New Year's Resolution

Yes, I know. It's the end of February and New Year's was several weeks ago. And a post about a New Year's resolution on a blog about books doesn't make much sense. Well, in a few minutes it will. Sometime between finishing The Fellowship of the Ring and starting The Two Towers, I made a decision. I decided that from now on, I will read at least one book by J.R.R. Tolkien a year. Notice I said "at least one". I think it's safe to say that I'm likely to read more than one since I adore him so much. But I'm going to make a conscious effort to read at least one of his works. And then today I thought, why not expand that resolution and include other authors?

What follows is a list of authors or time periods that I will read one book of each year. Realistically, this is a serious time commitment that I am making. I have 7 different categories that I've settled upon. That equals at least 7 different novels. And while that may not seem like a lot, these are novels I'm talking about, not children's books. Some of them will take longer to read because of how they are written or how long they are. So what could seem like a small number of novels can quickly stretch over a year.

One (1) J.R.R. Tolkien novel
This is anything from The Lord of the Rings to one of the books in the 12 volume History of Middle-earth series to his translation of Beowulf. There are many novels to choose from by Tolkien, whether they were published in his lifetime or have been published posthumously.

One (1) Robin McKinley novel
McKinley is possibly my favorite author after Tolkien. The Blue Sword is one of my favorite books and both Deerskin and Sunshine could arguably be added to that list. I already reread her books quite often so she clearly belongs on this list.

One (1) Agatha Christie novel
I'm not quite sure what it is about Christie, but I love her books. Sometimes you just need a good mystery and she has so many to choose from. Plus, I find Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple to both be very adorable.

One (1) William Shakespeare play
Yes, this category is technically plays and not novels. However, I am quite fond of a few of his plays and I do want to read the rest. Therefore, I'm putting him on this list regardless of what format he wrote in.

One (1) Jane Austen or Bronte novel
I made this a combined category because I love Austen and I love Charlotte Bronte. However, I haven't read all of Austen's novels nor have I read everything by the Bronte sisters. Did you know there were 3 Bronte sisters and they were all authors? Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are both Bronte novels. As all four women wrote in a similar style and about similar subjects, I figured they could be in a category together.

One (1) Victorian novel
My favorite time period for literature is Victorian. It was when the novel really became popular and it includes several great authors. Some of the most popular authors include Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Elizabeth Gaskell. They all have novels I've been meaning to read and just haven't had the time to.

One (1) 20th Century American novel
I prefer English literature over American as a general rule. However, there are several American authors who have novels that I want to read. So this is much more of a specific category than the Victorian one. The authors I intend to read in this category include John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Harper Lee.

So there is my New Year's resolution, although it's really more of a life resolution. But I'm excited for it and it's one of the few resolutions that I will actually keep.

Look, I even have books for all 7 categories!

10 books that have stayed with me

Apparently there is a challenge thing that was going around Facebook and Tumblr recently where you were supposed to list 10 books that have stayed with you or affected you in some way. I missed that memo, but I saw something about it the other day and it got me thinking. I have read so many books. I honestly have no idea how many and it would be pointless to try to guess because I wouldn't even know where to start. And I'm not just saying that because I was an English major in college. I'm saying it because it's the truth. I read voraciously. I read more than one book at a time, I read quickly, and I read constantly. So how do I pick from the hundreds of books that I have read and list 10 that have affected me more than the rest? Let's just say it wasn't easy.

In no particular order.

Harry Potter series
I am proud to say that I am a part of the Harry Potter generation. I literally grew up with this series and its characters. I was 15 when Deathly Hallows came out and the series ended. I was still a kid, a teenager, and the series had a major impact on me and how I view the world. I don't quite remember when I first started reading the series. It's like the books were always there. I do remember going to a midnight release of Order of the Phoenix. It was such a cool experience. And I spent the next day devouring the book. I ignored my family, built a nest, and hid there until I finished the book. For me, the series is more than just books. I view the characters as friends because I know them so well and for so long. And the series isn't about magic. It's about love, friendship, family, evil, hate, prejudice, and hope. It's about so much and is so beautiful. It's a series that can instantly reawaken the child within me, in the same manner that even the mention of visiting Disney does. I can't exactly put into words what the series means to me. Sometimes I feel that it is a part of me, something that has always been there and always will be.

The Lord of the Rings, including The Hobbit and The Silmarillion
I tend to refer to Tolkien's works collectively as LOTR, so when I say that know that I am referring to all his works dealing with Middle Earth. LOTR has done for me as an adult what Harry Potter did for me as a child. That is to say, it has became a major influence in my life. And not just because I insisted on doing my Senior Seminar presentation on Tolkien. I have 2 previous posts devoted to the impact that Tolkien has had on my life. I don't think I need to rehash everything. But I will say that Tolkien's works have become more important to me as I've grown older. When I was younger I was entranced by the way he wrote and by the story in general. Now, I'm in love with the world, the people, the history of what happens in the stories and the history of how the stories were created. The series has just become exponentially more important. I love LOTR for the things not seen in the movies. For the relationship between Eowyn and Faramir, and her strength. For the friendship and brotherhood between Faramir, Eomer and Aragorn. For the return to the Shire after the ring is destroyed. For Fatty Bolger. For the Noldor and their folly. For Beren and Luthien. For every little detail from beginning to end. And just like Harry Potter, LOTR is so deeply ingrained in me that I can feel it in my bones.

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
I know Shakespeare is a great author and his works are classic, blah blah blah, but I have never particularly loved any of his works. They force you to read a few in high school and they were okay but never really stuck with me. Then in college I had an entire class devoted to Shakespeare. And we read Othello. And that was that. I was in love. I've always liked Shakespeare's tragedies better, although Much Ado About Nothing has recently become a favorite in movie form at least, but none of his other tragedies had caught my attention as much as Othello did. I'm not sure if it's the interracial couple that I love so much (Othello is black and Desdemona is white) or if it's the fact that Iago in Aladdin was named after the villain in Othello. It's certainly not because of the extreme lack of communication throughout the play. It aggravates me that Othello and Desdemona are unable to communicate with each other in any way that could be effective. However without their stupidity the play would have no point so it serves a purpose. And they truly did love one another. Maybe that's why it spoke to me: the idea that two people could love each other so much and yet so quickly fall into mistrust, jealousy, rage, and murder.

Pride and Prejudice
Yes, it's rather cliche to have this novel on my list. But I truly love this book. I am a hopeless romantic at heart and this book feeds on that desire within me. The relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy is wonderful and quiet. It sneaks up on you until all of a sudden it's there and you wonder how you ever missed it. And I love that it always takes me a little bit to adjust to the language of the novel, and then for days after finishing it I think and speak in the same manner. I feel that I've been reading this book all my life and I still immensely enjoy it every time I begin reading it again.

The Blue Sword
I've come to love the works of Robin McKinley, and it's all because of this book. It's beautifully written and so incredibly real that I can't help but love it. It's one of the first books I read where the heroine has to stand on her own, not because she's destined to but simply because she's in the right place at the right time. And although the romance is very subtle, I still love the relationship between Harry and Corlath. This is one of those books that I could read once a month and never grow tired of. There are few books I can say that about but for this it's absolutely true. It's a book that I cannot get enough of no matter how many times I read it.

The Book Thief
I love this book because it's so different from other stories about World War II. It's about a child, it's about Germans, and it's narrated by Death. It's much funnier than it should be but also sad enough to break your heart. And for a book geared towards children, it has a very powerful message about a dark time in recent history. It deals with real-life issues and things that are hard to talk about but something that should not be forgotten. I won't get into the novel here because I've written about it before. So if you want to know more of my thoughts then go read my other post. But let's just say that it is a truly wonderful, beautiful book and well worth the read.

The Circle Trilogy: Black, Red, White
Officially it's a series now, not a trilogy, as there is a fourth book but for the purpose of this list I'm only referring to the first 3 novels. The Circle trilogy is, simply put, about Jesus and God's love for humanity. It's a retelling of the fall of Adam and Eve, of the chosen people, and of the sacrifice of Jesus. The story is set in our world but also in another world, which is where the retelling takes place. This series is beautiful. I can't say much more than that. It's a breathtaking story and will make you cry but it is just so magnificent. Sometimes I think we need a fresh perspective on Jesus and His sacrifice, and to be reminded again of what He did for us. That's what this series is for me. It's a reminder of who Jesus is and who we are to Him.

Jane Eyre
Sometimes I love this novel more than Pride & Prejudice. There's something about Jane Eyre that Pride & Prejudice doesn't have. And I certainly can't decide if I like Rochester or Darcy more. Both are equally lovely in my eyes. What I like about Jane Eyre is how quiet and unassuming Jane is yet at the same time how strong and fierce she is. Jane is quite willing to stand up for herself, even if it means losing someone she loves. She's determined to always do the right thing and not to give false hope to people. She's a strong woman but that doesn't mean she wants to remain single forever. Although she's described as being plain, I think she's beautiful in many ways. And the hopeless romantic in me love that she gets her happy ending after everything.

Life of Pi
What could be more interesting than a boy stuck on a lifeboat with an adult tiger? It's a terrifying thought but at the same time I can't stop thinking about how cuddly tigers look. Until they eat your face, that is. What I absolutely adore about this book is that it's categorized as a work of fiction but seems so incredibly real. I can imagine everything in the novel happening. It's very cleverly written in that respect. And it even addresses the question of reality at the end, when Pi tells the investigators a second, more believable story since they don't like the one with the animals. Life of Pi is a grand adventure on the high seas, full of wild animals, dangerous creatures, near death situations, and the hope that maybe things will end nicely.

Deerskin
I absolutely adore this book because it is everything a fairy tale should be. It's a retelling of a very dark fairy tale and it keeps that feeling. It's not a happy book, at least not in the Disney sense of fairy tales. But it's true to the way fairy tales were written, which is what appeals to me so much. It's also written by Robin McKinley, which is honestly part of the reason I like it so much. And I've already written about the book so if you want to know more then go read my previous post about it. But I will say that this has quickly become a favorite of mine and a book that I can read over and over again.

Deerskin

I'm in the English honor society at my school, Sigma Tau Delta (STD and yes, we joke about that). We had a book sale on Saturday, and as you can imagine, the members were some of the first people grabbing books. I was hoping to find something interesting and I certainly did. I was emptying a box and saw Deerskin by Robin McKinley. I immediately grabbed it. I'd been wanting to read it for a while now but the library doesn't have it. So you can imagine how excited I was when I found it.

There is an author's note in the front of the book:

"There is a story by Charles Perrault called Donkeyskin which, because of its subject matter, is often not included in collections of Perrault's fairy tales. Or, if it does appear, it does so in a bowdlerized state. The original Donkeyskin is where Deerskin began." 

And it's quite understandable why the story is not common. It's worse than the original Grimms' fairy tales. One reviewer called the book a fairy tale for adults, which I think is a very accurate description. 

Lissar is the daughter of a handsome king and the most beautiful woman in the seven kingdoms. The people were so enamored of the king and queen that Lissar was fairly neglected. She rarely saw her parents and even her nursemaid was her nursemaid so she could be close to the queen. Then the queen died and people remembered the potential uses of Lissar. She is 15 when her mother dies, and a prince from the sixth kingdom sends her a puppy to help her in her grief. For the next 2 years, Ash is Lissar's closest companion. During these 2 yeas Lissar is trying to decide who she is and who she can be. On her 17 birthday there is a ball in her honor and people realize that she has come to greatly resemble her mother. Including her father, who had promised his wife he would only marry someone as beautiful as she was. He gets the great idea that he's going to marry Lissar four days after her birthday. It gets worse. She locks herself in her room with Ash, refusing to marry her father. On the night they were to be married, her father breaks into her room, almost kills Ash, beats Lissar, and then rapes her. Yep. Definitely a fairy tale for adults.

Lissar and Ash escape the next morning and travel for many days before finding a cabin in the woods. They spend the winter there. Lissar has blocked out any memories of her life before she ran away, which woks until she realizes she's pregnant. The stress and horror cause a miscarriage. She is visited in a dream by the Moonwoman, who takes away her memories and gives her time to heal (you learn later that five years passed during Lissar's dream). Lissar and Ash are also transformed to be unrecognizable; Ash with a longer coat and Lissar with white hair, black eyes, and a white deerskin dress.

Lissar and Ash travel and find themselves, although they don't know it yet, in the country Ash was born in. Lissar gets a job in the kennels, working to save a litter of 6 motherless puppies. She becomes friends with Ossin, the prince who sent her Ash. It isn't until Ossin begs her to attend a ball that she begins to remember who she really is. She's once again horrified and confused. And then at the ball Ossin asks her to marry him. She runs again, taking Ash and the 6 dogs she saved with her. They end up at the cabin again and by the end of winter she realizes she has to return. And she does right as Ossin's sister is about to be married to her father. Lissar and Ash lose their disguises and she reveals the kind of man her father has become. Then she runs again, ashamed of her past, but this time Ossin chases her.

Ossin: "I let you leave me the first time because I thought that was what you wanted - that what you wanted didn't include me."

Lissar: "I do want you. But it does not matter. I am...not whole. I am hurt...in ways you cannot see, and that I cannot explain, even to myself, but only know that they are there, and a part of me, as much as my hand and eyes and breath are a part of me."

Ossin: "I do not believe there is anything so wrong with you. You are fair in my eyes and you lie fair on my heart."

Once again, McKinley has written a wonderful novel. However, I have never despised one of her characters as much as I despise Lissar's parents and the people of their kingdom. McKinley just has a way with words that I love. And it doesn't hurt that Deerskin takes place in the same world as The Blue Sword, which I adore. I loved McKinley's foray into fairy tales for adults. We need fairy tales just as much as children do, and whether she is rewriting existing fairy tales or creating her own, McKinley has a gift for fairy tales.

Sunshine

One of my favorite books, The Blue Sword, was written by Robin McKinley. For a while, it was the only book of hers that I had read but I've slowly started reading more of her works. The latest book I read by her is Sunshine. It won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature in 2004, which gives me even more reason to love the book.

The story takes place in a world very much like ours but with one minor change: there are zombies, vampires, weres of many different animals, succubi and demons. Collectively, they are called Others. The story is set after the Voodoo Wars, which were between humans and the Others. Magic plays a big part in the story and there are many bad spots, or places where black magic thrives.

The main character is a young woman whose name is Rae but is nicknamed Sunshine. She is a baker at her stepfather's coffee shop. One evening she heads out to her family's old cabin by the lake and is abducted by vampires. This changes her life. She is chained to the wall in a ballroom but she is not the only prisoner. A vampire named Constantine is also being held and she's supposed to be a treat for him. Sunshine manages to escape by turning the knife she hid in her bra into a key. She also frees Con and they leave together, in the daytime. Sunshine is able to keep Con from bursting into flames from the sun if they are touching.

The rest of the book takes place over the next six months. Sunshine has to explain why she was missing without saying it was vampires and without mentioning that she freed a vampire. She and Con have formed a bond that could threaten both their lives if anyone from SOF (Special Others Forces) found out. Sunshine has to deal with her magical heritage and the knowledge that there are more partbloods (part human-part demon) around her than she originally thought.

The novel was very good. I love McKinley's works and her style of writing. Sunshine was a little different, as it was from Sunshine's point of view and was very honest and open. It gave the whole situation a touch of reality: this is how someone really feels when their world is stripped away from them. Like most of McKinley's other works, the book was a little slow at the beginning. But once it took off, it just kept going. McKinley frequently creates new worlds or worlds that look like ours but with a slight difference, and her books usually start right in the middle. As the story goes, she'll explain things here or there to catch you up. Sometimes this makes things really confusing but that was not the case here. I found everything easy to follow and understand.

And as far as vampire novels go, it wasn't a cheesy romance or some sort of erotic thriller. The Others were handled very well and the vampires were not appealing. Sunshine frequently thought about how awkward Con was and how different he was from humans. She never saw him as blindingly attractive and I'm honestly not sure she ever thought he was attractive. I actually have a quote describing the antagonist, a master vampire who is not physically seen until the very end of the book. What I like about the following quote is how disgusting McKinley makes him sound.

“I said that monster doesn’t cover it. There is no word for a several-hundred-year-old vampire who has performed every available wickedness over and over till he has to invent unavailable ones because he’d worn the others out. His flesh was not flesh; it was a viscous ooze, held together by malice. His voice was a manifestation of malignancy, for he had no tongue, no larynx; his eyes were the purest imagination of evil: flawless in a way that flesh could never be.” 

There are two other quotes that I want to leave you with. The first is a rather charming description of what you feel like after killing several vampires. Again, it's disgusting but I love the imagery that McKinley uses.

“I wish I could forget how it feels, your hair stuck to your skull with blood, foul blood running gummily down inside your clothes, invading your privacy, your decency, your humanity, till it chafes you with every breath, every movement, the tug of it as it dries on your skin feeling like some kind of snare. Blood in your mouth, that you cannot spit the vile taste of away.”

And the last quote. I love the contrast that McKinley creates between opposites. I love that such a surprising element is possible, as I myself love lying in the sun. And I just love the last line. 

“The hierarchies of magic handling are no particular study of mine. But your particular affinity is for sunlight: your element, as it were. It is usually one of the standard four: earth, air, water, fire. Sometimes it is metal, sometimes wood. I have never heard of one for sunlight before, but there are—are tests for these things. Yours is neither fire nor air, but a bit of both, and something else. While I was doing the tests and coming up nowhere, I thought of sunlight because of all the days I have seen you lying in the sun like a cat or a dog—I have only ever seen you truly relaxed like that, lying motionless in sunlight. And you told me once about the year you were ill, when you lived in a basement flat, and how you cured yourself by lying in front of the sunny windows when you moved upstairs. I thought of your nickname—how I myself had relied on your nickname to tell me the real truth about you, after the vampire visited you….As for your—let us call it counteraffinity: your counteraffinity may be for vampires. I have never heard of this either, but I do know it is often a magic handler with a principal affinity for water who can cross a desert most easily; a handler with a principal affinity for air who can hold her breath the longest, someone with an affinity for earth who flies most easily. It is the strength of the element in you that makes you more able to resist—and simultaneously embrace—its opposite. You are not consumed by the dark because you are full of light.”