And so the soldiers buried Hector breaker of horses....Finished: The Iliad (Homer)...and that was the last line of a classic book. I'm so, so glad I finally read this! I had put if off because it is so long and I wondered if it would keep my interest. It did keep my interest, and showed me at the same time why Homer was considered to be one of the greats. Of course, I was reading a translation (translated by Robert Fagles) of the original language, but it was beautifully written. :-) He kind of "had me at hello" with passages like this one that describes the hordes of the Achaean army (the Greeks) as they marched ahead to attack the Trojans:

   As a heavy surf assaults some roaring coast,
piling breaker on breaker whipped by the West Wind, 
and out on the open sea a crest first rears its head
then pounds down on the shore with hoarse, rumbling thunder
and in come more shouldering crests, arching up and breaking
against some rocky spit, exploding salt foam to the skies--
so wave on wave they came, Achaean battalions ceaseless,
surging on to war. Each captain ordered his men
and the ranks moved on in silence...
You'd never think so many troops could march 
holding their voices in their chests, all silence, 
fearing their chiefs who called out clear commands,
and the burnished blazoned armor round their bodies flared,
the formations trampling on.

That's just a taste of the descriptiveness. I could SO see the waves and breakers hitting the coast just like they do when we vacation in Oregon....perfect imagery....and then they totally translated over in my mind to become the soldiers marching on. Anyway, I really liked the book! I basically knew the story of Helen, Troy, Paris, Hector, Achilles, Patroclus, Agamemnon, Priam, etc., but  I never realized that the gods played such a roll in the war, at least in Homer's version. :-) There were Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, and Apollo, always in the mix...making spears miss, making their wounded favorites disappear in a mist before death, etc. It was truly almost more a war of the gods than one of men. Also, I'd never read the story in such lengthy detail. Some of the passages in the book did get a little gruesome in their descriptions of death, and tiresome in the endless naming of so-and-so son of so-and-so and so forth, lol. Oh, and I was really surprised that the book ended with Hector's burial and NOT the death of Achilles, especially given how much Achilles' foretold death was mentioned in the book. And, of course, that means no Trojan horse in this story either. Oh well...I'm still happy to be finished, but even more so, happy that I read and enjoyed such a classic!

Finished: Line of Fire (White) Another page turner! Hard to believe this series is almost at an end. :-( I will definitely miss Dr. Alan Gregory, his wife Lauren, and best friend Sam Purdy, the cop. Of course, I also missed Adrienne and Peter when they were killed off in the middle of the series! I truly hope that Lauren did NOT die at the end of this book as the implication seems to be. I guess I have to wait until August to read the last in the Dr. Alan Gregory series. To think that my son just randomly gave me a book for my birthday one year that he thought I'd enjoy, Privileged Information...the first book in the series....and I've read most of the books in the series since! I still have one to read that plops Sam Purdy right down at Yale University. Anyway, another page-turning, shock-ending book. Honestly, though, were Alan and Sam REALLY stupid enough to talk about a huge secret in the ICU room of someone they thought was unconscious?? Looking forward to August. :-)

Finished: The House of Mirth (Wharton). Awww, another sad ending. :-( Darn, I really thought this one might actually end happily. It was obvious through the whole book that Lily Bart and Lawrence Seldon loved each other, but the evils of high society gossips and superior judgments were the downfall of poor Lily. Why couldn't Seldon have just not believed the worst in her when he saw her coming out of Trenor's house?? Through every obstacle in trying to keep herself afloat in the circles of the upper crust, and from spiraling into the despair of poverty, Lily's gut conscience always won out and she didn't follow through with plans to marry rich men she didn't love or blackmail the hideous Bertha Dorsett, etc. When she thought Gus Trenor had legitimately turned her meager $100 into $9000 with stock investments, she was shocked to learn that he'd really just given her the money and then expected favors in return. Sadly, everyone else believed she'd given the favors....including the level-headed, obviously in love, Seldon. When Bertha Dorsett paid Lily to come on a Mediterranean cruise with her and her husband, George, to be a distraction to George so Bertha could carry on an affair under his nose, the ending results were again disastrous...with Bertha dumping her young lover, and publicly ousting Lily from her employ with the suggestion that she'd been having an affair with George! Nothing could have been further from the truth, but money and gossip prevailed, and Lily was pretty much ruined. Just when she finally figured things out at the end, and kept her pride, and learned that maybe love was more important than being rich...and just when I think she was going to go and confess her love to Seldon....and just when Seldon was actually on his way over to Lily's to sweep her off her feet and tell her he loved her, she took an accidental overdose of sleeping drops to help her get through the fretful night and died. :-( Dang it! I want one of these old classics to have a happy ending!!!!!!! A good book, but sad, sad, sad.

On an interesting side note...apparently Edith Wharton's family is where the term "keeping up with the Joneses" came from! Edith's maiden name being Jones, and the family being ultra wealthy, they traveled back and forth from Europe to New York to Newport during Edith's childhood. I just thought that was interesting. :-)

Finished: Vanity Fair (Thackeray). A really good, and very looonnnngg book! I can see why it is on the Top 100 list, but I just need to decide if it's on MY Top 100 list. At 950 pages, it was super wordy...and I mean in the descriptive way. Of course, that's one of the big reasons it's considered one of the great novels. The detail and depth which Thackeray goes into when expounding on the lives and doings of the British upper classes in the early 1800's is mind-boggling. And, he does much of it with names of people and places that were supposed to be a humorous satire of the times. I don't always get those jokes, because, well...I didn't live back then when it was first published. Anyway....he's brilliant in his writing, but as always, I prefer much more dialogue and action than I do so much intense description and tangent-taking to describe different social people who had nothing to do with the story. However, I would venture to say that Vanity Fair will make it onto my Top 100 books list. Thackeray titles the book Vanity Fair, or The Novel Without a Hero...but I beg to differ. I consider Major William Dobbin to be the epitome of a hero. Does a hero have to be good-looking and the lady-charmer? The story begins with the teen aged young ladies, Amelia Smedley and Rebecca Sharp graduating from Miss Pinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies and arriving at Amelia Smedley's manor. Amelia has grown up well off and in the upper class. Becky has grown up poor, the daughter of an artist and a stage dancer, who are both deceased. She had been at Pinkerton's on scholarship. She is the focus of much of the story...her personality, her ability to take advantage of anyone and everyone to propel herself up the social ladder. She hoodwinks nearly everyone in the story at one time or another with her charm, wit and personality. She appears to genuinely care for people, but in reality, she cares only for herself. Amelia is the opposite, almost to a sad degree. She's the sweetest, truest, sappiest of people. She's been "engaged" to fellow socialite, George Osbourne, since childhood and they are well on their way to marriage. However, the good-looking, charming, self-centered George has become quite full of himself and turned into a dandy. George's best friend, confident, and protector, the not-so-good looking William Dobbin, is always there to guide him in the right direction....and he's also helplessly in love with Amelia. Amelia, though, only has eyes and a heart for George. Even when George has a wandering eye and questions getting married, Dobbin is there to strongly encourage him to tow the line. When the Smedley's loose all their money and become destitute, George's horrible father, who owes much of his own success to Amelia's father, forbids George to marry Amelia. When George breaks it off, Amelia becomes so despondent that Dobbin feels like she is at death's door. He convinces George that he should do the right thing and marry the girl who he's been promised to his whole life...the girl who has totally given him her heart. So, George defies his father and marries Amelia. George's father is furious and disinherits him. George and Amelia spend a few weeks of happy bliss on their honeymoon trip until the reality of having no money sets in on George. They truly do love each other...but then George's eye is caught by the wicked Becky! Becky, who had become a governess for crotchety, uncouth Sir Pitt Crawley's young daughters from his second marriage, had then fallen for Sir Pitt's careless, cavalier, charming, free-spirited, much in debt from his shenanigans, younger son from his first marriage, Rawdon Crowley. Rawdon is someone who actually COULD have been a hero in the story, but the author clearly wanted to show him in a very weak light so Becky could be pushed to the forefront. Anyway, Rawdon is in line and favor to inherit his rich aunt's money when she dies, as she adores his unruly ways. She even falls in love with Becky, like everyone who meets her does. But...when Becky and Rawdon elope, the aunt has a hissy fit because she believes that Becky is too beneath Rawdon's station. So....the aunt disinherits Rawdon. Rawdon and Becky continue to spend what they don't have, living on credit, and charming people out of money, or in Rawdon's case, winning money from people at billiards. When Becky and Rawdon run into Amelia and George on their honeymoon trip, Becky is already thrusting herself higher into society by flirting with all the officers. They are all in Brussels in the days before Napoleon's big march to regain his former power. George, Rawdon and William Dobbin are all in the military and expect to be called to battle any day. Becky sets her sights on turning George's eye, and she succeeds. He actually asks her to run away with him, but then when they all find out the men will be called out the next morning to fight, George has a crisis of conscience and falls into Amelia's arms and declares his love. The battle that follows is the famous Battle of Waterloo. Only two of the young men come home alive. Meanwhile, Amelia shows anger for the first time in her life and estranges  herself from Becky, who she used to see as a close friend. Amelia knows that Becky had set her charms on George. George is the one who is killed in battle, and Amelia is devastated.  However, Amelia is pregnant! And, for that matter...so is Becky! Baby George brings Amelia back to life, and she loves him more than anything in her life. Poor Dobbin who is always there for her and the baby, is still on the back burner and she never even glances his way romantically. He knows she'll never love him the way he does her. Becky, who goes hot and cold with Rawdon, seems to love him at times, but grows tired of him and just wants to climb higher and higher in society. Her baby son, Rawdon, is just something to get in her way. She instantly puts him out to a nurse and doesn't give him a second thought. :-(  Becky meets up with the Marquis Steyne, who she charms, and who takes her under his wing to propel her to new social heights...of course, at the expense of her relationship with Rawdon and her own son. It's so sad to see Becky ignore her little son as he grows older, though, Rawdon become a really good father! He loves spending time with his son, but he's so whipped by Becky that he does what she says most of the time, including sending the boy off here and there. Dobbin, knowing he hasn't a chance with Amelia, leaves town for over ten years. He makes sure, however, that Amelia and little George have a small income. However, Amelia's father puts them in dire straights once again and the family falls into dire poverty. ok, it's impossible to recap this 950 page book, lol. In any event, Dobbin does swoop back into town and declare his love for Amelia, but she still rebuffs him because of her love and duty to her dead husband. Dobbin, however, grows really close to the young Georgy. After a couple more years, Dobbin has finally had enough of being Amelia's lapdog...especially when she forgives the lying, scheming, opportunist Becky, who is back in the picture after being left by Rawdon, who finally grew some pride and dumped her when he walked in on her in a compromising position with Steyne. Becky has cried on Amelia's shoulder that the evil Rawdon ripped her own little Rawdon out of her arms and kept him from her, when in reality, Becky dumped her son long ago. When Dobbin can't convince Amelia of Becky's lies, and when Amelia is angry with Dobbin for his opinion, Dobbin finally tells her he's done! Finally, he shows some self-respect! He hops a ship back to England (they've all been in Germany), and soon, it's Becky of all people who convinces Amelia that George was never half the man that William Dobbin was, and that she should jump at the chance for true love. Amelia realizes that she does love Dobbin, and with Georgy's happy approval, writes and begs him to come back. Dobbin comes back and marries Amelia, making the three of them a family...and adding to the family with a baby daughter of his own. :-) I stand by my original statement...to love Amelia unconditionally all those years, and stand by not only her husband and friend, but then his widow and son, makes him a hero in my book! There is so much more to the book besides just the story of these young folks, but I can't possibly detail it all. Though Amelia, Dobbin and little George get their happy ending, I can't say that all the characters do. Still, in all....it was a very good book. :-)

Currently Reading: Vanity  Fair....this one could take awhile. It's over 900 pages! Good so far.

Finished: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (McCullers). A really good book! It definitely deserves its spot on the Top 100 list! This was a book that I wanted to finish but savor at the same time. The characters were so real, and came right off the page. I don't think I'll forget any of them for a long, long time....especially John Singer, Mick Kelly and Dr. Copeland. The writing was similar, to me, of Lee Harper's writing in To Kill a Mockingbird, which I also loved. It was so authentic and displayed the main characters feelings and hearts in such a moving way. The book is set in a small Georgia mill town in the 1930's, where race relations are definitely strained, and poverty is rampant among the whites and the blacks. John Singer is a 32 year old white deaf/mute who has been with his one friend, the obese and gluttonous Greek, Antonapoulos, for 10 years. They've lived together, walked to work together, spent meals together...but they are always just identified as friends, best friends. Whether or not their feelings were more than that, is never spelled out. When Antonapoulos is committed to a mental institution by his brother 200 miles away from their town for bizarre behavior, John Singer is totally lost. He packs up his belongings and moves into a boarding house run by the white Kelly family. The Kelly's, with their six children, barely make ends meet. Their 13 year old daughter, Mick, is the central character of that family. We hear her thoughts and feel her feelings. She usually takes care of her two younger brothers, and she's rather tomboyish. She also loves music! She is enthralled by music, more like it. She listens for hours to symphonies being performed outside the windows of the "rich" people of the town who have radios. Mick becomes fascinated with Mr. Singer, as do three other central characters. Mr. Singer can read lips, and he is so calm and understanding. He actually becomes the listener for all these characters. They poor out their hearts to him and each one of them feels as if they have a special, unique relationship with him...that he totally "gets" them. Mr. Singer, though, while he sympathizes with each character, basically has only thoughts of his friendship with Antonapoulos and waits for the days when he will get to see him again. He cares for the other characters, but in a more peripheral way. He still considers himself to have only one true friend, even though each of these people practically worship him and have come to count on his presence in their lives. Mick tells him about her love for music while he lets her listen to his radio. She just knows that he understands her more than anyone. Dr. Copeland, a black doctor who is run ragged in the town trying to take care of the black population, thinks Mr. Singer is the only man he's ever met who can understand the plight his people are going through, i.e., he feels he's the only decent white man alive. Biff Brannon, the all-night cafe owner, is more of a listener himself, but he comes to count on watching the relationships that these people develop with Mr. Singer, and a few times himself, he goes to talk to him. Jake Blount is a white, alcoholic, rabble-rouser. I'm not sure what to call him actually. He has very strong views about the oppression of ALL Americans by the rich and by the government. He is driven by the need to inform people how America has become so unfair to most of the population. He and Dr. Copeland actually have an all night conversation towards the end of the book, where they realize their feelings are pretty similar...however, Dr. Copeland wants to view it only in terms of how the black people are oppressed, while Jake wants to view it as how the entire nation is oppressed. They can never come to a solution as to how to resolve things. Dr. Copeland is a bitterly disappointed man whose own four children never understood his desire to have them make more of themselves than just being a white man's servant. They were all capable, but none succeeded, because none of them truly had that burning desire in their hearts like he did.

In essence, we have all these lonely, solitary people with deep feelings who have no one who understands them...until they meet John Singer. It is so sad that each one thinks they've met their soul-mate in terms of understanding, when in reality John Singer is just a nice guy who "listens", but doesn't totally understand what each of them is really saying. He knows he's important to them, and he's a super nice person, but his heartbeat lies 200 miles away with Antonapoulos. Mr. Singer goes to visit Antonapoulos, who is pretty self-centered, but I suppose mentally ill, three times. The first time, Antonapoulos is pretty disappointed that John Singer doesn't bring food. The second time, Mr. Singer panics when Antonapoulos isn't in his room anymore. It is Christmas time and he's brought presents and food. The desk clerk informs him that Antonapoulos has been moved to the infirmary due to nephritis. They spend a lovely evening together before Mr. Singer has to head back. The third time he goes to visit, he begins in the infirmary and doesn't find Antonapoulos there OR in his room. The desk clerk writes on a piece of paper that Antonapoulos is dead. Mr. Singer is beside himself. He wanders the town in despair before heading back to his own town where he takes a gun and kills himself. It is so, so sad. None of the four: Mick, Jake, Dr. Copeland or Biff can understand at all why Mr. Singer would have taken his own life. None of them really knew anything about him at all. I guess they were always so busy talking and unburdening their own hearts that no one ever asked him about himself. A heartbreaking end to a really good story....a story that will stay with me for awhile and go in my favorites list I'm pretty sure. Definitely John Singer will go in my Favorite Characters list.

A sample of just one of the passages that I liked. John Singer has been alone for a year and he's thinking back on alot of the selfish things that Antonapoulos used to do. However, he resolves to think of only the good times with his friend. Mr. Singer then also contemplates the other people who have come into his life:

    This was the Antonapoulos who now was always in his thoughts. This was the friend to whom he wanted to tell things that had come about. For something had happened in this year. He had been left in an alien land. Alone. He had opened his eyes and around him there was much he could not understand. He was bewildered.

    He watched the words shape on their lips.
    We Negroes want a chance to be free at least. And freedom is only the right to contribute. We want to serve and to share, to labor and in turn consume that which is due to us. But you are the only white man I have ever encountered who realizes this terrible need of my people.
    You see, Mister Singer? I got this music in me all the time. I got to be a real musician. Maybe I don't know anything now, but I will when I'm twenty. See, Mister Singer? And then I mean to travel in a foreign country where there's snow.
    Let's finish up the bottle. I want a small one. For we were thinking of freedom. That's the word like a worm in my brain. Yes? No? How much? How little? The word is a signal for piracy and theft and cunning. We'll be free and the smartest will then be able to enslave others. But! But there is another meaning to the word. Of all the words this is the most dangerous. We who know must be wary. The word makes us feel good--in fact the word is a great ideal. But it's with this ideal that the spiders spin their ugliest webs for us.
    The last one rubbed his nose. He did not come often and he did not say much. He asked questions. 
    The four people had been coming to his rooms now for more than seven months.....
    At first he had not understood the four people at all. They talked and they talked--and as the months went on they talked more and more. He became so used to their lips that he understood each word they said. And then after a while he knew what each one of them would say before he began, because the meaning was always the same.