Book 13: The Giver - Lois Lowry

Date Started: September 20, 2014
Date Finished: September 22, 2014

Woah woah woah. I finished this book on Monday, but just now on Wednesday I'm ready to write my review. This was another book I read in highschool, I knew I liked it but could vaguely remember it. I don't think I was quite prepared for the ending.

So the story starts out in this world where everything is equal and everyone is the same. No one has choices in this world. Jobs, partners, kids, names are all assigned to minimize pain, hurt, confusion, the unknown. Everyone is stuck in the middle of emotions and society; no one experiences the extremes.

Jonas is selected to be the new receiver of memories; this means he's the sole owner of all past memories, of all pain, suffering, war, happiness, love and such.. He learns these memories from the current receiver, who now goes by the Giver. The more memories he receives, the more he questions how the current society is being run. He sometimes agrees and sometimes disagrees. He ends up running away from the community with a baby, Gabriel, who was about to be 'released' meaning killed because the baby wasn't up to par with community standards. Jonas runs away hoping to find Elsewhere, where he thinks he can find people a new community that would understand. Jonas and Gabriel run out of food and strength, find a sled at the top of a snowy mountain, and they ride the sled down a hill towards a village with colored lights and Christmas trees and music. This also happens to be a collection of memories that the Giver had shown him throughout the book. You are left not knowing if they found Elsewhere, or if they died of hunger and hypothermia in the snow.

When I got to the ending of this book, I was in such shock! I was so hopeful that Jonas and Gabriel would make it to Elsewhere and would find what they were looking for. The character Gabriel represented such a new hope and a different kind of being that what Jonas and the rest of the community had been brought up in. Jonas had been feeding Gabriel memories for the past year as he was a fussy child and wouldn't sleep through the night. Jonas would give him memories of happiness to soothe him and put him to sleep. I was curious to see what kind of person Gabriel would grow up to be with all those good memories from early on. Reading the ending of them on the sled riding down the hill, recalling earlier in the book that Jonas had received these memories from the Giver, it broke my heart. My first reaction was that they died. There's no way he'd be venturing into a town that was the exact replica of another memory. I was so upset about it.

But then again, what if they did make it? The Giver's memories are memories from the past of all memories, so it's quite possible that they did make it to this Elsewhere and there was a sled waiting for them. It happened once to someone, so it could be there and happen again.

For me to not completely hate this book, I'll choose to believe the latter. I'm a sucker for happy endings, and I really wanted Gabriel to get the second chance he deserved and thrive.

Book 12: Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

Date Started: June 13, 2014 Date Finished: July 12, 2014 Took me just about a month to read this! This was a hard book to read, only because the main character was horrible and the other characters were confusing to understand. I thought this book was going to be a fun read: wife of a doctor gets bored in her marriage and decides to start having affairs. Well, Madam Bovary was never happy for long in anything she did. She was unhappy in her marriage so she starts seeing this other man, he leaves and she almost dies from depression. Then she starts having another affair, who she gets bored of. Then she is in such debt of having her lavish lifestyle, she doesn't want her husband to find out, she eats poison, then she dies. Then the husband dies. Then the parents dies. Which forces the daughter to go live with a cousin and be put to manual labor. The end. Such a hard read where it takes 5 pages to describe how poorly she's feeling about a certain situation. Then another 5 pages to make up her mind about a simple idea, then another 10 pages to see how upset she is about that decision. This character is not likable in anyway. In fact, there really is no character in this whole book that is really likable. The author had poor character development on all the side characters, so I really couldn't remember who they ever were. There was no one to root for. I don't think I'll ever want to read this book again, or think about it for that matter. The only thing that kept me reading fast was so I could finish it and be done with it. ugh

Book 11: Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Date Started: February 7, 2014
Date Ended: April 16, 2014

Wow what a journey! This was another book I had started a few times before, and could never get past the marsh scene when he first meets the convict. I had only been aware of the movie adaptation with Gwenyth Paltrow and Ethan Hawk, not that I ever saw it, but I figured it was some sort of love story, which is what made me want to read. Then I would read about Pip and his crazy sister and this convict he meets, I'd get bored, then I'd quit. This time of course I finished! And boy am I happy I did.

The book starts out a little slow to me. Again, reading about this boy Pip, who lives with his abusive crazy Sister and her husband Joe. Out on a walk Pip runs into this convict in the marshes who still has his shackles on. The convict threatens Pip to go get him a file and food, otherwise he'll come find him and hurt him. Pip does as he's asked, the convict escapes. The next day the convict and another are arrested again and sent back to prison.

One day Pip is invited to a house where an old rich lady Miss Havisham resides with a young adopted girl named Estella. Miss Havisham keeps inviting Pip over to play in hopes that Pip will fall madly in love with Estella, all while she does not give back any feelings. Miss Havisham was hurt in her past, and she adopted and raised Estella to be cold and heartless as part of her revenge on men. Her plan works, Pip falls in love, and Estella couldn't care less.

Some time down the road Pip gets a letter from a lawyer Mr Jaggers that he has come into a lot of money and great expetations and he is to live in London to become a gentleman. He isn't allowed to find out who his benefactor is. He assumes it's Miss Havisham and that she is setting him up to be married to Estella. He spends a lot of his time taking Estella out as Miss Havisham requests. Estella ends up marrying Bentley, a foe of Pip, and breaks his heart. Confused, he confronts Miss Havisham, and finds out she was not his benefactor after all.

Now into adulthood and living with great debt, the convict he helped out turns up and confesses that he was his benefactor. He had escaped from prison again, earned lots of money the honest way, and wanted it to go to good use. He wanted to return the favor to Pip since he helped him out back in the day. Pip was shocked and upset and didn't want to be in debt to this convict. They try to get the convict to leave London, but they get caught and the convict, now going by Provis, gets sentenced to death. After this happens, Pip realizes how much he was thankful of Provis and visited him every day in jail until he passed away from his injuries.

After Provis dies, Pip gets really sick, and Joe comes up to visit and take care of him. Pip is sorry for leaving Joe and wants to thank him for everything he's ever done for him. He travels back home to visit Joe, then plans to travel abroad to go live and work with a friend.  11 years later he returns to visit Joe and his wife Biddy, then runs into Estella again. They meet and he sees " no shadow of another parting from her. " I'm assuming they finally get married

This was such a journey to be on with Pip, starting from when he was a young boy, to almost a gentlemen, to losing it all, to working for himself, then to finally getting the woman of his dreams. Sometimes stuff has to work out that way in life. If he had married Estella back then, she would have still been heartless and wouldn't have appreciated him the way I'm sure she did now. She had married Bentley, suffered abuse from him, then he passed away. After all that happened she was able to realize what she had missed out on by not marrying Pip. Also, this gave Pip a chance to experience gains and losses and to figure himself out.

This was my first time reading Charles Dickens. I'm so happy I was finally able to finish this book. This definitely won't be my last.

Book 10: Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte

Start Date: March 1, 2013
End Date: July 1, 2013

I thought that this was a good book. It was a pretty easy read, and I'm happy the way it turned out. The story was very long, starting from when she was a young child living with her Aunt who hated her. She lived with this family who did not like poor Jane, and always made her life a living hell. Finally her Aunt didn't want to take care of her anymore, and sent her off to a horrible boarding school. In this school, Jane became very well learned and educated. But she lived in torturous living conditions with barely enough food or clothing. After one winter when many girls died, the school got a major overhaul and it turned into a nice school. Jane graduated and ended up staying to become a teacher. Here she was happy for many years. Eventually she left to go become a governess for a young girl in a house. This job she enjoys, but soon falls in love with Mr Rochester, the master of the house. They were about to be married, when it was found out that he was actually married to someone else, a crazy lady who he kept locked up in the 3rd floor. Even though she loved him, Jane didn't want to become a mistress to a married man. She ran off into the middle of the night to some far away town. She almost starved to death there wandering around for 3 days and nights with no money, food or shelter. She landed on someone's door step who was nice enough to take her in. This family she got a long great with. She ended up going to the man of the house, St. John, up to a school in a small town to become a teacher. Here she found out that her rich uncle had passed away and left her with 20,000 pounds. Also at the same time she found out that St John and his two sisters were actually related to her. They were cousins. They had a plan to all live together and live happily ever after. St John started to train Jane, unbeknownst to her, to become his partner on his journey to India to do Gods work. He proposed to marry her, even though he didn't love her, but so she could join him to India to help with his work. Jane didn't want to marry someone she didn't love. She took this opportunity to go back and check on Mr Rochester to see how he was doing. She found him blind with one hand, both he had suffered after his house burned down, killing his wife. Jane decides to stay with Mr Rochester, he proposes to her again, and they are married as soon as can be. He ends up getting his vision back in his right eye, they have a baby, and all is happy in the end.

I'm so happy that Jane went back to Rochester. They loved each other so much, but because of the law back then, they couldn't be married, since he was already married. I guess they didn't have divorce back then?  She ran away because she didn't want to love a man who she couldn't marry. St John was a real pain to read about. I get it that some people believe their mission in life is to 'do the work of God' but he shouldn't have tried to push it on Jane.  She was obviously not happy at all when he was 'training' her. It was more like   he had some strange psychological hold over her and was using that to get her to do his bidding. I'm happy she had the courage and strength to deny his proposal. She would've never been happy in India. I love that she went back to Rochester. They were meant to be together.

Book 9: Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Start Date: February 2, 2012
End Date: October 23, 2012

I take it back that Wuthering Heights was the hardest book I've ever read. This takes the cake by 10. It took almost 9 months. I did take breaks in between to read other books, but oh em gee I'm so happy I'm done with this book. I'm very happy I stuck with it and finished it.

I read this book on my Kindle, and thank goodness because otherwise I probably would have carpel tunnel  by now. Apparently this book is around 1488 pages completely unabridged, and I read the kindle abridged version which was about 1000 pages. I'm not a history buff, as a matter a fact I hated history, so when he would go off on tangents about the battle of Waterloo or the politics of France at that time, I hated it, I would fall asleep, and I learned to skip over. (Apparently the version I read cut out an even lengthier version of the waterloo.) It made reading go by a LOT quicker. And to those people who says "don't skip those parts!" must have a lot of time on their hands and/or love french history. Those parts had nothing to do with the story itself. Maybe Hugo should've written 2 books. One regarding the actual story, and one regarding his political agenda.

Anyway, this story was very depressing and happy at the same time. The era in which it was written I can in no way relate to.  I'm ecstatic Cosette and Marius end up together rich and happy with all their families blessings. Sad Jean Valjean dies, but happy he got to see Marius and Cossette one last time and that Marius ended up learning the whole truth. Annoyed the whole barricade revolution scene took as long as it did. I hate that Thenardier got to go off to America and not die some horrible tragic death for the horrible person that he was. I was sad that Javert killed himself after he let Valjean go. Overall great book, and I can't wait to watch the movies/plays that incorporate so many of the great songs I would listen to at times to keep me motivated to continue on reading. I'll definitely be taking a long break before starting my next book, and even then the next book with be a light easy fun one.

Book 8: The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Start Date: November 18, 2011
Finish Date: December 6, 2011

This is another book I read back in high school, but had no memory of what it was about. I might have read more of the Cliffsnotes and less of the book back then.

Guy, Nick, moves to Long Island. Nick meets his neighbor, the Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is a mysterious man who throws lavish parties every weekend. Nick finds out the reason Gatsby is throwing all these parties is so he can reconnect with his long lost girlfriend Daisy, who so happens to be married to Nick's cousin, Tom. Daisy and Gatsby finally reconnect, create a plan to run away together, but not before Tom can interfere. The night everything was laid on the table, Daisy ends up running over and killing Tom's mistress. Tom ends up taking Daisy and getting out of Long Island, Gatsby gets shot and killed by the man who was married to Tom's mistress, who thought his wife was having an affair with Gatsby. Gatsby dies, no one shows up for his funeral, Nick moves back to the West. The End

So.. This book was interesting. I felt a little let down at the end. Also, I felt like the ending drew out a little too long. I understand the writer wanted the impact of the fact that no one showed up to the funeral. But then again, I didn't feel so attached to Gatsby that I cared. It took half the book before he showed up. Then once he did, he was killed. I was hoping Daisy and Gatsby would end up together. That was kind of the plot of the book. It is ironic that both Daisy and Tom had a sidepiece. Both of their mistress were killed for something that wasn't really their fault, and then Tom and Daisy run away and they're lives are just as they were. I feel bad for the Gatsby. All he wanted was to be with the love of his life. I wouldn't have felt bed for Tom if Daisy left him, since he was already cheating.

I thought there would be more depth to the characters. It felt like the author was trying to develop them move, but I guess since they were all so shallow you could only go so deep. I wished the book was longer maybe, so we could know each character a little more. Not just their 'past', but their 'present.'

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. It left me feeling a little puzzled and unsatisfied, but it was an easy read so I wasn't too disappointed. (ahem, Wuthering Heights, ahem)

Book 7: Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Start Date: October 19, 2011

End Date: November 17, 2011

Gah. I hated this book. It was torture to read. From the first chapter I had no idea what was going on. I had to finally use Wikipedia to get a grasp on what was going on. I think my main confusion were the names. Lots of re-used names: Heathcliff, Catherine Earnshaw, Edgar Linton, Cathy Linton, Linton Heathcliff. Also, they'd call the same character by 2 different names : Earnshaw/Hareton, Mr. Linton/Linton/Edgar. I couldn't keep up. The only time I finally figured everyone out was when half of the characters were already dead.

Another weird/gross part about this book was that cousins were marrying each other. I'm not sure if this was common back in the day? Cathy married Hareton and Linton, who were both her cousins....all the while the parents all hated each other.

This book seems like it was the mold for current day TV drama. Drama with the parents, drama with the children, drama all around. Everyone hated each other and was rude and selfish. They needed to get out more.

I hate Heathcliff. I think his character is horrible. I hate how at the end within the last couple pages he's not so evil anymore, almost like he's trying to redeem himself. Could just be that he was going crazy from seeing the ghost of Catherine? But I didn't care. I hated him already. He was the center of why everyone's life turned to shit.

And peoples moods in this book go from zero to WTF in 1.2 seconds. They love each other, they hate each other. She wants to go outside, she wants to stay inside. He wants to marry her, she wants to kill him. Cathy and Linton seemed like they were Romeo and Juliet, lovers torn apart because their fathers hated each other. They saw each other in secret, wrote each other love letters...then what happens when they finally are allowed to see each other? He turns out to be a prick and aids in the kidnapping of Cathy and Nelly so Cathy has to marry him. After he's an asshole until he dies. Good riddance. Next, Hareton and Cathy spent the whole half of the book hating each other. Why in the heck did she all of the sudden want to apologize and befriend this boy who she spent her whole life mocking and teasing because he was stupid? People don't change that fast.

All in all I really didn't like reading this book. I couldn't wait to be done with it, but it was so hard for me to read that it was torture. I contemplated giving up and not finishing it, but alas, my reading journey had to go on. I'm very happy I'm done with the book. I don't even want to watch any movie that was made. SO over it.