THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

by Oscar Wilde

"What the worm was to the corpse, his sins would be to the painted image on the canvas. They would mar its beauty, and eat away its grace. They would defile it, and make it shameful. And yet the thing would still live on. It would be always alive."

I thought it would be a bit unnerving to read this book as I pass into the early stages of middle age. I see my hair slowly graying, my skin beginning to loosen ever so slightly. My eyes are not as sharp as they once were and my knees and ankles pop. And I am surrounded by a society that worships youth and beauty. What would I give to the stop the decaying hands of time and stay forever young?

Those were my thoughts as I began the novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of those books that has been in my consciousness for so long that I thought I knew what it was about. How wrong I was! No devil shows up to bargain for Dorian’s soul in exchange for immortality. Dorian’s wish to remain forever young turns out to be merely a passing whim stated out loud then all but forgotten. But something or someone heard, and his eternal youth becomes a beautiful mask to polite society while his originally somewhat naive soul plunges into duplicitous immorality, and the mutating painting becomes a constant reminder of the ugliness beneath the flawless skin.

There is so much going on, so many messages in this book that it is difficult to choose a single aspect to spotlight for a short review. Because most of Dorian’s debaucheries are never explicitly stated, each individual will most likely see a different monster in this tale that is still so relevant today in a society where image seems to be everything. Said Wilde himself, "Each man sees his own sin in Dorian Gray. What Dorian Gray’s sins are, no one knows. He who finds them has brought them."

Lezlie

Booking Through Thursday

You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?

(Obviously, there can be more than one answer, here–a book with a cliff-hanger is going to engender different reactions than a serene, stand-alone, but you get the idea!)


I think my answer is always the same: Dig right in to the next one!! Just like most of us, I always have too many I want to read and not enough time to read them. And with all these Challenges I've discovered, there's no time to waste! :-)

If you'd like to play along with Booking Through Thursday, click here.

Happy Spring, Everyone! It's finally here!!!
Lezlie

New Project In The Works. . .

Hi, Everyone!

I'm hard at work developing a new, fun and educational reading project. I posted about my U.S. Presidents Reading Project, and a few people had expressed an interest in joining in and wondered if I was going to host an "official" project. I mulled it over, and I've decided to go ahead and take the plunge! I'm working on the blog now. It will be a project in which participants read at least one non-fiction book about each President, taking as long as they would like to do so. I would like the blog to act as a resource for everyone who would like to participate. There will be links to each participant's site, if they so choose, pages for each President and book suggestions for each with convenient links to Amazon for more information. There will be open comments where participants can review the books they've read, leave links to the reviews on their own sites, and leave additional suggestions for books. There will even be a link to the White House website where readers can do some additional exploration. I'm thrilled with the way it is developing and hoping to officially open the project for participation in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know. I can't wait to get it all going! Unfortunately, this is also causing other wild ideas. World Leaders Reading Project, anyone? :-)

Lezlie

CHRIST THE LORD: THE ROAD TO CANA

by Anne Rice



Let it be understood right from the outset that anything I say in this review is not meant as an attack or even an insult to Anne Rice as an author or a person, nor to Christians, Christianity or anyone or anything else. These words are merely my honest feelings about a book I read by an author I happen to like a lot and that just happens to have Jesus as the main character.

Considering my disappointment with Blackwood Farm, Blood Canticle, and the first book in this series, Christ The Lord, I’m not certain why I continue to read new Anne Rice books. I think it’s similar to when you know it’s time to end a relationship that no longer brings either of you joy, but you’re not exactly unhappy and you’ve been together for sooooo long . . . . And you’re just certain that things will go back to the way they used to be and feel the way it used to feel. I just don’t know. There are books by Anne that have an honored place on my bookshelves: Interview With The Vampire, Pandora, Blood & Gold, The Mummy. After so much darkness and violence, I respect Anne’s decision to follow her faith and write the story of Jesus. I just wish I liked it more.

The writing is pure Anne Rice, flowery and dramatic and beautiful. But I find the story being unfurled dull and uninspiring and the characters don’t grab me. None of them make me want to see into their minds and souls. And the one mind you do want to see into feels too limited. I think what bothers me the most is this: If a person is going to write the story of Jesus, there should be more to it than what I can get directly out of The Bible. Especially considering the story is told in first person. Jesus is telling me his story himself, and I don’t feel I know him any better than if I just sat down and read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I’m not sure what that says about me, when Jesus doesn’t move me at all, but I’m guessing there is more than one brick already paving my way to hell. It is probably not fair to Anne or this book, but the fact is that I’m longing for the early days, to once again fall under a spell as beguiling as that cast by Lestat and Louis and Armand and Marius. And, with all due respect to Anne Rice and Our Lord, Jesus just isn’t doing it for me. (Yup. That would be the sound of the laying of another brick . . .)

Lezlie

Anne Rice books I loved:

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

by Kenneth Grahame



If this is not the most adorable book on the planet, it has got to be in the top two or three. It just has to be! Maybe my reading has been too grim and serious lately, but The Wind In The Willows put a smile on my face and a spring in my step. What fun I had speeding with Toad in his motorcar, lazily floating the river with Rat and Mole, and listening to the wise words of Badger. If I had kids, I’d read this to them every night!!

One of my favorite episodes was when Mole and Rat rescue Otter’s lost son. During their adventure, they encounter the god Pan, who gives them the Gift of Forgetfulness. At first I wondered why forgetfulness would be considered a gift. Upon further reflection, I became a believer. When something really awful happens to you, it is the Gift of Forgetfulness, in whole or in part, that allows you to eventually carry on. Mothers forget how painful childbirth was, those who have lost a loved one eventually forget some of the hurt but not the person. We even sometimes forget things that were stunningly wonderful and that allows us to continue to be happy in our ordinarily non-exciting lives. Which, in turn, allows us to re-experience that feeling of great joy when something extraordinary again happens. If we continually dwelt in great ecstasy or great sorrow, the beautiful range of emotions would be lost. The Gift of Forgetfulness is a key to the Gift of Living.

Enough waxing poetic. I’m going to go find Mole and Rat and have an adventure! :-)

Lezlie

THE QUEEN'S SECRET

by Jean Plaidy



When it comes to Jean Plaidy, there are times I think I could write just two all-purpose reviews with blanks to fill in for names and places – one for her books that focus more on history and one for her books that focus more on relationships – for that is how the books feel sometimes. One or the other, mostly the same, change the details. But that would be greatly disrespecting the enormous corpus this gifted and prolific author has produced, and it would definitely rob the books of their due. The truth of the matter is while few of them are works that I would deem outstanding, I can always count on Jean Plaidy for a fast, informative and pleasing read. In short, she is a writer I turn to when I want a book I know I will enjoy.

If one is reading the "Queens of England" series in historical order, The Queen’s Secret is the second of twelve volumes. (The first is The Courts of Love.) It is the story of Katherine of Valois, mother of the Tudor dynasty. This is one of the Plaidy books that is more relationship-focused than history-focused. The history you learn is mostly via conversations between characters rather than any actions that Katherine is involved in personally. Her direct story is of her marriage to Henry V and her later secret marriage to Owen Tudor. Therefore, when Joan of Arc makes her mark in France, we only get to see it from a great distance. I had hoped there would be a little more about that, but, on the other hand, it piqued my interest enough that I will most likely be scouting out more books about Joan in the future.

One thing I found very interesting in reading the first two volumes of this series was the marked difference in the feelings regarding family in the two queens, Eleanor of Aquitaine (in The Courts of Love) and Katherine of Valois. Katherine cares only for her children and family, and admires the lifestyle of the common people that allows them to raise their own children. Eleanor barely knew her children and didn’t care. Governing the country came first for her. While Eleanor’s attitude was considered normal for nobility in general and royalty in particular, I think many readers will relate more to Katherine’s pain at surrendering her child to the state and her need to have a real family.

Lezlie

More to come in the Queens of England series:

Non-Fiction Five Challenge

Just the other day I was mulling over my reading list for the year and thinking that I was woefully short of any non-fiction. And along comes Joy with another challenge! I told her she was bad for me, but I meant it in the most "thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me an excuse to join yet another challenge" way! :-)

Here are the rules:


1. Read 5 non-fiction books during the months of May - September, 2008

2. Read at least one non-fiction book that is different from your other choices (i.e.: 4 memoirs and 1 self-help)

3. All choices need not be posted and may change at any time.

I can do that! Right? What's another 5 books? And I need a change from fiction every now and then. I am posting my list of potential candidates and here it is:

***FINISHED***
Completed: 5/5 as of August 28, 2008

1. John Adams by David McCullough
2. His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
3. Homo Politicus by Dana Milbank
4. When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? by George Carlin
5. When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris


Alternates:

The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs
Great Books by David Denby
How To Think About The Great Ideas by Mortimer Adler
The Spartans by Paul Cartledge
The Murder Trials by Cicero
Essays by Plutarch
The Persian Expedition by Xenophon
Can I Keep The Jersey by Paul Shirley

Yup. I've got to give serious consideration to hosting that "Finish Your Challenges From Last Year" Challenge next year . . . :-)

If you'd like to join in, get all the info you need here.

Good luck, Everyone!
Lezlie

Booking Through Thursday

How about a chance to play editor-in-chief? Fill in the blanks:

__________ would have been a much better book if ______________________.



This is a hard one for me, as I am a very forgiving reader. (Which may not seem like an honest statement when I post my next couple of reviews. . .) Even books I'm not particularly fond of, I can usually find something I liked about it. I have a hard time boldly stating a book is just plain bad, because deep down there is a little voice always yelling back, "If you think you can do a better job, there's the computer. . ." :-) Disclaimer -- This is just a personal hang-up of mine, and not a statement regarding anyone else's views or their right to state them.

That being said, this question isn't really asking me to rip on a book. Merely state how a specific book could have been improved for me personally. Right? In that case, here goes:

The Watchman by Robert Crais would have been a much better book if the girl Joe Pike had fallen for had been a stronger, more intelligent woman rather than (as I stated in a previous post) a Paris Hilton-like Hollywood idiot. Joe is such a fabulous character and it was really disappointing to see him so attracted to a shallow, self-absorbed person, even if she does improve just a hair at the end. All through the Elvis Cole novels (where he originated from), if I was able to picture him hooking up with anybody at all it would have been some amazing, larger than life woman. I see him with Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), not one of The Girls Next Door.

There. That's my tirade. :-)

It's almost Friday!
Lezlie