Posts Tagged ‘books’

Song of the Lioness 1: Alanna: The First Adventure


True confession: when I was in 6th grade the only books I would read were by Tamora Pierce. Even if you physically forced me to read something else (yeah, I mean you, Mrs. Sniffen, 6th grade English, The Hatchet) I would probably just throw it dramatically to the ground as soon as you turned your back and pick up Lioness Rampant again. The problem with being completely obsessed with a single writer, though, is that she can’t possibly write at a speed to keep you constantly engaged, especially when confronted with things like puberty and Trying To Look Smart. So Tamora Pierce pretty much fell out of my life around 8th or 9th grade, when I was way more interested in reading all of Charles Dickens and pretending to be Too Cool for all the boys I knew1.

Then at the library I found a new book of short stories by Tamora Pierce. Some kind of latent 6th grade instinct made my hand reach out and snatch it, before I realized that 1) I am not obsessed with Tamora Pierce anymore and 2) I haven’t read any Tamora Pierce since half-way through the Kel series, so I’m pretty behind. Basically the only thing to do at that point was go back and start at the very beginning. Luckily, they read a lot faster now that I am 12 years older.

There are a lot of more badass covers on later editions now, but this is the one I had in middle school

For comparison purposes, I’ve decided to explain this book both as 23-year-old Patricia and 11-year-old Patricia.

Alannna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

Then

The Sitch
Alanna has to pretend to be a boy because everyone is way mean and won’t let her be a knight as a girl even though she is totally the best!!!! Also, she has a horse named Moonlight and a sword named Lightning! She also has magic and uses it to save Prince Jonathan twice!!

Our Heroine
Alanna is the best!!!! She can fight better than ANY boy even though she is smaller and is super brave and amazing. Also, she has red hair and purple eyes, which is the best possible combination! If only I could dye my hair and buy color contacts to look just like her!

Now

The Sitch
Alanna, a fiesty ten-year-old, switches places with her twin brother and starts pretending to be a boy so she can go to the palace and start training to be a knight. This book covers her three years as a page.

Our Heroine
Alanna is kind of a Mary Sue. Pretty much everyone loves her, and if they don’t, that’s a sign that they’re the bad guy. I didn’t really notice when I first read this book that most of the other characters only exist to reassure Alanna that she really IS that amazing whenever she thinks she’s not. Still, girl’s got game, and more Girl Power than a Spice Girls concert. Also, no one guesses that she’s a girl even though she names her horse “Moonlight”. Wake up, everyone in Tortall.

Play by Play Notes

Chapter one: Twins
Alanna doesn’t want to be a lady and Thom, her twin, doesn’t want to be a knight. So they switch places! Apparently Lady School is the same as Beginner Sorcerer School so that works out. Plus, their father is a fantasy-medieval dead beat dad, so he doesn’t even notice. Before she leaves, the village wisewoman warns Alanna to use her magic to heal to make up for the killing she will do. Alanna is like “Whatever”. Alanna and her manservant Coram arrive in the capital and Alanna is full of fierce determination!

Chapter Two: The New Page
Alanna immediately gets into a fight with an older page named Ralon. Luckily, Prince Jonathan and his posse put a stop to it and immediately are all about Alanna (or “Alan”). Classes are super hard, but she won’t give up! On a free morning in the city, she meets George, King of Thieves, who says that he senses with his Gift (like magical powers) that he should be her friend. She is flattered instead of creeped out.

Chapter Three: Ralon
Ralon beats up Alanna whenever he can. Prince Jonathan and his posse try to stop it, but Alanna is stubborn and Can Fight Her Own Battles! She asks George to teach her dirty street fighting and practices all the time! Then she finally beats him up in front of everyone, he vows revenge but leaves court, and Alanna and Jonathan become BFF because she is so brave and amazing.

Chapter Four: Death in the Palace
The Sweating Fever sweeps through the city killing people. The disease seems to be magical, because it drains the healers who try to help. Francis, who is apparently Alanna’s friend despite having only one line so far, ends up dying and Alanna is wracked by guilt. Obviously because she is not willing to use her Gift it is all her fault! Then Jonathan gets sick but all the palace healers are too weak to help!! Alanna uses her magic to snatch him out of the jaws of death! Sir Myles, her teacher BFF who was watching, starts to suspect she is a girl.

Chapter Five: The Second Year
Alanna has to bind her growing breasts and it’s a bummer. Duke Roger, Jonathan’s cousin and an uber-sorcerer, comes to court to start teaching them to use their Gift. Alanna instantly hates him like woah, obviously because he is the bad guy. Alanna finally gets to start fighting with swords but is bad at it.

Chapter Six: Womanhood
Alanna does not know what periods are and freaks out that she is dying. She runs into the city and demands that George take her to a woman healer. George is all, “WTF?” and Alanna is all “I AM GIRL!” and George is all “…. right” and takes her to his healer mom, who pretty much laughs at Alanna and gives her the facts of life talk. Alanna and Sir Myles visit his estate where he shows her the ruins of the Old Ones. She finds a secret passage and a magic sword! Thom sends her a letter saying Duke Roger is totes evil and def caused the Sweating Sickness. Alanna is finally great at swords because of all her practice.

Chapter Seven: The Black City
The Squires take a field trip to the dessert! Alanna goes too because she is BFF with Prince Jonathan (and everyone). Duke Roger tells all of them, “No one should go near the super evil, super magic Black City! Except if you happen to be in front of me in line for the throne and might happen upon a convenient accident, I mean!” Alanna thinks this is mad suspicious but no one else does. Jonathan, of course, sneaks off to the haunted Black City and Alanna follows. There they fight the Nameless Ones for their souls with magic and swords. They win, but Alanna’s clothes magically fall off revealing she is a girl. Jonathan is like “Oh, whatever” and because she fought so well he chooses her to be his squire when he is promoted to knight.

Next in the Song of the Lioness Quartet: In the Hand of the Goddess


  • 1At the time, I thought this was an act. But after reflection and seeing them again since, I have proven to be dead right. Good job, 15-year-old me.

Hot Gimmick

As I mentioned in my March Book List, I read volumes 2-12 of the manga Hot Gimmick by Miki Aihara this month because, like a Rene Cardona Jr. film, I could not look away. But not because of polygamist shark attacks or a psycho killer with 1000 cats, more because I could not see any possible way for it to end non-sketchily. And I was right.

Constant Attemtped Rape: maybe not the best premise for a romantic comedy

I first picked up volume 1 last year because it’s on Wake County’s recommended list of shojo manga, or manga for teen girls. The description given makes it sound like a typical teen romantic comedy. Ryoki finds out an embarrassing secret about Hatsumi’s sister, and blackmails her into pretending to be his girlfriend. Volume 1 pretty much bore this out, with the more worrying phrasing of “slave” instead of “girlfriend”. But Hatsumi’s childhood friend Azusa, who’s grown into a hot male model, moves back into the apartment complex and gets all flirty. I assume he’s going to teach her to be a stronger person and stand up to Ryoki, or Ryoki will realize he is being a jerk and fall in love with her for real real. Probably both.

Then last month I picked up volume 2 and realized this is pretty much not a romantic comedy at all. If this same story were told in an American teen movie, it would be all dark and dramatic. Hatsumi would probably end up murdering every other character in the most gory way possible at the end. Instead, she ends up engaged! Yay?

Hatsumi in foreground; "love" interests (from L to R) Shinogu, Ryoki, Azusa in back

Here is the real deal: Ryoki is attempting to use Hatsumi as “practice” and pretty much sexually assaults her every time they meet. Azusa seems like he’s going to be the good guy, but then reveals that he is only pretending for some convoluted revenge on her family and attempts to rape her in front of his friends. Then she discovers that Shinogu, her older brother, is actually adopted and actually HAS BEEN IN LOVE WITH HER SINCE CHILDHOOD. At this point I am pretty disturbed that the love interest I am the least grossed out by is her brother because, hey, at least he has never tried to force himself on her and realizes that his feelings are ridic.

Azusa continues with his vague revenge schemes and Ryoki finds that he is in love with Hatsumi and gets her to be his girlfriend. Unfortunately this just means more sexual assault, with a side of Hatsumi feeling guilty because she doesn’t enjoy it “like a girlfriend should”. She also continues to worry about and be nice to Azusa despite his past actions. Some highlights of the remaining volumes:

-Hatsumi isn’t home when Ryoki calls while he’s on vacation. When he gets back, he slaps her in the face. She apologizes and admits that it’s all her fault.

-Hatsumi’s mom tells her she wouldn’t be upset if Hatsumi chose Shinogu, because that way Shinogu could stay part of their family even though he is not their “real” son.

-Ryoki repeatedly demands that Hatsumi chose between him or her family, saying that she can’t care about both.

-In a transparent attempt to make Ryoki jealous Hatsumi demands that Shinogu “make me your woman”. Since Shinogu is slightly less creepy than every other character, he says no.

In the end, I was hoping that Hatsumi would choose no one and move away to start a new life in a Swiss boarding school or something. Alas, instead she decides that she can’t live without Ryoki. Or rather, he decides for her as usual:

So romantic, you guys!

In the final scenes of the manga, Shinogu decides to become a monk and Azusa vaguely promises to keep trying for revenge through torturing Hatsumi. The bedroom door closes on the newly engaged Hatsumi and Ryoki while she cries about not being ready and he tells her to shut up.

I think I enjoyed reading this manga, in the same weird way I enjoyed watching Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Every time I thought it couldn’t get any more terrible, it did. There was something shockingly interesting about its refusal to follow what I consider typical teen romantic comedy tropes. Like, for instance, making any of the love interest boys likable or, you know, NOT CRIMINALS. On the other hand, I wonder what it would be like to read this series as a teen girl. I’d like to think that it would be impossible to mistake any of the relationships portrayed for real love. They are even more obviously-destructive than Edward-the-Stalkerpire.

I’m trying to see the appeal of this manga. There’s obviously the “who will she choose?” love rectangle to keep readers guessing and rooting for their favorite sociopaths. And I think the atmosphere of sexual coercion is all too realistic to some girls’ experiences. I get the feeling from the ending that I’m not necessarily supposed to be happy for Hatsumi more that this is just something that happens to some people. The author does’t hit you over the head with a moral like in a lot of teen problem novels, though, so it’s more open to interpretation.

Anyway, I’m glad I made it to the end and can now relax with some nice, non-morally troubling manga about a librarian army. I think we can all agree that is 100% a good idea.

March Book List

It looks like I read way more this month than usual, but a lot of these books are for children or graphic novels, so they didn’t take as long. Click to see February and January booklists.

With Steven


Mothstorm by Philip Reeve
The sequel to Larklight and Starcross, Arthur and his steampunk space pirate friends must save Queen Victoria and the entire British space-empire from lizard aliens riding giant moths.


I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
Tiffany Aching is probably my favorite Terry Pratchett story arc. She’s spunky yet practical, and always surrounded by belligerent, vaguely Scottish pictsies.


Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones
The sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle, whose ending basically goes “Surprise! Everyone’s been turned into something else!” Diana Wynne Jones died last weekend, which bummed me out. I love her Chrestomanci books. Maybe it’s something about a really dapper enchanter who always shows up in elegant bathrobes.

For Class


The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey
Being a fairy godmother is tough, but you’ve still got time for romance! This was my book for fantasy week, because Steven already owned it and I didn’t want to talk to anyone about David Eddings for fear I would have a terrible-female-character-archetype-induced aneurysm.


The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom
My book for horror week. A couple moves into a creepy house! But the ghost mostly just causes a bunch of surprise pregnancies.

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Play-By-Play: Nerds Like It Hot

So I meant to do a lot of blog-worthy things yesterday, but instead I used my spare time to read a book for class, the romance novel Nerds Like It Hot by Vicki Lewis Thompson.

I guess I’m glad I got that out of the way, but I still wished I had done… practically anything else.

From this book I learned that:
1) “Nerd” is almost its own ethnicity with traditional dress and customs
2) The Mafia is almost as incompetent as the people it tries to chase
3) In fact, being in it is a lot like playing the game Mafia (which I have always hated for being deceptively boring)
4) If he REALLY loved you, he’d be writing you sweet poems while you are in the bathroom

Here are my play-by-play notes:

Chapter One
Gillian, a makeup artist overhears Neil, some actor, threatening the star of the movie! Neil mentions he has mob connections and then bludgeons him to death with a shoe. Gillian and her 82-year-old friend Cora decide the ONLY thing to do is to 1) give her a makeover to look like Marilyn Monroe, 2) hop on a nerd themed cruise, 3) jump off in Mexico, and start a new life in South America. It’s the MAFIA, you guys, they have no other choice.

Chapter Two
Neil has a crossdressing alter ego known as Nancy, and if Marilyn Monroe were alive today she would be a size 10. Thanks, book, I now feel better about my unfashionably wide childbearing hips.

Chapter Three
Cora hires two private detectives, Lex and Dante, to come with them on the cruise and protect them. Dante is the comic relief and Lex is the guy we are supposed to find attractive. It’s easy to tell because he rambles pretty much constantly about how hot Gillian is in his inner monologue. “Women these days were too skinny and underendowed for his taste. Not this woman” (37). It’s only chapter three and my eyes are already sore from all the rolling they’ve been doing.
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February Book List

In accordance with my new year’s resolution, here’s every book I read and completed in February!

With Steven

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Improbably named teenagers escape into UnLondon where feral garbage attacks are common and they have bookaneers, or extreme librarians! This may not have been the point of the book, but it’s my favorite part.


Starcross: A Stirring Adventure of Spies, Time Travel, and Curious Hats by Philip Reeve
A sequel to Larklight in which Art and his space pirate friends battle time traveling psychic parasites called “the Moob”.

For Class

Captive Queen by Alison Weir
This was for historical fiction week, and fulfilled my dream of reading a giant book about Eleanor of Aquitaine. Unfortunately, most of it was her being trapped in a tower, and not inventing flossing as I’d previously thought.


SAHM I Am by Meredith Efken
I read this for Inspirational Fiction week. An epistolary novel written in e-mails from a Christian Stay At Home Mom’s list serv community. Further reinforced that I never want to have children or to be part of a list serv community about them.


The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The best mystery I’ve read about an 11-year-old chemist who solves stamp-collecting-related murders. Read the rest of this entry »

January Reading List

Finally it’s February! Finally I can stop writing letters and obsessively checking my mail for replies (four people have replied so far–yay Bova, James Fox, Barbara, and Mom Ladd!!) I would put up a finished letter map, but most of the latter letters have not been sent from not knowing people’s addresses. Spoiler alert: a bunch of them are probs going to Houston anyway. It’s apparently my favorite place to send mail.

You might think I will be sad to finish my New Year’s Resolution already, but I have two SECRET other New Year’s Resolutions to concentrate on! The main one I thought of midway through January while totally failing at recommending a 5th grade fantasy book despite all the 5th grade fantasy books I’ve read, is to keep better track of the books I read. Normally I average about 3-4 per week, more if you count graphic novels. In the past I’ve tried posting reviews of books that I thought were interesting for whatever reason, but those were long and so only represented a small percentage of my actual reading. I’m hoping to keep track by month, although January is kind of sketchy because most of the list I constructed from memory. Here’s what I got:

January Reading List

With Steven
Secret, possibly embarrassing fact: Steven and I read to each other almost every day. It started just during car trips, and just trashy romance novels, until one trip I decided to bring along a ridiculous fantasy series from my past that I thought Steven might find hilarious. Unfortunately, there are ten books in the full series, and only 10 hours in the drive, so we ended up finishing it over a period of months by reading a few chapters every night. I am, of course, a total rock star librarian and do all the voices. Steven–to all appearances–is also completely into this whole idea, since we’ve been reading various books together ever since. Pretty much right up until the day I left for college I did the same thing off and on with my parents, like reading Terry Pratchett books to my dad while he cut up oranges and grapefruit in the kitchen, so this does not seem weird to me at all. However, various people–like Steven’s sister–have pointed out that this is actually kind of strange, by asking “Are you guys…. reading?” like this is the weirdest thing we could be doing in a room alone together. Clearly she does not know Steven Wiggins very well–he is all about playing The Floor is Made Of Lava.

Anyway, lengthy explanation aside, here are the books Steven and I have read together in January:

Master and Fool by J. V. Jones

The third and final book in the kind of vaguely titled Book of Words Trilogy, which we started last year. It is tightly plotted fantasy and it is awesome. Steven’s favorite part was the terrible relationship advice offered by Bodger and Grift, the two drunken castle guards (ex: “The only way to tell a girl is a virgin is to lock her in a room with a badger. If it falls asleep in the corner, she’s not. If it falls asleep in her lap, she is. If it bites her, she probs has VD”.)

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

This is a 423 page book we finished in two nights because it is SO AWESOME. Steven shed tears of joy at the end.

Books I’ve Read On my Own

Already Dead by Charlie Huston

A hardboiled vampire detective negotiating the vampire gang violence of New York City to solve a zombie murder/missing person case? Or an excuse for Charlie Huston to write about incest? Can’t really tell. This book was ridiculous, and kind of awful.

The Wedding by Danielle Steel

Allegra is a strong, beautiful, confident, amazing, talented, effortless entertainment lawyer who falls in love with a member of New York’s literary elite. Countless comparisons between the “Eastern attitude” and “Western lifestyle” are made. Also her little sister gets teen pregnant and various adoption/secret wedding drama happens. I read this for class, and to say that I had read something by Danielle Steel.
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13 Adventures: #12 Rainbow Bookcase

I’ve always wanted to rearrange my books by color. Especially when someone comes to the library and asks something along the lines of “I can’t remember the title or the author or what it’s about but the color is dark blue”. Unfortunately, I can’t rearrange the whole library by color (amazing April Fool’s Day prank idea, though), but I can do my bookshelves!

A lot of my books are still in boxes in a closet at home, but Steven brought most of his so we still have a lot here. Luckily Steven also brought some sizable bookshelves that he made, which is where most of our books live; the rest are in stacks in Steven’s office upstairs. Here is what the bookshelves looked like before:

Vaguely arranged by subject/author

So I took everything down and made stacks of colors, generally following good old ROY G BIV, except adding white on one side and brown, black, and gray on the other.

It doesn't really look like a rainbow because I was arranging by spine color, not cover color

Then, after giving everything a quick dust, Tra-la!:

Turns out, black is our most predominant book color

I noticed most of those were Steven’s science fiction books, and some Penguin Classics as well. Plus a lot of my composition books, natch.

The light in our living room is kind of weird, so you may have to trust me on how awesome it looks in person

At first I was really bothered about shades and spines with more than one color, but when you step back and look at it as the whole, that stuff doesn’t matter as much. I’m really happy with how it turned out!! You should totes try this is you have enough time/books.

Because Caitlin wants to feel bad about herself

And I had nothing to update with today since I spent a good part of the morning being at Harry Potter midnight showing/sleeping ridic late.

“Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety; Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read an excerpt.”

So it looks like I’ve read: 61/100. A lot of them in Scotland, since I had like no money, and only an academic library at my disposal. Plus only two days of class a week. So that’s a lot of wandering around in the woods and reading vaguely academic literature.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen The hottest thing about Mr. Darcy is his mansion.
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien So many names I can’t pronounce
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte gonna lock up my mixed race wife in the attic.
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling Can cure illnesses, true science fact
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee Surviving attempted murder while wearing a ham costume!
6 The Bible And someone begat someone else… etc ed nauseum. That is the chapter where I stopped.
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte Anger issues=romantic
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell started editing my own Newspeak dictionary for like four months after reading this book
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman Trying to tell my middle school friend that her daemon would totally be a woodchuck without causing offense
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens Crazy Left at the Alter Miss Havisham+CATCHING ON FIRE=the only part of this book I liked
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott Once wrote a paper arguing that this book was basically a giant in-joke/money making scheme and that Alcott really was more about her sensationalist fiction like A Long Fatal Love Chase
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy Don’t be a ho; not even a little bit.
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare Sex jokes are funnier in Olde Timey English
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien You can still be a hero even if you’re a whiny complainer (good news for me)
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell You should get married for: spite, money, boredom in that order. Also, have children and then sort of forget about them. Sorry, Wade.
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald Having a fancy gold car is cool, but it will lead to your ruin
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens This one time, in highschool, I decided it would be a good idea to read ALL OF DICKENS. Now they all kind of run together in my head, especially this one and Our Mutual Friend for some reason. I mostly remember Esther rambling about how awful she is.
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams read it, seen it, bought the towel
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh Alcoholism is fun, but leads to dying of liver failure in Africa
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll There’s a fine line between imagination and drug trip
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame Forest creatures can also have turn of the century adventures
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens Semi-autobiographical whining. SO MUCH semi-autobiographical whining.
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis Everything is a symbol for Jesus
34 Emma – Jane Austen This is my fav Jane Austen novel because it’s so different from type. Normally her works go “I’m poor but worthy! I will negotiate society to find a rich husband!” but Emma is all “I’m filthy rich and oblivious to the real world! I will wreck my friends’ lives!” Awesome.
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen See above, with a side of “too bad that loser I rejected on prom night is rich and cute now!”
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis Turkish delight=not that great. I was misled.
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres Pretty much my least favorite Louis de Bernieres book; the Latin American trilogy is hilarious and amazing and Birds Without Wings is also so good.
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden If you have to be a ho, be the BEST ho
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne Pooh Sticks: best game ever
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell Pigs are the most devious of all farm animals
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown Everyone loves a good scandal, esp if it’s about Jesus!
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez This one time, it rained for like FORTY YEARS
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving So your best friend is a midget who SPEAKS IN ALL CAPS…
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins The best book I’ve ever read for free online while working nights at the library
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery Why was Anne so annoyed about having red hair? Whenever I blew out candles from ages six to ten, I would wish for red hair. Kind of bitter that Anne took hers for granted.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood I read this in one sitting in a pub in Stirling
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding Children are bitches
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan NEVER TRUST THE NARRATOR
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen See above about Jane Austen, with a side of “Damn, my sister is crazy” Although that applies to a lot of Jane Austen novels
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens Learned how to knit because of this book. Yeah, Mme Defarge was my fav.
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley GIVING BIRTH? Crazy!
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez Either I’m in love, or I have a deadly disease. Symptoms are the same, so I can’t be sure
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt Classics Majors are CRAZY, Steven
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas Revenge is a dish best served incredibly intricately, after a ridiculously many years
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding Even annoying people with faces that are shiny and might be made of plastic can marry Colin Firth. (I actually did read this book, but since it was after I saw the movie, I had a hard time picturing the characters as anything other than the actors who played them)
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens Asking for more gruel can make you famous
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker If a woman’s acting sexual, SHE MUST BE A DEMON
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett Nature can cure your sickness
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson Cultural differences are hilarious
75 Ulysses – James Joyce James Joyce: A Crazy Person
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray Sometimes, after hundreds of pages, you can get what you want and still be miserable. Also, hating most of your own characters makes for a surprisingly funny book
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens And Dickens wanted to be remembered for Martin Chuzzlewit lol
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell Is it a story within a story within a story within a story? Or is it REAL LIFE reflected through a series of mirrors?
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro Butlers are shy and therefore sad.
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert Irresponsible women will be the downfall of us all
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White Whatever, I still say Orville is a better name for a pig.
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Cocaine can make you a better detective
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery Sometimes hats are actually elephants that have been eaten by snakes
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams Still terrified of rabbits
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas You can be holy and try to pick up women at the same time in France.
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare If you don’t know how to end your play, just kill EVERYONE
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl Oompa Loompas are the best source of comical cheap labor
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

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