Top Ten Tuesday: Authors That Deserve More Recognition

hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.

1. Gabrielle Zevin - She is a brilliant author, but it seems like she is completely underrated.  I've only read Elsewhere and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac but her other books sound very interesting.

2. Stephanie Perkins - It seems like everyone in the book blog community knows and loves her but outside of our group, not many people 'in the real world' have read her books.

3. Markus Zusak - It still surprises how many people I talk to that haven't read The Book Thief, which is one of my favorite books.  This man is an amazing writer and everyone should read his books.  I think that book is being made into a movie so, he'll be big news soon.

4. Simon Van Booy - His short stories are crafted beautifully. My favorite of his short story collections is The Secret Lives of People in Love.

5. Ellen Raskin - She wrote The Westing Game.  I read this book several times when I was in middle school and I still think it is a great read.  She has some other books that are also really good!

There are probably more on my list but these are the ones I can think of right now.

Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy
Published: Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition, 2001
Pages: 838

Anna Karenina lives a nice life with her husband and son, but when she goes to visit his brother and his wife she meets a man that turns her life upside down.  When her love affair with Count Vronsky begins she has to start making decisions. Will she leave her husband and her son?And how will she face society with a ruined social presence?  What Anna decides will change her life forever, whether for better or worse she does not know.

It took me way longer than I expected to finish this and for no other reason that it is just very long.  Because of the length, the pacing was not consistent.  I found myself unable to focus at times, I mean there's only so many pages I can read about lawn mowing.

The story, however, is captivating and haunting.  Tolstoy's writing is eloquent and simple.  There is beauty in his sentences and depth in his meanings.  He writes with purpose; there is plan for every detail he has written, whether it is character development or to show contrast in characters.  I very much admire the way Tolstoy writes.

Leo Tolstoy has a way of expressing emotion that is unlike anything that I've ever read.  At the beginning of the book, Stepan Oblonsky's guilt is so accurately described, it felt completely authentic.  Only someone who has felt this extreme sense of guilt could explain it so perfectly.  Throughout the entire novel, we get to see how characters think and how they justify their actions or misconstrue other people's intentions.  It really shows the dysfunction of people, but more specifically families.

Although I enjoyed reading this book, I won't be diving into anymore Tolstoy for a while.  I need something a little less dense in my life right now.

Stars: 3/5

Praise:

"Peaver and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English, and their superb rendering allows us, as perhaps never before, to grasp the palpability of Tolstoy's 'characters, acts, situations."
      --James Wood, The New Yorker

"In their version, Anna Karenina becomes a surprising rediscovery... Pevear and Volokhonsky may truly be said to be the reinventors of the classic Russian novel for our times."
     --PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize Citation

This is an Eclectic Reader 2013 Challenge book!

Top Ten Tuesday: Best/Worst Movie Adaptations

hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.

Best Movie Adaptations: 

1. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 
2. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. The Princess Bride by William Golding 
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Keira Knightley edition)
5. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee 

Worst Movie Adaptations:

6. Inkheart by Corneilia Funke
7. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
8. The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
9. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo 

The In Between: 

10. Eragon by Christopher Paolini

11. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I saw both of these when they first came out, way before I read either of these books.  I really enjoyed the movies. Now that I've read both books, I can appreciate how people would think they are terrible adaptations.  I can agree with them on that, but I still enjoy watching these movies every once in a while.  

Notable Quotable: Veronica Roth (#16)

"But becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning to control your fear, and how to be free from it, that’s the point."
     --Divergent

July TBR Pile // BookTube-A-Thon

Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

by Rick Riordan
published: Hyperion books, 2005
pages: 389

Percy Jackson is a 12-year-old troublemaker that finds himself being chased by creatures and gods that have only been heard of in Greek myths.  When Zeus' master bolt is stolen, Percy is the biggest suspect. He and his friends set out to prove his innocence, but they only have ten days to keep the peace on Mount Olympus, and prevent war between the gods.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The application of the Greek mythology into modern day America is quite entertaining.  I liked that certain gods owned shops and that others gods disguised themselves as humans. Apart from the main plot, I thought the subplots were solid and incorporated really well with the rest of the story.  They are very deliberate, seemingly insignificant scenes were tied back into the plot.

 I absolutely love the way Rick Riordan explains ADHD and dyslexia not as disabilities, but different ways of understanding.  I thought that was really cool.  Along with this, the humor in this book is noteworthy.  Being that the book was narrated by Percy, it felt very natural, not in the least forced.  Each character had their own sense of humor and it was revealed through their interactions with each other.

The characters in this book are excellent, mainly Percy and his friends, Annabeth and Grover.  Their character development throughout their journey is incredibly paced and evident.  Each of them grow into their themselves; they become more mature and yet they still retain believability as 12-year-olds.

This book is full of action-packed adventure that had me captivated from the beginning.  I cannot wait to continue Percy Jackson's story in the rest of series.

Also, I can see why people like the book so much more than the movie.  You just get so much more from the book!  (This doesn't mean I didn't like the movie.)

Stars: 5/5

Praise:

"Percy is an ADHD, wise-cracking, first-person narrator.  Naturally, his real quest is for his own identity.  Along the way, such topics as family, trust, war, the environment, dreams, and perceptions are raised."
     --School Library Journal

"The sardonic tone of the narrator's voice lends a refreshing air of realism to this riotously paced quest tale of heroism that questions the realities of our world, family, friendships and loyalty."
     --Kirkus Review

"If you want a young person to read a book, take a lesson from Rick Riordan and start it by warning readers to close the book right away and go back to their uninformed lives.  This book will bring out the readers...with its fast pace and adventure.
     --KLIATT

This is an Eclectic Reader 2013 Challenge Book!

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Intimidating Books

hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.

1. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - They are just so huge!

2. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - Again, this book is long and I was told by a friend in high school that it was hard to read.  It might be a good time to try it though.

3. Anything Charles Dickens - I had a bad reading experience in 9th grade with Great Expectations.  I was bored out of my mind.  Now I'm a  hesitant to pick up another one of his books, although I know I should give him another try.

4. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I've been reading this brick for a long time and at some times it feel almost too dense to read. I'm slowly but surely getting through it.

5. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - This book is not only behemoth, but it also tackles hard subjects and has been called her manifesto.

6.  Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead - I know I'm a bad person, but I'm hesitant to start reading anything that has vampires in it.  I'm working on this awful stereotype, believe me, but something about this being a series makes me a little weary.  (Although, I am watching Buffy and Angel right now, so I'm getting better.)

7. Anything by Hemingway - I want to read his work, and I really feel like I should, but I'm afraid that I won't like it/understand as I feel I should.  He's talked about as one of the greatest American authors, so I'd really like to get up the nerve to try reading one of his books.

There's quite a few.