HELLO THERE!

Hiya! So I'm assuming no one has really looked here yet, so for introductions etc. scroll down to the first post on this page, it's not far. Then come back up here and read the rest of this.


I'm pretty much completely done with school, and I've started reading the first couple of books I'll be reviewing here. One is a pretty quick read so look for that soon. Things here may be a bit slow going at first but they'll pick up, I promise. Here are a few titles you can expect to see in the near future:

• Bound by Donna Jo Napoli
• Beachmont Letters by Elinor Twoomey
• No Promises In The Wind by Irene Hunt
• Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors

All of the above are rereads; books I haven't read in a long time that I'm revisiting now. Other books I'll be reviewing a bit later on are:

• The Flames Of Rome by Paul L. Maier
• The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (yes, I'm aware that pretty much everyone has read this book but me)
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
• Reckless by Cornelia Funke
• Hopefully! Keep your fingers crossed... The Bully Book by Eric Kahn Gale

AND MORE!
I hope that looks good to y'all! There is something else I wanted to show you. I've been thinking about a format for my reviews. Everyone does it a bit differently, and I wanted to come up with something both helpful and interesting. This is currently what I have in mind, please let me know what you think! Basically, a review will look like this:


[a picture of the cover]

In Few Words: A brief descriptive summary of my overall opinion/reaction. This will probably just be some adjectives lumped together but then isn't that what most reviews are? In fact this would probably look like those excerpts from newspaper reviews that you see inside or on the backs of books. "Brilliant...stunning...fantastically imagined and wonderfully written."* That kind of thing.

Star Rating: Out of five stars

Summary: Self-explanatory...

Review: Obvious...the actual review. Opinion on storyline, writing quality and style, characters, meanings, what I liked and didn't like, blah blah blah.

If This Were A Movie, I'd Rate It: I guess this would be parental information. Exactly what it says...my movie rating (G, PG, etc.)  for the book and why. Please keep in mind my ideals of what something should be rated for what may be different from yours.

And that is all I have to say right now. I'll post another old review soon and then the fun begins with Bound!


*For the record, that isn't taken from any real review. I just made it up on the spot.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

(Here's another of those old reviews. New ones coming soon, so stay tuned!)

"...I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women—my own features—mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!"
-Heathcliff

Mr. Lockwood is new to the area and as a diversion to fight off the boredom of living in an isolated part of the country, he asks his new housekeeper to tell him the history of his interesting neighbors, including his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff. Mrs. Dean, the housekeeper, turns out to have known this intriguing Heathcliff for most of his life. She launches into a fascinating narrative of the lives and troubles of the Earnshaws and Lintons, the two great families of the neighborhood, and in the middle of all of it, Heathcliff. He starts out as a homeless child with no family or history that anyone knows of. Mr. Earnshaw finds him and takes him into his home to live with his two other children, Catherine and Hindley. Catherine gets used to him eventually and comes to love him dearly; they become as close as twins. Hindley, however, hates Heathcliff for the attention he gets from old Earnshaw and persecutes him throughout their childhood, even making him act as a servant after his father dies. When Catherine and Heathcliff are about seventeen, Catherine becomes friends with their well-to-do neighbors, the Lintons. Their son, Edgar, falls in love with her and she, in a way, with him. Although she privately declares her love for Heathcliff to be incredibly strong, indeed, to be the most important part of her, she ends up marrying the richer, kinder Edgar.
As it turns out, Heathcliff worships Catherine, but he hates Edgar Linton passionately, and begins to carry out a grand scheme of vengeance on the Lintons and Earnshaws that spans nearly twenty years.

No matter what you've heard, this is not a love story. It's a story about a passion, an obsession, and the depressing, often terrifying effects it has on the people involved. The love, if it is love, between Catherine and Heathcliff is very intense and very serious, but it certainly didn't make anyone happy.
I had been scouring Borders for an hour and a half trying to find something affordable that I'd actually read. I found Wuthering Heights and thought, hey, I love one of Charlotte Brontё's works, why not try her sister? In a way, I enjoyed this book. It is well written, though rather drawn out at parts, suspenseful, and fascinating. It is also depressing and disturbing. It's an intense examination of love, hate, compassion and the lack of it. I'd say it is worth reading, especially if you're a fan darker stuff. It wasn't exactly my kind of story, but I understand why it's considered a classic.

So if this sounds good to you, go on and enjoy it. But if you prefer happy endings, read at your own risk.

Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is one of the most fawned over fictional men in the history of literature. I'll admit to having done my own fair bit of swooning. However there are such gaps in Pride and Prejudice where we hear nothing of him. Have you ever wondered what he was up to during those times? Ever wanted to have a peek at what was going on in his head, and more importantly, in his heart?

Now you can, thanks to Amanda Grange and her wonderful book Mr. Darcy's Diary. It really is his diary, and in it everything is revealed. It begins the summer before Bingley takes Netherfield, and ends a few months into his marriage to Lizzy. It is accurate, often with lines taken directly from P&P. Miss Grange knows the characters inside and out; every piece of dialogue is precisely how I think Jane Austen would have wanted it. We come to know the Bingleys better, as well as Georgiana Darcy. Darcy's intervention in the Wickham and Lydia problem is explained in full detail. And of course, Miss Elizabeth Bennet is ever present in his thoughts. All his struggles and feelings are there, beautifully laid out on paper right in front of you. Probably the part most worth getting excited about is the last few chapters, where we get to see a bit of Lizzy and Darcy after they're married; and let me tell you, they make an adorable couple.

This book is a must-have for every fan of Jane Austen. It really is perfect; it made me love Mr. Darcy even more, if that's possible. I also loved getting to know Mr. Bingley better. Mr. Darcy's Diary is officially one of my all-time favorite books, and I highly recommend it to anybody, provided they're familiar with P&P.
I think if Jane were alive today she'd applaud Amanda Grange on a job very well done. For this reason, it has a place of honor in my bookcase right next to its parent book, Pride and Prejudice.

Hi!

Welcome to my blog! I'll be reading a lot this summer, reading books that are new to me as well as revisiting some old favorites. I'll be reviewing most of them here for your pleasure. Please feel free to share any comments, opinions, questions and recommendations in a comment. :)
Now, I'm still finishing up high school so I can't get started for another week or so, but in the meantime I'll post a few reviews from a blog I used to run with my best friend, about a year ago.
Thanks for stopping by!

Love,
Katie :-)