Holy wow, batman.

This one was good. Reaaally good. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes is a work of art. Go out, read it. It's just wow.

Interesting idea.

Under the Dome by Stephen King. There are enough reviews out there for this new one. It's pretty good, not mind-blowing. The idea was really nice but I didn't like the ending or really the explanation at all . Thought it was a little bit lazy.

Confusing but worth it.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is typical of the novel I dread being assigned to read in a class. It's confusing, told by multiple narrators, the characters are not particularly nice people, their goals are ones that I don't understand. That being said, those are exactly the reasons why I loved this novel. The confusion meant I had to pay attention, the multiple narrators made me read and re-read for simple comprehension. The fact that the characters were nothing like me made me struggle to understand their motivations. It was a short novel, but I'd recommend that if you decide to read it you really pay attention to what you're reading and how things progress and who the story is getting told by. Because with something like 14 narrators, things get hairy.

Grr.

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (the male pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans)was a novel I really liked. Until the end. Deus ex machina is, I believe, the proper term to describe what I think happened here.

Oh, Philip.

One of the few non-fiction works you'll see on my blog, ever. Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by Andrew Motion is phenomenal. Larkin is one of my favorite poets, but his life wouldn't seem very riveting for most people. He was a librarian, poet, misanthropist and quasi-alcoholic. Not the stuff that fairy tales are made of. But the book makes fantastic work of his struggles with art, women, alcohol and people in general that makes me wish I could reach out and touch the poet who created such amazing work.

Great?

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens -- A thorough classic, this novel kept me roaring with laughter at the crazy, violent female characters, but also subdued me by reminding me that we all have it in us to estrange ourselves from those we love in the pursuit of goals that may or may not be in our best interests.

Ok, sorry.

So, I just finished my exams this week after a whirlwind semester. I didn't have any time to update, but I kept up with my reading. So I'm going to do the lazy thing here, and just list the books that I read in this time period with minimal comments. After this one, I will go back into giving more detail, but I just can't bring myself to write anything in depth yet. Perhaps I'll come back to give more info on these some day when I'm bored, but that's not especially likely.

Without further delay..

I've read:

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West -- This novel is great. I actually have read it twice in the past month and loved it both times. I may well read it again this summer. It's short, but wonderful.