GOLDFINGER by IAN FLEMING- Review

 Goldinger is the 7th Ian Fleming book, publishing date of 1959. Having watched many James Bond movies, I am used to the action taking place at the beginning and just getting more and more intense as the movie moves forward. This book and movie ate pretty true to one another, except for maybe the gadgets and the shifting of some of the data. There is of course more reflection in a book over a movie. 

This book starts of with bond finishing an assignment and thinking about whether he likes the things he does, and looking forward to a much needed break. In the movie, we are on that assignment and he is heading to Miami afterward. Both meet Mr. Goldfinger in Miami, but through different people: Book an aquintance who is getting hustled: movie the British Govt wants Bond to keep an eye on him.

I have never read an Ian Fleming book, but they are pretty well written, maybe I will read a few more that were not written in 1959.

The Sirens of Titan-review

 The Sirens of Titan was written by Kurt Vonnegut, and fiirst published in 1959. My copy was published in 2009 by Dial Press Club. 

Space travel, Martians, religious input, and three people most sffected by these things. Mr. Rumford is stuck in the Chrono-synclastic infundibula, with his dog Kazak. This means he appears every 14 days with an update for his wife Beatrice and eventually a man named Malachi Constant. When Rumford appears he comes to the same space in his house. Recently he has told Beatrice that  she will marry Malachi and have a son named Chrono, and live on Mars. This make Beatrice mad, and both she and Malachi try to devise ways to avoid each other. Malachi sells the very spaceship that Rumford says they will use. Beatrice refuses to be  forced to marry, since she is already married. 

Rumford pulls strings all over the place to get this to happen. But is it only him pulling the strings. There is a martian invasion of Earth, but these are not the type of Martians you read about in stories. Though there are little antenna sticking out of their heads. 

I have to say it is the quirkiest book I have read, in regards to space travel. It's worth the read only to figure out how it plays with the space race that was happening around the time this book was written.

Religion also plays a roll in this book, but a religion based not on God but accidents that happen to everybody and why.

Review: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

 The Haunting of Hill House  by Shirley Jackson,was published in 1959 by Viking books, my copy was published in 2006 by Penguin books. The introduction to the book was by Laura Miller.

I am not a big horror fan, used to be in my 20's but as you grow older and hear the atrocities you realize you tend to live horror everyday. I have watched various ghost hunting shows and find them very interesting. I have always believed in entities, especially when my grandmother told me the figure passing behind her was my grandfather just checking up on her. Not a malevolent entity. 

Hill House is a little different as you are introduced in the beginning about the house that wished to be left alone. Enter a Dr. Montague who studies the occult, his assistant Theo, the future owner of the house, and Eleanor. Eleanor was brought in because the Dr. thought that she may have a poltergiest connected to her from a past experience. 

Eleanor arrives first, is introduced to the caretaker and the housekeeper, who basically tell her she should leave. The house description is great, she sees that the walls don't quite match, her room is dark, everything in the whole house is dark. On her way to Hill House she fantasizes about her escape from her current life and wouldn't be nice to live in a little place hidden by oleanders. Hill House is nothing like she expects or even hoped for, she thinks about leaving when the next guest arrives. 

Theo is all personality and tries to get Eleanor to not be afraid, but I feel that she abuses their tenuous friendship, constantly pointing out Eleanors feelings. But at first they are both thinking the house is a little weird, especially the housekeeper.

Luke is the potential owner of the house but he is young and full of life. Theo eventually tells Eleanor that he is a rake. He arrives with Dr. Montague. 

The real action does not start until midway through the book, but there is always a feeling that something is about to happen. To me it does not read scary, but I am sure in 1959 it was very scary type of book and I am sure the movie or miniseries of today will use CGI to make you jump, startle and hide your eyes. I need to watch the mini-series. 

But before the hauntings begin, there is the change in the attitude of Eleanor, talking to herself, trying to fit in and eventually getting angry at the people in the house. The end was unexpected but it shouldn't have been because of the foreshadowing in the book. Nobody leaves Hill House unless it wants them to leave. 

I liked th book, but I am preparing myself for the changes in the plot when I watch it. My daughter who has watched the mini-series says she is going to read the book. Then we are going to discuss the changes. 

Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie

This is one of the books from my list of books first published the year I was born. It is Agatha Christies 29th Hercule Poirot story. In this book Hercule Poirot is somewhat retired only acting as a consultant. In fact the whole scenario plays out and he comes in about midway through the book. 

The cast of characters include, a headmistress at Meadowbank, an all girls school. She has a friend who helped develop the school and make it a high rated school, they are Miss Bulstrode and Miss Chadwick. Remember woman teachers are not to be married. Then there are the other mistresses of the school teaching various subjects and the girls themselves. Each their own precocious selves. 

But that is not the only place, we travel to another place called Ramat, where there is about to be an overthrow of the government. A british escort to the Prince of Ramat is about to receive a package from Prince Ali Yusuf to secret away from the country. Our escort, Bob Rawlison just happens to have family in the area and he hides it discretely away in their things. 

So with the revolution about to start British people are asked to leave, others are sabatoged and the whole mess lands in Meadowbank unbeknowst to any of the mistresses. Two deaths later and in comes Hercule Poirot, having been asked by an unlikely person to intervene.

Lovely twists and turns, felt like I could not put the book down and I figured out the culprit or culprits pretty easily. Especially, when the phrase "cat among the pigeons" was said on multiple occasions.

Good book, to while away the hours.

I have read over a hundred books since my last blog, a long time ago- it seems like at least 5 years. I have never finished my reading challenge of 100 books that you need to read in a facebook challenge. I only have two to go and for reasons unknown to me I just can't get them done. One is the Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing and the other is Marcel Proust- Swann's Way.

I vow to get them read but have started a new challenge for myself. This year I am going to read at least ten books written (published) in 1959.

This is the list- not in any particular order

1. Cat Among Pigeons-Agatha Christie

2. Goldfinger- Ian Fleming

3.The Sirens of Titan- Kurt Vonnegut

4. Endurance -Alfred Lansing

5. Echo in the Skull-John Brunner

6. Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein

7-10 are still being debated. 

I am also doing reviews of books on Goodreads.

My Name is Lucy Barton- review

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, published by Penguin Random House LLC in 2016. This is a work of fiction but if you think about how the mind work it is right on point , which makes it almost seem like non-fiction. How many times does something cause you to reflect on something in the past and that is what happens in this book. You find out about her home life by her reflections after talks with her mother or talks with her friends or family. But the most reflections comes from her talks with her mother in a hospital setting where Lucy is basically captive.

It took me a bit to warm up to it, so I may have to go back and reread the initial chapters. Her stream of thought is like most peoples. It jumps around according to what is happening in their lives. The other day my husband was your have an interesting stream of consciousness, we were driving and things along the route just jumped out at me and of course I just blurted out what ever came to mind. Nothing hurtful, sometimes songs, poems, something someone said to me in the past. That is the feeling I get from this book.

Her husband is somewhat neglectful, his wife is in the hospital for 2 months and he decides to have an affair with the babysitter of her two children, which she finds out much later. he brings he mother in, so that he doesn't have to sit with his wife in the hospital, because he does not like them.

In her past, is abuse, but you don't get the whole story, we see snippets and then have to infer as to what really was going on. She tells her story of her life in the hospital and what happens surrounding that, before, during and after. But she does not delve into this info because she says that's another story. She is given a quote form another author " You only have one story to tell" and we hear this particular story, making you want to find out more about her life.

Very interesting way to set up a story. I wonder as with Elizabeth Strout's Olive books will we see a sequel about Lucy, so she can tell us another story.

The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah

THE GREAT ALONE by Kristin Hannah, published by St. Martins Press in 2018. 
I haven't reviewed a book in a bit, but after reading travel manuals for my travel blog, I felt that I needed to start writing the things I have been reading. Last month I read the book EDUCATED by Tara Westover and was surprised by the cruelty that happened in this book, the extremes presented and the men who think they are protecting you but in reality are hurting you. Tara's was based on her life and her family.

THE GREAT ALONE is a work of fiction but holds true to the concepts above, a man broken by circumstances tries to protect his family from the horrors of the world after Vietnam, and finds the last frontier in Alaska. Hoping to get away from the rules of society. In tow are his wife Cora and daughter Leni. They have inherited a cabin in the woods on the Kenai pennisula, when it was mostly, dirt road, no electricity and no running water. They move when it is summer and full of light, but winter comes and the darkness that lies within the father Ernt comes pouring out , usually in the form of abuse to Cora. In a typical "I love him, and it's not his fault he is like this excuse," she stays, never press charges and gives her daughter a very unrealistic look about what love is.

Leni still finds someone in the only boy her age in this wilderness, who she likes, but the wilderness can be cruel and this young man experiencing tragedy leaves to him leaving for awhile to live with his Aunt and Uncle in Fairbanks. They write and their feelings change, but the obstacle is his father Mr. Walker. Ernt, Leni's father hates the family because he thinks Mr. Walker is flirting with his wife and trying to change Alaska. 

The Walker family had been the first people to homestead this land and had built a small city and opened it up to people who wanted to live on the land , but as time changes so do thoughts about what this area could look like in the future. This is a thorn in Ernt's side, he wants to live off the grid and not have electricity, running water or a bathroom. Many clashes of will occur, which usually ends with Cora battered and bruised.

Ms. Hannah brings to light the harshness and beauty of Alaska in this book. The dangers that you can encounter and the reality to people who think they can live in Alaska because they went in the summer when it was beautiful. Having been to Alaska in the summer I saw the beauty of the place the long hours of sunlight, the great flowers and rivers. I even played golf at midnight. My husband who lived in Alaska for a few years when he was a child, knows the harsh reality of Alaska. The long nights, the expense of buying things to stay alive, the hunting in the wilderness with his dad and the knowing that you always have to be prepared. When we visited in the summer, he had us bring winter coats, gloves hats, flashlights, water and food, no matter where we went. He was always prepared, he learned this from Alaska. 

This book made me understand more about Alaska and how it can either bring a family together or tear it apart. Great book. Great title. 

Ambassadors by Henry James Finished

It has been a long time since I sat down and wrote on this site, the reason is that I just could not finish reading the last three books. But I have managed to complete THE AMBASSADORS, by Henry James. I am still working on the other two books but had decided to finish one at a time instead of reading all three at the same time. I have read this one a little at a time and feel like I did not quite get the reason this was so popular or included in the 100 books you should read in your lifetime.

I will say that it may have been a new concept for the time writing about someone willing to give up their inheritance in order to spend time with an older woman, a somewhat married older woman. That may have been the departure from the norm in the days in the time period with which it is written. so what is the basic outline of the book.

1. Strether is sent to Paris to find the son of Mrs. Newcomb, she is his fiance, or not. Maybe she is just saying she is so that he will do her bidding.
2. In Paris he finds he is not the only one sent to get Chad to come home. 
3. He meets Chad and finds he is the company of an older woman and her daughter
4. Finds out Older woman is the love interest not the younger girl.
5. Chad seem very much in control of his life, or is he.
6. Mrs. Newcomb is not happy with the alliance Strether has with a Ms. Godfrey and the fact he has not sent her son home yet. She sends her daughter and the girl she wishes her son to marry.
7. This girl is not really interested in Chad.
8. Strether seems kind of out in left field half the time missing little clues about the situation.
9. Finally figures it out and possibly his relationship with Mrs. Newcomb is over as well as a potential relationship with Ms. Godfrey.
10 And no one knows what Chad will actually do.

The End. 

Not a very satisfying ending, nothing gets fixed.

Books not quite complete

I have been remiss in writing as I am trying to finish reading the last three books of the list of 100 books that Facebook put out as a challenge what seems like eons ago. 100 books and some of them, well not my cup of tea. However, I am almost finished the Ambassadors , partly finished the Golden Notebooks and barely scratched the surface of Proust. But I have been reading lots of other books and when I finally finish the three, hopefully before I have to start work again , I have decided to start a new reading list. This reading list will be based on the year I was born or close to the year for I have decided to add the three most popular books of that time period. I will not tell you the year for it is a mystery. So I will not put the copyright date on the publishing date of the book. This group of books has a lot more science fiction in it than the previous 100. I may even start a different blog as to reflect my new reading list. As soon as I finish the three I will write a brief blog.  I feel like I have taken too long with this enterprise. For that I am sorry to been not as diligent in my reading or writing.

Rules of Civility: Review

RULES OF CIVILITY: by Amor Towles, published by Penquin Books in 2012.  A great book, but I had to go back a couple of times to remember the front of the beginning of the book. This is why, it starts off in the 1966 New York where Katey, our narrator for the most part, and her husband are at a gallery looking at portraits taken by Walker Evans in the 1930's. As they are walking along, Eve notices a man she knew in the 1930's Tinker Grey. He is in the photo's twice. Once looking dapper and once looking disheveled. This starts Eve to remember that time and when she met Tinker.

We are zoomed back to New Years Eve 1937, Katey Kontent and her friend Eve have sneaked out of the boarding house to enjoy New Years Eve. Lovely name for our narrator, throughout the book I wondered was she ever really content. This is where they meet Tinker Grey and so the tale begins. We are taken From Winter through Fall as the main section headers, with titles throughout. There are several twists and turns in the life of Katey, Eve and Tinker. Many things I would never have thought to do, but I have never lived in New York of in the 1930's.

So where does the title come from? There is a book that the young George Washington wrote called "The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation." This is wonderfully placed in the back of the book, but it is also the motivation behind Tinker Grey, who has a copy in his drawer. I loved the list and wonder what George Washington would say today, especially when it comes to clothing and grooming. My favorite of the 110 is number 2: "When in company, put not your Hands to any Part of the Body,  not usually discovered." What would he think of the crotch hold?

Good book, I like all the photo's of the 1930's.

the sound of glass by Karen White: review

(I was in the middle of reading one book when I decided to read my November book club pick, not the smartest thing to do. So I am almost finished Golden Notebook, so I hope to have a blog by the end of the week.)

the sound of glass by Karen White ( and yes I realize I did not use capitals in the title, but neither did she,) published by New American Library a division of Penguin Group, May 2015. This book starts off with a plane crash, accident and a young woman afraid of her husband. Then we jump ahead 2 generations to an accident which leaves a young widow looking for answers about her husband and an inheritance of his family home in Beaufort, South Carolina.  We also have a step-mother, half-brother Owen to Merritt, the second generational widow, and Gibbes the brother to Merritt's husband Cal. All these lives are weaved within a tale of abuse, suffering, hardship and mystery that gets centered around a plane crash that happened when Edith Heyward finds a note in the bottom of a suitcase that had blown up over the skies of Beaufort. This book is written in two voices one is Merritt whenever we are in a chapter about her and the second is third person narration when we are in other chapters.  This is a bit confusing at first, but makes sense.

The only other thing that was really troubling in the read was the fact that each generation of abusers in the narrative were named Cal. I had to think which Cal were they talking about, but eventually I got used to it and settled in for the read. The domestic abuse in this narrative was both physical and psychological, making the woman feel less than adequate, playing on their fears, until they were lucky enough to escape, unfortunately one was through death of the woman.

Characters that I loved:
Loralee- Merritt's very young step-mother who writes down sayings in a journal for her son, some of her own and some her mother uses to say to her. She also spouts of sayings from her mother to Merritt, which annoys Merritt immensely, as she has never liked her step-mother for taking place of her mother.
Owen- the half-brother who is the only one who seems to be able to bring a smile to Merritt's face. He is very much like his big sister and Loralee loves to make the comparisons.

Okay I liked all the characters, but the two above were my favorite. Merritt for her strength to face her demon. Gibbes for his gentleness towards this new family, especially since he knew nothing about Merritt as his brother never mentioned her and vice a versa.

There are so many plot twists, some more obvious then others but still essential to the telling of the story. A good book all around.

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain: Review

CIRCLING THE SUN, by Paula McLain is published by Ballentine Books in 2015. The setting Kenya and Europe. The time starts in 1932 with the prologue but jumps back to 1904 and as the author writes " Before Kenya was Kenya...".  The heroine one 4 year old who moves from England with her family to the British East African Protectorate, her name Beryl Clutterbuck.

This story is a historical fiction about Beryl Markham and the life she lived as a single, sometimes married, independent woman in the early 1900's. Headstrong and unwilling to be compromised, she left most men bewildered by her inability to be feminine or controlled. She becomes a horse trainer after years watching her father and training. She becomes an aviator and circumnavigates the world. Many misfortunes befall her, but she picks herself up and continues.

The author Paula McLain does a wonderful job with scenery and the story line, citing the many books she read to understand Beryl Markham. This research included a book that Beryl Markham wrote about herself called West with the Night, written in 1942. A book that Ernest Hemingway proclaimed as a "... really a bloody wonderful book."

I was so enthralled with CIRCLING THE SUN, that I read it in three days. It is wonderfully written from scenery to emotions that I could not put it down. It also made me want to read other works about Beryl Markham, so I purchased West with the Night which was republished in 1983, my copy is a paperback published in 2013.  I will review this as soon as I finish the autobiography.

-------------------------------------------
I am still reading The Golden Notebook, but had put it aside because I needed a brief break. It will be done before August ends.

2nd book mentioned in previous blog: Review of THE NIGHTINGALE, by Kristin Hannah

THE NIGHTINGALE, by Kristin Hannah, published by St. Martins Press in 2015. The book is set in France during WWII and is the story of two sisters, family, french resistance and German occupation of France. The book encompasses the whole time period of the war from the Germans breaking through the Maginot Line, which had been set in place after the Great Conflict or WWI. The sisters father served in WWI and came home a different man, lost his wife and turned to drink and sent his daughters far away from him. One daughter finds love and the other finds herself rebellious.

This story starts off in 1995 on the Oregon Coast with an older woman about to be moved into a nursing facility as a way to save her son Julien from taking care of her as she is dying. She goes to the attic and goes through an old trunk, which starts her on a journey of remembering the past and how her son really knows nothing about her. We quickly slide over to France 1939 and start the story of the two sisters. Once in awhile we go to the 1990's but for the most part the book is written from the past.

The two sisters are very different, Vianne the older sister, tries to be in control of her emotions, falling in love after being deserted by her father, getting pregnant at a young man and marrying him. Having no time for her baby sister, who handles this abandonment by her father by being rebellious and being sent to a boarding schools, as she keeps being kicked out because of her behavior, this is Isabelle. She has issues not only with her father but with Vianne, because Vianne is the second person to abandon her when she was just a small child.

Then the war presses in around them, Isabelle gets thrown out of another school at 18, goes home to her father who sends her to live with her sister after the Germans have broken through the Maginot Line, he sends her with a family headed that way but they run out of fuel and she has to set off on foot. She decides she need to get away from the mass exodus from Paris to the country and sets off in a different direction, running into a man named Gaeton. Who walks with her to  her sisters house, with a promise that when they see that Vianne is okay, he would take her to the front with him.

While all this is going on Vianne is getting overrun by the people looking for food. She goes into hiding with her daughter locking all the doors, so she does not answer when her sister knocks. Starting off the reunion with bitter emotions from Isabelle the next morning, as she chastises her sister for having the door locked and being mad at Gaeton for abandoning her with a note pinned to her dress.

Okay enough of this or I will tell the whole story and Kristen Hannah does a much better job. This story is well written and it kept me guessing until the end on who the old woman was in the beginning of the book. The end of the book when the Germans realize that they might not win and start getting even more brutal is very graphic, so beware. The book takes its name from two sources on being the name of the person who take fallen air force members from the US and RAF across to safety using the Pyrenees mountains and the last name translated for the two girls. It is not only about relationships between the family and lovers, but relationships between occupied countries with their oppressors.  How a whole country let atrocities happen because of fear and or gain, but not the whole country because there were resistance fighters and people who hid others in the face of danger to their own lives.

This book hits a variety of genres, mystery, history, romance, tragedy and a few more. A well written book, that took four days to read.  I probably could have done it in two but other obligations got in the way and I sat up till 130 AM reading last night as I wanted to find out who was our woman. But as I said before the last chapters are pretty graphic, so reader beware. if I was to rate it with a five star system, it would receive all five stars.

Still reading The Golden Notebook, but....

I am still reading the Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, but I have also read two book club choices for last month and nest month, so I thought I would review them least I forget.

This month the book was A WRINKLE IN TIME, by Madeleine L'Engle, my copy was printed in 1997 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc for the Quality Paperback Book Club. I read this book when I was not a child, but later on in life, then again when I had children, and now for a third time. When I was younger I did not pick up on some of the religious themes in the book, but concentrated on the fact that there were two children rescuing their dad from an evil entity. I was heavily into science fiction, so this fell into my favorite kind of read. When I read it with my children, we were looking at it through eyes of book reports. In each read I found myself being drawn to the character of Meg. I was a little different from my family, though they loved me they did not understand me. I also had a mass of curly hair in the era of Twiggy and straight hair. This made me the butt of jokes in school. I also had to explain why my father mysteriously disappeared, to people who would come up to a seven year old and say things in a snide tone, "Where's your father?"

It is a cleverly written book that can follow you from childhood to adult and still be able to find different meanings. I believe the author when she was asked who this book was written for and she said people. She did not want it to be a specific age group and I applaud her for making it a book that can be enjoyed on many levels.

At our book club we talked about the time frame this book was written , when the start of cookie cutter houses started showing up, where whole neighborhoods looked exactly the same and if you did not fit the mold you were ostracized. A time when individuality might have been frowned upon. Also discussed were the religious concepts of dark overshadowing the light. Love conquering all. That maybe the Mrs's were also seen as the holy trinity. So many concepts in such a small powerhouse of a book.

I think the only thing we did not like was how the book ended so abruptly, one minute we are in conflict and the next we are back in the garden and the story ends. I felt like she wanted to go on but decided this was a good place to stop, leaving you with the feeling that there should be more. I have not read the other books with these characters so maybe that will be when I finish the rest of my 100.

Also, I think I will end here with this is a good book to read with your children, you may want them to be in 6 grade so that they can understand it a wee bit better. I will do another blog for the next book.

The reading has started.

I have started the book THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK by Doris Lessing, once again we have a 600 page book, at least it is not 1000+ pages. It is also not printed in teeny pinhead print, so my eyes may be saved. I love the letters that Doris Lessing put in describing what not to think this book is about, such as feminism. She wrote both in 1971 and 1993, both letters are in the book. I will not try to paraphrase her words, but do read them if you are inclined to read this book.

The central characters so far, are Anna, her friend Molly start off the book, but it quickly drops back in time, when Anna leaves Molly to go back home and look at her notebooks, which are described by color as the black, red, yellow and blue. Anna chooses the black notebook to start writing in which is about her time with a group of people she refers to as the Colony, which resides in Africa. The group is made up mostly of Brits with the tentative leader named Willi. That is where I am so far, and currently I am enjoying the book. I think the black notebook definitely has a dark side. I wonder what the other three notebooks will reveal.

Happy Summer Reading

Next book

Tomorrow I start the next book in my finishing the 100 books on my list that was part of the 100 book challenge. It is a book by Doris Lessing called the GOLDEN NOTEBOOK, published originally in 1962, my book is a reprint from 1999 through First Perennial Classics. Now here is the kicker, on the back of my copy, yes I bought the book, so I would not have to keep returning it to the library, it says it is a great work of fiction. However, when I have looked for it in  the library I have always found it in the non-fiction section. So I am going to have to do a little research to find out if this really autobiographical. Or does the library just assume it is non-fiction, or was it just misfiled, but the card record online says it is in non-fiction. Alas we have a mystery to help us read the book.

Have a pleasant summer and fun reads.

C'est fini- The last review of Les Miserables.

I have finished LES MISERABLES  by Victor Hugo. I have read it in two formats, book form and on Kindle, as the library would not let me recheck it out for a fourth time. I am sorry that it has taken me so long to finish and I feel I had abandoned my readers to other pursuits. That being said I decided enough was enough and I will finish it this weekend. I did not realize how far I had come in the book and how little I had put off reading. I also know that reading on a phone such a lengthy book is very tiring on the eyes. I one again apologize.


At the end of the Kindle version there are over 100 questions to review if you read this book for a book club, they are broken down into areas such as characters, settings, history, etc, I have not looked at these questions, but did read the notes that Monsieur Hugo wrote to an Italian publisher about his book. I agree with him that this is not a book for just France but for all mankind. He talks about countries with poverty and wealth, of money going to military and not to education, and I see this in the US currently. Is the book idealistic? Maybe. Is the book concerned about mankind and its search for improvement by any means necessary? Yes, I believe it does address that from one mans struggles to feed his family, to the street poor trying to make something of themselves through thievery. This book carries many of the tones found in Dickens, but it carries the struggle to be a better person, even if in the end you are defeated.

I mentioned I had read this book in high school french class, but we only looked at the Jean Valjean parts. I realize now that we looked at very few passages and a very abridged edition. There is so much more to this book then the validation of an ex-con, there is history, romance, betrayal and a thousand understandings of the human condition. Having said that I still do not understand the concept of rebellions over and over again. The snuffing out of lives that apparently occurred so often in France. I am saddened by all of the men Marius knew dying in such a manner and not changing anything. It was strange to me that these doctors, lawyers, students at a University would willingly die, knowing that they may not produce change, that the same scenario happened over and over again in France. I could imagine that the poor and lower waged workers may have had a rebellion, bit it was not them who started the rebellions. I thought do they really care about their fellow man or are they being romantics. I am still not sure.

Jean Valjean is indeed the hero throughout the book. He rescues so many and in the end though forgiven suffers the most. It is a tragedy, showing that no matter what your circumstances, that you can change for the better, which he showed in so many ways. His counterpoint is Thernadier whose only redeeming quality was at the end of the book when he unwittingly gave Marius information that changed his opinion of Jean Valjean, other then that Thernadier showed the ugly side of man, in all it's forms.

I could go on but this is not a dissertation, nor is it a thesis, a book report, or a news item. I loved this book, though it took me forever to read it. I liked hearing the history, the romance, the subtleties of the characters, the notions of the time period. It was an eye-opening book, a good read, but you must be prepared for the areas of long explanations of wars, Frances architecture, the long windiness of the grandfather, these took pages and chapters in the book. If you have time it is a good book to read.

Out of the Revolution

I have finished the section on Waterloo and how it connects to Cosette and the Thernadieres, Mr. Thernadier being one of the robbers of the dead after the war. Cosette and Jean Valjean have once again escaped the clutches of Javert and are hiding inside a convent. A very weird convent of which it is easier to read then describe. I think this is why it is not shown in the movie, or why we did not discuss as a class.

Anyway I am in a new section Part 3 Marius. Book one in this section is all about the street urchins of Paris, it is very descriptive and almost makes you want to be one of the carefree ones with no chores, except to make some coin for food or play five finger discount. I am sure this is where we will be introduced to the Thernadiers son who is a non-entity, he was described as a baby who kept crying in the last section. The Missus was all about her girls and did nothing for her son, I am not sure how he survived but we are several years into the future from Part 2 where he was first brought into play.

         This almost puts me half-way through the book. YEAH. With this cold and flu I am able to     read, so who knows when I will finish. Pleasant journeys and be happy to be part of a family.

Battle of Waterloo

Who knew, not me, that there was so much information about the battle of Waterloo and surrounding areas in the book Les Miserables. I am part two of the book entitled Cosette and the first book in this section is entitled Waterloo. It is about 45 pages long going into detail about the battlefield and the plans of Napoleon, number of people who died, etc.  Anyway,not sure where this is going, being that Cosette was born about two years after this battle. I guess if you want to study the battle of Waterloo, then I would also look at this section in the book. Makes me want to find it.

Historians there are monuments including the place mentioned in Les Miserables called Hougemont. In fact on the website for this and other monuments in the area, is a notation about the fact that there are two chapters in Les Miserables that mention this battle. So new things to learn everyday.

Les Miserables a beginning.

I have started the book, Les Miserables, and I realized that my French teacher back in high school, only had us read the parts about Jean Valjean in class. I have seen the movie and we were given the general gist of the book in class, but there is a so much backstory that we did not read in class. Anyway, I am at the pass the part where Fantine has given her daughter to people she thought she could trust and back with Jean Valjean being the benefactor for the M and M district. Though they have not said that it is Jean because he did not show his papers when he was being a hero. Though it is inferred by the way he was dressed and his desire not to be given titles.

I love getting the backstory and can put things in better perspective. I liked the movie but I did not realize how Fantine became with child and what drove her to leave her child with the Thenardiers. Where did the young men and women go that were with Fantine in the book, but I do not recall those scenes in the movie. Anyway, still lots to read.