Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Read: November 8-17, 2016
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Format: hardcover, 172 pages

Publication: June 1996 by Scribner Classics

Genres: classics, historical, romance

Blurb from Goodreads:

"The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when, The New York Times remarked, "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale America in the 1920s that resonates with the power of myth. A novel of lyrical beauty yet brutal realism, of magic, romance, and mysticism, The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth century literature."

I had....super duper high hopes for this one.....and maybe that's why my rating is so low. I had friends who never read books read it, and tell me that it's a beautiful book. And the romance in this book was lovely. I. Got. None. Of. That.

Review: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Read: Nov. 2-8, 2016
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (although I'm tempted to give it 4)

Format: Paperback, 152 pages

Publication: October 1976 by Penguin Books

Genres: classic, play, historical fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Arthur Miller's classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in 17th century Salem is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially-sanctioned violence. Written in 1952, The Crucible famously mirrors the anti-communist hysteria that held the United States in its grip."

Okay, okay, so....

I realize that this is a....classic and it has a reputation for being a really great book.....

I also realize that there are many people who have reviewed this book and talked about all the significance and symbolism of this book....

So, because I read this book for pleasure and not school...I will "review" this as such.
Meaning, these are purely my rambling thoughts and nothing else.

Review: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Read: Sept. 22-Oct. 13, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Format: Hardcover, 486 pages
Publication: January 2016 by Disney Hyperion
Genres: Adventure, romance, fantasy, historical fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever."

Review: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Read: Sept. 23-Oct. 13, 2016
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publication: December 1992 by Everyman's Library
Genres: Classic, historical fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation.

Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity." Although the theme of marital infidelity no longer shocks, few novels have plumbed the psychology of a woman involved in an illicit relationship with the perception, artistry, and honesty that Kate Chopin brought to The Awakening."

Review: Disappearing Moon Cafe: A Novel by Sky Lee

Read: March 8-19, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 288
Genres: Canada, historical fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Sometimes funny, sometimes scandalous, always compelling, this extraordinary first novel chronicles the women of the Wong family from frontier railroad camps to modern-day Vancouver. As past sins and inborn strengths are passed on from mother to daughter to granddaughter, each generation confronts, in its own way, the same problems — isolation, racism, and the clash of cultures. Moving effortlessly between past and present, between North America and China, Sky Lee weaves fiction and historical fact into a memorable and moving picture of a people’s struggle for identity."

Ah.  English novels.  What fun.

This was an interesting kind of book.  Although...I can't say for sure if it was the good kind or the bad.  Anyhoo.

This book was set in Vancouver* and written in chunks...or, unchronologically.  And this just made reading the book plain weird.  Or, confusing.

*yes, my English teacher has this strange obsession with Canadian literature...

Review: Ru by Kim Thúy

Read: Feb 12-15, 2016
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Pages: 141
Genres: Canada, historical fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Ru. In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow--of tears, blood, money. Kim Thúy's Ru is literature at its most crystalline: the flow of a life on the tides of unrest and on to more peaceful waters. In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec. There, the young girl feels the embrace of a new community, and revels in the chance to be part of the American Dream. As an adult, the waters become rough again: now a mother of two sons, she must learn to shape her love around the younger boy's autism. Moving seamlessly from past to present, from history to memory and back again, Ru is a book that celebrates life in all its wonder: its moments of beauty and sensuality, brutality and sorrow, comfort and comedy."

Another book I had to read for English...this being one of the shorter ones...but...frankly...not the most interesting.
 

Review: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

Read: Dec. 28, 2015 to Jan. 10, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 408
Genres: Historical Fiction (Canada), War

Blurb from Goodreads:

"It is 1919, and Niska, the last Oji-Cree medicine woman to live off the land, has received word that one of the two boys she grudgingly saw off to war has returned. She leaves her home in the bush of Northern Ontario to retrieve him, only to discover that the one she expected is actually the other.

Xavier Bird, her sole living relation, gravely wounded and addicted to the army’s morphine, hovers somewhere between the living world and that of the dead. As Niska paddles him the three days home, she realizes that all she can offer in her attempt to keep him alive is her words, the stories of her life.

In turn, Xavier relates the horrifying years of war in Europe: he and his best friend, Elijah Whiskeyjack, prowled the battlefields of France and Belgium as snipers of enormous skill. As their reputations grew, the two young men, with their hand-sewn moccasins and extraordinary marksmanship, became both the pride and fear of their regiment as they stalked the ripe killing fields of Ypres and the Somme.

Inspired in part by real-life World War I Ojibwa hero Francis Pegahmagabow, Three Day Road is beautifully written and told with unblinking focus, it is a remarkable tale, one of brutality, survival, and rebirth."

Review: Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

Read: Dec. 7-17, 2015
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages: 221
Genres: historical, Canada

Synopsis from Goodreads:

"Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he’s a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he’s sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he’ll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he’s led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows.

With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way. For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he’s sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement.

Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man. Drawing on his great-grandfather’s mystical gift of vision, Saul Indian Horse comes to recognize the influence of everyday magic on his own life. In this wise and moving novel, Richard Wagamese shares that gift of magic with readers as well."

Review: Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1) by Robin LaFevers

Read: Sept 26-Oct 6, 2015
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages: 550
Genres: historical fiction, mystery, romance, adventure

Synopsis from Goodreads:

"Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?"

ARC Reviews

Oooookay...so.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with what an ARC is, it's an abbreviated form of Advanced Reader's Copy, or Advanced Reviewer's Copy.  They're not exactly the same, but that's a minor technicality I'm not going to worry about at the moment.  The below reviews were for books I've won from Goodreads' giveaways.  Most of them have taken forever for me to read, but nonetheless, I read them.  Some of them were a complete bore, and some turned out to be all right.  Needless to say, these were not the best books I've ever read.