Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
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A Wrinkle in Time…finally.
The more I look at this cover, the more I like it.
A Wrinkle In Time
by Madeleine L’Engle
[#56 in my 52 60 book challenge]
I started this book in 1995. It took me sixteen years to finish it and move it from the “currently reading” pile to the bookshelf. I think I can rest easy tonight with a smug smile on my face because I have accomplished something great today.
Okay, that’s all a bit of a stretch, but I really did give up on this book in the fifth grade and I’ve always said I would come back to it one day and finish it.
Unless you live under a rock, you have at least heard of A Wrinkle In Time and the tesseract/time travel business. I was surprised to find that the plot was more simple than I had remembered. Meg Murry’s father, a scientist, has been missing for many years. One day three mysterious ladies come and take Meg Murry and her youngest brother, Charles Wallace, so save their father. A schoolmate, Calvin O’Keefe, is along for the ride. They tesser across the universe and across time to different planets and stumble across The Dark Thing and great evil while trying to get all the family members home safely.
My favorite part of the story was Camazotz, the weird planet where everyone does everything at the exact same time. It was creepy and mysterious, but also very close to the themes we see in dystopian literature about control. I also like Charles Wallace quite a bit and wanted to know what his deal was. The basic story was okay. It didn’t blow my mind and make me squeal, “OMG, this is my new favorite book!” I know sooooo many people that feel that way, but I just don’t get it. Do it need to read it twenty more times? Do I need to tesser back twenty years and read it then? Someone help me shed some light on this.
The big things I didn’t get mostly involve Calvin O’Keefe. Why was he even there? And what does he end up seeing in Meg? Yeah, Meg has this great quality to love, but she’s not all that special. I don’t doubt that Meg and Calvin could fall in love over time, but it seemed very quick to me. “Hey, I just met you and you are completely average in every way, but I’m going to hold your hand and make googley eyes at you, okay?”
Maybe I’m just too old for this. I missed the boat and missed the magic of this kids classic. Maybe I need to read it a few more times and revel in the liberal religious aspects of the story (L’Engle was an Episcopalian, it seems). My book club kids thought the story was okay, but they still far preferred When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I think I feel the same way.
Quotetastic Friday
OH SNAP!
Nice cover. Wish it would have actually shown up on my NookBook.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie
[#51 in my 52 60 book challenge]
I thought that Murder on the Orient Express was considered Agatha Christie’s most stunning twist. But I was doing some research and it became very, very clear that two different books stand out among her many works of classic whodunnit detective fiction: And Then There Were None (AKA Ten Little Indians) and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I thought I’d start with Mr. Ackroyd.
I love a good, old-fashioned detective novel. I especially like when all of the characters are stuck in a house, knowing that the murderer is among them, trying to to figure out why everyone is lying and what the truth is. Agatha first delighted me with Murder on the Orient Express when I was thirteen and she BLEW MY MIND with that one. I still think about that ending. I also had my mind blown by the stage production of The Mousetrap. To this day “Three Blind Mice” totally creeps me out.
Okay. Enough with the historical background on why I picked the book. What was it actually about? Well, I had a hard time figuring that part out at first. It was kind of hard to read and it felt like it took forever to get to the point. Here’s the rundown: A guy dies. His wife likely poisoned him. Then she dies…suicide, because someone is blackmailing her.
But that’s not the juicy stuff. That’s not our murder.
No no no. The dead lady wrote a letter to her new boyfriend, Roger Ackroyd, before she offed herself, explaining the murder, blackmail, and suicide…and revealing who had blackmailed her. But before Roger Ackroyd can read who is responsible…he’s dead. Whodunnit? The housekeeper? The parlormaid? The adopted son? The crazy sister? The beautiful niece? The snooping butler? The personal secretary? The unidentified, shady American man roaming around the grounds? The big-game-hunting houseguest? In steps Hercule Poirot, the retired investigator from Belgium, to solve the crime, old-school style, with the help of his neighbor (and the story’s narrator), Dr. Shepherd. Poirot’s methods include using his “little grey cells” a lot, not telling anybody that he actually knows more than he appears to know at any given moment, and calling a lot of meetings to declare “I believe the murder is RIGHT HERE…IN THIS ROOM <thunderclap>!”
The plot twist at the end was pretty good. The murderer is truly creepy, and I can see why many people felt outraged when they read this book. It certainly appears to have caused quite a stir, both in the 1920′s when it was written and today. People either love it or hate it. I loved the ending once I waded though the rest of the novel to get there. So how does it hold up on plot twists? I found a list on GoodReads of The Best Twists and Ackroyd is #10. Here’s the list:
The list certainly has its issues (Deathly Hallows? I guess…but there are better twists out there), but I’ve read eight of the ten and #11 (Ender’s Game) and #12 (Murder on the Orient Express). Definitely worth reading for the twist, and I might need it add it to my list of Top 10 Books That Left Me With My Mouth Hanging Open (note that many of my picks are on the GoodReads list…)
Final Note: Bonnie Wright, who plays Ginny Wesley (<3!) in the Harry Potter films, played Agatha Christie in the BBC’s Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures. Fun!
Gilbert Blythe is Soooo Dreamy
Classics often have dull book covers.
Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery
[#38 in my 52 book challenge]
When Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert requested a orphan boy to help them on the farm, they never dreamed they’d end up with Anne Shirley. Anne is a fiery, passionate, imaginative redhead with a knack for getting herself into trouble. However, Anne manages to charm not only Matthew and Marilla, but much of the town of Avonlea as she grows into a bright, intelligent, beautiful young woman.
As a kid, I had an interest in the story of Anne of Green Gables, but no interest in actually reading the book. Classics didn’t appeal to me — stories of people from a hundred years ago, doing dull things with slow moving plots. I liked modern and gossip and drama…action and adventure. When it came to Anne, I had seen the movies several times and even made a visit with my family to Green Gables on Prince Edward Island up in Canada when I was 7. But I never could make it through the book. Until now.
Now that I have finally read the entire story, I’m very glad I did. I have an appreciation for the slower times of 1878 and the wonderful characters that Lucy Maud Montgomery has created. Anne is a very special girl, but not perfect, which is why she is such a memorable character. I think I’d be a bit annoyed by Anne upon first meeting her but, like most of the folks she meets, I’d end up loving her anyway. I really, really, REALLY love Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert — Matthew for being so shy and sweet, and Marilla for being so strict and, deep down, loving.
I think Megan Follows (as Anne) looks a lot like Alyson Hannigan.
My favorite character of all is Gilbert Blythe. I’ve read many a blog about literary crushes and favorite romances, and I do believe Gilbert is mine. Y’all can take your Mr. Darcy, Sirius Black, and Calvin (from A Wrinkle in Time), but Gilbert Blythe is seriously swoon-worthy. He’s Anne’s biggest intellectual rival and childhood enemy, but he has a crush on her from the get-go. Anne harbors a serious grudge against him from the day he pulls her braids and calls her “carrots.” She doesn’t even pay any attention to boys like the other girls do. But Gilbert does many kind things for Anne, expecting no thanks in return, because he wants her to be happy. Gilbert is strong, smart, and independent, as is Anne. They belong together because they can appreciate those qualities in each other.
There isn’t even any real romance between Anne and Gilbert in Anne of Green Gables, but the groundwork is laid for it to come later in the series. So I will be starting on my copy of Anne of Avonlea ASAP.
Favorite Picture Book #1
Eloise is the very definition of sassy.
Eloise
by Kay Thompason
Illustrated by Hilary Knight
(first published in 1955)
Eloise is six and lives with her nanny in a penthouse apartment of the Plaza Hotel in New York. Her parents are never around. Left mostly unsupervised in a luxury hotel, Eloise takes it upon herself to follow her (self-imposed) rigorous schedule of getting into things, annoying people, and general mischief. Though I do feel a bit sad for Eloise (where are her parents, anyway?), she’s hilarious and lives a life that seemed quite the opposite of my own as a child. I found her weird, glamorous, and a bit annoying, but she still won my heart!
I have very few picture books in my apartment as an adult, but Eloise goes with me everywhere. I felt a basic photo of the cover wouldn’t do, so I an including a picture of me with my personal copy of the book for this post. I have a pretty clear memory of getting my copy for Christmas in 1992, when I was seven. It’s been my favorite ever since. My mom is forever giving me Eloise stickers, Eloise stationary, Eloise trinkets, and Eloise notecards for Christmas. I even have an Eloise card game.
Eloise is completely ridiculous, which is why I love her. Madeline is at least a sweet child, but Eloise is quite annoying to adults. I don’t care. I had a lot of Eloise in me as a child, so I understand. It is a very long book with a lot of text, which might be overwhelming for younger children. I think that, at age seven, I was at the very bottom of the age range that would enjoy this story. But I loved the black, white, and pink illustrations. Thompson has even written the story in the style of a six-year-old girl, with rambling, sometimes unrelated, thoughts and no punctuation. I can just picture Eloise talking and thinking like the words on the page, which is why I believe this story has stood the test of time.
"I have a dog that looks like a cat His name is Weenie Sometimes I put sunglasses on him Then I have to scratch his back with a wire hanger"
My favorite moments in the story:
- “Then I hang up and look at the ceiling for awhile and think of a way to get a present”
- When Eloise saws her doll in half and then imagines the ambulance coming to stitch her back up again.
- Eloise’s description of how, in order to get to the top floor, she takes the elevator to various floors and then runs the stairs in between.
- “and if there is an open door I to walk in and pretend I am an orphan and sometimes I limp and sort of bend to the side and look sort of sad in between the arms and they give me a piece of melon or something”
- When Eloise “sklonk”s her barber in the kneecaps!
- The scene where Eloise irritates her tutor during a French lesson
- “Paper cups are good for talking to Mars”
- “On my Lord There’s so much to do Tomorrow I think I’ll pour a pitcher of water down the mail chute”
- And, finally, I will leave you with my favorite moment: Eloise having a temper fit (“But not very often.”) Enjoy!
"Sometimes I have a temper fit But not very often"
The next step in this process is reading 30 new picture books. I have checked out about 15 from the library and I will start next week, 3 at a time. Picture books are kind of fun!
