Howdy, Readers!
Am I neglecting my responsibilities? Yes.
Am I procrastinating homework assignments? Of Course.
Am I telling myself I'm being productive because I'm blogging instead of taking care of my responsibilities? Duh.
This is the time of the year where I have major spring fever and just don't want to do anything except relax and read outside while I work on my tan. But, school has a different idea for me. Papers galore! Test today? Shoot. Meetings? Right, I totally remembered that.
And the cherry on top, Franny and Zooey (F&Z) left me in a crumble of confused pieces and it's taken me two weeks to read a book again. I guess that's when you know a book is powerful. I also kind of forced that book onto my friends. One finished it and she wasn't nearly as torn up by it as I was. I dragged the other to Barnes and Noble so she could buy it and write in her own copy.
It's my talent. Peer pressuring people into reading the books I like. They secretly love it.
Maybe you've read my review on F&Z and know just how it challenged my brain. If you haven't or haven't read the book, go read the review real quick (here's a link to it) and maybe it'll help you get an understanding for how jaw-droppingly good this book was.
Keep in mind that I was in a slight reading slump. I had gotten my copy of The Winner's Crime in the mail right when I got back from spring break, but, alas, I had already started reading F&Z. So here's what my plan was, finish F&Z, then jump right into The Winner's Crime and then I would read the books for my classes.
That plan so did not happen. Because of the March/April Book Slump. It was awful.
So not only was I behind in one of my classes, but I was also not escaping in a book. Two not-good things.
So I finally got back on the reading horse. And let me tell you, the two books since have equally messed me up.
Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
Started: April 2, 2015
Finished: April 6, 2015
Stars: 3/5
In case you didn't know this about me, I'm taking a strictly Shakespeare Class. That is the reason for my Shakespeare binge this semester. I've really enjoyed it.
I even enjoyed this book—to an extent. I'm just going to go ahead and spoil the plot because it's been 100+ years since its publication and honestly I wish someone warned me going into this book.
Titus Andronicus comes back from war with the Goths, with only four of his 25 sons alive. He is a well-loved and highly respected General of Rome. His only daughter, Lavinia, awaits the return of her adored father and her four brothers. Titus is very close to his daughter, his sons, and his brother, Marcus. However, he also returns with the Goth Queen Tamora, her three sons, and her lover as hostages. As as ritual, Titus sacrifices her eldest son to the gods as respect and thanks for bringing them home victorious and alive. That one small action causes all kinds of anger and revenge in Tamora. So somehow, she marries the newly crowned emperor and becomes powerful. And to gain her revenge on Titus, tells her two living sons to rape his daughter. They do and then cut off her hands and tongue so she cannot tell the story of her abuse.
That's all I'm going to say about the play. There's a lot of death. A lot of blood. It's just a damn gory play and really unsettling.
I liked the play because 1) it's Shakespeare, 2) the wit and motifs were clever, and 3) the themes in the play are really strong and really good. One of the themes is all about this strong father-daughter relationship between Titus and Lavinia. That really hit home with me because my dad and I are really close.
But how Lavinia is abused in the beginning of the plot really really unsettled me. It was so hard for me to read past that situation. It was refreshing to read this protection her father had over her and his ultimate care for her, but it was hard.
There is a close friendship throughout the Andronicus family, Titus and Marcus are close, all of Titus's sons watch out and protect Lavinia, she is close with them, her uncle, and her father.
There was also a really strong female character. The feminist in me was really excited that the villain was a female. She was intense and frankly scared me. Just picture the ugly, mean step mother from Cinderella or Snow White and then multiple that by a hundred. She was ruthless. And she literally gave zero shits. She had a Moor lover and bossed her sons around, bossed her husband around, toyed with Titus' mind and sanity, she manipulated everyone in the play and wow.
The situation with Lavinia is what gave this play a 3 star rating instead of a 4. I loved everything else except Lavinia's fate.
[this play fit "a book that scares you" for my 2015 Reading Challenge.]
The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski
Started: April 3, 2015
Finished: April 7, 2015
Stars: 4/5
Okay. I've been carrying this book around with me for 2 weeks, trying to pick up the courage to start it. But (as previously mentioned) I was in quite the slump.
Debatable spoilers ahead.
I also did a bad bad bad bad thing. I was maybe 100 pages into the book (if that), and I flipped to the last chapter or two of the book. I read it. And it toyed with me. Then I was scared to continue reading it because I knew I wouldn't like the ending. (Side note: I hate surprises. I'm one of those people who needs to what's going to happen or at least whether or not I'll like the ending of the book. I've been fighting the desire to skip to the last chapter of whatever book I'm reading and just reading little words or maybe the whole damn chapter. But it's a curse and I did it again with this book.) I felt anxious the whole time I was reading it because I knew what was coming in the ending. I knew that it was a rough end.
Small Tangent: MARIE RUTKOSKI WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE LEAVING ME WITH SUCH A STEEP CLIFFHANGER?!?!?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT MY EMOTIONAL STATE IS LIKE RIGHT NOW??? NOT GOOD. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS ASAP.
This book really affected my emotions outside of reading it. I was just down when I closed it for the day/night. I was feeling the separation anxiety between Kestrel and Arin probably more than they were and they were pretty damn unhappy!!
There was so much angst and unhappiness in this book, on Arin's side (who is my fave character) and Kestrel's side. They wanted each other so bad, but couldn't because of society's expectations and the fact that Kestrel was engaged to Verex (who really grows on you throughout the book). If you haven't noticed before, I love character development. Kestrel is battling the entire book on what she wants, her role as a daughter, citizen, friend. She has this huge conflict with where her loyalties lay. She felt caged in, without any real decisions or options, she was alone—literally every one of her friends from the first book was gone. She was completely alone.
Arin was conflicted in a completely different aspect. He just wanted to save his people. His loyalty and honor is swoon-worthy and enrapturing. He felt conflicted on what was the right thing for his people and whether or not he was even capable of saving them and leading the Herrani. He didn't understand Kestrel the entire book, probably still doesn't at the beginning of the 3rd (which I'm hoping comes out sooner than 2016). Her whole goal was to protect him, and she succeeded, but she didn't protect his feelings. This girl, Kestrel, whom he spent so much time with and really knew her—her mental state, her emotions, her habits, he literally knew everything there was to know about her— and then she becomes this completely different person to protect him and save the Herrani as a whole.
It was hard to read. Because all I wanted was for them to get together and live happily ever after.
The language and imagery and writing in this book was incredible. I was really impressed with the types of descriptions Rutkoski used. It made these average, mundane objects feel like they were part of something divine. And they weren't useless descriptions, that are evident in some classics novels. Each description was beneficial to the overall plot and character development of the book. Her descriptions almost made you feel like what she was describing was going on right in front of you. It was so life-like and real to read.
While reading, I didn't really like the book. (Probably because of the major anxiety it gave me and I was just nervous the whole damn time.) But now that I've finished it, I really enjoyed the experience. The fact that an author could make me feel so strongly throughout the entire book, is incredible.
[this book was my book that was published this year for my 2015 Reading Challenge]
SOP: Kansas City by The New Basement Tapes
{so i recently found them. And basically the band is made up of a bunch of members of different bands and they come together and take Bob Dylan lyrics and put them to new music. Yes, it's the same guy from Mumford & Sons. Most of their songs are pretty good. I can't vouch for all of them. It's such a cool concept though.}
Until Next Time.
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