The Eyre Affair

The Eyre Affair is the first of Jasper Fforde's series of Thursday Next books, and it's one of my favorites ever. Thursday Next is a police woman of sorts in a fantastic version of England in the 80s. I say fantastic because the entire world is obsessed with literature! It's a wonderfully complicated book that is as difficult to explain as it is to put down. Thursday gets involved hunting down master criminal Hades Acheron (oh read it, there is a part where Hades' brother Styx is calling people who have put out advertisements to sell their car, and I had missed it every time I had read it before, but this time I was laughing for a half an hour). And when Thursday's uncle finds a way to go into books, or bring characters out, Thursday is tasked with keeping Jane Eyre safe. It's awesome!

Okay, now I have to reread the Book Thief for Book club in two weeks! It's really long...

Jane Eyre!

After lying about it for years (I'm a terrible person), I have actually finished Jane Eyre. I have to admit it, I liked it a lot. Charlotte Bronte was a genius... All things I have said at the bookstore over the years while trying to talk high schoolers into picking it for their summer reads were true. I feel like less of a fraud now. I liked Jane a lot. Though for my money, Rochester could man up a little. I'm not a fan of pretending your illegitimate daughter is your "ward", or that the crazy woman in the attic trying to kill you is a servant (poor Grace Poole, she was just a girl trying to do a job), but since he helped Thursday Next in The Eyre affair, I've decided he's great. And how long did we need to spend with the cousins? I know, I know, Bronte was proving Jane was independent, and providing a way for her to go back to Rochester without compromising her character, but did I care about St. John's missionary trip? Not so much. But then Jane went back to Rochester and there was a happy ending (thanks to Thursday).

I feel smarter, like reading a classic counteracts reading Us Weekly. Which is why a number of years ago I decided to read a classic every summer. It's been more fallish than summerish lately, but I've kept it up pretty well. Last year was Sense and Sensibility, the year before Catch 22 (I'm not entirely sure I finished that one, to be honest, I got confused, put it down, and I should really go back and check for a bookmark in the middle of my copy someday). I've been doing it since the summer between my freshman and sophomore years at college. And now that I think about it, I did it to impress a boy. I was reading probably Stephen King or Dean Koontz or something equally fun and easy at my summer job, and he came in one day with The Prince. And I countered with Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. He was going to be a senior, and going to England for a semester, and I wanted to seem smart. Of course, by the time I finished all 2000 pages of Les Mis, he still hadn't finished the Prince (200 pages in large print that one). Perhaps, looking back, he was trying to impress the funny well read girl in the tram booth, and I actually ended up with an almost ten year long project that has led me to books like Jane Eyre, all the Austens, and several other classics I missed in school (MacBeth, read almost entirely on a beach once).

My reward? I get to read the fabulous, funny and interesting Jasper Fforde novel, The Eyre affair. Rochester helps Thursday Next to save Jane! It's awesomely weird, and the book I was referencing in my head the WHOLE time I was reading Jane Eyre... I can't wait!

Juliet Naked

Thank goodness. Nick Hornby is back. Did you love High Fidelity, adore About a Boy (or just really like the John Cusack or Hugh Grant movies), but hate How to be Good and the Long Way Down (I think that's what the last one was called, it was so bad I won't look it up on Amazon like I normally would)? Does dry British wit entertain you? Because then you should read Juliet Naked. Okay, I'm going to give my manager credit, he was right, the ending wasn't great, though I can't think of how it should have ended that would have made it better... Annie is living with a loser boyfriend she's not really in love with, and dumps him when he cheats on her. Her loser boyfriend, Duncan, is obsessed with Tucker Crowe a formerly popular singer/songwriter. Through a fairly convoluted series of events, Annie starts e-mailing Tucker, and then Tucker and his 6 year old show up in Annie's tiny sea side English town. Whatever, the plot can plod along, the characters can be completely aimless in life, and I will still love Hornby's humor. Now onto the John Shors book I haven't read yet, or my friend Shawn's book. Shit, I mean, I'm going to finish Jane Eyre this time.

Julie and Julia

I am inspired! So last night a friend and I went to see Julie and Julia after a nice dinner in which two of the biggest bibliophiles I know did not discuss books for almost two hours. Well, except to share a great story about a stupid customer and the movie cover of the Tucker Max book, which involves me practically acting out the last three seasons of Gilmore Girls to this strange woman and her 15 year old son. Have you seen Julie and Julia? It's awesome. Meryl Streep, of course, and Amy Adams were both fantastic. But the whole move is Julie writing this blog about cooking everything from Mastering the art of French Cooking, and Julia Child writing it. So, as I am not going to learn how to cook anything from Julia Child's book, I have decided that I will be more active on this blog. Do I think Nick Hornby is going to read it and contact me? No, though strangely enough that's kind of what his new book is about. But maybe it'll get my friends to read something they normally wouldn't have, something amazing. Maybe just one person will pick up a book they wouldn't have by an author I adore. For all the joy Marissa De Los Santos has given me in her two books, getting even one person to read her is the least I can do. In related news, Half Priced Books has Love Walked In for a buck yesterday, I picked it up as a lending copy, so if you haven't read it, I'll lend it to you as long as you PROMISE to love it. Not that I'm worried, you will.

We'll see how long this resolution keeps up. Though I am 45 pages into Jane Eyre and I haven't started another book yet, so that one held out longer than I thought...

South of Broad

Pat Conroy's latest book deserved me writing about it a month ago when I actually finished it, but you know.

It's the story of Leo King in Charleston South Carolina, alternating between his senior year in high school and his present twenty years later. During his senior year in high school he meets all of the people who will shape his future, including his best friends and his future wife. I liked it, though the characters tend to be whiny or to perfect to exist in real life (Leo, really? No one's that good a person man). But for fans of Prince of Tides or the Great Santini, it's a great read.

Hopefully Nick Hornby's newest won't be a month between reading and making it up here. It's really good so far, though I hear the ending sucks.