Book: Push by Sapphire
Rating: Okay
Lesson Learned: Find something to live for.
I am not big into reading novels, especially ones which are turned into movies, but I thought I would give Push a try. (I haven’t seen the movie). Push follows Precious through the struggles of incest, teenage pregnancy, and hopelessness in Harlem. The book is written from the perspective of Precious and it makes the book ‘harsh’ and ‘raw’. I don’t know what I think, it is a cornucopia of misery with some redemption at the end. Some people will get uppity by the language, others by the content, but at the end of the day it was hard to not feel for someone who had survived through so much fiction or not.
Also the author’s name is Sapphire, no last name, so I bet she is pretty fun.
I don’t know what to think about the book, so there it is.
Book: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Rating: Meh
Lesson Learned: ambition isn’t everything
They said this was an ambitious book. I got to page 50 and dropped it. It is written in the form of a diary. I am sure it might pick up, but I gave it 50 pages. Poisonwood Bible is still good though, go read that. However, the book is going to look great on the shelf…seriously.
Book: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Rating: Good read
Lesson Learned: Taliban is no good
I read this two years ago. Everybody by now has read it or seen the movie, but I thought it was worth another mention. It is well written and makes you want to take action.
Book: Amerika by Franz Kafka
Rating: no
Lesson Learned: Be careful talking about something you haven’t experienced
Kafka had a real interesting story. He, like so many artists, was unrecognized until after his death. Amerika was one of his few books he finished. How many times have you been seduced by a maid who got pregnant? Evidently it only has to happen once to be sent to Amerika. A land where the statue of Liberty has a sword instead of a torch and there are no docks in New York’s harbor. I am sure he researched real hard, but there was some inaccuracies. I only bring them to light because I think its funny not because I think he did a bad job. To be honest, I couldn’t make it past page 40 so I am no authority on the book, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Book: Ward No. 6 and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov
Rating: Meh
Lesson Learned: Russia wasn’t all that fun in the mid 1800s.
In my desire to learn a medium at which I can help develop some creativity in different ways I have read several collections of short stories. I picked up Chekhov because on the cover he looks like a real hot-shot. The story Ward No. 6 was a great read, but the rest of the book was hard to get through. It was very political which I am all for, but how many ways can you say the government stinks? I say that flippantly. The answer is you say it until you have to yell it, and you yell until you are heard. I didn’t want to listen…this time. I have to be in the mood to get too up in arms about the government, but, then again, I didn’t live in Russia at the time Chekhov did.
Book: The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
Rating: Great
Lesson Learned: Story Telling Technique
I am a fan of short stories. I have never read Kafka so I took him for a whirl and really liked what he had to offer. He is uber dark but all of his stories are allegories so they make you think about life and society. I read this on the beach and I would recommend you do the same.
Again, you will notice the link takes you to B&N. They have an amazing collection of classics for really cheap…Don’t give them too much credit for it though, books come into the public domain just like art does and anyone can print them for free.
Book: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rating: Good
Lesson Learned: Adventure
This is a fun book I would read to my fifth grade child a chapter at a time at bedtime. The publisher put reviews of the book back from when it was written and they are hilarious calling the book filth and having no value whatsoever. It’s just a pirate story and it taught me the origin of Long John Silver who was the ship’s cook. God Bless your battered fish Mr. Silver.
Book: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Rating: Great
Lesson Learned: Class Segregation
Incredible book. Immigrants move to Chicago, have to go work in the beef processing plants. The entire book uses the beef processing plant explained in gory detail to show how the poor were treated: all used up and then discarded. End of the book goes on a socialist rant, but you can’t blame Upton he wrote it before the horrors of the USSR. Instead of people at the time feeling for the poor they were disgusted by the conditions of the plants forcing Roosevelt to champion clean food laws.
You might notice this isn’t a book I got from Amazon. Again, Jeff Bezos, if you could put in some print on demand sites I would go nuts for it.
