Finished: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (Fielding) This was a very good book with ANOTHER happy ending!! What's going on with my British Lit here?? :-) At over 800 pages, the author did get a bit preachy and wordy in his descriptions at times....especially including a message to readers, critics, etc. taking up the first chapter of each of the books within the book. That was completely unnecessary to me. I don't like it when authors break that dimensional plane...is that what it's called? Anyway, the story itself was compelling and kept me interested. Tom Jones, the hero of the story, was not all like what I imagined Tom Jones to be. I for some reason always thought Tom Jones was a womanizing scoundrel, but he wasn't at all that. He was a very young man who had a couple of dalliances that got him into some trouble but then he fell in love with Sophia Western, the heroine of the story, and his heart was true to her from that moment on! The problem was...Sophia was from a well-to-do family and Tom was a bastard child who had simply been raised by a well-to-do man, Mr. Allworthy. Yes, he was just like his name sounds...a very compassionate, worthy man. Taking in what he thought to be a town girl's illegitimate child when she abandoned it, he raised Tom like his own son, giving him all the benefits of a gentleman's upbringing. And, when Mr. Allworthy's sister married and had her own son, always only known by his last name, Blifil, the boys were raised together. Of course, the story being predictable, Blifil was really the scoundrel, and pretty hateful behind Tom's back, while Tom grew up with the most honorable and appreciative of inner beings. So, when Tom and Sohpia fall in love, neither can even acknowledge it because his history of being a bastard with no fortune of his own to his name is well known ,and a lady cannot marry beneath her in that day and age. All manner of things occur to keep them apart, mainly Mr. Western trying to marry Sophia off to Blifil, which prompts her to run away to London. Both Tom and Sophia go through many trials and tribulations, but always maintain their love for each other. And, in the end, it is discovered that it was really Mr. Allworthy's sister who secretly gave birth to Tom before she was married, and before she could tell anyone, she passed away. Of course, she had left an explanatory letter with a lawyer who had handed the letter to Blifil (then a young man), who, in one of his more dastardly deeds, never showed his uncle and never let Tom know that he was, in fact, his own half brother. Anyway, it all comes out in the end and Sophia is free to marry Tom. All the good people are happy in the end, and all the not good people meet less than happy fates, but not fatal fates, lol. Yay!

Finished: The Tin Drum (Grass) Still digesting this very bizarre, yet attention-holding Nobel Prize winning book! I wasn't looking forward to reading this one from the Top 100 list, but now I'm really glad I did...even if it might not make my personal Top 100 list. It is obviously good literature, even if I might not "get" all the double, political meanings of everything. There is so much reference to World War II, through imagery and different metaphors, including the storming of Normandy, and the taking over of Danzig by the approaching Russians, and more. I think this is probably what gave the book it's Nobel Prize winning status. If you read between the lines, or I guess, read the lines and are able to interpret what they mean, it can be very powerful. I don't think my brain understood as much of it as it should...but then I didn't live during that time. I think sometimes you have to have truly experienced the war horrors and history being made to totally grasp it. I don't know.

Reading this story of Oskar Matzerath, a patient in a mental institution who stopped growing at the age of three and lived his entire life through banging on his tin drum is kind of like a train wreck...you just can't look away. I do like the author's writing, which is always important in keeping me engaged. Oskar weaves his tale, going back to the conception of his mother under his grandmother's huge skirts as she squatted in a potato field and harbored his soon-to-be grandfather, who took refuge under those skirts while running from authorities. While grandmother, Anna, pointed the authorities in the wrong direction, Joseph impregnated the helpful stranger. Once married, Anna and Joe had daughter, Agnes, who becomes Oskar's mother. The story takes place in Danzig in the beginning  years of World War II. Agnes falls in love with her Polish cousin, Jan Bronski, but they resist their love and Agnes marries German grocer, Alfred Matzerath. However, Agnes and Jan can't keep their hands off of each other, so Jan becomes a friend of the family and Agnes and Jan begin a love affair right under the nose of Alfred...who seems more interested in German party activities and cooking exotic meals anyway. Of course, Agnes becomes pregnant and gives birth to Oskar, who has the Bronski blue eyes. As Oskar grows up, in his mind he considers Jan to be his father, and Alfred his "presumptive" father. Oskar is born with extreme intelligence and can understand everything from the moment he's born. He hears his father say that Oskar will follow him into the grocery business and he hears his mother say that on his third birthday, she will buy Oskar a tin drum. Oskar decides then and there he will never be a grocer. He waits patiently for three years for his tin drum...going through all the antics of being a baby, etc. On his third birthday, sure enough Oskar gets his tin drum. He decides that he is picture perfect with his drum, and therefore, should never grow another inch. Oskar throws himself down the cellar stairs when the door is accidentally left open and while suffering only a small head injury, true to his word, he doesn't grow another inch. Doctors blame the fall. Though he does grow in mental  years, he acts to his family like a three year old until after he's into his 20's. Oh, and along with that, he develops this ear-piercing talent of breaking what glass he likes with his screams. So...just try and take that drum away from him! The story then goes on to tell all about how Oskar deals with his mother's death due to eating too much fish, his real father's death while defending the Polish post office in the war, his presumptive father's death by choking on his party pin after swallowing it to hide it from the invading Russians; and how he falls in love with Maria, then Roswitha, and how he even father's a child by Maria....all when he's in all their minds, just a three year old. After his "presumptive" father, Alfred, dies Oskar realizes just how much Alfred really meant to him and he throws his drum into the grave with Alfred, gives up drumming, and decides to finally grow. And grow he does...but only about another foot in height. He also grows a hump, and his head grows a bit abnormally large. In other words, he appears to be more of a "dwarf", as he is called, than just a small child. I don't know if he was actually a "little person" all along, or not. After all, he is telling this story from a mental institution, so what do we believe? And, so the story goes on and on and flits back and forth between Oskar in the mental institution then back to his life story. Oskar does all kinds of things...becomes the Christ-like leader of a group of teen hooligans, does a stint in a traveling circus-like show with his mentor and friend, Bebra the dwarf, becomes a gravestone carver, becomes a nude model, takes the drum back up and becomes a drummer in a jazz band, and then on his own stage show, becomes wealthy...AND...falls in love with a nurse, Dorothea, who lives in his same rental flat, but who he never sees face to face. However, when Dorothea ends up murdered, Oskar is suspected, tried, declared insane, and committed to the institution where he spends two years drumming away on his drum once again, and reliving his life by "drumming" it out. At the end of the story, Oskar turns 30 years old and finds out from  his lawyer that they have a new suspect in Dorothea's murder and that he will likely be set free. Oskar laments about what he will do back in the real world. It sounds bizarre, because it is, but in a way I can't put my finger on, it is also intriguing. :-)

A couple of interesting quotes: When Agnes tries to take Oskar to Kindergarten when he turns 5, needless to say, Oskar has a terrible first day, shatters all kinds of windows, and is asked by the teacher not to return. There is a quote that blew my mind!

No more pencils. No more books. No more teacher's dirty looks.

OMG...aren't those the lyrics to Alice Cooper's School's Out For Summer written at least 30 years later?? I was just floored by that...wondering if Alice Cooper was some literary guy or something, lol.

The next quote I liked was when Oskar was born and heard his mother's first words:

    Mama was thinking less about the business and more about equipping her son: "Well, I knew it would be a boy, even if I sometimes said it would be a little lass."
    Thus prematurely acquainted with feminine logic, I heard the following: "When little Oskar is three years old, we'll give him a tin drum."

I just love that part..."thus prematurely acquainted with feminine logic"...lol

Finished: The Woman in White (Collins) Finally, a book written in the 1800's with a happy ending...and what's more...it was a page-turner! This one definitely deserves it's spot on the Top 100 list. :-) The author was too subtle for me to put my finger on it, but he kept me in suspense with each chapter, and I just had to keep reading to see what was going to happen! I feared the worst, having read so many books written about English folks in the 1700's and 1800's. I was so pleasantly surprised to get a happy ending...even though in the middle of the book we think the beloved heroine, Laura Fairlie, had died. I just knew there was a switcheroo up his sleeve, and rather than Laura dying, her look-a-like, the "woman in white" Ann Catherick had died instead and had been mourned and buried in her place! The book is far too immense for me to outline the entire plot, but I'll give a brief synopsis. The young drawing master, Walter Hartright, is hired to be the drawing instructor for young adult sisters, Marian and Laura Fairlie. Since the death of their parents, they have lived with their uncle at his massive estate, and Laura Fairlie, age 20, stands to inherit the entire property when her uncle dies, and a nice sum of money when she turns 21 left to her by her parents. Marian isn't in the inheritance discussion because Laura's father (the brother of the uncle) had married Marian's mother (a widow) after she already had Marian, so Laura and Marian are half-sisters who are devoted to each other, nonetheless. As you might assume, Walter falls in love with Laura, and she with him, but they never act on their feelings or even admit them because, sadly, Laura is engaged to be married to Sir Percival Glyde. This arranged marriage was promised to her father on his deathbed, and though Laura hardly knows Percival, she is bound to the marriage. Marian breaks the news to Walter and they all three realize that the proper thing for him to do is leave right away. Before he can leave, though, Laura receives a disorienting letter from a woman who claims that she should stay far away from Percival Glyde...that he is evil and will ruin her life. Walter and Marian set out to find out who wrote the letter and if it could possibly be true. Walter thinks back to when he first walked up the road to arrive at the estate and he recounts his exchange with a mysterious woman dressed all in white in the middle of the night who he came across on the road. She was in apparent distress and asked him only for his help in procuring her a cab. Walter aids her and can't shake the meeting with the mysterious woman. As Walter and Marian dig deeper, it turns out that the woman in white wrote the letter! She was actually an escapee from an asylum who had known Laura's mother as a young girl. Laura's mother had been the only person who was kind to her. And, as a young girl, she bore a striking resemblance to Laura! Her name was....Ann Catherick. As the plot goes on after Walter says a heartbreaking goodbye to Laura, Percival charms and ingratiates himself into the family. You can just tell that he's up to no good! He brings along his good friend, and Italian expatriate, Count Fosco and his wife...who just happens to be the aunt of Laura and Marian and the sister of their uncle. The uncle had disowned her of her substantial inheritance years before when she married the Count against his wishes. Upon reading that, you just know that Percival, the Count and the Countess are all in it together to get Laura's money....especially when Percival's lawyer insists that the huge inheritance that Laura will receive when she's 21 shall go to her husband if Laura predeceases him, and not her sister as she had planned. As it turns out, both Sir Percival and the Count are broke and desperate for money, so dangerous plots ensue! Rather than kill Laura, though, they actually find the mysterious woman in white, who Percival detests because he thinks she knows a deep, life-changing secret of his. She is already suffering from a bad heart, and it doesn't take much to excite her into fainting into death. They then drug Laura and have her committed to the asylum, declaring she is Ann Catherick, and they "mourn", bury and inherit the money of the dead, Laura. It takes the determination and courage of both Walter and Laura's sister Marian to figure things out and realize that Laura isn't dead at all! She is frail, however, and doesn't remember many details of how things occurred. As they nurse her back to good health, Walter goes on a mission to find out Percival's secret, to prove that Laura is very much alive, to bring her good name back to her uncle, to make Percival and the Count both pay, and to have her name removed from the burial cross where she was laid to rest with her mother. And....oh my gosh...it all actually happens. :-) And, as Laura grows stronger, she and Walter rekindle their old love and are able to marry after Percival accidentally burns himself up in a rectory trying to destroy the evidence of his big secret, hee hee! That is a very short summary of what turned out to be a really good book! So glad I stuck to my guns to complete the Top 100 list!

Finished: Missing You (Coben) Another page-turner by one of my favorite contemporary authors. :-) I'm thinking that Coben may be introducing a new police detective, Kat Donovan, who he will write more stories for. I like her already. And, her story didn't really finish when the crimes in this book were solved. Yes....the bad guy...Titus Monroe is still alive and kicking at the end. I definitely smell a sequel. And, I love how Harlan Coben makes references to his other characters who he has written several novels about...Myron Bolitar, Win Lockwood, Esperanza, etc. All in all, a great read, especially for the beachy days in the Bahamas. :-)

Finished: Night (Wiesel) It blows my mind every time I read about a person's concentration camp experience during WWII that my parents were alive and teenagers while this was going on. How could this happen in our world?? I know other horrific things have happened in my lifetime. I just can't ever shake myself of the horror that Hitler put these innocent people through. Night is Elie Wiesel's personal story of his family being torn apart...women one way, and most likely incinerated in the giant chimney the first night of separation, and men the other way. He was fifteen years old and managed to stay at the same camps as his father, who passed away towards the end of their horrific experience. Elie was sixteen when they were finally liberated, but oh the horrors they went through. :-( Have I used the word horror too much? I don't think so. How about the word chimney? It has an entirely different, heartbreaking and permanent meaning to Elie Wiesel than it will ever have to me. How sad is that? There really are no words.

Finished: Finnegans Wake (Joyce), or as I call it, the emetic jibberish of Finnegans Wake. I hope to never waste that much time of my life reading such a useless piece of  "literature" again. That is all.

Fini: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (de Laclos). Un livre sur deux personnes méprisables qui ruinent la vie des autres pour le sport. The despicable people in question...the Vicomte de Valmonte and the Marquise de Merteuil. Former lovers, they hatch many schemes of seducing and ruining the lives of family members of those people they want revenge against, and in some cases, just want to make sport of. In the Vicomte's case, he seduces the 15 year old, Cecile Volanges, innocent daughter of a woman he is mad at. And, the scheme is actually concocted by the Marquise, while she pretends to be a friend and mentor to the young girl. Meanwhile, the Vicomte, who is a notorious, home-wrecking, womanizing, soulless rake, is also in the midst of seducing Madame de Tourvel, the pious, prim, faithful, beautiful young wife of a man who is unfortunately out of town for several months. All told in a series of letters back and forth (much like the novel Clarissa was told), the heartless people succeed in all their attempted seductions, resulting in tragedy for all, and death from humiliation and a broken heart for the poor Madame de Tourvel after Valmonte mercilessly dumps her with a cruel letter after a couple of weeks of sex. When, the Chevalier Danceny, the beloved suitor of Cecile Volanges finds out about the betrayal of his "friend" the Vicomte, and the debauchery he has led the innocent Cecile to, Danceny calls out Valmonte for a duel and fortunately kills him. I was happy to see this horrid character meet his demise. Also in the end, when her true nature is revealed, the Marquise de Merteuil is shunned by all of her society friends and ends up surviving a bout of smallpox with horrific facial scaring and the loss of an eye. Her appearance prompts a former friend to comment that her ugly inner self is showing itself on the outside now. In all, the book held my interest in that I was hoping that the innocents like Cecile and Madame de Tourvel would somehow persevere and come out ok in the end....and...that the Marquise and the Vicomte would get their comeuppance. Does this book belong on the Top 100 list which is the only reason I read it? Nahhhh, I don't think so.

Finished: The Secret Garden (Burnett) A lovely book about how love, companionship, kindness and nature can help children overcome abandonment, low self-worth, and selfishness. The story of spoiled, loveless orphan, Mary who comes to live with her uncle at his mansion. The uncle, Mr. Craven, having lost his beloved wife ten years ago, lives in sorrow and pays no attention to his bedridden ten year old son, whose eyes look just like his mothers. Mary, because she has never learned any manners herself, is the only person to stand up to the sickly, demanding, equally spoiled, Colin. Both children are victims of their awful circumstances, in which their parents had all the money in the world, but basically ignored the children as if they didn't exist their entire lives. :-( They find kindred spirits in each other, and in Dickon, the younger brother of one of the housemaids. Dickon is kind, compassionate, a natural with animals, a nature lover, and an all-around good human being. Through example, Dickon teaches first Mary, and then Colin, how to love themselves, how to love others, how to appreciate the world around them, how to play, how to enjoy life, how to laugh, etc. And...all this is done in the setting of the "secret garden". The secret garden is the garden which has been closed down by orders of Mr. Craven for the past ten years....ever since his wife died there. His wife loved the garden, and everything planted in it, including her precious roses. However, after her death, Mr. Craven locks the only door to the garden, lets the ivy grow over the door, and buries the key. Mary discovers the key to the door one day after hearing about the secret garden from the old gardener, Ben. Then, Ben's friend, the little robin, chirps his way over to the door and shows Mary how to get in. And, the rest is history...Mary becomes healthy and lovable, as does Colin. Dickon makes two lifelong friends. And, Mr. Craven, who has been off on another months-long trip, has a weird dream about the garden. He begins to have a smidgen of hope and even second guess himself as to how he's treated his own son. He high-tails it home just in time to see Colin come bursting on two healthy legs out of the door to the secret garden. Thrilled with the story, and so happy to see his son healthy, the book ends...but we know the tale must surely go on. I would love to see the musical version of this now that I've read the book! It was one of my brother's favorite musicals when he was alive.

Nightmare Abbey (Peacock). Hmm, well, I would never have put that book on the Top 100 list. Granted, it was #100, but still. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be a huge satire about the melancholy existence of some of England's great poets, and their woe-be-gone angst. I had to actually go and read about the book to understand it, and once I did...then it made a little more sense. The main character, Scythrop, the gloomy Mr. Glowry's dramatic son and heir, lives in the tower of Nightmare Abbey. He's supposed to be a representation of Percy Bysshe Shelley. And, the two ladies he falls for, Marionetta and Stella, are supposed to be Percy's two great loves. Anyway, with character names like Mr. Listless, Mr. Toobad, Mr. Asterius, and his son Aquarius, the book does bring a smile to my face at times. And, there are a few good lines to boot, especially from Mr. Listless. Mostly, it's just an 80 page forum for the author to discuss all manner of thoughts, like transcendentalism, etc., that poets discussed in the day. There's also a Mr. Flosky, who is supposed to be Samuel Coleridge, and a Mr. Cypress who is supposed to be Lord Byron. There are a couple of twisty surprises, but for the most part, I would put Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband or GB Shaw's Heartbreak House or Moliere's Tartuffe on the list of Top 100 way before I'd put this one there. :-)

Finished: Appointment in Samarra (O'Hara). I really, really liked this book! I think it definitely belongs on the Top 100 list, where it is. Now, I have to let it settle a bit and figure out if it belongs on my "favorites" list. I can't even exactly explain why I like it so much, but I just do...it moves along fast; it has lots of dialogue between the characters; it gives just enough character background, for those you love and you don't love; it's very well written; and it's just a simple book about a slice of life in America in 1930! The main characters, Julian and Caroline English are a young married couple, about 30 years old. They have both been raised in the "rich" part of their little Pennsylvania town called Gibbsville. Married four years, we are introduced to them in the midst of a party at the "club" with all their friends of equal socio-economic status on Christmas Eve. Julian is the owner of the Cadillac dealership in town. He's handsome and privileged and totally in love with his wife. However...it is clear that he's on his way to becoming an alcoholic, if he's not already one. After a few drinks, he commits an act that leads to a spiraling of unfortunate events that leads to his committing suicide two days later. :-( While he's sitting in the club listening to one of his friends, Harry Reilly, tell one of his notoriously boisterous, funny, and repetitive stories, Julian gets very annoyed at it and throws his drink in Harry's face. The problem is....Harry had recently loaned Julian $20,000 for his company... AND ...though no one really likes Harry, too many people owe him money for one thing or another, so everyone is aghast (even if fakely) at Julian. Caroline, a pretty, lovely girl who everyone adores, begs her husband to apologize to Harry the next day and set things right. She also begs Julian not to get drunk that day. Julian attempts to see Harry, but Harry won't see him. Julian proceeds to drink that day and ruin things further when he gets mad a Caroline for refusing to meet him out in the car for a quickie when they go to another party at the club that night. He proceeds to get drunk and flirt with the mistress of the local mobster, Ed Charney, another person that no one in town wants to anger. When Julian and the mistress sneak out to the car, everyone sees what they're doing, including poor Caroline. Julian is too drunk to actually have sex with the woman, but the humiliating damage is done. Caroline goes home to her mother and has a really nice mother/daughter talk. The next morning she is all set to leave to go home and have their own party which is scheduled for that evening. Julian is waiting for her on the street in his own car, and rather than apologizing, he just digs things deeper by being sarcastic and argumentative. He even tells her how he just got into another fight at the club with one of his best friends, Froggy, the war vet who lost an arm in the war. Julian is very upset because Froggy lambasted him for his behavior, and in a blow to Julian's self-esteem, ended up telling Julian that he's never liked him. Julian is in almost more despair about this than his fight with Caroline, since he considered Froggy one of his best friends. He wonders if none of his friends really like him. As he walks away from Caroline after his snarkiness, Caroline tells him to cancel the party...that this is it for her. She's going to stay at her mothers. Their marriage is over. Julian goes home and drinks himself into a stupor, goes out to the garage, starts his Cadillac, and kills himself from carbon monoxide poisoning. It's very drastic and sad. One of the reasons that this book is so good is that I don't ever NOT like Julian. Even with all his antics, he's somehow sympathetic, and I'm not one to have sympathy for an alcoholic womanizer. I don't know if womanizer is the right word since he's never cheated on Caroline and adores her. He just seems to make that first bad decision and things spiral out of control. Anyway, along the way, during this fast-paced story, we meet other characters, like Lute & Irma Fliegler. Lute works for Julian at the dealership and is in the "working-man" class. He and Irma have been married ten years, have three kids, and have the best relationship in the book. Lots of good characters!

At the beginning of the book, in the epigraph, you get a definite foreshadowing of things to come (not to mention the origin of the title of the book) when the author includes the famous retelling of a story by fellow author M. Somerset Maugham. I love it so much that I think I'll include it here:

A merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the marketplace for provisions. Shortly, the servant comes home white and trembling and tells him that in the marketplace he was jostled by a woman, whom he recognized as Death, and she made a threatening gesture. Borrowing the merchant's horse, he flees at top speed to Samarra, a distance of about 75 miles, where he believes Death will not find him. The merchant then goes to the marketplace and finds Death, and asks why she made the threatening gesture. She replies, "That was not a threatening gesture, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."

From that point on out, I was hooked. Anyway, it's just a good book that I'm still savoring, so I think that's it for now. :-)