The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

I read this book as an ebook on my iphone. It can be hard to read books on a phone, but this one worked perfectly for 'e-reading'. I had heard that Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were difficult to read, but I found The Adventures of Tom Sawyer an easy and fun read. The book itself essentially just recounts the adventures of Tom Sawyer (hence the title!), a young boy out to have fun.

What I loved most about it was how it rambled from adventure to adventure so smoothly. I thought it was a lovely depiction of childhood adventures. It reminded me of when I was young and used to go down to the local creek and play imaginary games that seemed so real (or I wanted to be so real!). And I loved that just when you're thinking "How cute is he, that’s a great story to imagine!", his imaginings actually turn out to be true.

There's not a lot I want to say about this book, except that it's very sweet and worth reading!

Now I'll have to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn next!

Star Rating

6 / 8

Really enjoyable and well written. I woul recommend it. 

Originally posted 16 July 2009 Page Turners

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

This book was very challenging. Normally, for a book that size, it would take me no more than a week to finish, this book took about 3 weeks to finish. 

It starts with the 2 main characters, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, falling from an aeroplane that has exploded because of a terrorist attack. Somehow, they alone survive. They fall the earth, flying the last part, and land unharmed on a beach in England. A lady with the ability to see ghosts takes them in, and they each almost immediately start noticing changes to their person, Gibreel develops a halo, and Saladin develops horns and turns into a goat/devil looking being. When Gibreel fails to assist Saladin when he is removed from the house by immigration police, the two are cemented as adversaries. There are various subplots too, involving different characters and stories, the main subplot being that of the Prophet Mohammad. 

Although I understood the book in a basic sense, I found it extremely difficult to entirely follow the intricacies of the story, that is, the different plots that take place and how these different plots intersect. I read the book, but I'm not sure I understood what it was trying to say.

It was definitely trying to make a comment about migrants, and the challenges migrants face in terms of conflicting identities. This was particularly clear in the character of Saladin. It was perhaps also making a comment on the lack of spirituality in our consumerist society.

I don't understand though whether Gibreel and Saladin really were supposed to be angel/devil, or if it was a metaphor? If Gibreel really did have paranoid schizophrenia, then what was Saladin's horns an goat legs all about and why did they disappear. How do all the different plots intersect? Why do the characters in all the plots all share the same names?

I can see why there was an issue surrounding the plot involving the Prophet Mohammad - that was definitely asking for some controversy. The book suggests that the Prophet wasn't really receiving messages from God, but was making them up to suit himself. Furthermore, it suggests that the scribe was falsifying the Prophet's messages from God.

It is definitely worth reading, but it takes someone more intelligent than me to really understand the ins and outs of what is happening. 

28 July 2009 - I watched a documentary about The Satanic Verses on Sunday night. It followed the progress of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie following the publishing of this book. It made me realise that perhaps because of the style of Salman's writing, I was perhaps looking for more meaning than what is there. I am still uncertain what the implications are for characters in some sub-plots sharing the name of the of characters in other sub-plots, but I now realise more than before that this book is really a comment on religion, but I think more importantly, on migration and the difficulties of identity faced by migrants to other countries.

Star Rating

6 / 8

Really enjoyable and well written. I would recommend it. 

Originally posted 16 July 2009 Page Turners

Reading List: 2010

Book Read in 2010

For links to reviews, please see the main "Book Reviews" page

Click here for my summary of my favourite books of 2010

These are the books that I read in 2010 in descending order - 109 in total: 

Death before Wicket by Kerry Greenwood (Australian)
A Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
Space Ranger by Isaac Asimov
Jaws by Peter Benchley
Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
Something Wrotten by Jasper Fforde
The Broken Shore by Peter Temple (Australian)
Darkness, Be My Friend by John Marsden (Australian)
Fugitive Pieces by Ann Michaels
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (ebook)
Disgrace by JM Coetzee
The Third Day, The Frost by John Marsden (Australian)
Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle (ebook)
Flighing Too High by Kerry Greenwood (Australian)
Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood (Australian)
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Billie's Kiss by Elizabeth Knox
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre (Australian)
The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke
The Day We Had Hitler Home by Rodney Hall (Australian)
The Big Four by Agatha Christie
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (ebook)
The White Earth by Andrew McGahan (Australian)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M Auel
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Dead of the Night by John Marsden (Australian)
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The Collector by John Fowles
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie
Ape House by Sara Gruen
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Burnett Hodgson
Valley of the Horses by Jean M Auel
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden (Australian)
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel
A Room with a View by EM Forster (audiobook)
Indelible Ink by Fiona McGregor (Australian)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (Australian)
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (Australian)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (ebook)
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (ebook)
Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling (audiobook)
Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lovesong by Alex Miller (Australian)
French Fried by Chris Dolley (ebook)
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith by Peter Carey (Australian)
The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Book of Lost Threads by Tess Evans (Australian)
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott (ebook)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornetts Nest by Stieg Larsson
An Iron Rose by Peter Temple (Australian)
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Murder on a Midsummer Night by Kerry Greenwood (Australian)
Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (audiobook)
The Boat by Nam Le (Australian)
By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
The Timeless Land by Eleanor Dark (Australian)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (audiobook)
The Call of the Wild by Jack London (ebook)
A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
The Man with Two Left Feet by PG Wodehouse (ebook)
Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville (Australian)
The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard (Australian)
Silk by Alessandro Baricco
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Australian)
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
Moral Hazard by Kate Jennings (Australian)
Lost Paradise by Cees Nooteboom
The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (ebook)
The Spare Room by Helen Garner (Australian)
The Double Crown by Marie Heese
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (ebook)
The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter (Australian)
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Secret River by Kate Grenville (Australian)
The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll (ebook)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (ebook)
New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (Australian)
Capricornia by Xavier Herbert (Australian)
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit (ebook)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Lacuna by Barbara Kinsolver

Originally posted 1 January 2011

Reading List: 2009

Book Read in 2009 (from April onwards)

For links to reviews, please see the main "Book Reviews" page

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Wizard of Oz by Framk L Baum
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Anne's House of Dreams by LM Montgomery
The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Fox
The Breaker by Kit Denton
Anne of the Island by LM Montgomery
Anne of Avonlea by LM Montgomery
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
Rice Bowl by Suchen Christine Lim
Virunga: The passion of Dian Fossey by Farley Mowat
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dufoe
The Time Machine by HG Wells
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Deception Point by Dan Brown
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Outsider by Albert Camus
Romulus: My Father by Raimond Gaita
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Shifting Fog by Kate Morton
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Wanting by Richard Flanagan
Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
The Infinite Plan by Isabel Allende
Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernieres

Posted 28 June 2009 Page Turners

Wicked By Gregory Maguire

Wicked – where to start? What I expected and what I got are completely different. When I started reading Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, I thought I was starting a light-hearted comedy type book. Instead, what I got was a dark, sinister and almost depressing black comedy about the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Even writing about the book now, having read it earlier this year, I am still very confused by this book. By that I don’t mean that I am confused about the plot or the occurrences, I’m confused about my reaction to the book. I was totally depressed by this book. Not only whilst I was reading it, but between reads. 

Obviously feeling depressed is not a good feeling, but at the same time I appreciate this feeling because it’s not very often that you read a book that has so deep an effect upon you. I’m not sure I could say that I have such a strong reaction of any kind to any other book I’ve read. 

There’s a lot I could talk about this book, but I really only want to talk about the politics contained in the story, and the theme of evil and what evil really is. Politics and the concept of evil are closely entwined in this story.

I have to admit that I’ve been having a lot of trouble writing this review, partly because of my reaction to the book and partly because of its complexities. I say this because I’m sure that whatever I write will not do justice to the book.

A brief plot summary is probably necessary; I’ll try not to spoil it too much. The book is about Elphaba (who comes Wicked Witch of the West and her childhood growing up the eldest daughter (and only green child) of a fundamentalist preacher. She has a sister Nessarose who is born without arms (who becomes the Wicked Witch of the East and a fundamentalist religious political leader). The story follows Elphaba through her years at the University of Shiz where she forms an unlikely and somewhat reluctant friendship with Galinda (who becomes the Wicked Witch of the North and Glinda). As a result of university experiences and a changing Oz, Elphaba becomes a leftist activist, revolutionary or freedom fighter and takes part in an underground campaign to destabilise/overthrow the evil despot, the Wizard of Oz, who rules Oz with an iron fist. Elphaba finds true love, loses it and is eventually destroyed by Dorothy.

Politics and religions of Oz are complicated. Oz has 4 states, North South East and West. The Wizard of Oz is a despot who tries to isolate the lower forms of society (Animals). He used Gale Force Troopers to quell uprisings and violence is the standard response of his regime. The religions of Oz are also complicated, there are the followers of the Un-named God, the Pleasure Seekers, the followers of the Time Dragon and so on. The Wizard of Oz is evil and all powerful. In the book he is a distant figure, to me he felt a bit removed from all the action.

I think the main theme of the book is that of evil - What is evil? Who makes a person evil? Maguire seems to suggest that evil isn’t a black and white concept, certainly in the book it’s not as simple as Dorothy = good and Elphaba =evil. The characters are all complex.

I think that perhaps Maguire is also trying to suggest that some people do bad things, but are not necessarily bad people. Elphaba wants to harm Dorothy for taking her sister’s shoes. Yet Elphaba wants those shoes so badly because in some respects they represent her desire to be closer to her father and a longing for the relationship Nessarose had with their father that Elphaba did not. Elphaba’s actions in her attempt to claim this family heirloom which Dorothy has acquired, can be viewed as evil or immoral, but her intentions are entirely understandable and human.

What makes a person evil? Is it intent or action that makes a person evil? Elphaba wouldn’t consider her own actions evil and Dorothy wouldn’t consider her own actions as evil – normal human desires are behind the actions of each.

Was Elphaba evil or was she forced to act in an evil manner because she believed Dorothy was coming to kill her? On the other hand, is it dangerous to suggest that because her intent wasn’t evil she’s not evil? I doubt that Hitler thought was he was doing wrong.

Its seems sometimes that its not about who the characters are that makes then evil or good, it’s how others see them. Maybe Maguire is trying to suggest that evil and good are matters of perspective? For example, Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West but who is she? From the viewpoint of modern society she is a revolutionary fighting for social equality, something some people would idealise and applaud, and others deplore. Certainly in “Wicked” she is a wicked witch, although perhaps more so for her later behaviours.

But then, is it important that Elphaba doesn’t start as the Wicked Witch of the West – she becomes her? “That’s why I call myself a witch now: The Wicked Witch of the West if you want the full glory of it. As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention”. Does Elphaba choose to become evil and what significance does this have?

I know that a lot of this is questions rather than answers – but it’s a very confusing book that although I said is very black, I also recommend you read it.

Star Rating

6.5 / 8

Couldn't put it down. Really enjoyable and well written. I would recommend it. 

Originally posted 24 June 2009 Page Turners

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

I started reading Robinson Crusoe mainly because I saw it on my mother’s bookshelf and thought to myself “I haven’t read that before”. Turns out it was a good idea. Since reading the book I’ve discovered that Robinson Crusoe (which I think was written in 1716) is sometimes considered to be the first ever English novel. Quite a claim to fame.

I don’t what I expected when I read it. I knew it was a story about someone stranded on a deserted island and that’s where my knowledge ended. I didn’t realise that it had been written so long ago, and the language was a bit of a barrier for me. It was necessarily difficult to understand, but it did manage to make what otherwise could have been an exciting story a somewhat dry one.

The story was bigger than I expected. I thought it would be about Robinson on the island, but its actually his entire journey from first leaving England on a boat, to his island home, then to Brazil and some final adventures through Europe. I suppose this was useful to give Robinson’s entire story some context, and I liked the adventures leading up to his ending up on the island, but I have to admit I became a bit bored and confused with his post-island adventures if I can call them that.

Robinson Crusoe is stranded on the island for 28 years, but I found the story didn’t seem to reflect this. It’s hard to believe from what you are reading that you are passing through such large chunks of time. Maybe it was done deliberately to reflect the type of person Robinson was and how his time actually passed on the island, but I found it somehow disturbing that all this time was passing and yet I didn’t have a sense of it from reading the book.

For me the most interesting parts of the story were when he was stranded on the island by himself. I didn’t realise this until Friday and the Spaniard etc all started progressively turning up. Somehow it seemed to me to be more likely that someone would end up stranded on a desert island than someone finding themselves in the same position and then having company join them. Maybe that’s just me.

I think it had a lot of interesting themes that are worth essays in themselves (which I don’t propose to do). Examples include coping with hardship, race and religion. I don’t really want to talk about the race issue – I think that a lot of what happens between Robinson, Friday and the other ‘savages’ reflects the time in which the book was written. What struck me most about the story was that it was a story about someone coming to terms with their own reality – whatever befalls Robinson; he does what he can to cope with the reality that he is. Perhaps that’s why he is saved when all the other sailors are lost at sea – Robinson has the power and ability to adapt.

Robinson turns to religion to help him come to terms with his reality; probably not a hard thing to do given the only thing he has to read is the bible. Robinson talks about having learnt his position in God’s creation, and knowing that he is man, not an angel. He then makes the conscious decision to stop producing more than he has to produce to care for himself – sort of an old-fashioned anti-consumerist comment I think. On the other hand, when he has guests on his island, he then seems to enjoy being considered the King of the island, and being referred to as Governor. When he returns to the island at the conclusion of the book, it has become his colony. I like the contrast between his religious and ‘anti-consumerist’ (if you will) ideals on the one hand and his sense of self-importance and need to be in absolute control on the other. He enjoys having people owe their life to him because of this benefit this brings to him. He’s a complicated character.

Re-reading this you would think that I didn’t enjoy the book. I enjoyed the book and I would recommend it, but don’t read it thinking it will thrill you.

Originally posted 23 June 2009 Page Turners

Happiness is

Happiness is....

dancing around the living room to Jimmy Giggle singing "Five steps to bed", my husband carrying four year old Rafael, myself carrying the baby Florence and Rafael reaching his arms out to enclose us all in a "four way hug" as we dance together.