Finished: Son (Lowry). A book I couldn't put down! The sequel to The Giver. A good book. :-) The Giver is one of the many books I have read this past year, and one that my daughter had read years ago in middle school. In between The Giver and Son, Lowry wrote two more books that involve some of the same characters and the same "world" as The Giver. The Son, however, is a much welcomed follow up to the two characters who escaped with their lives in The Giver....Jonas and baby Gabe. The Son is the story of Claire...the little girl who was assigned as a birthmother in Jonas' very own community. As a matter of fact, she turns out to be baby Gabe's mother! The first part of the book takes you back to the community and the time that Gabe was a newborn...all from Claire's perspective! Gabe's birth is a difficult one and they have to end up doing a C-section on Claire. After that, she is "uncertified" to be a birthmother again and is assigned to another area. The people in charge forget to give Claire the secret pills that the whole community takes from the time they start having "feelings". This oversight allows Claire to feel all the emotions that one would feel after having a baby and having it taken away to the Nurturing Center to then be assigned to the exact right parents...as was the practice in The Giver.

Claire longs to see the baby she birthed and actually volunteers at the Nurturing Center and befriends Jonas' father. Jonas' father works as a nurturer in The Giver and volunteers to take the difficult baby, Gabe, home with him to his family every night because his crying is too disruptive to the other children. Due to his problematic disposition, Gabe isn't assigned to parents. Instead, he is given one more year to clean up his baby attitude. During this whole time Jonas' dad takes Gabe home each night and, of course, Jonas gets attached to the little boy with the blue eyes who he feels may have special powers, just like him. Meanwhile, Claire gets attached to him as well as she spends the year getting to know him, and Gabe her. When the year passes and Gabe is still a hard to handle baby the decision is made by the people in charge that he will never be assigned and must "go away". Jonas' father doesn't exactly tell Claire this, but he does tell her that she should say goodbye to Gabe...that he's not going to be assigned. In The Giver, Jonas figures out that this means Gabe will be killed, and so Jonas takes him and runs away with him to a new land. Just as Jonas and Gabe are about to succumb to the winter elements and die, they come upon a village. This marks the ending of The Giver, and you are left thinking surely they made it to the village!

Meanwhile, from Claire's point of view you see the community lock down and the alarms sounding as something is terribly amiss. She runs into Jonas' father and all he says is "Jonas took him". Claire ends up on a supply boat that docks at the community every so often and the next we see of her she has been in a shipwreck and is battered and washed ashore at a rural coastal community that is surrounded by unscalable cliffs. The community has no electricity and no formal education, but the people take in "Water Claire" as they call her and try to help her regain her memory. She has no memory of where she came from, or of having given birth. Claire is taken in and cared for as a daughter for several  years by the village healer. She attends a childbirth with the healer, and her whole ordeal of giving birth to Gabe comes back to her. She remembers that she has a son and longs to find him. Many of the villagers shun her because she had a child so young and out of wedlock...but the village sheep tender, Einar, a young man about Claire's age, falls in love with her. He is horribly crippled because he had tried several years ago to escape the village by climbing the treacherous cliffs. Claire begs him to help her climb the cliffs to escape and find her son. Einar trains Claire physically and mentally for six years before he feels she ready to make the attempt. He also warns her that once she reaches the top, she will face her gravest danger....an evil man known as the Trademaster. The Trademaster will be able to grant her a trade to find her son, but he will want something essential in return. Einar had refused his trade offer when he reached the top years ago, and the Trademaster mutilated his feet and forced him back down the cliff. Einar tells Claire she must say yes to whatever the Trademaster asks if she wants to continue on and find her son.

So...of course....Claire encounters the evil Trademaster and what he wants in return for letting Claire continue on her journey and leading her to her son is....her youth! Claire says yes, and immediately becomes a frail old woman. Apparently the Trademaster is a significant character in the third book of the series, The Messenger. He was responsible for bringing evil and horrible ways to the people of the village that Jonas and Gabe settle in. In the next part of Son we see the teenage Gabe. He has noticed the old woman who watches him from afar for several years now. She came to the village and was accepted as part of the community. We also see Jonas, who has married Kira (the main character of Gathering Blue, the second book in the series). They have two toddlers and are happy in the village. Though Gabe is kind of like a son to Jonas, apparently Gabe has grown up in the Home for Boys in the village, along with the other orphaned children from various communities. Gabe spends most of his time building a boat because he longs more than anything to set out back to the mysterious community that Jonas won't tell him much about and find his mother. Little does he know that his mother is right there, watching him from afar...but afraid to tell him who she is because she's become a frail, old woman. Jonas senses that there is something benevolent that is surrounding Gabe...but he also feels a disturbing force as well. Claire discovers that she does not have long to live so she finally decides to talk to Jonas and let him know who she is. They had seen each other very briefly in The Giver. She relates her entire story to Jonas, and he's overwhelmed at seeing someone from where they grew up, and more overwhelmed that the Trademaster took her youth. As Claire falls extremely ill that night, and grows close to death, Jonas tells Gabe that Claire is his mother. Gabe refuses to believe him at first...but then Jonas tells Gabe about the Trademaster and how Gabe is the only one who can go and settle things. They realize that if Gabe can defeat the Trademaster, that the trade can be reversed and perhaps Claire can come back to him as his mother...as long as he's not too late! Gabe faces off with the Trademaster in a pretty anticlimactic few pages and it simply becomes a battle of good versus evil. Of course, good wins out and the Trademaster dissolves into a little clump. Meanwhile, Claire reverts back to her 30-year old self and goes out the door of the cottage where she laid dying the night before to meet her son coming down the path. The end. :-)

I know these books were written for middle school aged children, but I've enjoyed the two I read! Now...do I want to read the two in between books???

Finished: The Red and The Black (Stendhal). A pretty good book, but not one of my favorites. Stendhal was not on any of my "top authors" lists, but this book has been sitting back in our study and has been tempting me to read it for awhile. The book takes place after Napoleon's downfall, during the Restoration, and leading up to the 1830 French revolution. The red and black in the title refer to the military and the clergy. The "hero" of the book is Julien Sorel, a poor peasant...a carpenter's son, who daydreams of being in Napoleon's military and loves reading books instead of working at his father's sawmill. Because of his low social status, there are only two choices for his adult "career"...the military or the clergy. He is terribly abused by his father, who wants nothing to do with him. Julien ends up in the clergy as a young abbe who is hired to be the tutor for the town mayor's children. His character is complex, but for the most part very bitter to me. He detests all the people who are richer and higher up in society than he is. He doesn't show this emotion on the outside as he does his tutoring, but he is always seething on the inside. He'd much rather be a great military leader, but knows officer positions come only to the rich and upper crust...another reason to hate them. He is only 19 at the beginning of the story, and due to his abusive upbringing, I can cut him some slack...however, I'm not really pleased with the way his character develops throughout the entire story.

Julien falls in love with the mayor's wife, Madame de Renal. Actually....I don't think it's love at first, but he just wants to seduce her and "conquer" her. The reader is privy to all his thoughts and emotions as he makes his conquest, so it's hard at times to know if he's truly sincere or not. There is a bit of jumping around in this book. Anyway....at the risk of being caught by the entire household, Madame de Renal and Julien carry on an affair for several weeks, right in her bedroom. After those weeks, he has definitely fallen in love...and, he even loves Madame's children. When an anonymous letter is written to Mayor de Renal about his wife's affair...Madame de Renal ingeniously creates a second anonymous letter and in a bit of a convoluted plot, convinces her husband the town is just jealous of him and wants to deride her. However...after being so close to getting caught, and after her youngest son falls very ill, Madame de Renal insists that Julien leave town at once. She's desperately in love with him, but fears that God is punishing her for her affair by taking one of her children away from her. She comes close to confessing everything to her husband, but then the youngster recovers. Julien, however, does leave and go to a seminary to continue his education. Once there, Julien is an outcast and ridiculed by the other seminary students. He is very intelligent and makes the highest marks in all the classes, but this alienates the others. Madame de Renal actually writes to Julien several times, but her letters are confiscated by the seminary director, Pirard, who doesn't think the relationship is good for Julien. Pirard, who is also not well liked, becomes rather like a father figure to Julien. Before Pirard leaves the seminary, he secures for Julien a position in Paris, as the secretary for a nobleman, Marquis de la Mole. Julien is thrilled with the prospect of going to Paris, but again...he displays an ongoing internal monologue of disgust and disdain for the rich family he works for.

Julien is known for his ability to memorize great lengths of passages and for his book and Latin knowledge. He soon becomes indispensable to the Marquis. Every evening, though, the noble acquaintances of the Marquis and his family come to the house for socializing. Though Julien can actually hold his own in the conversations, they all treat him like the lower servant that he is and he always feels their disdain for him. The son of the Marquis does give Julien some nice attentions for awhile, and takes him horseback riding, etc., but he soon becomes jealous of how his father praises Julien and has come to depend on him, so his friendship towards Julien cools off. The daughter, Mathilde de la Mole, however, is another story. She's witty, intelligent, an avid reader, like Julien, and one of the most sought after young ladies of society. She keeps several of "her kind" on a string while her father tries to decide which one would be the better marriage for her. Meanwhile....Julien and Mathilde fall in love. Mathilde succumbs to her feelings and allows Julien into her room one night, but then regrets her decision the next morning as her haughtiness returns and she can't believe she let herself have relations with someone of such a low class. Julien is heartbroken...especially when Mathilde changes her mind again, and they spend a few nights together before she once again slams the door on their relationship, treating him unbearably in front of her rich friends.

As all this is happening, then we get a few chapters on the political drama of France as the Marquis actually attends a super secret meeting of powerful men with Julien in tow. Though it was a bit confusing to me, basically I think these men were planning the beginning of the 1830 Revolution. Julien is used to memorize a lengthy super secret message to be delivered verbally to the Duke _______ in London. Yes, this is how many of the authors referred to famous people in their books for fear of being persecuted, I guess. They use blanks instead of names that were known to be the true names of historical figures. This makes it all the more confusing for the reader who is not fluent in French history. :-) Anyway, Julien delivers the message, and when he returns home, puts into play a plan that a Russian officer friend of his suggests to him in regards to Mathilde. Julien suddenly starts ignoring Mathilde, instead of lamenting after her rejection, and he also starts spending all his time with another woman. Of course, this works and Mathilde comes running and begging back to him, saying how much she loves him and besides that....she's pregnant with his child!!! Mathilde writes her father a long letter begging him to understand. The Marquis de la Mole has always wanted his daughter to marry a Duke or some such, and can't fathom her marrying a man of low social birth and no social status. He flies into a fit of rage, but after much cajoling by his daughter, finally decides to establish Julien on one of his properties with a nice yearly income...AND...gives him the title associated with this property. He has really grown fond of Julien, but he can't truly reconcile his social status to what he feels his daughter deserves. Plus, he is still livid that Julien had relations with his daughter. Anyway, he then also secures Julien a spot as a Lieutenant in a nearby military company. All that is left is for the two to get married, and for the father to be there and approve. The Marquis still has his reservations about Julien...wondering if he pursued his daughter for her wealth and status. He writes a letter back to Julien's former employer for a reference, Madame de Renal!

In the undoing of Mathilde and Julien, Madame de Renal writes back a scathing letter about how Julien is a status-climbing seducer of women who isn't even that intelligent, who has a history of working his way through all the "high up" ladies in a household. This infuriates the Marquis and he tells his daughter that he will no longer support anything to do with Julien or his daughter if she has anything further to do with him. What Julien doesn't know is that the letter was actually dictated to Madame de Renal by her clergyman who insisted this hard line be taken as part of her penance for her former actions. She doesn't truly feel that way. Julien, in a rage, goes and buy two guns, heads to Madame de Renal's town, goes to the church where he knows he'll find her praying, and shoots her! Thinking he has killed her, he doesn't put up a fight and goes to jail knowing that he'll be put to death. He decides to face death without showing any weakness.

Thankfully, Julien is a terrible shot. He has only wounded Madame de Renal in the shoulder and she is fine. Madame de Renal rushes to his side in jail and they confess their love for each other. Acckk! Julien says he has never loved anyone but her and all thoughts of his love for Mathilde leave his mind. Mathilde, however, is there at the jail too doing everything she can to get Julien to care about his defense. All Julien cares about, though, is loving Madame de Renal and dying honorably. Oh, and he asks Mathilde to let Madame de Renal raise their son. (He assumes it will be a boy.) He tells her that he knows their child will be an outcast in the de la Mole family and this way Mathilde can go on and marry one of her society suitors and start her life over. Mathilde is jealous of Madame de Renal, but both women still fight to free Julien. The town comes out in droves for his trial, and the general public adores him and wants him free. Madame de Renal, the victim, writes letters on his behalf to all the jurymen. Mathilde assures the judge that her father will find a higher up spot for him in the church if he'll only not pronounce death for Julien. All seems set for Julien to be set free when the jury comes back with a guilty of murder verdict, with a punishment of death! I was a little confused by the guilty of murder verdict when Madame de Renal was alive and well. However...one of Julien's oldest enemies from back in his days when he first seduced Madame de Renal is on the jury and very influential of the others. You see...the juror had loved Madame de Renal back in the day and had been infuriated when Julien won her heart over himself. So.....Julien is put to death. Mathilde goes off with his head (ewwww) to have it buried near her home so she can forever lament. And, Madame de Renal goes home and puts her arms around her three children and dies. Soooooooooooo....that's the depressing ending of the book.

I'm glad I read it, but I can't say that any of the characters really touched my heart or became someone for me to root for. They were all far too self-centered. So many of these books written back "then" seem to glorify characters who fell in love with people other than their spouses. Perhaps it was just how things went back then because so many people knowingly married for money and/or status and not for love? So...when "true love" was found, you were to root for them whether there was a marriage and children involved or not? This was the same problem I faced with Anna and Vronsky in Anna Karenina...I just couldn't justify their behavior in my mind, therefore, they were not the end all, be all romantic couple of all time to sigh over. Stendahl's writing was a bit confusing at times, but I made it through. Yay!

I only noted one line in the book to include here...but it was very representative of how Mathilde talked to herself and how she felt about the social classes when she was trying to convince herself she loved Julien:

"Good birth vouchsafes a hundred qualities whose absence would offend me," thought Mathilde. 

Finished: Darkness at Noon (Koestler). A book I felt to the bone. A very intense book, and very introspective as well. The story of a revolutionary, Nicholas Rubashov, of the Stalin era who is past his prime, Darkness at Noon is a chilling tale of how the very regime Rubashov helped to put in place turned on its own people in a heartbeat. At times like this, I so wish I had been a history buff all my life, but alas I was not! The best way I can explain it....Rubashov was actually part of the Russian revolution that put Lenin in power. Those "Party" comrades who were integral to the revolution were rewarded with responsibility and committee type rule during Lenin's rule. However, once Lenin died and Stalin came to power, Stalin invoked a much harsher dictatorship over his own peers. Many old revolutionists were imprisoned, put to "trial", made to confess to crimes they didn't commit, and executed without question. Rubashov is one of those old revolutionists.

However, this book is much more than the tale of his imprisonment, trial, confession, etc. It is so much more. Rubashov reflects back on his life and career during the book and delves into very philosophical discussions with himself about how the "Party" lives by the ideal of the good of mankind and never the individual. Speaking of yourself as an individual, as a matter of fact, could label you a counter-revolutionary and land you in prison. Rubashov thinks deeply about how he believed so passionately in the revolution and the idea that the general population needed to be ruled by the "Party" for their own good...for the progress of the entire country...yet, that it would come at the expense of most of those people's individual freedoms, and many of their lives. He has moments of guilt about his former secretary who never committed a crime, but was assigned a job at a library. Because certain books that didn't promote the "Party" and Stalin's ideals were not displayed more prominently than others, she was imprisoned and tried. She looked to Rubashov to speak up for her, but his mindset of doing what was best for the "Party" was so ingrained, that he had to look the other way and not defend her. She was executed.

Rubashov is interrogated three times while he's in prison...twice by an old revolutionary who used to be his comrade, and once by one of the young, more heartless, more dangerous officers...officers that were youngsters when the revolution happened, and therefore do not understand the underlying reasons behind it. They only understand the "Party" line and how there must be no wavering from it. They believe that torture will yield their confession results more than reasonable discussion. The older interrogator, Ivanov, encourages Rubashov to actually confess to some of the actions he's accused of, and then plead to defend himself and ask for leniency. He indicates that at least this way he will get a trial instead of just being summarily executed. When Ivanov appears to be slightly sympathetic to Rubashov, he is no longer the interrogator and the younger, Gletkin takes over. It comes to light that Ivanov has been executed. Over many hours and days of sleep deprivation, Gletkin gets Rubashov to confess to more than he intended, so the "trial" outcome is not at all in Rubashov's favor. He is executed...but not until he has again delved into heartbreaking last minute thoughts about large, universal questions he's never had answers to and now never will.

Some of the most poignant moments are when Rubashov and the prisoner in the next cell tap messages to each other on the walls. The other prisoner is actually totally against the old revolutionaries, but they are all each other has to talk to. When the other prisoner, just known as "No. 402" finds out that Rubashov intends to make a confession instead of maintain his honor by denying all the accusations to his death, he becomes very upset with him. This was their conversation, all done by taps, as represented by the capital letters. It was mesmerizing to me:

    I AM CAPITULATING.
    He waited curiously for the effect.
    For a long while nothing came; No. 402 was silenced. 
His answer came a whole minute later:
    I'D RATHER HANG....
    Rubashov smiled. He tapped:
    EACH ACCORDING TO HIS OWN KIND.
    He had expected an outbreak of anger from No. 402. 
Instead, the tapping sign sounded subdued, as it were, resigned:
    I WAS INCLINED TO CONSIDER YOU AN EXCEPTION. HAVE YOU NO SPARK OF HONOUR LEFT?
    Rubashov lay on his back, his pince-nez in his hand. 
He felt contented and peaceful. He tapped:
    OUR IDEAS OF HONOUR DIFFER.
    No. 402 tapped quickly and precisely:
    HONOUR IS TO LIVE AND DIE FOR ONE'S BELIEF.
    Rubashov answered just as quickly:
    HONOUR IS TO BE USEFUL WITHOUT VANITY.
    No. 402 answered this time louder and more sharply:
    HONOUR IS DECENCY---NOT USEFULNESS.
    WHAT IS DECENCY? asked Rubashov, comfortably 
spacing his letters. The more calmly he tapped, the more furious
became the knocking in the wall.
    SOMETHING YOUR KIND WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND,
answered No. 402 to Rubashov's question. Rubashov shrugged his shoulders:
    WE HAVE REPLACED DECENCY BY REASON, he tapped back.
    No. 402 did not answer any more. 

And, sadly, No. 402 wouldn't speak to Rubashov again, even when he desperately wanted him to...until only moments before they came to get Rubashov for his execution. :-(  Rubashov's line, "Honour is to be useful without vanity" is the "Party" line in a nutshell....showing vanity would should the selfishness of the individual. At the time that Rubashov had decided to confess, he thought he would be able to control what exactly he confessed to, therefore actually receiving a sentence of leniency. He had no idea what he was in store for.

When Rubashov is initially talking to Ivanov, when he is still denying he would ever make a confession, Ivanov has claimed that at least the masses are still behind the "Party" as they were in the days of the revolution. Rubashov begs to differ:

    "Forgive my pompousness," he went on, "but do you really believe the people are still behind you? It bears you, dumb and resigned, as it bears others in other countries, but there is no response in its depths. The masses have become deaf and dumb again, the great silent x of history, indifferent as the sea carrying the ships. Every passing light is reflected on its surface, but underneath is darkness and silence. A long time ago we stirred up the depths, but that is over. In other words"---he paused and put on his pince-nez---"in those days we made history; now you make politics. That's the whole difference."

There are many more passages that were so thought-provoking, but it would be better to just read the book again than to type them all out. :-) So glad I finally read this book!

Oh...one more line I liked! "History had a slow pulse; man counted in years, history in generations."

Finished: Life of Pi (Martel). What a good book! Pi and Richard Parker will be with me for a long time to come. What an emotional, physical and spiritual journey Pi went on in this book. And, unlike the officials at the end, I believed every word...every grunt...every pain....every joy....every standoff....and even the rare prustens made by Richard Parker. I could hear them. The story is about an Indian boy, Piscine Molitar Patel.  He's named after a great swimming facility that his father, a zookeeper in India, admired. Unfortunately, Piscine is teased mercilessly in grade school because his name is pronounced Peas-seen. The kids call him Pissing. Even his teachers accidentally slip and call him Pissing. On the first day of middle school, Piscine announces that he will go by the name Pi. Everyone accepts this, and Pi is born. Pi is born a Hindu, but as a teenager he discovers both Christianity and Islam. He decides to believe in all three faiths. After all...there is one God and if one God created all these different means of reaching Him, then certainly all three faiths con co-exist within him. So...Pi goes happily along studying the different religions, and also being the son of a zookeeper. It is now the 1970's in India and Pi is sixteen years old. There is government unrest so Pi's father decides to sell the zoo and move his family to Canada. Most of the animals are sold to North American zoos, so all of the animals that Pi has come to know, and his mother, father and older brother, Ravi, set sale on a Japanese cargo ship across the ocean. In the middle of the night, the cargo ship sinks! Pi, an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena and a Bengal tiger are the only survivors in a lifeboat. The survival of the fittest being what it is...before long, only Pi and the tiger, Richard Parker are alive and sharing the boat. Pi thinks of an ingenious way to co-exist with Richard Parker, gradually "training" him to understand that Pi is the alpha male. Pi becomes the only one who can provide food for Richard Parker. For over seven months Pi and Richard Parker survive in the Pacific Ocean before washing up on the coast of Mexico where Richard Parker slinks off into the jungle without a look back. During the entire ordeal  we are witness to Pi's inner thoughts, his dealing with Richard Parker, his thoughts and beautiful descriptions of the ocean, the sky, the winds, the sea life. We suffer heartbreak along with Pi the peaceful vegetarian as he learns he must kill turtles and fish in order to survive. We suffer fright along with Richard Parker when he doesn't understand the booming lightening or the pangs of hunger. And, we survive along with them both miraculously. His alternative story to the officials at the end, when they don't believe he survived with a Bengal tiger is chilling...and makes you wonder. Truly, a great, thought-provoking, belief-strengthening book, orange house cat-nuzzling book. :-)

Oh...and so Richard Paker got his name from the hunter who captured him as a cub, along with his mother. The hunter was Richard Parker. Richard Parker named the tiger cub "Thirsty" because he was drinking alot from the river when he was found. The men filling out the official transfer papers mixed up the names and wrote "Richard Parker" in the name slot for the animal, and "Thirsty, last name unknown" in the name slot for the hunter, lol. The zookeeper and his family loved the story, so kept the tiger's name as Richard Parker.

I really liked this one passage alot. When Pi was still on dry land and soaking in his religious beliefs, he said this:

I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, "My God, my god, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. 

Love that. :-)

Finished: The Magnificent Ambersons (Tarkington). Pulitzer Prize winning book about a wealthy family in Indiana in the late 1800's. A really good book! :-) I had seen this book on the "must read" lists of several authors, so I decided to put it on my list. I wasn't disappointed! The Magnificent Ambersons is one of those wonderfully descriptive books that truly puts the scene right in your mind while you're reading....but, it's not so descriptive that the action gets bogged down. And, the characters are all nicely fleshed out. Are all the characters people to root for? Nope...but they are human people who make human mistakes, so it's a book that definitely tugs on your heartstrings. As in most books, and I guess as in life, people are a product of how they are raised. You can't really help that.

This book is about the Amerbsons, an extremely wealthy family who settles in a town that is supposed to be early Indianapolis. They own several acres of land for their opulent mansion, as well as several interests in town, such as the Amberson Hotel. The book flies through the first two generations of Ambersons pretty quickly...as a matter of fact, we don't even meet all of the patriarch's children or wife. They are all mentioned in passing later. However, Major Amberson lives throughout the majority of the book and even builds an almost equally massive mansion for his daughter, Isabel, right next door to his own mansion. As a young woman, Isabel is the envy of all the other women in the town, and heavily pursued by all the eligible young men. And, even though she has that upper crust manner about her, she's a very warm, kind and gracious person, so everyone loves her. Her brother, George, is also very well liked and life-of-the-party fun. Of her many suitors, Isabel has fallen in love with the one who is not rich, not seemingly the most ambitious, but certainly good-looking and of a very kind nature himself, Eugene Morgan. Her second most "viable" suitor is much less attractive, but far more stable and already nicely monied, Wilbur Minafur. Isabel is about to engage herself to the man she truly loves, Eugene, when he arrives on her lawn one night with several other young fellows, including her own brother, and drunkenly serenades her, accidentally stumbling and putting his foot through one of the musical instruments. Though the Major laughs and says, boys will be boys, this mortifies Isabel. She feels like Eugene's state of drunkenness shows little respect for her, and especially for the Amberson name, so she refuses to speak to Eugene again...turning back all his letters of apology. She soon thereafter marries Wilbur Minafur and Eugene leaves town. :-(

Isabel and Wilbur have only one child, George Amberson Minafur. He is to become the main character of the story from here on out. Several chapters quickly outline his childhood and teen years, until we settle down on his post-university years. Georgie, as he is called, is a spoiled, self-centered, haughty, disrespectful, impolite, extremely entitled young man. The entire town can't stand him and is forced to literally move out of his way when he speeds through town in his horse drawn cutter. He has been overindulged by his mother, his grandfather, and his uncle. He leaves college, as a matter of fact, saying the he won't be "doing anything" but just "being someone" for a living. I love everything about the character of Isabel except her blind devotion to Georgie and his behavior. Georgie, or George as he soon becomes, also treats the young ladies of the town with haughtiness and boredom while at all the seasonal balls....until he meets a newcomer to town, Lucy Morgan. He falls instantly in love with her, and she with him, despite his "winning" personality. They spend the entire ball together, not even dancing so much, but also sitting quietly and talking. George is supposed to be very good-looking, like an Adonis, so that's the only reason I can see why Lucy's instantly smitten, because George continues to show what a superior ass he can be as he talks about different people who are dancing by in the room. He mainly focuses on the "odd duck" of an old man who has been talking with his mother and uncle all night, and who has danced with her several times. His mother, who is still quite beautiful, seems to have a glow to her cheeks he's never seen before. (Wilbur Minafur doesn't enjoy the balls, and always retires home early, so Isabel is delightfully, and innocently, dancing around with an old friend.) As George criticizes the "odd duck" several times, Lucy Morgan finally blurts out that the "odd duck" is her own father. Of course...we saw that coming. Her father is none other than Eugene Morgan, the former love of Isabel's life! Eugene is in town and has been inventing his own version of the "horseless carriage" and he thinks it definitely going to be the next big thing. People like Georgie scoff at him, but he persists. Everyone seems to think he's there to ask his old friend big George for money, but he never does. He seems to be quite all right in the money department.

So....anyway....young George and Lucy see quite a bit of each other, and despite his personality, continue to fall in love. She keeps him at arm's length, however, never acquiescing when he says he'd like to say that they're engaged. She has lived alone with her father for several years and feels responsible for being the lady of his house. Besides, she's just not ready to settle down. She does finally seem to be wavering one day, though, when she asks George what he intends to do with his life...what profession he's going to seek. George is taken aback and answers that he doesn't intend to DO anything...he's just going to BE...to be a rich Amberson, as he always has been. He realizes that Lucy expects him to take on a profession, mainly because her father would expect the young man she ends up with to have a profession. He irrationally begins to seethe and hate her father because he knows this is why Lucy turns him down to becoming officially engaged. Meanwhile, George's father, Wilbur, who George has spent most of his life ignoring, dies. We do get a scene where George realizes that this quiet presence in his life is now gone, and he breaks down at seeing his father laid out for the funeral. Eugene and Lucy continue to be in the lives of George and Isabel, and Uncle George, and Wilbur's sister, Aunt Fanny. After nearly a year of mourning for Wilbur, it becomes apparent that Isabel and Eugene are growing closer and closer again....apparent to everyone but young George. When he is made aware that his mother and Eugene are falling for each other and that people in town are "talking", George becomes livid and is horribly rude to Eugene. He insists to his mother that she and Eugene immediately break off their relationship or she will no longer have a son. Of course, she chooses George because she always has bowed down to his every whim. He also insists that they should immediately leave for an open-ended trip around the world. This, of course, finalizes the relationship between George and Lucy, as well as the one between Eugene and Isabel, leaving all four of them heartbroken.

Meanwhile, back in the financial world of the Ambersons, things aren't going so well. The Major has overspent...always lavishly supporting Isabel, big George, and Georgie. Wilbur Minafur's business had gone south before his death, and he'd only left a small life insurance policy which Georgie signed over to his Aunt Fanny Minafur, assuming that he'd always be rich via the Amberson money. As industry moves into town, and the town expands, Major Amberson even resorts to selling off parcels of his own land for other housing. Still...by the time Isabel and young George head for Europe, finances are starting to be shaky. Big George and Fanny decide to invest what little money they have in electric automobile headlights. Eugene's fortunes have taken the opposite turn, as the automobile has boomed in popularity. They ask Eugene's advice about the electric headlight and he discourages them strongly from investing in it. He doesn't think it works properly and they'll lose their money. They don't listen to him. They invest. They lose all their money! The magnificent Ambersons are in dire straights!

After three years of traveling, George and his mother arrive home one day in a bit of urgency...Isabel has been ill with a weak heart for several months and is deteriorating quickly. She begs George to get her home to see her father one last time. As she arrives at home, she does get to see her father and brother again, but is very weak. The doctor thinks she might not survive the night. Young George is distraught. He blames her illness on the fact that they were forced to travel due to Eugene Morgan besmirching his mother's reputation. When Eugene shows up and begs to see Isabel, young George refuses to admit him. When his mother asks if Eugene has come, George tells her yes, but that he sent him away. Isabel's dying words are so sad..."I'd like to have ---seen him." It was just audible, this little regretful murmur. Several minutes passed before there was another. "Just---just once," she whispered, and then was still. 

George is haunted by his mother's dying words and tries to justify to himself that he did the right thing in taking her away. He is finally beginning to see how selfish he was. Major Amberson only lives for a few more months after his own daughter dies, and when he dies, it becomes clear to everyone that there is no money left at all. Big George heads back to Washington where he previously held a political post, and hopes to make some money to send back home. The selling of the estates covers the Amberson debt and young George and Aunt Fanny are left together with very little to live on. George actually grows up for the first time in his life and takes a very dangerous, but high-paying job working at the chemical factory. One of George's few friend's from  years ago approaches Eugene Morgan, now the richest man in town with his own mansion in the country, and tells him of George's plight. The old friend wonders if Eugene couldn't find a job for George at his less dangerous automobile plant. Eugene can only think of the horrible way George has always treated him, and how he refused to let Eugene see Isabel on her deathbed. He thinks to himself...nahh...I'll not offer George work at my automobile plant...he wouldn't accept it anyway! Meanwhile, Lucy has turned down every other suitor over the years. Though she's happy with her father, she's always been in love with George and never married another. One day...while crossing the street, George is accidentally hit by, of all things, an automobile! He's terribly injured and rushed to the hospital. Eugene is compelled by a vision of Isabel, more likely his good conscience, to go see George. When he arrives at the hospital, Lucy is by George's side. George will most likely survive. As Eugene enters the hospital room, George weakly holds out his hand to him and asks for his forgiveness. The end!

A good book! I couldn't stand George, but he was definitely who he was because of how he was raised! I'm glad that in the end, he was finally made to work hard and realize what it took to live. Mostly, it looked as if he was finally accepting responsibility for his actions in regards to his mother and Eugene. An epilogue would have been nice, but oh well. As usual, I have some favorite passages. In the opening of the book, Tarkington describes the mindset of the ancestors of the settlers who went to the Midwest. He's comparing how most of the people of the town would not surround themselves in such opulence as the Ambersons did:

The pioneers were thrifty or they would have perished: they had to store away food for the winter, or goods to trade for food, and they often feared they had not stored enough--they left traces of that fear in their sons and grandsons. In the minds of most of these, indeed, their thrift was next to their religion: to save, even for the sake of saving, was their earliest lesson and discipline. No matter how prosperous they were, they could not spend money either upon "art," or upon mere luxury and entertainment, without a sense of sin."

George can't comprehend the look on his mother's face as she dances with Eugene after so many years:

Youth cannot imagine romance apart from youth. That is why the roles of the heroes and heroines of plays are given by the managers to the most youthful actors they can find among the competent. Both middle-aged people and young people enjoy a play about young lovers; but only middle-aged people will tolerate a play about middle-aged lovers.

George is home from college one Christmas break:

Mothers echo its happiness---nothing is like a mother who has a son home from college, except another mother with a son home from college.

There are several more passages I really like, but they are too long to type. Overall...a book really worth reading. :-)

Next four books read earlier in the year...

Hamlet: "To be or not to be, that is the question..." - Denmark - castle - King of Denmark's ghost - Hamlet's father - Horatio, Hamlet's best friend - Hamlet & Horatio see the ghost - the king was poisoned by his own brother, Claudius, says Hamlet's ghost father...seek revenge - "Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice" - Claudius now king, married Hamlet's mother Gertrude - "Frailty, thy name is woman" - Polonius, right hand man of Claudius - Ophelia, daughter of Polonius - Laertes, son of Polonius - Hamlet loves Ophelia - "When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul lends the tongue vows." - Ophelia loves Hamlet -  "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" - Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, Hamlet's friends who spy on him - "Get thee to a nunnery" - a play is staged, The Murder of Gonzagos - Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius - Hamlet doesn't kill praying Claudius when he has a chance - "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go." - Hamlet going mad? -  "Mad as the sea and wind when both contend which is the mightier." - Ophelia goes mad after her father is killed - Ophelia drowns - poisoned sword - poisoned wine - Ophelia buried - skull unearthed - "Alas poor Yorick" - Hamlet and Laertes to fight with swords - Gertrude toasts the duel, accidentally drinks poisoned wine - Ophelia dies - Laertes stabs Hamlet with poisoned sword - "Good night, sweet Prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest" - Hamlet uses poison sword on Laertes in turn - as they are dying, they reconcile - Laertes says Claudius is responsible for all - Hamlet manages to kill Claudius before he dies - Horatio lives to tell the tale.

The Metamorphosis: Gregor - traveling salesman - provides for his mother, father, sister - wakes up one morning turned into a roach - stuck on back - manbug - shunned by his family - locked in a room - voice unrecognizable - he can still understand family, they can't understand him - sister, Grete, feeds him every day - Gregor thinks more and more buglike - climbs on bedroom walls - family takes on boarders - Grete plays violin - Gregor inches his way out of room one night while Grete plays violin for boarders - boarders see Gregor and move out, horrified - Gregor's father wishes Gregor would die :-( - Gregor slinks to his room and dies - father, mother and Grete all relieved now the end - bizarre Kafka!

The Lady With the Dog: Dmitri - married with children - unhappy marriage - women are a "lower" being - many affairs, but he never loses his heart - Dmitri travels to Yalta - sees beautiful young woman walking dog along the seafront - Anna - Dmitri meets Anna - Anna also married, but not happily - vacationing without husband - Dmitri and Anna start an affair - Anna goes back home - Back home in Moscow, Dmitri actually misses Anna - Dmitri goes to St. Petersburg to pursue Anna - sees Anna with her husband at theater - Anna sees Dmitri and runs - Dmitri catches her - Anna admits she can't stop thinking of Dmitri - she will come to see him in Moscow soon - Anna and Dmitri are in love - Anna travels to Moscow where they discuss what to do, but never figure things out - the end.

The Sound and the Fury: One of my favorites - stream of consciousness - Mississippi - Compson family - Benjy - youngest Compson child - mentally handicapped - Benjy loves fire, golf, and sister Caddy - Luster, Benjy's adult companion - T.P., Benjy's teenage companion - Versh - Benjy's childhood companion - Benjy attacks girl as teenager - Benjy castrated - Dilsey, family matriarch servant - cares for Benjy always - Mr. and Mrs. Compson worthless parents - Mrs. Compson hypochondriac, always in bed "ill" - Caddy, only girl, Benjy's older sister - one of the few who adores Benjy - climbs a tree - Benjy, Jason and Quentin, her brothers, see her muddy underwear - Caddy becomes sexually promiscuous with boyfriend, Dalton - Caddy pregnant before getting married - baby is Dalton's - Quentin, oldest brother, very protective of Caddy and her virtue - Quentin fights Dalton and loses - Caddy marries Herbert, who she does not love - Herbert kicks her out when he finds baby is not his - family pasture sold to golf club to pay for Quentin's Harvard education - Quentin freshman at Harvard - struggles to live by Southern, chivalrous ideals - struggles with Caddy's lost virginity - no good advice from his own father - men created the idea of virginity, he says - Quentin walks around Cambridge all day - meets a little girl lost from home - calls her "sister" - helps to find her home - Quentin remembers what his father told him when he gave him his grandfather's pocket watch before Quentin went to college. "It was Grandfather's and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; it's rather excruciatingly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father's. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it." - Quentin deteriorates into depression - Quentin commits suicide - Caddy names her daughter Quentin, after her dear brother Quentin - Jason, second oldest brother, grows up bitter and cynical - not passionate or feeling like Quentin and Caddy - takes care of all the family and the home when he grows up - blackmails Caddy into letting him raise Quentin - steals support checks that Caddy sends for Quentin - Quentin finds her stolen money and runs away with carnival worker - Easter Sunday - Dilsey takes grown Benjy to the "colored" church for Easter - Dilsey's grandson, Luster, takes Benjy for a ride in the carriage to the cemetery - Benjy begs to go there - tragic deterioration of southern family - title from Shakespeare's Macbeth -

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Finished: Twelfth Night (Shakespeare). Loved the stage production and loved the book. :-) A light and airy one by Shakespeare. Viola and Sebastian are twin brother and sister who are all that remains of their family. They are in a huge storm on a ship that sinks and both assume the other has been drowned. They both independently wash up in the land of Illyria. Viola, distraught at the death of her brother, decides to dress up as a male for some reason and make her own way that way. She calls herself Cesario becomes a servant to the Duke of Illyria, Orsini. The Duke is in love with a countess, Olivia, who shuns his overtures of love because her own father and brother have died recently. She will wait seven years to fall in love, she says. The Duke confides his love to Cesario and asks Cesario (really Viola dressed up like a young man) to go and plead his case to Olivia. Viola does so, and Olivia, much to her own chagrin, falls in love with "Cesario". Meanwhile, listening to the Duke's romantic and forlorn declarations for Olivia, Viola falls in love with the Duke! 

To break up the romance, there is the side story of Olivia's drunken Uncle Toby, his friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who would like Olivia for himself, Maria, Olivia's gentlewoman, Fabian, Olivia's attendant, and Malvolio, Olivia's steward. Toby, Andrew, Fabian, and Maria conspire to pull a prank on the cranky, unfriendly, stickler for the rules, Malvolio. You see, Malvolio is in love with his countess, Olivia. They concoct a letter which appears to have been written and accidentally lost by Olivia in which she proclaims her secret love for one "beneath her". She wishes that this person would perform all kinds of antics to show his love for her. Malvolio, of course, assumes that he is the secret person Olivia is in love with. He begins to follow the letter, well, to the letter, and Olivia thinks he's gone mad. Honestly, the book is quick and witty and fun...but you simply must see these scenes all on stage to get the best picture of things. We saw the show at the intimate Orlando Shakespeare Theater and the Malvolio stole the show! His facial expressions alone brought down the house. I enjoyed recalling the actual actors performing all their parts as I read the book today. :-)

Anyway....Sebastian, Viola's twin brother, has also washed up in Illyria. He's been found by a sea captain, Antonio. Antonio becomes very attached to Sebastian and takes him into town. Antonio, though, wants to lie low because he might be in trouble with the law. Sebastian, however, wants to sight see. Antonio gives Sebastian his purse with all his money and tells him to have fun and meet him back at a certain hotel for the night. Meanwhile, Uncle Toby and Sir Andrew have decided to call "Cesario" out on a duel because they know that lady Olivia has fallen for the young swain. When approached, Viola is taken aback. Just as they are forcing her to draw her sword, Antonio rushes to her defense, assuming she's Sebastian! The authorities arrest Antonio for his previous charge, and he asks Viola for his purse with his money so he can pay his fine and go free. Viola has no idea who any of these people are! She denies knowing Antonio or furthermore having his money. When she hears Antonio mention the name Sebastian, Viola heads back to the Duke's and hopes beyond  hope that perhaps her brother is alive. Later, Uncle Toby and Sir Andrew come across Sebastian in a bar and try to restart the argument. This time Sebastian is very gungho and draws his sword right away. This confuses them. Olivia comes in and tells them to stop...that she loves this man. Sebastian has never seen Olivia before, but he is instantly enamored. He goes with Olivia and they get married. 

Eventually they all end up back at the Duke's and all the confusion is settled when siblings Sebastian and Viola are reunited. The Duke is relieved because he had actually begun to have feelings for Cesario instead of Olivia, and he wasn't certain why. Cesario had been so understanding and caring. The Duke asks Viola to put on her lady clothes and declares he loves her. And finally, the comic relief all confess their prank on Malvolio, and he vows to get revenge on them all. The end. :-) 

A fun book! The most memorable line of the book to me, and a recognizable one, is "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em." This was in the letter that Maria wrote to Malvolio. It was supposed to be Olivia's way of explaining why it was ok for a duchess to fall for someone beneath her, like a steward. Of course, this line was Malvolio's driving force in trying to satisfy all the wishes of the letter. 

ok....I think I'm Shakespeare'd out for a while! But...I know I'll come back again. 

The next four books....too hard to do ten this time!

Lady Windemere's Fan: Lady Windemere - Lord Windemere- birthday ball - the new fan - secrets - Mrs. Erlynne - gossip - Mrs. Erlynne and Lord Windemere? - Lord Darlington loves Lady Windemere - Mrs. Erlynne invited to Lady Windemere's birthday ball - misunderstandings - Lady Windemere mad at hubby - ball patrons enjoy Mrs. Erlynne - Lady Windemere leaves a note...will run away with Lord Darlington - Mrs. Erlynne intercepts the note...goes to stop Lady Windemere - Lord Windemere arrives...finds Lady Windemere's fan at Lord Darlington's - Mrs. Erlynne claims the fan is hers and saves Lady Windemere - Lady Windemere admires Mrs. Erlynne - aha! Mrs. Erlynne is really Lady Windemere's mother, who she thought died when she was a baby - Mrs. Erlynne disgraced her family when Lady Windemere was a baby and left her baby and husband for a lover - Mrs. Erlynne has been blackmailing Lord Windemere for money to keep quiet that she's Lady Windemere's mother - Mrs. Erlynne didn't count on meeting Lady Windemere and loving her, thus saving the day with the fan story - Mrs Erlynne makes Lord Windemere promise to never tell Lady Windemere she's her disgraced mother - Mrs. Erlynne makes Lady Windemere promise to never tell Lord Windemere she was about to run off with Lord Darlington - Lady and Lord Windemere truly love each other - Mrs. Erlynne leaves to marry Lord Augustus who she met at the party - quick - witty - fun - Oscar Wilde

Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff - orphan - Catherine - rich family, brother Hindley - live at Wuthering Heights - Heathcliff and Catherine - in love since children - the moors - Hindley jealous of Heathcliff - Heathcliff angry, unkempt - Catherine curious about neighbors, the Lintons of Thrushcross Grange - Edgar Linton loves Catherine - Catherine marries Edgar for status and money - Heathcliff heartbroken leaves town - Hindley marries, wife has son, Hareton, and wife dies - Hindley raises Hareton without education, amidst drinking and gambling - Heathcliff returns after three years a gentleman and rich - Joseph his servant with ununderstandable accent - Hindley mortgages Wuthering Heights to Heathcliff - Edgar's sister, Isabella falls hard for Heathcliff - Heathcliff detestable person out for revenge - Catherine falls ill when she sees Heathcliff and Isabella embrace - Heathcliff and Isabella marry - Catherine gives birth to Cathy and dies - Isabella flees abusive Heathcliff, gives birth to son, Linton - Hindley dies - Heathcliff now in charge of Hareton - Isabella dies - Edgar brings nephew Linton to Thrushcross Grange - Heathcliff brings his son, Linton, to Wuthering Heights - Linton very sickly - Heathcliff abuses Linton, his own son! - Cathy, Linton and Hareton now teens - Heathcliff kidnaps Cathy and housekeeper Nelly - Heathcliff wants Cathy to marry Linton so he can have control of Thrushcross Grange too - Nelly released - Edgar on deathbed - Linton helps Cathy escape Heathcliff just in time to say a final farewell to her father - Edgar dies - Heathcliff now master of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange - Linton dies - Cathy forced to live with Heathcliff and Hareton - Cathy and Hareton actually grow closer - tormented and tormentor Heathcliff finally dies - Cathy and Hareton marry - highly overrated book in my opinion - it makes me shudder to think Catherine and Heathcliff are a "romantic" couple that young people aspire to be like. I could have just said dies - dies - dies - dies - dies - so depressing!

Fahrenheit 451: Dystopia - Guy Montag - fireman - neighbor girl - Clarisse McClellan - happy, warm family - wife Mildred opposite, distant, programmed - TV on parlor walls - suicide attempt - seashell ear radio - books illegal - firemen burn houses with books - flame thrower - Clarissa killed by car - scary, creepy mechanical hound - Montag steals a book - Captain Beatty - Montag reads Dover Beach - Faber - the Bible - the call goes out - next house to burn...Montag's - Montag burns his own house - flamethrows Beatty - hunted by mechanical hounds - river - safety with the exiles - the city is nuked - war over - each exile has memorized part of or an entire important book - exiles with pieces of book all over the country - Montag is the Book of Ecclesiastes.

The Brother's Karamazov: Fyodor Karamazov - father of three sons - selfish - not a good father - laughing stock - Dmitri - oldest son - volatile - passionate - needs money - wants inheritance - father denies - Dmitri and his father rivals for the same woman, Grushenka - favorite quote - "We are possessed by the noblest ideals, but only on condition that they be attained by themselves, that they fall on our plate from the sky, and, above all, gratuitously, gratuitously, so that we pay nothing for them." - Ivan - middle son - highly intelligent - atheist - detached - his poem...The Grand Inquisitor - debates with brothers  about the existence of God - falls in love with Katerina, Dmitri's ex-fiance - Alexei aka Alyosha - youngest son - 20 years old - novice in the monastery - true and good - everyone loves him - faith tested, faith renewed - Alyosha's spiritual adviser, Elder Zosima - guides Alyosha - Zosima dies - putrefaction - other novice Rakitin - jealous, ambitious, nasty - Pavel Smerdyakov - "son of the reeking one" - son of Stinking Lizaveta - Pavel is Fyodor's servant...possibly his illegitamte son - resents Fyodor - boys throwing rocks at schoolboy Ilyusha Snegiryov - Alyosha helps Ilyusha - Snegiryov family needs help - Ilyusha falls very ill - guilty over his treatment of dog, Zuchka - he fed Zuchka bread with pin inside - feels his illness is God's punishment :-( - he's just a little boy - Kolya - Ilyusha's friend - training his own dog - takes his dog to see Ilyusha when he's near death - dog is really Zuchka saved - Ilyusha so happy, but still dies - Dmitri now desperate for money - writes drunken letter to Katerina wishing he could kill Fyodor and claim his inheritance - failed business deal - takes brass pestle to his father's - Fyodor murdered - Dmitri suddenly has 3000 rubles - Dmitri charged with murder - insists he's innocent - Ivan goes mad - raving conversation with Smerdyakov turns to confession by Smerdyakov - Smerdyakov killed Fyodor! - Smerdyakov commits suicide - no on believes raving Ivan - Dmitri on trial - Katrina reads Dmitri's damning letter at trial - Dmitri convicted - book ends with Dmitri planning his escape with his brothers - wants to start over in America - Alyosha gathers with schoolboys at Ilyusha's grave - speech - he'll never forget them - Hurrah for Karamazov! - one of my dad's favorite books - sigh

And on that note of reading a new author...I had the pleasure of reading some amazingly beautiful sonnets written by my aunt Barbara...Barbara Dilworth. They were sonnets she wrote many, many years ago when she turned forty. Each one was written in the vein of another famous author, i.e., Poe, Shakespeare, Donne, cummings, Joyce, Byron, Yeats, Frost, etc. They were so magnificent! I had favorites, and favorite lines among favorites. Then, she wrote one more additional sonnet to wrap them all up...it was wonderful! If I chat with my aunt and get her ok, I might show off a few of them on the blog. :-) Meanwhile, I'm proud to be in the presence of so much talent!

Finished: A Winter's Tale (Shakespeare). I'm on a Shakespeare kick! :-) As usual, I liked Shakespeare's prose, and I liked a few of the characters. It just always drives me crazy how quick some characters are to jump to conclusions, especially kings! And, of course, the erroneous conclusions always lead to tragedy heaped upon tragedy. A Winter's Tale was no different. Leontes, the king of Sicily, is happily married to Hermione with a young son and a baby on the way. He outrageously gets it into his head that Hermione has been unfaithful to him with his best friend, and near brother, Polixenes, the king of Bohemia. He plots to murder Polixenes, accuses and imprisons his wife, proclaims that the baby must be theirs, listens to no one's pleadings, and starts the downward spiral of tragedy. Camillo, the faithful servant of Leontes, betrays him and does not poison Polixenes. Instead, he helps Polixenes escape back to his own land and family. Leontes does send for an oracle from the gods to make 100% sure he is correct. Meanwhile, before the oracle arrives, Hermione gives birth to a healthy baby girl, but Leontes has the baby sent out to a faraway desert and left to die. The young prince, just a small boy, so distraught at his mother's imprisonment, takes ill and dies. When Hermione hears this news, she collapses and dies as well. Just then, the oracle arrives proclaiming that the queen was not unfaithful and that the baby, Perdita, is the king's daughter and heir.

Meanwhile, the faraway desert just happens to be Bohemia. A shepherd finds the baby Perdita and raises her as his daughter. Time goes by....Sixteen years later Perdita is a beautiful young woman and in love with none other than Florizel, the son of Polixenes!! When Polixenes finds out his son is wooing a mere shepherd's daughter, he forbids them to see each other again. They decide to run away. Camillo, who came to work for Polixenes years ago when he helped him escape, decides to help the couple escape....and he sends them to Sicily! He knows that Polixenes will insist on following them and Camillo selfishly longs to go back to his homeland. Sooooo, everyone ends up back in Sicily, and all is discovered. Perdita, the long lost daughter of Leontes, is declared alive. By the way, Leontes has been repenting every day for sixteen years, so everyone forgives his actions from before. Perdita and Florizel get married...Leontes and Polixenes reunite as friends and....the statue made to the likeness of Hermione suddenly comes to life! Hermione is alive! Was she alive and hidden by her lady in waiting all those years? Or, did some kind of goddess magic happen? I guess we'll never know. But, they all lived happily ever after. Well, except for the tiny little prince. :-(

As usual, some favorite lines. When Camillo is trying to convince Polixenes to hurry along and flee for his life, Polixenes questions how Leontes could possibly think he'd have an affair with his wife:

Polixenes: How should this grow?

Camillo: I know not: but I am sure 'tis safer to avoid what's grown than question how 'tis born. 

When Leontes is yelling at his man-servant for not standing up to his wife, who has berated the king for how he has treated the queen, he threatens to hang his man, Antigonus:

Leontes: And, thou are worthy to be hang'd, that will not stay her tongue.

Antigonus: Hang all the husbands that cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself hardly one subject. 

Hee hee, I like that. :-)

When Perdita was apprehensive about Florizel's father finding out about her and not approving, Florizel comforted her with words that rivaled Romeo...almost:

Florizel: Apprehend nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, 
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beasts upon them: Jupiter 
Became a bull, and bellow'd; the green Neptune 
A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob'd god, 
Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain, 
As I seem now. Their transformations
Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,
Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires
Run not before mine honour, nor my lusts
Burn hotter than my faith.

Then, when Florizel is telling Camillo that he would give up inheriting the kingdom to be with Perdita he says:

From my succession wipe me, father; I am heir to my affection.

Love that! :-) ok...so I think one more Shakespeare and then I've got to move on to an author I haven't read before!

Finished: Henry IV Part I (Shakespeare). Oh Hotspur, no! :-(  O Harry, thou has robb'd me of my youth. I better brook the loss of brittle life than those proud titles thou has won of me. They wound my thoughts worse than they wound my flesh. Sigh...I really liked Henry "Hotspur" Percy! He was such a vibrant character...full of passion in every conversation he had! I loved his interactions with his father, his uncle, his king, his cohorts, and particularly his last conversation with his wife. I shall miss you Hotspur!

Henry IV Part I picks up where Richard II left off. King Henry IV is about to take his pilgrimage to Jerusalem when he must fight off a rebellion instead. You see...he hasn't treated the friends who helped to make him king very well and they're not happy. The final straw is when Edmund Mortimer, the brother-in-law of Hotspur Percy is taken captive by Glendower, a Welshman who is revolting against the king, and King Henry refuses to ransom for him by trading war prisoners, including Douglas, a formidable Scot, that Hotspur has captured in action. Hotspur is the son of Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland, two of King Henry's biggest supporters who turned against Richard II to ensure Henry's takeover. Hotspur is furious and along with the disgruntled others, plans to align with Douglas and Glendower to usurp King Henry.

Meanwhile, King Henry's son, Henry the Prince of Wales, is everything the king wishes he wasn't. He hangs out with lowlifes, drinks, carouses, and does other unprincely things. He's never taken to being the son of the king and King Henry, at one point, even wonders if Hotspur and Hal, as the prince is called, were somehow switched at birth. Yes...everyone loves and respects Hotspur's drive and passion. Hal's main cohort is Sir John Falstaff....an obese, older knight who spends most of his time lying, embellishing stories, and robbing people to make ends meet. Hal and Falstaff have quite the bantering relationship, and the seriousness of the book is quite relieved at times by their conversations and actions. Still....neither Hal or Falstaff get ringing endorsements of character at that point in their lives. In describing Falstaff selling his soul to the devil with all his miscreant antics, Hal utters the famous line, "He will give the devil his due".

When Prince Henry (Hal) is called to battle by his father, he actually grows up a bit and apologizes to his father for his behavior and tells him he can be counted on. Falstaff also goes along to fight by Hal, but he is far more a coward than a warrior. As a matter of fact....Falstaff recites two of my favorite lines from the book due to his cowardice. In one instance, Hal and a friend have decided to disguise themselves and set upon Falstaff and his three friends right after they rob someone on the highway. Hal and his pal turn around and rob Falstaff and his friends, who don't put up much of a fight and run away into the woods. Upon relating the story later to Hal as to why he didn't come home with the huge purse of loot he expected, Falstaff embellishes his story and tells Hal that he fought off a hundred men...well, at least fifty, etc. Hal finally reveals that it was just he and another disguised that took the money from Falstaff and friends, and that Hal knows very well that Falstaff turned tail and ran. Falstaff utters the famous line, "I was now a coward on instinct". I loved it! The entire passage is:

By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. Why, hear you, my masters. Was it for me to kill the heir-apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules: but beware instinct, the lion will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter. I was now a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself and thee during my life; I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But by the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money.

Then later, when Falstaff reluctantly follows Prince Henry into battle, he pretends to be dead after he battles sword to sword for a few minutes with the famous Douglas. Hal sees Falstaff laying on the ground and thinks he's dead. He has just finished a little verse lamenting his friend's death when Falstaff sits up and tells Hal he's alive. Falstaff tries to explain that it was better to "counterfeit" being dead and end up alive than to actually be dead. He utters the famous line (which I never knew in context before I read this), "The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life."

Anyway...back to Hotspur. Too many things rise up against him for this battle to be successful. The Welshman Glendower decides not to partake in the battle, so that reduces the rebelling forces. Then, Hotspur's own father with his huge army is stuck many days away because the father has taken ill. So...Hotspur goes into battle with far fewer forces than King Henry. The most awful betrayal, though, probably makes the most profound difference. Hotspur sends his uncle Thomas Percy, the Earl of Worcester, to talk to King Henry and see if any peaceable solutions are even suggested. King Henry immediately suggests that they can work things out peacefully...that everyone will be forgiven. He knows they all helped him get where he was. And, in particular, he holds no animosity towards Hotspur, but has immense respect. He says there will be no repercussions, "No, good Worcester, no. We love our people well, even those we love that are misled upon your cousin's part. And, will they take the offer of our grace, both he, and they, and you, yea every man shall be my friend again, and I'll be his. So tell your cousin, and bring me word what he will do". Instead of taking that message back to Hotspur, Thomas Percy decides that King Henry may spare Hotspur due to his youth, but he thinks the king will most definitely punish himself and the other "older" former counsel members. So, in an awful betrayal (in my opinion) Thomas Percy goes back and tells Hotspur that King Henry said no to peace, "I told him gently of our grievances, of his oath-breaking, which he mended thus, by now forswearing that he is forsworn. He calls us rebels, traitors, and will scourge with haughty arms this hateful name in us".

So, sadly the battle begins. Hotspur and Prince Henry end up in a hand to hand, or sword to sword, battle to the death. Hotspur fights valiantly, but is slain by Prince Henry. :-( The book ends with Prince Henry and his brother, Prince John, joining back up with their father and heading off to fight the rest of the rebels in other locations.

Some of my favorite passages follow. When Hotspur first realizes that King Henry IV will not ransom for his brother-in-law's life, he goes on a rant to his father and his uncle about possibly going up against the king:

Hotspur: Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,
Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
That men of your nobility and power
Did gage them both in an unjust behalf
(As both of you, God pardon it, have done)
To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
And plant this thorn, this canker Bolingbroke?
And shall it in more shame be further spoken, 
That you are fool'd, discarded, and shook off
By him, for whom these shames ye underwent?
No. Yet time serves wherein you may redeem
Your banish'd honors and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again.
Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
Of this proud king, who studies day and night 
To answer all the debt he owes to you,
Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
Therefore I say ---

Worcester: Peace, cousin say no more.
And now I will unclasp a secret book,
And to your quick-conceiving discontents
I'll read you a matter deep and dangerous,
As full of peril and adventurous spirit
As to o'er-walk a current roaring loud
On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.

Hotspur: If he fall in, good night. Or sink, or swim!
Send danger from the east unto the west,
So honor cross it, from the north to south,
And let them grapple! O the blood more stirs
To rouse a lion than to start a hare.

When Hotspur rants on and on and won't listen to reason, his father chides him:

Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool 
Art thou, to break into this woman's mood,
Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!

I love that line! Probably all of us could be told that some time or another, lol.

When Hotspur's wife wants to know what's going on and where he's headed after he decides to do battle, he tells her:

Come, wilt thou see me ride?
And when I am o' horseback I will swear
I love thee infinitely. But hark you Kate,
I must not have you henceforth question me
Wither I go, nor reason whereabout.
Wither I must, I must. And to conclude,
This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
I know you wise, but yet no farther wise
Thank Harry Percy's wife. Constant you are,
But yet a woman; and for secrecy
No lady closer, for I well believe
Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know,
And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate.

Oh, there are too many scenes to write down! I love it when the wives are telling their husbands goodbye before the big battle....Hotspur's wife not knowing that she'll never see him again. It's all very lighthearted and  loving, yet heartbreaking. And, I love the scene where Hotspur asks if Prince Henry acted with contempt when he spoke to his uncle and the other messenger, Sir Richard Vernun, of how Prince Henry would call Hotspur out in man to man battle. Vernun answered Hotspur:

No, by my soul, I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urg'd more modestly,
Unless a brother should a brother dare
To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
He gave you all the duties of a man,
Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue, 
Spoke your deservings like a chronicle
Making you ever better than his praise,
By still dispraising praise valu'd with you:
And, which became him like a prince indeed,
He made a blushing cital of himself,
And chid his truant youth with such a grace
As if he master'd there a double spirit
Of teaching and of learning instantly.
There did he pause. But let me tell the world,
If he outlive the envy of this day,
England did never owe so sweet a hope,
So much misconstru'd in his wantonness.

I could keep going, but I think that's enough for now. As much as I loved Hotspur and so many of the passages, I'm not sure I can call this one of my favorite books. I'll have to ponder over that for awhile. Now...am I going to continue with Shakespeare? Hmmm

Finished: Richard II (Shakespeare). My first Shakespeare history! I really enjoyed it. :-) I had a few reservations about being able to understand such complicated history in the written word of Shakespeare's style, but my fears were squashed and I was truly able to enjoy the beautiful historical passages! Of course, I had to read up on the history of all the characters before I could at all understand the book, but that was interesting too. In reading about all the characters, I also referenced my extensive family genealogy chart and reaffirmed that I'm related to two of the main characters of the book. John of Gaunt, the third son of King Edward III, is my Great x 21 Grandfather. And...Thomas Mowbray, who is the subject of the opening conflict of the book, is my Great x 20 Grandfather! I know lots of people are related to the British royals if you go far enough back, but it is kind of neat to be reading a Shakespeare play about them. :-)

So...King Edward III (my Great x 22 Grandfather), had several sons, but it was his grandson, Richard II, who was his successor to the throne. Edward III's first son, Edward the Black Prince, had a first son as well...that was Richard II. Edward would have most likely been the next king and become Edward IV had he not died before Edward III died. As the rules would have it back then, the first son's first son had the claim to the throne before the king's second son. (Maybe that's the way it still is? I don't know.) So, Edward III died and Richard II, his grandson, became king.

As Shakespeare's story opens, King Richard has as his loyal advisers two of his uncles, John of Gaunt, and Edmund of Langley, both the younger brothers of King Richard's father. John is the Duke of Lancaster and Edmund is the Duke of York. John is also the father of Henry Bolingbroke, later to become King Henry IV. (I am not a descendent of King Henry IV, but of John's daughter and Henry's sister, Joan Beaufort.) Anyway...in the opening scene, Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray are appealing to King Richard to settle a dispute. Henry Bolingbroke has accused Thomas Mowbray of treason...mainly for having a hand in the killing of the Duke of Gloucester. The Duke of Gloucester, also named Thomas, was another son of Edward III's and so another uncle of King Richard's. Unbeknownst to Henry Bolingbroke, King Richard himself had most likely more to do with Gloucester's death than Mowbray. Anyway...rather than see the men fight to the death over their honor, King Richard decides to banish both Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray from England. Mowbray is banished for life, and Henry for only six years. They both accept their punishments in eloquent speeches.

John of Gaunt's heart is broken to see his son be banished and, in a few pages that truly took my breath away, he soon dies. As John dies, he rails against King Richard, accusing him of ruining England and being the one responsible for killing Gloucester. It's a truly brilliant scene! We never hear from Mowbray again, but we hear that he has gone on to fight crusades and dies later in Venice. As for Henry...he has many people behind him who would rather see him be king than Richard....including the "people". Richard has not been a good king, and has made the people and even his own royals poor by taking their money to pay for his war on Ireland. As a final slap, he strips Henry of his rightful titles, land and monies that he should inherit from his dead father, John of Gaunt, when he returns from exile. While Richard is away fighting in Ireland, Henry comes back to England with a huge army of men, including many of Richard's former supporters. Henry even wins his uncle, the Duke of York, over to his side. Richard comes back to England assuming he'll have a large enough army to fight Henry off, and soon concedes when his assumptions are dashed. In a few very intense, beautifully written pages, Henry tries to explain to Richard that if he'll just restore his lands, titles and monies to him, that he won't fight for the crown. Richard refuses and instead turns over the crown. Henry Bolingbroke becomes King Henry IV. After a thwarted attempt on his life and after the unplanned and unordered execution of Richard II, King Henry decides to travel to the Holy Land to cleanse his soul. So, that's where this book leaves off. I think the next two Shakespeare histories might both be about King Henry IV's reign. I'm trying to figure out if I want to read them all in a row!

Of course, I have some favorite lines...like the whole scenes mentioned above...but here are a few others. In these lines, Mowbray says he will fight a duel for his honor rather than be called treasonous or a liar:

The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation. That away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
Mine honor is my life, both grow in one;
Take honor from me and my life is done.
Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try.
In that I live, and for that will I die.

King Richard banishes Henry to six years from England:

King Richard: Six frozen winters spent,
Return with welcome home from banishment.

Henry: How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
End in a word. Such is the breath of kings.

Gaunt is distraught at the banishment of his son...especially since he was on the trusted counsel that helped the King come up with the punishment in lieu of the duel:

King Richard: Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave.
Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lower?

Gaunt: Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.

Just a few of Gaunt's deathbed words, these directed at King Richard:

O, spare me not, my brother Edward's son,
For that I was his father Edward's son!
That blood already, like the pelican,
Hast though tapp'd out and drunkenly carous'd.
My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul ---
Whom fair befall in heaven 'mongst happy souls!---
May be a precedent and witness good
That though respect'st not spilling Edward's blood.
Join with the present sickness that I have,
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too long wither'd flower.
Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
These words hereafter thy tormentors be!
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave.
Love they to live that love and honor have.

King Richard arrives back in England only to realize that most of his supporters have deserted him and he won't win a battle with Henry over the crown. He's tired of his few supporters giving him words of encouragement:

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings---
How some have been depos'd, some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd,
Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd,
All murthere'd. For within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits, 
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life
Were brass impregnable, and humor'd thus
Comes at last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!

King Richard's wife chastises him for not fighting harder for the crown:

Hath Bullingbrooke depos'd
Thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart?
The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw
And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
To be orepowr'd. And with thou, pupil-like,
Take they correction, mildly kiss the rod,
And fawn on rage with base humility,
Which art lion and the king of beasts?

The next ten books I read...

Anna Karenina: Anna Karenina - Count Alexei, her husband - Young son, Sergei - Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. - Anna's brother Stepan and his wife Dolly, married with children - crisis...Stepan has cheated on Dolly - Anna talks Dolly into staying with Stepan - Dolly's younger sister, Kitty, comes to town for her debut ball - Count Alexei Vronsky comes to town to supposedly woo Kitty - Vronsky meets Anna first and falls instantly in love - virtuous landowner, Kostya Levin, proposes to Kitty on the night she's expecting Vronsky to propose - Kitty turns down heartbroken Kostya who returns to his country estate - Vronsky flirts with Kitty, but asks Anna to dance instead - Kitty humiliated into poor health - Vronsky pursues the married Anna - Anna falls for Vronsky, becomes pregnant, tells her husband, and he still wants to make their marriage work - Anna rejects her husband, gives birth to daughter, Annie, and is near death - her husband forgives her and Vronsky, but Anna rejects her husband again - Anna and Vronsky go to Europe to live in sin, but are social outcasts - Anna has abandoned her young son and somehow the reader is supposed to feel sorry for her - meanwhile Kostya is working the land and happy with his agriculture and Russian peasants - Kostya sees Kitty again - this time Kitty loves Kostya too - Kitty and Kostya get married and live in the country, happy for awhile - Kitty gives birth to son, Mitya - Kostya's happiness shattered by death of his brother Nikolai - Kitty is his rock - Kostya contemplates the birth of his son and the death of his brother: Yet that grief and this joy were alike outside all the ordinary conditions of life; they were loop-holes, as it were, in that ordinary life through which there came glimpses of something sublime. - Anna is further shunned by all her former Russian society friends, while Vronsky can come and go in society as he pleases - Anna gets paranoid and turns to morphine to calm her nerves - Vronsky finds having Anna does not fulfill him as he thought it would - Anna and Vronsky are insufferably self-centered - why are they considered one of the greatest love stories of all time?? - Kostya struggles with his beliefs, but loves his family - Anna struggles period - Anna asks Vronsky to meet her at the train station - Anna commits suicide by throwing herself in front of the train - Kitty and Mitya trapped in a storm - Kostya realizes the depth of his love for his family as they reunite after storm.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Harry Potter - the boy who lived - lightening scar - parents killed by Voldemort - he who should not be named - Harry is hidden with his aunt, uncle and cousin who torment him - Muggles - Harry's 11th birthday - Hagrid comes - Harry is a wizard! -Hogwarts invitation - Hagrid takes Harry shopping - Diagon Alley - Hedwig the white owl - the wand - Hogwarts Express train - Platform 9 3/4 - The Weasleys - Ron Weasley - red hair - Hermione Granger - intelligent - Bertie Bott's jelly beans - Dumbledore - Professor McGonagall - the cat - The Great Hall - the sorting hat - Gryffindor - Slytherin - Snape - Draco - broomsticks - Quidditch - the Golden Snitch - does Snape try to hurt Harry on his broom? - Neville - the three-headed dog - charms - spells - the ogre - Hermione takes the blame - Harry, Ron and Hermione best friends - invisibility cloak - Mirror of Erised - Harry's parents in the mirror - the Philosopher's Stone - elixir of life - Hagrid's illegal baby dragon - the injured unicorn - Harry's scar burns - Firenze, the centaur - Ron's human chess game - Quirrell tries to steal the Philosopher's Stone - Quirrell is possessed by Voldemort - Snape was protecting Harry! - the stone goes to Harry not Voldemort - Voldemort fails for now - the stone is destroyed - Harry back to the Muggles for the summer

Captains Courageous: Harvey Cheyne Jr. - 15 years old - washed overboard - rescued by fishing boat - Captain Troop - son Dan Troop - Harvey offers to pay them to take him home to his father the railroad tycoon - Captain says the fishing boat is out for the duration - Harvey works on the boat - all about how to bring in the fish - from spoiled boy to responsible young man - experience of a lifetime - finally the fishing boat docks - Harvey's parents are notified that he's alive - long, private train ride across the country to get to Harvey - family reunited - Harvey has matured - Harvey's father offers Dan Troop a place to work in the shipping lines he owns - Harvey goes to work for his father

Don Quixote: A man who loves books about knights - chivalry - knighthood - delusional Don Quixote - the quest - Sancho Panza - Recinante the tolerating horse - reality distorted - windmills are giants - the inn is a castle - the shepherd boy tied to the tree - Dulcinea - Cardenio and Luscinda and Don Fernando - misadventures - near escapes - accidentally doing wrong for all the right reasons - a bowl for a helmet - a Duke and Duchess toy with Don Quixote - Sancho rules a town...for awhile - Don Quixote, defeated in one last "battle", lays down his arms and goes home - Don Quixote comes to his senses before dying - No more adventures about Don Quixote can be written

The Great Gatsby: Nick Carraway, narrator - 1922 - West Egg, Long Island - wealthy people - Tom & Daisy Buchanan - Daisy loved Jay Gatsby first - Jay poor, not rich, so went to war - Daisy married Tom - Jay attains wealth...bootlegging? - Daisy and Gatsby meet again - feelings resurface - Gatsby's mansion the place to party - Daisy introduces Nick to a woman named Jordan - Tom has a mistress...Myrtle Wilson - Myrtle's husband owns a garage - Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick and Jordan go into town for the night - Plaza Hotel - Gatsby's yellow Rolls Royce - Gatsby wants Daisy to dump Tom and be with him - Daisy claims she has loved Tom too - Gatsby and Tom argue - Daisy wants to go home - Daisy drives the yellow Rolls - nearing home, Myrtle runs out into the road after a fight with her husband and Daisy accidentally hits and kills her with the yellow Rolls - witnesses blame Gatsby...it was his car they saw - Gatsby takes the blame for Daisy - Tom & Daisy cut off all communication with Gatsby and Nick - distraught Wilson kills Gatsby while he's in his pool - Nick arranges Gatsby's funeral, which very few people attend - disenchanted Nick dumps Jordan and heads back to the Midwest.

To the Lighthouse: Summer house in Scotland - 5 year old James - the lighthouse - Mrs. Ramsay - eight children - gifted Andrew, beauty Prue, mischievous Cam, precocious James, independent Nancy - guests in and out of the house - Mrs. Ramsay's dear friend, Lily - Lily's canvas painting - dinner party - lost brooch on the beach - Mr. Ramsay denies James trip to lighthouse due to weather - a few years later, Mrs. Ramsay has died - son Andrew killed in WWII - daughter Prue dies from childbirth complications - 10 years after start of novel Mr. Ramsay finally takes James to the lighthouse - James steers the boat - Cam goes along - Lily goes along - finally father is able to connect with two of his children - finally Lily is able to complete her portrait - complicated, stream of conscious book.

Lord of the Flies: Plane crash - remote island - all boys - self-governing - Ralph - chief - Piggy - conch shell - leadership - Piggy's glasses - fire - choir boys - Jack Merridew - innocent Simon - leadership struggles - boundaries crossed - right from wrong blurred - "the beast" - Simon finds the pig head - boys become savages - ritual dance - Simon savagely killed by the boys - the beast is really a dead parachutist - Jack Merridew and his tribe become more savage - Castle Rock - conch is shattered - Piggy deliberately killed by boulder - tribe sets fire to the forest - Ralph runs for his life towards the beach from the tribe and the fire -  finally a rescue ship - British naval officer finds the boys - savagery comes to a glaring halt - boys are saved - Jack Merridew just looks like an innocent school boy - Piggy's glasses hang at Jack's waist

Slaughterhouse-Five: Billy Pilgrim - WWII - Dresden - marching in the snow - freezing - POW - old slaughterhouse is the prison - So it goes. - Tralfamadores - aliens - fourth dimension - Billy time travels - Billy is kept in the Tralfamadore "zoo" - Billy knows when he'll die and who will kill him - So it goes. - Edgar Derby - American school teacher POW - Edgar executed for looting teapot - So it goes. - Billy married with two kids after war - gives speeches about Tralfamadores around the country - Billy killed by former fellow POW Paul Lazzaro. - So it goes.

This Side of Paradise:  Amory Blaine - wealthy, charming, Princeton - mother Beatrice - mentor Monsignor Darcy - Big Man on Campus versus The Slicker - Amory wants to be popular, but not to conform - writes for The Daily Princetonian - member of The Triangle Club, musical theater - meets voracious reader and friend, Tom D'Invilliers - Amory fails a class - member of social club on campus, The Cottage - lots of drinking until prohibition hits - Amory's mother dies - family money has dwindled due to bad investments - Amory grapples with being "poor" - Amory loves Isabelle - short and passionate, not right for each other, a pesky fight is their undoing - Amory loves Clara - widowed cousin with children, doesn't love Amory back - Amory loves Rosalind - rich debutante loves Amory back, but her mother berates her into marrying rich man instead of poor Amory - Amory is heartbroken - The unwelcome November rain had perversely stolen the day's last hour and pawned it with that ancient fence, the night. - Good friend, Dick Humbird, killed in accident, affects Amory the rest of the book - Amory is a bayonet instructor in WWI - keeps in touch with Monsignor Darcy, his father figure - Amory loves Eleanor, meets her in a rainstorm, instantly like each other, relationship over when Eleanor deliberately rides her horse towards a cliff, jumps off, and lets horse go over - Monsignor Darcy dies - Amory lost and disillusioned - After all his relationships and experiences, last line of book by Amory, "I know myself, but that is all." 

The Importance of Being Earnest: Delightful, funny, play - Algernon Moncrieff: The very essence of romance is uncertainty - Algernon Moncrieff - John Worthing - best friends - John maintains an innocent, duplicitous identity, one for the country and one for the city - John pretends to be his libertine brother, Ernest, in the city, and goes by John in the presence of his ward, the beautiful Cecily, in the country - Cecily lives there with her governess, Miss Prism - Miss Prism: Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary that we all carry about with us. Cecily: Yes, but it usually chronicles the things that have never happened, and couldn't possibly have happened! - John proposes to Algernon's cousin Gwendolen - Gwendolen loves John, but seemingly because she adores the name Ernest (who she met him as) - John decides to ask the rector to formally change his name to Ernest - John, adopted as a baby, was found in a handbag in a train station - upon this knowledge of questionable lineage, Gwendolen's mother (Algernon's aunt), Lady Bracknell says no to the marriage - meanwhile, Algernon decides to go and meet John's ward, Cecily - Algernon passes himself off as John's never-seen brother, Ernest - Algernon and Cecily fall instantly in love! - Algernon determines to also ask the rector to formally change his name to Ernest, as Cecily loves the name - At that moment, John arrives home to see Cecily - deciding to end his duplicity by telling Cecily that his brother, Ernest, has passed away - this is news to Cecily since she is in the presence of who she assumes to be his brother Ernest - John and Algernon retreat to a different room to figure out what to do - Gwendolen then arrives at John's country house, having run from her mother, to let John know she will marry him no matter what - Gwendolen and Cecily come face to face - both claim to be in love with and be loved by and engaged to Ernest - John and Algernon appear to confess their shenanigans - Lady Bracknell arrives in pursuit of Gwendolen  and is surprised to find Algernon engaged to Cecily - meanwhile, John will only agree to let Cecily marry Algernon if Lady Bracknell allows Gwendolyn to marry John - the awkward moment is broken up by the arrival of Cecily's governess, Miss Prism - Lady Bracknell recognizes Miss Prism as the family employee who went for a walk with her sister's baby boy 28 years before and returned without him - the literary-minded Miss Prism explains that she accidentally put the baby in her handbag and a manuscript she was reading in the pram, and then left her handbag in the train station - John shows that he still has the handbag he was found in - Voila! John is the long lost baby and Algernon's older brother - Gwendolen insists she will still only marry a man whose name is Ernest - After looking at old records, it is determined that John and Algernon's father, always just known as Colonel Moncrief, was named Ernest, and the eldest son, and lost child had, in fact, been named Ernest after him - the happy couples embrace - after all the antics Lady Bracknell says to her new-found nephew, "My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality" John responds, "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest". :-)