessa ignores her and Elphaba leaves for her home. Upon arrival she finds the family of her lover gone, captured by an army troop of Oz. She settles in to plan revenge when news arrives that Nessarose has been killed...


By a falling house. From Kansas. With Dorothy and Toto in it.


Elphaba heads back only to discover the ruby slippers that she wanted so badly were given to Dorothy by Glinda. The Wizard of Oz shows up and tries to bargain with Elphaba for her magic book of spells, but she refuses to give it up.


Line of the Day: “And while you wait to learn, the deadly icicle, formed by all opposing forces, falls and drives its cold nail into penetrable flesh.” pg 417


Fact on the Fiction: “The author of numerous books for children, Mr. Maguire is also a contributor to Am I Blue?: Coming Out From the Silence, a collection of short stories for gay and lesbian teenagers” GregoryMaguire.com

Day One Hundred and Forty-One

8/21

The Book: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

ISBN: 978-0-06-135096-2

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When:10-11P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 346-401 (55)


The Lead In: I am not sure what I think of Maguire’s writing style. Sometimes he burdens the story down with too much description. But I will let it play out.


The 411 on the 55: Elphaba’s stay is not going all that well. The family she is living with (her dead lover’s) is extremely judgmental of her, her monkey, and Liir, the boy that lives with her. It reaches a head when Liir is duped into climbing into the well by the oldest son. After several days he is finally discovered and has to be brought back to life. Elphaba seems to wish death on boy who tricked Liir and an icicle hits him in the head and kills him. It’s only implied that Elphaba is responsible.


Elphaba receives a letter from her father and decides to travel to her homeland and visit the family. She has just learned her broom is magical and rides it there. Her armless sister, Nessarose, is the supreme ruler of the land and has declared independence from Oz.


Line of the Day: “She felt like a night angel.” pg 389


Fact on the Fiction: “Gregory Maguire received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University.” Gregorymaguire.com

Friday, August 21, 2009

Day One Hundred and Forty

8/20

The Book: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

ISBN: 978-0-06-135096-2

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When:10-11P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 290-345 (55)


The Lead In: Sleepy, but got it done.


The 411 on the 55: Fireyo is actually killed off and Elphaba travels to his widow’s home to tell her the story of what happened. She will have no part of the story and refuses to listen to her. Stuck and waiting to tell her, Elphaba, her monkey, and a servant boy, move into a tower at the widow’s house.


Line of the Day: “If one could drown in the grass, thought Elphie, it might be the best way to die. pg 302


Fact on the Fiction: Wicked the Musical is an incredibly successful Broadway production. Their website was impressive and they even have a facebook account! Wicked the Musical

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Nine

8/19

The Book: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

ISBN: 978-0-06-135096-2

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When:12-12:30P

Music: None

Company: The Cable Guy, Marco

Pages: 234-289 (55)


The Lead In: I started thinking about this concept of writing a book using characters and setting designed by another author. Does that require just as much thought or skill? We don’t give much credit to cover bands, no matter how skilled they are in their performances. How is this any different? Maguire took characters from Baum and wrote a book using them and their setting. Yeah, so its a little different, they have sex and curse and try to kill the Wizard of Oz, but why should Maguire get so much credit? Something to consider while reading this book, no doubt.


The 411 on the 55: Elphaba now lives in the Emerald City and has a shadowy network of friends with whom she plans shadowy misdeeds against the government. After 5 years of solitary living, single-mindedly chasing after her unstated goals, she runs into an old friend from her college years.


Fiyero is a prince in his own country, with a wife and children, and a kingdom to rule. He runs into Elphaba and decides to have an affair with her. He pries information from her concerning her plans, but no dice, she won’t budge. Eventually he follows her to what he assumes is her big day.


Madame Morrible (the dean of her old school) steps out of a car and just before Elphaba does something (its not defined in the book), a bunch of school children come rushing around and she cannot complete her assignment. She gives up. Firyero loses her in the crowd, returns to her apartment and gets the snot beat out of him by government agents.


Line of the Day: “My father chases hopeless causes. It gives his failure at life some legitimacy.” pg 251


Fact on the Fiction: Baum’s Wizard of Oz was the best-selling children's book for two years after its initial publication. Baum went on to write thirteen more novels based on the places and people of the Land of Oz. Wikipedia

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Eight

8/18

The Book: Wicked

ISBN: 978-0-06-135096-2

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When:5:15-7P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 25- 233 (208)


The Lead In: Started with this book and really sunk my teeth in. I like these fresh takes on old stories. I’ve already done three for the 55pages project, I think (Sleepy Beauty, Snow White, and Oz).


The 411 on the 55: Elphaba is the daughter of a pastor and his bored wife. She is green-skinned and has a disposition closer to animal than human. The first section of the book deals with her father and his inability to convert anyone to his faith. Instead he watches them rush off to follow after the pleasure faith, governed by a prophesying clockwork.


The story skips and Elphaba is now in college, forced to bunk with Glinda and they couldn’t be more opposite in nature. Glinda is much more concerned with the social life of an up and coming college student while Elphaba is engrossed in the study of animal (talking) history and working at her studies. Of course, predictably, they begin to appreciate aspects of each other as the story progresses.


The professor under which Elphaba is studying is brutally murdered while researching the history of human/animal relations. Though the girls know the truth, the college decides that the professor actually killed himself. The dean of the college takes special precautions to insulate the girls from any knowledge that might be gleaned about the murder, so they decide to take their little bit of information to the government.


When they reach the Wizard of Oz, he blows off their claims and sends them packing.


Line of the Day: “The thing is, my green girlie, it is not for a girl, or a student, or a citizen to assess what is wrong. This is the job of leaders, and why we exist.” pg 224


Fact on the Fiction: “Elphaba: Little-known name of the Wicked Witch of the West. Given by Gregory Maguire (author of the novel "Wicked"), named after the intials of L. Frank Baum, author of "The Wondeful Wizard of Oz". (L-F-B, El-Pha-Ba). Originally played by Margaret Hamilton in the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz and Idina Menzel in the 2003 Broadway musical Wicked.” Urban Dictionary

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Seven


8/17

The Book: The Claiming of Sleepy Beauty by Anne Rice

ISBN: 978-0-452-28142-4

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When: 9-10P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 222-253 (55)


The Lead In: After finally getting caught up, I am excited about getting the ship moving at a steady pace every day. This book is nuts by the way, crazy, like Anne Rice Crazy.


The 411 on the 55: Alexi and Beauty try to keep their secret from other people, but somehow it is discovered. The day disobedient slaves are to be sent to the village to be sold as sex slaves to commoners, the fact of her “infidelity” is brought to the Prince’s knowledge. He is quick in his punishment, exiling Beauty to the village. She is thrilled to be out of the castle and, as the book closes, has sex while in the cart with one of the other slaves.


The 20/20: I know I am jaded in my views on sexuality. A lifetime of being a pervert does that to a person. Anyway, the book is pretty well-written and exceptionally well-written as far as erotica goes. It’s a creative spin on the story of Sleeping Beauty and Rice twists the fairy tale into a dirty dirty dirty book!


Line of the Day: “I love it. I loathe it,” Alexi said. “I am humiliated by it, and recreated by it.” pg 239


Fact on the Fiction: “First off, let me say that this is addressed only to some of you, who have posted outrageously negative comments here, and not to all. You are interrogating this text from the wrong perspective. Indeed, you aren't even reading it. You are projecting your own limitations on it. And you are giving a whole new meaning to the words "wide readership." And you have strained my Dickensean principles to the max. I'm justifiably proud of being read by intellectual giants and waitresses in trailer parks,in fact, I love it, but who in the world are you?” (Anne Rice, referring to people giving her critical reviews on Amazon.com) RageDiaries




Monday, August 17, 2009

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Three through Thirty-Six

8/13-8/16

The Book: The Claiming of Sleepy Beauty by Anne Rice

ISBN: 978-0-452-28142-4

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When: Various Times

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 1-221


The Lead In: Again, this is the continuation of the blog before. Just want to hammer this out and be caught up. This is all the reading up to this point.


The 411 on the 55: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty is an interesting take on the old story of Sleeping Beauty. In this, Beauty is claimed from her sleep by a young prince who brings her back to his castle and kingdom to serve as his sex slave. In his kingdom, this is normal.


When Beauty is brought into the kingdom, she is taught how to be sexually submissive to the bondage aspects of the kingdom. She is extremely interested in another slave, Alexi, but is denied any opportunity to consummate her desire. Until one night, she is snuck into a closet by Alexi and things are taken care of.


Line of the Day: “She had obeyed all his commands, and he understood how difficult it was for her. He knew completely what it meant for her to be stripped naked and revealed to everyone, to be helpless and made public and that this surrender of which he spoke could come in acts and gestures long before it could come from her mind.” pg 29


Fact on the Fiction: This book is in the genre of another famous work of erotica, Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom. The novel is a story of 4 wealthy libertines who decide to experience the best possible orgy and lock themselves in a castle with many accomplices. Wikipedia

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Eight through Thirty-Two

8/8-8/12

The Book: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

ISBN: 978-0-15-603008-3

Suggested By: Sissy Vaughn

Where: Home

When: Various Times

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 1- 311


The Lead In: So I fell off the wagon for a little while. Too much work and not enough reading. I will be back to this on schedule within the next couple of days.


The 411 on the 55: Flowers for Algernon is the story of a young man who is given an operation which changes him from retarded to brilliant. He learns more than most people learn in a lifetime, only to lose it all as the operation wears off and he spirals back into retardation.


The 20/20: I liked the book though I’m not sure why they use it for a class read. It’s a marginally good book with an interesting story. The style (diary entries) was a bit off-putting to me.


Line of the Day: “P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowers on Algernons grave in the bak yard.” pg 311


Fact on the Fiction: Flowers for Algernon won the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction. Wikipedia

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Seven

8/7

The Book: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

ISBN: 978-0-06-088328-7

Suggested By: Mecca Willman

Where: Home

When: 4-5P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 396-417 (55)


The Lead In: This book ends today. Wonderful.


The 411 on the 55: The mystery of a book is revealed in this final bit of the novel. A book that has been passed down from generation to generation, studied by many, but not understood until the last pages. It is a prophecy of the family, the story of the town, their history and future all in one. And when translated, the town ends in a windstorm.


The 20/20: I don’t speak highly of books before reading them, but I certainly mock and critique them. I was dead wrong about this novel. Its amazing and powerful, beautiful and elegant, incredibly worth-while to read. Someone said they read this book with a family tree to keep track, I actually did the opposite. I read this without focusing on the individual characters, allowing the repetitive naming and cyclical story line to become an impressionist painting. Wonderful book.


Line of the Day: “The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants.” pg 415


Fact on the Fiction: The Novel 100: A Ranking of Greatest Novels All Time ranks Marquez’s novel 19th on the list, just before The Great Gatsby. Adherents.com

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Six

8/6

The Book: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

ISBN: 978-0-06-088328-7

Suggested By: Mecca Willman

Where: Home

When: 3-3:45P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 340-395 (55)


The Lead In: In a stupor due to overnights. Not sure how much of this I am understanding.


The 411 on the 55: Ursula is the matriarch of the family and lives through 90 percent of the novel. Her life is beautiful in her influence of her children, grand-children and so on. When she dies she actually shrinks down to the size of a child and is buried in a basket.


Line of the Day: “So this is what it’s like to be dead.” pg 342


Fact on the Fiction: “Perpetual motion could only exist in a world without time, which, for José Arcadio Buendía, is what the world becomes and, in a sense, is what time throughout the novel becomes: past, present and future often overlap. This overlapping of time allows José Arcadio Buendía to appear to his descendants in the form of a ghost, so that his presence will always be felt in Macondo.” Sparknotes

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Five

8/5

The Book: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

ISBN: 978-0-06-088328-7

Suggested By: Mecca Willman

Where: Home

When: 7-8P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 284-339 (55)


The Lead In: The cycles are wonderful. This book is beautiful.


The 411 on the 55: Meme is a beautiful young woman who falls in love with an automobile mechanic. Her mother and father disapprove of her love and so they ban the young man from their house. It does not stop them from loving each other and butterflies begin to flock to Meme. It is a physical manifestation of her love. He is shot entering the bathhouse to see Meme and becomes an invalid. She is sent to an cloister to live as a nun.


Line of the Day: “She was still thinking of Mauricio Babilonioa, his smell of grease, and his halo of butterflies and she would keep on thinking about him for all the days of her life until the remote autumn morning when she died of old age, with her name changed and her head shaved and without ever having spoken a word, in a gloomy hospital in Cracow.” pg 297


Fact on the Fiction: Throughout this success, Marquez kept writing and smoking. He consumed sometimes six packs of cigarettes a day during the furious period of writing One Hundred Years of Solitude. His novels since, both magical and legendary, have kept him at the forefront of literature since 1970. Oprah.com

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Four

8/4

The Book: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

ISBN: 978-0-06-088328-7

Suggested By: Mecca Willman

Where: Home

When: 8:30-9:20P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 228-283 (55)


The Lead In: This story is really beautiful in the deaths of its characters. As each of them goes, it seems they have moments of clarity, knowing their death is immanent.


The 411 on the 55: Remedios the Beauty is a girl with little brains but impressive beauty. She drives men insane with her looks, as well as emanating a scent that causes death. Men see her, fall in love, are rebuffed and then kill themselves. She is uninterested in the carnage she works and travels through the city ignoring men and their enraged sex drives.


Line of the Day: “But when she saw her eating with her hands, incapable of giving an answer that was not a miracle of simplemindedness, the only thing that she lamented was the fact that the idiots in the family lived so long.” pg 235


Fact on the Fiction: “[the view that enchantment has to involve fairies and elves] It is obviously not shared by the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez, who has created in "One Hundred Years of Solitude" an enchanted place that does everything but cloy. Macondo oozes, reeks and burns even when it is most tantalizing and entertaining. It is a place flooded with lies and liars and yet it spills over with reality. Lovers in this novel can idealize each other into bodiless spirits, howl with pleasure in their hammocks or, as in one case, smear themselves with peach jam and roll naked on the front porch.” NYTimes

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Three

8/3

The Book: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

ISBN: 978-0-06-088328-7

Suggested By: Mecca Willman

Where: Home

When: 1-2P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 172-227 (55)


The Lead In: Working overnight at work, so waiting to read is not an option. As far as the book goes, its complicated keeping track of the story at times, because of the constant reusing of name from generation to generation. Not complaining, just sayin...


The 411 on the 55: Aureliano is the leader of the revolution and when all is lost, he goes to a doctor to listen to his heart. He marks a spot on his chest where his heart is located. He proceeds to surrender, ending the war. In his tent, he shoots himself through the spot. However, his doctor has actually marked a spot where he would not die. He survives, much to his irritation.


Line of the Day: “For the love of God,” she said in a low voice, “it’s not right for them to come to me with that memory now.” pg 218


Fact on the Fiction: At least one person considers One Hundred Years of Solitude an epic. “It seems clear to me that, in any conventional sense of the literary term, we are dealing here with an epic work: a long narrative fiction with a huge scope which holds up for our inspection a particular cultural moment in the history of a people. The novel is the history of the founding, development, and death of a human settlement, Macondo, and of the most important family in that town, the Buendias. In following the historical narrative of these two elements we are confronted, as we are in any great epic, with a picture of how at a particular moment in human civilization a unique group of people has organized its life (just as we are confronted with the same issue, for example, in the other great epic we have studied, The Odyssey).” Ian Johnson

Monday, August 3, 2009

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Two

8/2

The Book: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

ISBN: 978-0-06-088328-7

Suggested By: Mecca Willman

Where: In Bed

When: 10-10:30

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 116-171 (55)


The Lead In: So glad to be home, so happy to read in the comfort of my bed, nice ending to a rough patch of days.


The 411 on the 55: The patriarch of the family, Jose Arcadio, has gone crazy and to control him they tie him to a tree in the front yard, where he murmurs things in Latin. One of the girls has a dream one night that he will die soon and is cautioned to care for him until his passing. As they prepare a place within the house, they attempt to bring him in, but, while standing there for days and days, he learns how to make his body heavier until it takes 7 men to carry him inside. There is something wonderful about that, I am not sure.


Line of the Day: “The smell of tender mushrooms, of wood-flower fungus, of old and concentrated outdoors impregnated the air of the bedroom as it was breathed by the colossal old man weatherbeaten by the sun and the rain.” pg 139


Fact on the Fiction: “Believed by many to be one of the world’s greatest writers, Gabriel García Márquez is a Colombian-born author and journalist, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and a pioneer of the Latin American “Boom.” Affectionately known as “Gabo” to millions of readers, he first won international fame with his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude, a defining classic of twentieth century literature.” The Modern World

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Day One Hundred and Twenty-One

8/1

The Book: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

ISBN: 978-0-06-088328-7

Suggested By: Mecca Willman

Where: In Flight to DFW

When: 3-4P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 60-115 (55)


The Lead In: I’m terrified of flying and this flight was bumpy and terrifying. This book managed to distract me from the rigors of the flight.


The 411 on the 55: How beautiful the writing of this story is. Its powerful and sweet, races from eyes to brain like some drug.


Pietro Crespi falls for a young lady, but she will not have him. He pushes and pushes and seems to be winning her love. He is gifted in dance and the arts, impressive to his desired mother-in-law. But after a long bout of attempted convincing, his love tells him she will never marry him. He is crushed, goes to his workshop, plays his zither for hours and is discovered in the morning, his wrists slit. How beautiful and fitting.


Line of the Day: “Love is a disease.” pg 68


Fact on the Fiction: The fluidity of time is a major theme of this novel: “He reifies the metaphor of history as a circular phenomenon, through the repetition of names and characteristics belonging to the Buendía family. Over six generations all the José Arcadios possess inquisitive and rational dispositions as well as enormous physical strength; the Aurelianos, meanwhile, tend towards insularity and quietude. This repetition of traits reproduces the history of the individual characters and ultimately a history of the town as a succession of the same mistakes ad infinitum due to some endogenous hubris in our nature” Wikipedia