Fantastic book about a family struggling in the Congo as missionaries. Interesting look at life and religion and how the people of the Congo reacted to Christianity being forced upon them. Also explored the way it shaped the daughter’s lives.
“For certain, Mrs. Price, there are Christians and then there are Christians.”
Totally forgot to note that I watched Malcolm X about a month ago. I liked it though it felt a little long. Denzel Washington is an amazing actor.
As I work through my other goal, reading the BBC Top 200, I’ve tried to get through the several Jane Austen novels on the list but have not had success. I just can’t get into Austen’s novels and find them boring and unreadable. I reluctantly watched Sense and Sensibility with this dislike of Jane Austen shadowing my viewing.
When Sense and Sensibility was over, imagine my surprise when I realized I actually enjoyed the film. After not liking Anne Elliot or Emma Woodhouse, I was again surprised to find myself interested in the lives of the Dashwood sisters. I think it helped that it was a beautifully filmed and directed movie by Ang Lee and had a a witty and fun screenplay by Emma Thompson and Jane Austen. The performances were also fantastic – Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, and Emma Thompson really brought their characters to life.
Maybe I need to stick to Jane Austen film adaptations instead of her novels.
1992
Malcolm X
1994
Chungking Express
Red
1995
Sense and Sensibility
1996
Secrets & Lies
1997
The Sweet Hereafter
1998
Fireworks
1999
All About My Mother
2000
Yi Yi
Totally forgot to list a few more.
Seen:
Big Night – very good
Dead Night – just ok
Eve’s Bayou – good
Elephant – good
I liked One Hundred Years of Solitude (#32) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but wasn’t super impressed. I decided to give him another chance and read Love in the Time of Cholera. This time I knew about his writing style and was prepared for the descriptive ramblings of the smaller things in the lives of his characters. However, I enjoyed One Hundred Years of Solitude much more than Cholera and will probably not read anymore of his books.
Love in the Time of Cholera is a love story that follows Florentina Ariza and his love for Fermina Daza throughout his life. Even when she rejects him and marries another man later in life, he never gives up hope that he will be able to love her. The novel describes the lives of Florentina, Fermina and Dr Juvenal Urbino, Fermina’s husband, in such detail that one feels as if they know these characters and the Caribbean setting in which they live. This is the strength of the novel.
She paid no attention to the urgings of the snake charmers who offered her a syrup for eternal love, or to the pleas of the beggars lying in doorways with their running sores, or to the false Indian who tried to sell her a trained alligator. She made a long and detailed tour with no planned itinerary, stopping with no other motive than her unhurried delight in the spirit of things. She entered every doorway where there was something for sale, and everywhere she found something that increased her desire to live. She relished the aroma of vetiver in the cloth in the great chests, she wrapped herself in embossed silks, she laughed at her own laughter when she saw herself in the full-length mirror in The Golden Wire disguised as a woman from Madrid, with a comb in her hair and a fan painted with flowers. In the store that sold imported foods she lifted the lid of a barrell of pickeled herring that reminded her of nights in the northeast when she was a very little girl in San Juan de la Cienaga. She sampled an Alicante sausage that tasted of licorice, and she bought two for Saturday’s breakfast, as well as some slices of cod and a jar or red currants in aguardiente. In the spice shop she crushed leaves of sage and oregano in the palms of her hands for the pure pleasure of smelling them, and bought a handful of cloves, another of star anise, and one each of ginger root and juniper, and she walked away with tears of laughter in her eyes because the smell of the cayenne pepper made her sneeze so much.
Descriptive passages such as that are the only thing worth recommending about the book. As you read about Florentino pining his years away for Fermina but sleeping with many other woman, it’s hard to feel sorry for him. As Fermina experiences the difficulties of marriage and raises her children, she realizes that she does have a good marriage and life. Yes, it might be good for her to find new love late in life, but she had a good life. When Florentino takes a Lolita like turn in his life, I stopped caring and felt the love story was nothing more than a plot device.
I think I may revisit One Hundred Years of Solitude because I have come to appreciate his style of writing and think I may enjoy it more a second time around. The story was at least better than Love in the Time of Cholera. Even with the beautiful writing, I just didn’t care for Love in the Time in Cholera.
Fantastic, loved this book. If it wasn’t for the recommendation a few entries down by LarissaQuixote, I probably would have bypassed this for ages due to lack of knowledge of the novel.
It read like a Bill Bryson book set in 1889. It follows the “adventures” of three men and a dog as they sail down a river. The main plot is interjected with many humorous stories ranging from camping – “camping in out in the rainy weather is not pleasant” – fox terriers, packing, fishing stories and much more. It is very dry humor and I loved every bit of it. All I can say is READ IT!!!
Picking out passages from this book was hard because there were just so many great passages.
On taking a sea trip:On packing for trip:You start on Monday with the idea implanted in your bosom that you are going to enjoy yourself. You wave an airy adieu to the boys on shore, light your biggest pipe, and swagger about the deck as if you were Captain Cook, Sir Francis Drake, and Christopher Columbus all rolled into one. On Tuesday, you wish you hadn’t come. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, you wish you were dead. On Saturday, you are able to swallow a little beef tea. . . On Sunday, you begin to walk about again, and take solid food. And on Monday morning, as, with your bag and umbrella in your hand, you stand by the gunwale, waiting to step ashore, you begin to thoroughly like it.
On working:“Begin with breakfast.” (George is so practical.) “Now for breakfast we shall want a frying-pan” – (Harris said it was indigestible; but we merely urged him not to be an ass, and George went on) – “a tea-pot and a kettle, and a methylated spirit stove.”
On personal wants:There is nothing does irritate me more than seeing other peope sitting about doing nothing when I’m working.
Each person has what he doesn’t want, and other people have what he does want.
Married men have wives, and don’t seem to want them; and yound single fellows cry out that they can’t get them. Poor people who can hardly keep themselves have eight hearty children. Rich old couples, with no one to leave their money to, die childless.
Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha was a fascinating read. It was beautifully written and very descriptive. While it is fiction, Sayuri’s memoirs feel very real and true. Sayuri narrates the novel and tells of her life from childhood through adulthood. She describes the trials she experienced being sold to Mother in order to become a geisha and the trials she experienced trying to find love later in life. Set against World War II, Memoirs is also a historical novel that shows how Japan, and the geisha’s, dealt with the devastation of war.
I loved the descriptive writing that makes one feel as if they are in Japan and experiencing the life of a geisha. However, it is sad to realize that Sayuri, or any of the geishas, were really simply slaves. They could not choose their own lives, their lives were chosen for them.
And in fact, the “gei” of “geisha” means “arts,” so the word “geisha” really means “artisan” or “artist.”
bq. She wore the magnificent makeup of a geisha. Her lips were flowering red on a stark white face, with her cheeks tinted a soft pink. Her hair was ornamented with silk flowers and sprigs of unhusked rice. She wore a formal kimono of black, with the crest of the Nitta okiya. When at last I could bring myself to stand, I went into the hall and looked in astonishment at myself in the full length mirror. Beginning at the hem of my gown, an embroidered dragon circled up the bottom of the robe to the middle of my thigh. His mane was woven in threads lacquered with a beautiful reddish tint. His claws and teeth were silver, his eyes gold – real gold.
Middlemarch has been an experience for me. First, I am not finishing it. I am halfway through but just can’t make it any longer. I am not interested in Dorothea and Lydgate or the Victorian politics. I have struggled to get through it for the past 3 – 4 weeks and realize that I am leaving other books out just to struggle through this.
However, some positive things. I learned George Eliot was a woman. Uneducated me thought George was a man and spent a quarter of the novel thinking that.
I enjoyed the episodic nature of the book. It felt like a Victorian Tarantino story, of course without the language and violence, with each Book introducing different characters and intertwining their stories.
I hate leaving a book unfinished, I’ve only done it a few other times – Persuasion, Lolita, Master and Commander – but I just don’t want to waste the time when there are so many other books out there to read.
“Choose your bridge, Mr. Pip,’ returned Wemmick, ’ and take a walk upon your bridge, and pitch your money into the Thames over the centre arch of your bridge, and you know the end of it. Serve a friend with it, and you may know the end of it, too – but it’s a less pleasant and profitable end.”
This was a short book and was able to read it in about 15 minutes. It’s a simple story of a seagull who wants to be more than is expected of him. Seagulls simply flock and eat. That’s their life but Jonathan wants to fly. He wants to fly faster than any other seagull and perform tricks in the air. This free thinking causes his flock to outcast him. However, free from the flock, he pushes himself to new levels.
I enjoyed it and the book has a great message. Well worth the quick read.
Before Sunrise: Wonderful film. Intimate camerawork and great chemistry between the two actors. Really enjoyed this one.
Four Weddings and a Funeral: Didn’t like. Don’t think it should be on this list but I can see why it was popular. Cheesy wedding humor and predictable plot.
A beautiful film. It is kind of slow moving but that’s the point. Life moves at it’s own pace and it is a beautiful thing.
A haunting film about a woman getting an abortion in 1987 Romania. The abortion is illegal and options are limited. Her friend and roommate helps her every step of the way. It was good but I don’t think it was worthy of a movie to see before I die.
A little underwhelming but it’s now viewed. Kinda confusing but some cool animation. See where the Matrix was influenced.
Watched today. Very good movie about a kid following a path of petty crime due to the forces around him.
I’ve got 2 months to do this.
Some early criteria
1. Between 40-55 liters
2. Front loading entry
3. Zippers with ability to lock
4. Light
5. In order to carryon, it must be under 45 inches and 40 lbs.
Right now looking at Deuter Futura Pro 42 and Gregory Z55
Any suggestions or tips?
Here’s the list:
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/100-movies-to-see-before-you-die-modern-classics.html
My unseen list – 15 total
1992
Malcolm X
1994
Chungking Express
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Red (Trois couleurs: Rouge)
1995
Before Sunrise
Sense and Sensibility
1996
Big Night
Dead Man
Secrets & Lies
1997
Eve’s Bayou
The Sweet Hereafter
1998
Fireworks (Hana-bi)
1999
All About My Mother
2000
Yi Yi
2003
Elephant
