A Tale of Two Cities

It took me nearly all summer to read this book and I know it's kind of depressing because I planned to read a lot more books this summer, but since Dickens is such a complex and eloquent writer, it takes a lot of brain power to focus on what is going on in the novel. In other words, this book isn't something that you just pick up and expect to read in a day. I had to look up words and even sometimes, I looked up dates and tried to figure out just what exactly was going on during the French revolution.

Like most other Dickens novels, this book is pretty long which kind of caught me off guard from the very beginning because I expected the book to be short, but at nearly 400 pages, it is still probably one of the shortest Dickens novels I've come across. I think Dickens is an acquired taste. Yes, he's great with words and explanations, but he's also repetitive and sometimes you'll be forced to read the same description four or five times which is fine the first time, but then you start wondering when his egotism will end and you can just move on with the book. Also, if a character explains something that happened to him/her then that character is most likely going to tell someone else what happened and the story will be explained all over again almost verbatim what you read the first time. It can get very frustrating. It's also kind of frustrating that the characters don't seem to be developed that well. The Defarges are given a pretty good background, although, we do not really understand Madame Defarge until the end (just another one of those amazing plot twists), but I feel like Lucie isn't explained that well nor do I fully understand Darnay's situation prior to coming to England.

That all being said, the book is amazing; however, you should probably not watch the movie then try to read the book like I did. It ruins everything and it makes reading the book go that much slower. Sydney Carton is of course a wonderful character. Part of me kind of wants a book written just about him, but I think it would ruin his selflessness and basically ruin the whole ending of the novel. Which I will not give away.

Did I like the book?     Yes, I loved it!
Would I read it again?    No, probably not, but if I did, it would be the first and last chapter only. Beautiful language in those chapters.
Do I recommend it?       Yes! Yes!

The Fault In Our Stars

So it's been a little over half a year since I've posted anything to this blog. Wow. Ironically enough, I have been reading very rapidly and even if I have a lot of time to dedicate to reading, I just do not seem to have enough time to sit down and post anything to my blog. For instance, I read The Fault in Our Stars in the short span of two days. I devoured this book because it is truly wonderful. And I hate modern books so this book has to be spectacular for me to give it the thumbs up.

*Warning: There is the slight possibility of spoilers*

 

This book is, as previously stated, absolutely wonderful. It's everything you would expect of a book about cancer, except not really. The characters have a little more bite to them than your typical cancer characters. They're so hopelessly certain of their death that it makes them try all the more to enjoy life while they can instead of sitting around waiting for the sun to swallow them up.

 

Yes, it's a romance. What more do you want from cancer kids than to see them fall in love in their sweet little teenage-angst way? Seriously though, this book epitomizes young love and the definition of understanding what cancer is for those who are suffering because of it. The ending is a little bit different than you would expect, but that is all I'm going to say about that. If you want more detail, you'll just have to read the book.

 

 

I have a love/hate relationship with the author of this book, John Green. I like the simplicity of his writing style and the fact that he is really great with character differentiation/development. However, I think he simply makes all of his characters complete and total geniuses. In real society, this is simply not the case. Not everyone is going to be able to make Star Wars jokes and extensively quote T.S. Eliot. Although, I admit how great of a world would it be if we could? I did like the bit of humor in this book though. I liked the nerdy aspects and the references to literature that just abounded in this book, but my problem is that it was John Green's voice coming through instead of Hazel's actual character shining through. 

 

Despite the fact that you're crying after you finish this book, it's a good thing. Crying can sometimes be a good thing after all. It's an easy read so if you have a day filled with watching TV and counting the stars, then you should pick up this book and give it a shot. It has got to be more entertaining than counting all those stars.