Those Hateful Creatures

It's difficult to make me really dislike a character in a book; characters don't make or break a story for me.  I'm typically a live-and-let-live sort of gal (I blame liking/disliking a book on other things).  However.  There are a few (and if I stretch it, perhaps a few more) that are especially grating to me.  And so, in honor of Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish, here's what I came up with:

1. Owen Meany.  I apologize to the fans, but this little kid was so irritating I wanted to smack him.  I don't care if he was awkward, intelligent, prophetic, or determined. Just PLEASE STOP SCREECHING AND YELLING AT ME.  I have never hated Caps Lock more.  Grrr.

2. Peter Pan.  Oh man, I'm stepping on toes all over the place, aren't I?  And really, I don't have a thing against unique boys...just out of control haughtiness or arrogance.

3. The stinkin' fish in The Old Man and the Sea.  Oh that he had sprained his ankle in the first dance! (Sorry, all this frustration needed to be counteracted by some Jane Austen commiseration.)  I hated this in high school, and that feeling has stayed with me.  Someday I'll have to re-read it to give it another chance, but for now I am content wishing that the fish had given up the ghost after the first go around.

4. Miss Garnder, Francie Nolan's English teacher in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  She actually had me fuming and shaking with anger.  I had to set down the book and vent.  (See the end of my review for the part I'm referring to.)

5. The narrator in Atonement.  I know, this is akin to disliking Mr. Ian McEwan's very person.  And I do apologize, but I did not enjoy the twist in this book.  I felt used and abused as a reader.  I think the movie was actually better (gasp!).

6. The narrator in The Scarlet Letter.  I'm really not trying to pick on authors or narrators, but since I'm at it I may as well mention this one too.  The way the storyteller kept intruding took me off guard and made me uncomfortable.  I'm not like that with everything...but this narrator kind of ruined the story for me.

7. Pretty much every single person in I Know This Much is True.  If anything, this book made me appreciate that the people in my life are not so messed up.

8.
9.
10.

I can't think of any more!  Although I am sure there are some floating around out there.  What about you?  Can you come up with 10?  Do characters stand out to you in general?

Hop to the Beat

Do you listen to music when you read?  That's the topic of the week for the Book Hop at Crazy for Books.  Most often I don't--I like the silence so I can immerse myself in the world I'm reading about.  Sometimes, however, if my husband is on a business call, or the kids are especially rambunctious, I might counteract the disruption with music of my own.

So, when music is called for, there is a wide range of music that fits the bill--depending on my mood. Leave me a comment so I can return your visit, and have a great weekend!

For the Record: July 2010

Summer is the time when I don't (or try not to) feel guilty for taking time to work on creative projects that often get pushed out during the school year.  For this reason, July started out as a slow reading month.  Thanks to way too much time in the car, however, that changed before the month was over.

I did pretty good about writing reviews during the month, so I'll link those if you are interested.  I'm happy to say that apart from my 2 review copies (Skin and Resurrection in May)  all my books were already on my shelf.  This summer book-buying-ban is starting to feel good!  Here's what I read this month:

60. Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine, 4--I read this aloud to my girls and we all really loved it. This is the second time I've read it, and it was just as great this time around (much better than the movie, by the way).

61. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, 4.5--Read for my book club, what great discussion comes out of this book! An incredible childhood she had. Easy to read and unbelievable, sucks you in! (see my full review)

62. Skin, Lori Bergamotto, 4--A LibraryThing Early Reviewer book, and Teen NonFiction. This is a great little reference to your skin and how to care for it. (see my full review)

63. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, 4--What an odd book! Written around the 1920s-1940s but not published until 1966 because of the strong statement it made about Stalinist Russia, this is about the farthest thing I would have expected for making a political statement. On the surface it is a story of the Devil visiting Moscow and wreaking havoc, with a side story of an interpretation of Pontius Pilate and Jesus' last days. Amazingly written. If you like the style of Alice in Wonderland, you'll like this. (see my full review)

64. Black Horses for the King, Anne McCaffrey, 3.5--Sonlight book, pre-read for my 11 year old son for school. I enjoyed the story, but the first half of the book was so bogged down with different characters that I was frustrated. Multitudinous characters with weird names really bugs me--unless it's Tolstoy--and usually I'm clued in by the presence of a Cast of Characters at the beginning (which I think is often a cop-out, used instead of making the introduction of the characters clear and coherent.)

65. Olive's Ocean, Kevin Henkes, 3 stars--Newbery Honor, good but with a bit of unnecessary content that ruined it somewhat for me. (see my full review)

66. Ramona Forever, Beverly Cleary, 4 stars--I love Ramona, what can I say. This was a read-aloud for my girls.

67. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis, 4.5--GREAT stuff here. This was my first CS Lewis NF, and I loved it. (see my full review)

68. Resurrection in May, Lisa Samson, 3.5--read for a review for BookSneeze.  Modern Christian fiction, more edgy than traditional (all is not love and roses) detailing the journey to find God through all the bad stuff that happens. (see my full review)

69. The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck, 4.5--like Mere Christianity, this was way easier to read than I thought it would be, and very good as well. Heartbreaking at times, but such a great picture of pre-revolutionary China. (see my full review)

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

Title: The Good Earth
Author: Pearl S. Buck
Pages: 357
Published: 2004 Washington Square Press (Simon & Schuster)
My Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

A Pulitzer Prize Winner from 1932, The Good Earth is written in beautiful straightforward language.  Clearly depicting life in Pre-revolutionary China, it is a picture of a Wang Lung's quest for success in life: the heartbreak in famine and in plenty.  Even as his riches grow, Wang Lung finds no peace, except for in the fertile soil that has been his constancy in life.

While soaking in the vivid details of a foreign patriarchal society, I found the characters far easier to identify with than I would have imagined: the author brings foreign and familiar together in this book.  The characters were not easy to identify with because of shared circumstances, but rather because of how human their struggles were.  What a hard time and place to be a woman!  My heart hurt for O-lan, who was amazingly loyal, resourceful, and strong, and yet was never noticed or appreciated.  The inability of Wang Lung to make the difficult choices frustrated and saddened me, but at the same time rang of truth.

The strong themes of the corruption of wealth were not accusatory, but rather shown as a matter of course.  As your wealth and consequence increases, how much more difficult is it to raise children who have a good work ethic and humble world-view?  It may be possible to succeed monetarily, and to pass on those material riches to your children, but to also pass on the wisdom, strength, and fortitude that it took to succeed is another thing entirely.  The Good Earth isn't what I would call a joyful book...but it is touching, engaging, and thought-provoking.

But O-lan returned to the beating of his clothes and when tears dropped slowly and heavily from her eyes she did not put up her hand to wipe them away; only she beat the more steadily with her wooden stick upon the clothes spread over the stone.