Clarissa - May Post

I am shocked to say that I'm not only finished with the May reading of Clarissa, but I've actually already read some of the June entries! Do not take this to mean I'm enjoying myself though. I still want to bring Richardson's editor back from the dead and beat him with the bulky tome until he dies again. It's just so frustrating because I feel like there are kernels of a compelling story hidden beneath layers and layers of verbosity and repetitive letters.
I like where Richardson seems to be going. Women had it rough in the eighteenth century. If you were fortunate enough to be born to a gentleman, you would be completely controlled by him until he sells you off to whichever man makes the most business/political sense. Then you get to be controlled by him until one of you dies. If he dies, you might be able to be independent if you're lucky, but it's likely your estate will be entailed and given to a male relative. They might let you stay there. Or, you may have to marry again and repeat the process, or return home to your father, or go to a brother or another male relative, or maybe a sister or cousin and help with their children.
And if you're poor? Well, you get to work yourself to the bone, have a brood of children you can't afford, and spend most of your time caring for some richer person's family instead of your own.
But back to Clarissa. In the May letters, we see her life after she runs away with Lovelace and regrets her decision, not that she really decided to runaway, it just sort of happened. Now she's stuck because her virtue is destroyed because everyone assumes she's slept with Lovelace, even though she hasn't. She must marry him now or be alone forever, and she has no where else to go. However, she's realized she doesn't want to marry him and is hoping for a way out. 
Despite my complaints, I do think the story picked up steam this month when I look back at it, but it took nearly 200 pages to share what I summarized in a paragraph...and it's still going into June. June is the month with the most pages, so I'm hoping it picks up more. Then we start the downward slide with each month having fewer and fewer pages. I plan on finishing in October as November and December have only 16 and 6 pages according to JoAnn's reading schedule (I'm reading it on my Nook so I'm not positive how many pages are in my edition) and I'd rather just get it over with. If you want to the other crazy participants who are trying to make their way through Clarissa, check out JoAnn's page (although I think there are only about 5 or 6 of us left!).

Top of the Rock

I've had trouble focusing lately with my allergies and while I've still been reading, it's mainly been young adult or lighter books that aren't really worth reviewing. They were good. They kept me turning pages. I have nothing else to say. I'm feeling better though and hope to get some better quality reading done over the holiday weekend. I want to clear out some of my library books and half-finished books before turning my attention to the Victorians for a while!

While I was in my weird reading mood, I picked up a book called Top of the Rock by Warren Littlefield at the library. He was the president of NBC television during the 90s and worked their during the 80s as well. After creating Must See TV, he was fired. And now we have nothing but reality TV. The book focuses on NBC shows of the late 80s and 90s and how they built a powerhouse station. I watched so many of the shows he focuses on, and it was interesting to learn the same people were involved in the development of many of them. They had Cheers, Seinfeld, Mad About You, ER, Frasier, the Cosby Show, and of course, Friends. Getting the behind the scene stories about the creative process and business side of developing these shows was fun. He doesn't focus on the actors and gossip, although he shares a few things when they're relevant.

The book definitely made me nostalgic for the days when TV actually had sitcoms and shows everyone watched. It gave us something to talk about and a way to connect. Now we have an army of crappy reality shows and special interest shows (which I like, but don't give that same feeling of connection or usually, laughter). There's not a lot of funny on TV these days. It made me want to re-watch Cheers, especially since I was so young (i.e. I didn't know there was someone other than Kirstie Alley as the main female until a few years ago) during it that I know I missed a lot of what made it funny. I'm thankful for Netflix and their streaming TV shows so do have options when the current lineup sucks.

The other fun yet depressing thing about the book was the info on how many of these shows didn't test that well or didn't do well their first season. Despite that, they were given a chance and not only had a full first season, they got a chance at a second season! I had heard about that happening with Seinfeld, but it happened with some of the others as well. And some of them started out differently in the initial writing and changed based on the actors or other things, and it was weird to think about what might have happened and how close the shows came not to being what they were. Today, shows are pulled after just a few episodes and aren't given a chance to gain traction. How many of those shows could have been the next Friends but ended up gone after three shows?

However, I understand why it's that way today. Viewership is splintered with so many cable, on demand, and online options. A show that did badly in the ratings back in the day still had enough viewers to carry it on for a little while longer. TV advertising was more effective, but now there are so many better options for most advertisers. But at the same time, it just made me miss the shows of my childhood, when Thursday night was spent watching Must See TV and Fridays watching the TGIF block. Although there is one benefit - I watch a lot less TV overall than I used to!

The List

Okay, I think this is the last young adult book I'll review for a while. I'm not sure why I've been on a YA kick lately. I saw The List by Siobhan Vivian on a couple of people's blogs (I'm sorry I don't remember who to mention you!) and decided to check it out even thought it's not the type of book I normally read.

The List is about eight girls at a high school who end up on the list, a tradition at the school of a secretly created list of the prettiest and ugliest girl in each class. The book is told through the perspectives of each of the girls. I thought that was an intriguing concept - it's just as bad for the pretty girls as the girls on the ugly part of the list. It changes how people treat them, makes friends jealous, makes boys want to date them only because of the list and not because of who they are, and defines them by how the look.

I thought this was very well written. Each girl has a distinct voice, so it was easy to tell them apart and keep their stories straight, which with eight girls could easily have gone wrong. It's also got a good mystery - who wrote the list? Why did they pick who they picked? There are a few girls who aren't the obvious choices, so why them?

This would be a great book to encourage any teen girls in your life to read, and I enjoyed it as a 30-year-old, so you might enjoy it too even if you're not a teen girl. :) It's a good lesson about bullying and judging people by their looks wrapped up in a great, well written story.

Divergent

After reading Divergent and before I starting writing this review, I read Jean at Howling Frog Books' post on Divergent, and joked that I could just write a one-sentence review saying just go read her post for my thoughts since we had similar reactions. :) I decided to not be quite that lazy and to share some brief thoughts of my own.

Overall, I liked it. I read it in one day, practically in one sitting. So, you can tell it's got a fast-paced plot that kept me hooked. And it did. I could not stop reading, despite my frustrations about several things. First, the character development was weak. I had trouble keeping the characters straight, and it's not like this was War and Peace with a massive cast of characters who go by multiple Russian names/nicknames. The characters just all seemed the same to me. When you have to stop and try to remember if a character is the main character's friend or enemy constantly, you have a problem.

Secondly, the world building was on a really shaky foundation. Who builds a society divided by personality? That works as a way to sort students into houses in a series like Harry Potter. To form a society around that idea? Not so much. And that all of the groups decided to put the power in the hands of one group, no matter how selfless that group supposedly is? That's just dumb. I also didn't appreciate that I would have been in the evil group. :) Although, I do have a desire to rule the world, so perhaps that's not that far off.

Despite my frustrations, I'll probably give the second book a try. I'm not committed to the series yet, but it was a nice lighter read so I can see myself checking out the second book sometime soon.

The Girl Who Was on Fire

Allie mentioned The Girl Who Was on Fire in her post about the unit she taught on The Hunger Games, and I thought it would be fun to read. It's a collection of essays from young adult authors about The Hunger Games. It's worth reading if you're a hardcore fan or if, like in Allie's case, you're planning on teaching it.

One of the themes through several of the essays is that it's not about the love story. The main conversation shouldn't center on Team Gale vs. Team Peeta. Personally, I don't feel like the conversation has centered on that, which is what these essays seem to imply. Although, I don't usually talk about them with teenage girls either, so perhaps they're having different conversations than I am! However, at the same time, several stories veered off into an argument defending Katniss's choice at the end. This annoyed me, especially since I disagree. :)

A lot of the essays focused on politics, freedom and reality TV. That's what interested me the most in the series, being able see how Collins took real issues from today's society and showed how they could turn into this crazy world of the future. That's why I love dystopian fiction. I also hate reality TV, so a whole series about how terrible the genre is makes me happy.

On that note, it reminded me of how horrified I was at the audience reaction at some of the scenes. People cheered and laughed at several violent death scenes. It was bad enough that Ryan and I actually turned to each other and said, "did that just happen???" I was appalled to be in the same theatre as these people and couldn't believe they were not only entirely missing the point, they were sadist crazy people disguised as normal human beings. It completely creeped me out. It made it seem more feasible that our society would allow something like The Hunger Games to actually happen.

While I enjoyed this, it really made me crave more academic literary criticism. I may have to take advantage of Ryan's access to a college library to check out some books along those lines. Because I don't already have a million books checked out from the public library and towering in my TBR stacks. :)

Lost to Time

Lost in Time by Martin Sandler is a book about unforgettable bits of history that time has managed to forget. It read like a manifesto for the importance of PR, although admittedly I'm biased to see that since that's my field. Most of the stories are similar to famous stories that we know well, but for whatever reason those other stories got more publicity and stuck in the public's mind.

For example, one of the stories about two people who completed longer, more dangerous rides than Paul Revere to warn the Americans about the British  during the American Revolution, yet neither of them are remembered while people flock to Revere's house to celebrate him. One of those riders was a 16-year-old girl who rode through the woods in the middle of the night, warning more people than Revere and saving hundreds of lives. But she and the other rider didn't have Longfellow as a friend to write a poem about them.

A similar story is the tale of Gustave Whitehead, who built and flew an airplane two years before the Wright brothers. Yet Whitehead didn't seek out media attention, and despite receiving a few articles about him, has faded from memory and the Wright brothers are credited with the first flight. Part of this is attributed to the fact that Whitehead was a German immigrant and as the World War approached, nobody wanted to credit him with the achievement over two American-born men. It also appears that the Wright brothers touted themselves as the first, even though they visited with Whitehead and saw one of his flights!

One of the other stories that stuck out was about a massive fire in Peshtigo, WI. Everyone's heard of the Chicago Fire, but few have heard of Pestigo even though it was much more destructive. Over 1.5 million acres burned and at least 1,200 people died, although many think it was probably nearly twice that. Whole families died trying to flee. People had to try to make it to the river and just stay there for hours until the fired died out. The excerpts from some of the first-hand accounts were horrific.

Finally, a man decided to start building a subway in NYC in the 1860s - secretly, at night! He knew the leaders at Tammany Hall wouldn't go for it, so he got approval to build a mail carrying system. Instead, he secretly began building the subway. By the time he was caught, he had nearly completed the first phase. He was allowed to finish that part and riders were able to use it temporarily, until the corrupt government and an economic slump that cut off private funding and it was shut down. It wasn't until about 25 years later that there was a terrible blizzard and many people died trying to travel in the city. They decided to build a subway at that point, which opened in the early twentieth century.

These are just a few of the interesting stories found in the book. I really enjoyed the book overall, but I will admit there were a few less interesting chapters and something about the writing overall didn't really grab me, but it was easy to skim through the stories that weren't of as much interest to me and I liked the knowledge I gained overall, so I still recommend it. It was definetly one of those books that made me stop and read out random facts to my husband while he was trying to play video games!

Cloud Atlas

I'm still not entirely sure whether or not I actually liked David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. Perhaps that makes sense, as the novel is really a series of connected but highly different stories, nestled like Russian dolls within each other. It's like Oklahoma weather - if you don't like it right now, just wait a few minutes and it will change.

When I first started reading, I had a hard time getting into it. I rarely like sea stories, and that's how it starts out - on a boat. The next section features a musician who finds a diary of a sailor, the excerpt from the first section. Then things started picking up. I loved the interconnectedness of all the sections, seeing how things happened across time, not being sure of what actually happened and what's fiction. I thought this was an original way to tell a story and like playing around with the different forms and styles.

The problem is, I still felt like something was missing. I think several of the stories could have been more interesting. Sometimes it felt like Mitchell was trying too hard to be clever and wasn't overly concerned about things making sense or being remotely logical. I'm having a hard time pinpointing exactly what was wrong, but too much of the time I was more focused on how Mitchell was trying to be clever rather than focusing on the characters or the story or the ideas. I had a hard time sinking into the story, and even though the plot really isn't the point, this bugged me because the whole thing just felt forced.

I'm interested in seeing how this will be made into a movie. That seems like quite a challenge, and I'm not sure if it will translate well on film. I think it will still be worth seeing, just like the book was worth reading even though I ended up with mixed thoughts on the book.