The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia #3) by C.S. Lewis

Blurb: Narnia . . . where horses talk . . . where treachery is brewing . . . where destiny awaits.

On a desperate journey, two runaways meet and join forces. Though they are only looking to escape their harsh and narrow lives, they soon find themselves at the center of a terrible battle. It is a battle that will decide their fate and the fate of Narnia itself.

 

 

 

 

3 stars

My daughter really wanted us to keep reading this series so I pushed through this book but I was never really a fan of this story. I think this might be my least favorite CS Lewis book in the Narnia series.  My daughter loved it though.  She was very excited to read it and I think we may have finished it faster than TLTWATW.

I found Aravis to be a bit spoiled and overbearing.  We see the potential for her character to grow but it happens at such a slow pace for me that I kinda just gave up on her.  Shasta seemed to be a bit of a pushover, never really coming to any conclusions on his own.  Just kinda letting events happen to him as opposed to facilitating them himself. And the horses seemed to be more of just extras to tie in the Narnia theme.  Their personalities reflect Shasta and Aravis, making them less likable to me due to lack of originality.

I did enjoy the hermit quite a bit along with the king and the young prince as well. I could have spent more time getting to know him more.  Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are the ones I wanted to learn more about really, but they were only in it sparingly.  The good news is, my favorite book in the series is next so yea, more Pevensies!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia (Publication Order) #1) by C.S. Lewis

Blurb: Four adventurers step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia, a land enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change . . . and a great sacrifice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This book satisfies challenge #9: A classic about a animal or which includes the name of an animal in the title. 

5 stars

I’ve read this book about three times now. Still love it. I forgot how fast paced it was.  And the sentences are quite long-winded.  It was hard to read it to my daughter in any kind of rhythm cause I had to keep catching my breath, so annoying.

My kid loved it, we tore that book in about a month.  I read aloud to her so it takes a lot longer to finish books with her. My favorite part was when the wolf was fighting Peter and Aslan was all, “Nah bro, he needs to earn his bones on this fight, don’t help him.” I mean, not in those words but you get the idea. My daughters favorite part was the end, when they were all grown up and they came back through the wardrobe and no time had passed for them on earth.

Anyway, if you don’t know this book, you were probably never in the US public school system cause it mandatory reading here.  Great book, highly recommend.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz #1) by L. Frank Baum

Blurb: Dorothy thinks she’s lost forever when a tornado whirls her and her dog, Toto, into a magical world. To get home, she must find the wonderful wizard in the Emerald City of Oz. On the way she meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion. But the Wicked Witch of the West has her own plans for the new arrival – will Dorothy ever see Kansas again?

 

 

 

 

 

 

This book satisfies Book to the Classics Challenge #10: A classic set in a place you’d like to visit. 

4 stars

My daughter and I read this together and really liked it. I found the sentences to be a bit run on so when I was reading it out loud to my daughter I kept having to pause in the middle to catch my breath! That was a bit annoying.

But the story itself was pretty funny and a bit morbid IMO.  If you have watched the movie but not read the book, lemme tell you; they are similar but by no means are they the same.  The tin man’s reason for being tin was…..bordering on the ridiculous.  My daughter and I kept laughing at each time he lost a limb.

And the Lion didn’t really come off as cowardly so much as bratty.  But I’m sure that’s just our modern interpretation.  I did love the flying monkeys.  They played a much bigger part in the book.  Each chapter was like a mini adventure, always something new that happened and was resolved by the end of it.  It kept us engaged in that aspect.
One thing I will spoil for you….her shoes are NOT red.

And did you know, there’s like 13 books in this series?  I had no idea.  Anyway, it was a fun read.  I definitely recommend it, especially if you had kids.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Blurb: The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden. Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires. And he enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs or the joy of watching pages consumed by flames, never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then Guy met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think. And Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do.

 

 

This book satisfies the Back to the Classics Challenge #8: A classic with a number in the title.

4 stars

I listened to this audio book and it was fantastic. The words and phrases that were used in this book, well, people don’t use them anymore. Which made them all the more cool when I heard them. Now I listened to two different narrators. Tim Robbins, he was okay. But the other guy, Stephen Hoye, he rocked it so hard. His voice was deep but was able to hit the high female pitches as well. Really wished I listened to the whole book in his voice.

When I read certain books, sometimes I like to go in blind. Especially with classics because I don’t want to be influenced by anything if can help it. That means I didn’t read the blurb so I honestly had no idea what this book was about. I like being surprised with classics because well everyone already knows about them so its my small way of being different.

Anyway, firemen who intentionally burn instead of putting out fires. Books are illegal! Why, this world is topsy-turvy already! It’s a simple yet powerful concept that shows you how important literature really is. His world building was so effortless. The hound was a personal favorite, how fast the cars were, the ‘TV’ on the walls. It was all explained both easily and in depth. I know I’m not making sense but it’s true! It really felt like it could have been written now even with the older phasing. It’s still relevant.

I remember being so moved by some of the monologues and wondering what on earth RB was thinking as he wrote it. It felt very personal, almost.. vulnerable even. The ending kinda drifts away with no real close. But if you’ve read classics before you know that is how some of them end.

I have not read other books by RB but I’m sure I’ll check some more out in the future. Should be mandatory reading IMO.

 

A Princess of Mars (Barsoom #1) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Blurb: Her oval face was beautiful in the extreme, her every feature finely chisled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Similar in face and figure to women of Earth, she was nevertheless a true Martian–and prisoner of the fierce green giants who held me captive, as well!

 

 

 

 

 

5 stars

Did you know the movie John Carter is based on this series?  I did not, which makes my reading of this book that much cooler for some reason.  So this is my second book in the Decades of Sci-Fi challenge that I have finished.  I am officially two books behind.  ::shrugs shoulders:: Whatever, I do what I want.  🙂

This book was fantastic!!  It was fast paced and explained simply.  Okay, so there was a LOT of telling but, it was done so well.  I was quite happily able to overlook it. I loved how easily he was able to incorporate himself in to each civilization he encountered.

I loved the mystery of it too. How did he come to be on Mars? It’s left up to the reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks.  This is a risky endeavor for any author to partake in but he pulls it off quite nicely.  The writing was extremely easy to follow considering the book was written almost 100 years ago.

Compared to the last book I read in this challenge, it was a cakewalk.  I’m not much for ‘”classic literature” but if the rest are like this, I will definitely have no problems finishing this challenge.

In the Days of the Comet: By H. G. Wells

Blurb: In the Days of the Comet (1906) is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells in which humanity is “exalted” when a comet causes “the nitrogen of the air, the old azote,” to “change out of itself” and become “a respirable gas, differing indeed from oxygen, but helping and sustaining its action, a bath of strength and healing for nerve and brain.” The result: “The great Change has come for evermore, happiness and beauty are our atmosphere, there is peace on earth and good will to all men.”

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite quotes:

I was thinking of revenge—revenge against the primary conditions of my being. I was thinking of Nettie and her lover. I was firmly resolved he should not have her—though I had to kill them both to prevent it. I did not care what else might happen, if only that end was ensured.

Then begins a clatter roar of machinery catching the infection, going faster and faster, and whizzing and banging,—engineers, who have never had time to wash since their birth, flying about with oil-cans, while paper runs off its rolls with a shudder of haste. The proprietor you must suppose arriving explosively on a swift motor-car, leaping out before the thing is at a standstill, with letters and documents clutched in his hand, rushing in, resolute to “hustle,” getting wonderfully in everybody’s way. At the sight of him even the messenger boys who are waiting, get up and scamper to and fro. Sprinkle your vision with collisions, curses, incoherencies. You imagine all the parts of this complex lunatic machine working hysterically toward a crescendo of haste and excitement as the night wears on. At last the only things that seem to travel slowly in all those tearing vibrating premises are the hands of the clock.

We knew before the Change, the meanest knew, by glowing moments in ourselves and others, by histories and music and beautiful things, by heroic instances and splendid stories, how fine mankind could be, how fine almost any human being could upon occasion be; but the poison in the air, its poverty in all the nobler elements which made such moments rare and remarkable—all that has changed. The air was changed, and the Spirit of Man that had drowsed and slumbered and dreamt dull and evil things, awakened, and stood with wonder-clean eyes, refreshed, looking again on life.

3 stars

First off, I am not a classics reader in general.  But I wanted to challenge myself and since Sci-Fi is my favorite genre I chose to do Decades of Sci-Fi Challenge being hosted by Sci-Fi and Scary.

This book also satisfies Back to the Classics Challenge #2: A 20th century classic.

This book took me over two months to read!  It’s over 100 years old so the verbage was a bit difficult to translate.  My mind just turned to mush after too long.  This author describes EVERYTHING.  Like pages and pages of one single element/scene/idea. It was enough to make me want to skim.  I didn’t, but I wanted to.  And the sentences were so long I had to stop and take a breath just to finish them!  It kept kicking me out of the story when that happened, which was a lot.

This story was incredibly slow.  About a quarter of the way through it I realized it had a love story in it!  And that was the best part of the novel TBH.  The MC was…quite frankly, crazy. Like certifiable.  I kept comparing his actions being replicated in present times and if he behaved now as he had then, he wold have been locked up.  He was incredibly proud, stubborn, entitled, egotistical, impulsive, vain and self-absorbed.

But I enjoyed the journey of his evolving character.  Once the comet changed everyone the story progressed pretty quickly.  Sidenote: The comet ‘changing’ everyone is a bit confusing because at the end there is a character who seems to not know what this guy is talking about. (Leading me to believe the MC was in fact insane)

And I LOVED the ending to the love story.  It was so unexpected you guys! It just made me think about how much more accepting this ending would be viewed in present as opposed to then.  It would have been a great scandal then, but now… not so much.

Glad I read it, don’t know if I would read his other works though.  Stylistically, it’s not my bag.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Blurb: Born into a poor family and raised by an oppressive aunt, young Jane Eyre becomes the governess at Thornfield Manor to escape the confines of her life. There her fiery independence clashes with the brooding and mysterious nature of her employer, Mr. Rochester. But what begins as outright loathing slowly evolves into a passionate romance. When a terrible secret from Rochester’s past threatens to tear the two apart, Jane must make an impossible choice: Should she follow her heart or walk away and lose her love forever?

Unabashedly romantic and utterly enthralling, Jane Eyre endures as one of the greatest love stories of all time.

4.5 Stars

This is a challenge book. Read a book of historical fiction set before 1900 AND Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better.

Do you have any idea how hard that is!!?!?!?!?!?  There are so many words that aren’t used anymore and I had to look them all up.  I had a really hard time getting into it because of that.  I got about 15% into the book and I really needed to take a break because it just started to feel like a chore.  I had to sate my thirst for modern literature.

It sat in my queue for about 6 months till I felt my brain could handle it.  But then about 45% in, it got real interesting.  I didn’t know a whole lot about this book before I started reading it, I didn’t know it was a romance. If I had known it was a romance, I probably would have been a lot more excited to start it.  And I didn’t know that Jane was so ahead of her time. A fact that I REALLY liked. She was a modern feminist when the word didn’t even exist yet.

It was hard for me to understand her emotions because of the time it was written in, I think.  The author didn’t really go into that to much. It was like they were inferred but because of the language of the book I didn’t understand, like I didn’t really get it until halfway through.  Then I realized she did love him.  Cause it didn’t really seem like she liked him at first to me.  It felt pretend for some reason.  I totally didn’t believe Mr. Rochester was into her at all, I thought he was a bit slimy.  I thought her cousin would have been a great match for her but clearly I was wrong.

At any rate, it was a great book and I may read more of her in the future.