CANTERBURY TALES by GEOFFERY CHAUCER
This book took more time than usual and you will understand why when you read it.Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a classic and very solid one at that.It is a beautiful piece of literature I must say.Its poetry and prose combined together.
Canterbury Tales is a set of stories told by pilgrims going to visit the shrine of Thomas Backet , a saint in Canterbury. Rest of the review can be found here. Though I had read this book a few days back. I had totally forgotten that its on my Fill In The Gap list :)
Showing posts with label Shona. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shona. Show all posts
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Review: We Were The Mulvaneys
We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
This book had been lying around for a long time on the shelf , when I finally picked it up to read it , it was because this was the first book, that I could pull out in a rainy afternoon to while away my time. Now little did I know at that time ,that I would need more than an afternoon to finish this really beautiful piece of literature.
Joyce Carol Oates book takes a look at Mulvaney family of High Point Farm which is torn apart by a single incident which goes to have repercussions on the entire family. Story set in 1970s makes a real insightful read.
I had it up on the Fill In the Gap list so an added bonus for me. I have put up my complete review here. Check it out. 2 down ,98 more to go for this challenge.
This book had been lying around for a long time on the shelf , when I finally picked it up to read it , it was because this was the first book, that I could pull out in a rainy afternoon to while away my time. Now little did I know at that time ,that I would need more than an afternoon to finish this really beautiful piece of literature.
Joyce Carol Oates book takes a look at Mulvaney family of High Point Farm which is torn apart by a single incident which goes to have repercussions on the entire family. Story set in 1970s makes a real insightful read.
I had it up on the Fill In the Gap list so an added bonus for me. I have put up my complete review here. Check it out. 2 down ,98 more to go for this challenge.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Review -Lady Susan
I am a Jane Austen Fan and a solid one at that, having read most of her books not once but many times.Lady Susan ,was one book that somehow didn't make up to my book shelf until recently.I saw a review on one of the blogs and promptly checked it out from my local library.I knew from the other reviews that it was one of the later published works of the author and it was in form of letters but didn't realise that it would be so different from rest of her works.By different ,I mean ,the protagonist,Lady Susan..She is not the usual strong minded but lovable characters Jane creates .Lady Susan is very beautiful no doubt ,but also selfish(seriously) and cunning .A combination, we don't usually attribute to heroines,not to Austen heroines at the least.But this one is!!
The main plot revolves around Lady Susan's attempts to find herself a good match ,within a short period of the death of her husband and also some one really rich for her teenage daughter , who hates this idea. To fulfill this task, she lands at the house of her brother, Mr Vernon , even though she hasn't been totally nice to him or his wife in the past.She uses her talents to accomplish her task to the fullest and that really makes it fun to read.Best part is when Mrs Vernon's brother falls for her even after knowing about her not so nice past history.And not to forget she has an affair with a much married man. The book is in form of letters written by the central characters, unfolding the story in a really nice manner.Certain moral issues are dealt with as is usual with any Austen book and the theme of younger men for older women also comes up in this one.
Not a long winding novel like the rest of her works but a quick read. Funny,rather interesting work of an author the literary world loves so much.I would recommend it to any classics or Austen fan.
The main plot revolves around Lady Susan's attempts to find herself a good match ,within a short period of the death of her husband and also some one really rich for her teenage daughter , who hates this idea. To fulfill this task, she lands at the house of her brother, Mr Vernon , even though she hasn't been totally nice to him or his wife in the past.She uses her talents to accomplish her task to the fullest and that really makes it fun to read.Best part is when Mrs Vernon's brother falls for her even after knowing about her not so nice past history.And not to forget she has an affair with a much married man. The book is in form of letters written by the central characters, unfolding the story in a really nice manner.Certain moral issues are dealt with as is usual with any Austen book and the theme of younger men for older women also comes up in this one.
Not a long winding novel like the rest of her works but a quick read. Funny,rather interesting work of an author the literary world loves so much.I would recommend it to any classics or Austen fan.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Shona's List
The real fun part of the challenge was selecting the books for which I had to clean up and dig out my book shelves.It proved to be a great experience ,as I found so many books that I wanted to read from a long time but had kept them out of reach.So the task completed ,I am putting up my list which has books from almost all genre.
The Book Thief-
The Book Thief-
2. We Were the Mulvaneys- Joyce Carol Oates
3. Birdsong-Sebastian Faulks
5. The Wind In The Willows –Kenneth Graham
6. Away-Amy Bloom
7. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
8. The Dante Club-Matthew Pearl
9. Finding Grace-Alyssa Brugman
10. Lady Susan –Jane Austen
11. Mailman –J Robert Lennon
12. Sophie’s Choice-William Styron
13. Crime And Punishment- Fyodor Dostoevsky
14. The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
15. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Scaffer
16. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
17. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
18. While I was Gone-Sue Miller
19. Stuart Little- E B White
20. To Kill A Mocking Bird –Harper Lee
21. The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
22. Kafka On The Shore-Haruki Murakami
23. What The Body Remembers- Shauna Singh Baldwin
24. Kaddish for a Child Not Born- Imre Kertész
25. The Stone Diaries-Carol Shields
26. A Very Long Engagement -Sebastien Japrisot
27. The Zoo Keeper’s Wife-Diane Ackerman
28. The Story of A Marriage – Andrew Sean Greer
29. Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
30. Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela
31. November Rain - Al Raines
32. A Lesson Before Dying-Ernest J Gaines
33. A Short History of Nearly Everything-Bill Bryson
34. The Cider House Rules –John Irving
35. Ivanhoe -Sir Walter Scott
36. The Great Gatsby- Scott Fitzgerald
37. Grapes Of Wrath-John Steinbeck
38. War and Peace -Leo Tolstoy ( re read)
39. Prizes-Erich Segal
40. Marley And Me –John Grogan
41. The Host-Stephenie Meyer
42. The Bone Setter’s Daughter-Amy Tan
43. Autumn Of the Patriarch-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Catch-22 –Joseph Heller
45. A Brief History Of Time-Stephen Hawking
46. Atlas Shrugged –Ayn Rand
47. Unaccustomed Earth-Jhumpa Lahiri
48. Two Lives-Vikram Seth
49. Illusions-Richard Bach
50. A Passage To India- E M Forster
51. Canterbury Tales-Geoffrey Chaucer
52. Silas Marner- George Eliot
53. Beloved-Toni Morrison
54. The Poisonwood Bible-Barbara Kingsolver
55. The Ground Beneath Her Feet - Salman Rushdie
56. Thank You, Jeeves- P.G.WoodHouse
57. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
58. Purple Hibiscus- Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
59. The Trial-Franz Kafka
60. Doctor Zhivag0-Boris Pasternak
61. A Death In The Family-James Agee
62. Great Expectations-Charles Dickens
63. All Quiet On The western Front.- Erich Maria Remarque
64. Famished Road-Ben Okri
65. God Of Small Things- Arundhati Roy
66. The Sound And The Fury –William Faukner
67. Ender’s Game-Orson Scott Card
68. Remembrance Of Things Past- Marcel Proust
69. Good Earth –Pearl S Buck ( re read)
70. The Road –Cormac McCarthy
71. Dark Roots-Cate Kennedy
72. The Stranger-Albert Camus
73. Change of Heart-Jodi Picoult
74. No Country for Old Men- by Cormac McCarthy
75. The House of Mirth -by Edith Wharton
76. Lottery- by Patricia Wood
77. Before I Die -Jenny Downham
78. The Member of the Wedding- by Carson McCullers
79. A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man-James Joyce
80. The Hours –Micheal Cunningham
81. Wives and Daughters-Ekizabeth Gaskell
82. Black Beauty-Anna Sewell( re read)
83. 2001 A Space Odyssey- Arthur Clarke
84. The Talented Mr Ripley-Patricia Highsmith
85. Zen And The Art Of Motor Cycle Maintainence- Robert Pirsig
86. Slaughterhouse Five -Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
87. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
88. Final Diagnosis- Arthur Hailey ( re read)
89. I, Claudius –Robert Graves
90. The Story of A Marriage – Andrew Sean Greer
91. The Reader-Bernhard Schlink
92. Song Of Solomon-Toni Morrison
93. Tales Of Sevastopol –Leo Tolstoy
94. Edgar Allan Poe Complete Tales
95. Phantom Of The Opera-
96. Little Dorrit-Charles Dickens
97. Lock And Key- Sarah Dessen
98. The Guide-R.K.Narayan
99. Malgudi Days –R.K.Narayan
100.Daughter Of Fortune-Isabel Allende
