I thought of this because we all judge a book by its cover, no matter how much we say we don't. We do it in our daily lives continually until we can learn more and decide.
So taking this into account, what if we were to take away the cultural constructs of today's society out and put them in the open and discuss them? What would happen? and how would it make people feel?
I read this right after I finished her sister’s epic tragedy
novel, Wuthering Heights, which
happens to be one of my all time favorite books. I can not believe I didn’t
read this easy going love novel. I
of course loved the story of the sad poor girl that achieves greatness. Jane Eyre is your likely heroine, is in
all purposes the good girl that you cheer for!
Like typical of stories from that time, there is a lot of
death and sadness and a series of unlikely events. It would have been a great
book to read when I was younger in the tweens! Fantastic!
About the 10th time I have read this book and I still like it, even though it has changed for me. I still love Heathcliff and his crazy self, loving Catherine.
I love that this book still astounds me, of course when I was younger I was so taken by the love that Heathcliff had that I was willing to forgive his meanness, now I feel more guilty for liking him as a character and feeling his pains.
It was great to read the book with people and learn about the background of the Bronte sisters and their horribly tragic lives. No wonder their books were tragic. I also think the society then saw such tragedy as part of their lives and willing to live with those kinds of issues.
I still recommend this book as it inspires great discussions.
Wow what a terrific book! I don’t even know where to begin
on the many facets that this book has .
First, as the book takes you through the four sections of
Nabokov, Fitzgerald, James and of course Jane Austen… you can not take your own
trip back to the memories you had when reading each of those books that Nafisi
discusses. It brings you back to the emotions and the feelings you had while
reading those books. If you hadn’t studied these books, it also takes you back
to rethink those books and see if you can see them in a different light. This
also makes me think that maybe I should re-read Lolita, or The Great Gatsby
or even some Henry James books that I have never opened.
The books also takes you into the memories of a group of
women between the 1970s and today. Unlike, my nice memories of sitting in bed,
or hiding in the closet at night to read for fear of staying up to late, these
women dealt with the fear of death resulting from the BANNED books they were reading. After the 1970s, Iran went through much
political turmoil with changing from the “un Islamic” shah to the very
religious Ayatollahs that changed Iran to the “Republic of Islam”. This book is
a biography with many other biographies laced with a population of people that
have been beaten and defeated not only physically but mentally and emotionally
as well. During this new regime,
women were made to wear the chador and the veil, to show their innocence, to
make men not want them, and not be held responsible for their rapes. People
were not allowed to drink, listen to music, smile, watch movies, or in any way
have a human life. Much of this “de westernization” had to do with readings and
books. Most books were either banned and or re-written to fit the Islamic
standard.
In a private class, Nafisi takes her life in her hands and
decides that her love of books needs continue and be shared. At any moment her house can be
searched, without a warrant, and these women be sent to jail for reading banned
book, where their bodies will never be recovered.
This book is lesson in Iran history, in women’s view of the
world from the religious and the liberal side, it is an emotional roller
coaster as you suffer through their emotional pains and embarrassments they are
made to deal with daily.
I highly recommend this read to all that live in today’s
world, as better understanding of a population of people in the middle
east. I salute those women who
stood up, to show their daughters that someone has to stand up. I bow to Nafisi
for her courageous words and tears she must have shed while writing such a
personal history of her life and the country she loved!
Well its fluff, lots of fast reading fluff. I have to start out by saying I picked this one up first and never read Twilight, because I was confused on which one was the first one.
Basically… Girl had been in love with hottest guy in school who happens to be vampire. Girl is accepted by non-human-biting family clan, the Cullens, and her main desire is to turn into a vampire because at 18 years of age she is 100% sure that she wants to spend all of eternity with this guy!
Girl is clutsy and gets into trouble a lot, cuts herself at the Cullens and causes family drama, boy dumps girl!
Girl is sick and heartbroken over teenage love, finds comfort in sexy tall guy friend that happens to be a werewolf! He loves her, she is confused, her love comes back and gets mixed up the THE Family of Vampires that want her changed also.
Werewolf does not want her changed but she has to or the Volturi (The IT Family) will kill her if she doesn’t become vampire!
All this in like 500 pages! Doesn’t mean I probably won’t read the following books because they are great traveling fast reads!
First Kurt Vonnegut book I have ever read, it won’t be the
last. Kurt is a weirdo that is for sure. Not as weird as Palahniuk.
Slaughterhouse Five is supposed to a be a literary
masterpiece for antiwar books written in the late 60s. Not having particularly
studied it, I might have missed much of the hidden text. Though you can tell
from the writing and Vonnegut’s point of
view why this book would be considered an Antiwar book.
The story starts off with the writer describing his need to
write a book about Dresdan, a small town in Germany. As it turns out the book isn’t completely fiction, as the
“city was completely destroyed by the controversial Allied
aerial bombing towards the end of World War II.”
Wikipedia.
The story is followed by a presumably fictional character
Billy Pilgrim, and Vonnegut reports over 135,000 people dead. Though actual
facts…. In the first few decades after the war, some death toll estimates were
as high as 250,000, which are now considered unreasonable.[6]
An independent investigation commissioned by the city council in 2010 finaly
reported a minimum of 22,700 victims with a maximum total number of fatalities
of 25,000. (Wikipedia).
Billy Pilgrim, isn’t your typical hero, but turns out that
with much luck he carries on his story, his very colorful story which makes
this book very unique. Can it be that Pilgrim has what is now known as PPD!
This book also explores the fine lines of war and the
characterization of humanness in time of great pressures. What is a human to do
when faced with the gruesomeness of WWII.
I am surprised I was never told to read this in school through a History
class, as it was very fascination especially following the battle.
WOW! Talk about a surprise! Romantic and sexy in Victorian England, of family secrets and betrayals. Great book.
The story of two girls whose lives were bound to be intertwined in the long run. There is the Lady and the thief who would never have met in normal circumstances but under a suspenseful Victorian novel they do. There is murder, sexy, pornography, books, plots and trickery and more, all of which shock you when it is not expected.
There are so many bends and twists to the novel you never see it coming. You care for one character and then you hate them, you love them and then you betray them like they betrayed you. Your emotions are on a roller coaster when reading this story.
The story of Maud and Sue, of different love and what can friendship mean. Even the ending is unexpected. I highly recommend this book but it is not for the feint of heart. An uncle that sits in his Briar home that doesn’t understand normal little girls, puts Maud in a very serious position that would be shameful to Ladies of London, the only one who really appreciates Maud is Sue, the little thief from the roads of London that comes to be the maid to Ms. Maud. And so they story unfolds.
Like all Bill Bryson, I really enjoyed this book. I am not sure of what order Bryson
wrote his books though I do know that this book was published in 1987, and much
has changed since then, including Bryson’s writing.
I was surprised at the ease of his writing and the social
commentary he makes on races, economy and more. In today’s world he would have
been considered a racist, though in 1987 it was a different time. People were
not afraid of using certain terms with the constant fear of being called or
charged of racism. I think his book was an honest look at America during that time.
Could it be relative today? Sure.
I was genuinely pleased at the lack of being held back. I also think
that he wrote more to the reader, to the avid reader by using some of my
favorite words; chagrin, curmudgeon and more. There are many passages in his
book that could be reread and reread where you can always laugh!
This book, like all, are stories of his travels, he was
younger, faster at judging and had a different perspective on life. Knowing and having read his previous
books this was a treat. It really was a travel through America at the time, has
it change? Maybe not!
