napoleon complex pt 1

book: the many lives and secret sorrows of josephine b

author: sandra gulland

completion date: 05/08/10

method: borrowed (debbie)

let me preface this with the fact that i am a HUGE sucker for biofiction. i loved philippa gregory's novels and really any other novel based on a real person but is a fictional account of their lives (as a girl there was this royal diaries series i was into about cleopatra and elisabeth and mary). i think i just love when some things have a spark of reality to them, because it feels like you're reading non fiction but its a bit more fun. i also like knowing whats going to happen to the main character at the end of the book without asking anyone.

what i like about this trilogy so far after the first instalment is that it focuses on the lessor of the two heros. many books have been written and stories told about napoleon and his conquests, but gulland focuses on his wife, josephine, who is fascinating. this instalment starts when josephine is a young girl on the island trois-olets, martinique, almost 20 years before she is married to napoleon. something that i didn't know about josephine is that she led an extremely hard life before napoleon and becoming the empress (although i'm sure it wasn't a cakewalk). her fist marriage was miserable. she was married to someone who did not love her and who kept trophies of his conquests both before and after their wedding. luckily for josephine though, his family was kind and loving, and after his death they still helped and supported her as much as they could.

i don't know a lot about the french revolution. i know that it was very messy and very bloody and pretty horrifying to be anyone. peasants had no money (and the revolution didn't really help this) aristocrats couldn't hold onto their heads long enough to style their hair, and no one could be trusted. i also know that the revolution was just followed by an emperor which i think is the last thing everyone wanted.

something about gulland's books that i am totally amazed by so far: they are impeccably researched. they feel so authentic and are backed by an impressive bibliography. there is of course lots and lots of padding (it is fiction after all) but it is so convincing and well put together that it feels like josephine's true account of her life.

its funny to hear a description of napoleon from someone who grew to love him. a tiny man with short little legs and long, stringy hair. exactly the person you'd want after you'd married a gorgeous letch.

xo-ellebee

no. 1 is right

book: the no. 1 ladies detective agency

author: alexander mccall smith

completion date: 27/07/10

method: borrowed (debbie)

this is one of those books i remember seeing everywhere. we gave it away as a gift to a few people, and i always saw people reading it on the bus and all over. it was a book you saw on desks, but i never read it. i never even really gave it a second thought to be totally truthful. but i am so glad that debbie lent this to me. it was so enjoyable and light and it really made me want to go to africa. the way precious describes her country with such love and vibrance makes it seem like a beautiful place to be (well, that and the way matt and my father described it).

the phrase satisfaction guaranteed for all parties isn't that far off. the book is pretty light, and i would never describe it as challenging, but it is something you would take to the beach, or on the bus in my case, and finish that day thinking 'wow i'm really glad i read that' as opposed to most beach reads which you think 'wow i can't believe i read that whole book'.

i don't really have a ton to say on this one, i may beef up this post later, but i really like this book. its a little shallow, but was really enjoyable!

xo-ellebee

a pivotal moment

book: franny and zooey

author: j. d. salinger

completion date: 26/07/10

method: borrowed (mum)

there is something that i love about the physicality of salinger's books. for one, they are the perfect size to hold in your hand and they don't weigh down your bag. the covers are simple and almost always one colour with maybe a couple of stripes. i always think this is a silly thing to talk about but at the same time its so important.

salinger has this incredible talent for making his main character pretty unlikeable but totally relatable. i remember the first time i read catcher in the rye i really didn't like the main boy until the end. zooey is kind of an ass, but he has good reason to be one. he feels at first like a pompous prick and franny seems to be unnecessarily hysterical over something and in typical salinger fashion, it isn't until the very end that there is resolution. in this book it seems to come so late too, there isn't any sense of resolution until the very last paragraph.

this book is so wonderful because it all takes place over a matter of hours. almost what would be a moment. the beginning (the franny part) is like a preface, or really the inciting incident and the zooey part is the reaction. its such a simple way of structuring a really beautifully executed novel. i found that i didn't want to put this one down at all because i figured: if the book takes place in only a couple of hours then i should be able to follow along in read time. maybe unreasonable, but i loved every moment and found myself wanting more and more

xo-ellebee

a review in four parts

book: the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

author: douglas adams

completion date: 22/07/10

method: gift (jake)

forever jake has been asking me and asking me to read these books, and i'm glad i finally did. they're witty and clever and i really adored them. sometimes they got a weee bit confusing but it was like a clockwork orange- you just had to keep reading.

part 1: the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

for the first book i kind of knew what was going to happen, because jake, alex and i watched the first couple episodes on dvd. what i didn't realize is that the british tv show used almost every line from the book. what was awesome about this is i could pretend that stephen fry was reading the book to me. which coincidentally made it feel like someone was licking my eardrum.

the first book was what i thought was going to be my favourite. i loved it. aurthur dent is the perfect fish out of water for this absurd world that the books introduce us to. without aurthur to relate to i would have been totally lost. what i really like are the little entries from the book within the book: the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. i feel that douglas adams really fleshed out the world before he wrote these books, which gave the novel incredible depth.

part 2: the restaurant at the end of the universe

first off let me preface with: i love this idea. that the universe is always expanding we can witness the end of it but then go back to right before the moment happened and make it entertaining. i'm a little confused about a couple of the details between the first three so forgive me if some things don't belong in one of the books or whatever.

all adams's aliens are so interesting and the history behind the language and the currency. it all seems to boil down to the world (or universe) is too big and too difficult to understand completely, but we do our best. which is really all anyone can ask us to do.

oh and i've forgotten about marvin. oooh marvin. parking cars for centuries and his only meaningful conversation was with a toaster millions of years ago. a robot that is too intelligent to be of any use. douglas adams, way to go.

part 3: life, the universe and everything

i almost disliked this book. i found it so confusing and nonsensical. the other books seemed to have some distant roots in reason, but this one just seemed confusing and unfocused. they talked about saving the universe but i never really understood that it was in danger, and the kricket aliens wanted to blow everything up (?) i think. oh no, they were robots because how they were thwarted was brilliant- marvin plugged himself into their computer and made the robots all too depressed to try and blow up anything anymore.

part 4: so long, and thanks for all the fish

this one was my favourite by far. i know that the first 2 are the best ones, but there were just so many moments in part 4 that i loved so much. i feel that his writing was clearer (or maybe its because i was reading it after universe) and i was able to fall back into enjoying being slightly confused without feeling lost. and its really hard to resist not trying to take the weight off both feet. especially the moment when aurthur and fenchurch make love in the air. these books have many hilarious moments, but very few absolutely beautiful ones, and this was just so beautiful. so simple but fabulously executed.

i liked that these 4 seemed cyclical. aurthur and fenchurch reunite with ford to continue hitchhiking and most likely will have to save the universe again.

i should note that i abandoned mostly harmless. i found that by the time i got there i needed to get my feet back on solid ground. i may read it later on, but it didn't really grab me like the others. i needed something real at the end of it all.

xo-ellebee

kind of a downer

book: prozac nation

author: elizabeth wurtzel

completion date: 19/07/10

method: borrowed (mum)

the problem with a memoir about being depressed is it isn't fun to read about. i don't mean i didn't enjoy the book- i really liked it actually. it was engaging and well written but fucking hard to read about. i found that often i wanted to just put the book down for a few minutes and liven up a little.

wurtzel is however, a fabulous writer. she really manages to tell her downer story without whining. you really feel for her, because she doesn't know why she is so sad and has been for so long. she is constantly fighting this battle with herself as to why she is depressed. and its one of those horrible catch 22s because she doesn't know why she's depressed so she's depressed but she doesn't know why she was originally depressed because she's been depressed for so long and so she's depressed... and on and on.

the issue with memoirs is i always feel that they're embellished and re imagined- which is fine. we all live our lives with a healthy dose of fiction added, but its tough to know what is totally real and what is totally false. but i guess all that matters is whether or not you enjoyed reading it, right?

xo-ellebee

editors are valuable people

book: the girl who played with fire

author: stieg larsson

completion date: 18/07/10

method: borrowed (mum)

lindsay went to the cottage this weekend. she packed her brown bikini, one tank top and a couple pairs of underware. her bag wasn't that heavy, so she was ok for the majority of the trip. she checked in online on her 27 inch imac and printed out her ticket on her boyfriend's hp2500 series printer. she flew porter so she only had to catch the shuttle from the royal york hotel on front street. on the ferry to the island she thought are we actually moving? it feels like the ferry isn't going anywhere. in the airport she had one cappuccino, one late a couple of walker's shortbread cookies and packed an orange juice in her bag for flight. when the gate was called, she quickly skirried to the front so she could get on the plane before everyone else. on the plane she read the last few chapters of the book she brought with her. the flight attendant brought around cookies, chips and drinks. lindsay had a bag of terra chips and an apple juice. when the plane began its decent, a young child was crying because her ears hurt and lindsay though i know how you feel kid, but unlike you i can't scream about it. when she landed, she was picked up by her brother and his girlfriend. on the drive they picked up half-a dozen persians and some wild blueberries for the weekend. when they arrived at the cottage on loon lake, they immediatly changed into their swim suits and drank coronas on the floating dock. their parents arrived a few hours later, bringing with them a car full of clothes and her mother's 15" macbook pro. her mother had brought lindsay a stack of new books, including stieg larsson's second novel in the millenium trilogy, the girl who played with fire. while reading it, lindsay thought what i wouldn't give for a red pen- I DON'T THING THIS BOOK WAS EVER EDITED!. she even found that there were a number of sections with gramatical errors, or where the word used was incorrect. overall she found it better than the previous novel, but it seemed to read like a grocery list. she spend a number of hours reading the book over the weekend, finishing it at 3 on sunday. overall she found it more enjoyable than the previous novel by stieg larsson, but lack luster.

xo-ellebee

sisterly love

book: i see you everywhere
author: julia glass
completion date: 16/07/10
method: borrowed (mum)

i could have sworn that this book was written about my aunt and my mother. it was almost eerie how similar the main characters were- a bookish, serious older sister and the wild and impulsive younger shadow who have a very difficult, overbearing mother. also the fact that lou (the elder) spent a good amount of their childhood trying to control clem until clem got to be too strong and willful to be controlled.
for the fist half this book was so biographical (except for the failed marriages part) about my mum and her first sister. the way that lou and clem talked to each other, and how they fought and forgave was just so perfectly sisterly. i have a feeling that glass has at least one sister, because she understands what it's like to hate someone sometimes but not be able to live without them.
the book is narrated by both sisters at the same time, and i feel that this is where the book really falls apart, because unlike let the great world spin, both sisters have the same voice. often i found that i couldn't tell who was speaking until they mentioned the other. this book really could have been excellent if it weren't for the fact that you couldn't tell the narrators apart. it was a real downfall in my opinion.
i really got attached to both sisters though. they are both very strong characters who are living very different lives. because they're sisters, everything they do relates back to the other. perhaps that's the downfall of having a sibling- everything you do is compared to what they did. glass also deals with something interesting- the fact that the younger sister is clearly the favourite, meaning that everything lou does, however brilliant it is, she is never good enough. she is always haunted by this, because how do you deal with the fact that your mother loves your sister so much more. and where does that leave you when your sister is gone?
xo-ellebee