Book Blog Hop - March 4th

Blog Hop – Who’s your all-time favorite book villain?

We here at Two Bibliomaniacs love to hate our book villains – the nastier the better.  We do however, like to see our villains defeated in the end...  It’s impossible for us to sort through the nastiest of the nastiest, so below you fill find our top 5 least desirable people to encounter in a dark alley (in random order).

 

1. Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter series)
2. Max Devore (Bag of Bones)
3. William Hamleigh (Pillars of the Earth)
4. Corrine Dollanganger (Flowers in the Attic)  
5. Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)

We can’t wait to see the all the other nasties that we forgot, so leave a comment so we can visit your blog!!!  As always, thanks to Crazy-For-Books for hosting this fun event.

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

Evan’s ESS = 7 out of 10

Erin’s ESS =  out of 10

Content = PG (Adult Content, Revenge, Violence, False Accusations, Vengeance, Payback, Retribution)

“How did I escape?  With difficulty.  How did I plan this moment?  With pleasure.”

Why:  The Count of Monte Cristo is a story about revenge and well, revenge.  Actually there’s a lot more to this wonderful novel, but if we haven’t mentioned it before, one of the central themes is revenge.

Young Edmond Dantés has the world at his fingertips.  Drunk in love and recently promoted aboard his merchant ship, it comes as a complete surprise when he’s thrown in the middle of a scandal involving his loyalties towards Napoleon.  Without trial Dantés is falsely accused and marched off to a lifetime imprisonment.  Needless to say the main character is rather distressed by his fate and the individuals that perpetrated the injustice.  Revenge soon becomes the motivation of his existence as he plots his escape.  Does he achieve his ends?  Does he realize that forgiveness is the better option?  Does he develop an early prototype for a Flux Capacitor and time travel back to his parent’s high school prom?  The answer to all 3 questions will only be revealed within the pages of the novel. 

We really enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo and were easily swept into the suspenseful plot.  The story was very well thought out and written in a way that kept us guessing until the end.  The characters were also intriguing, although there were a lot of them and a few enjoyed the occasional name change, which left us mildly disoriented.  These occasions were rare however, and overall we encountered only a few difficulties following the frequent twists and turns. 

Some readers may question Dantés single-mindedness towards vengeance, and in spite of his unjust and torturous imprisonment, we would have to agree.  Unfortunately, further reflection would cause us to reveal certain plot elements which we’ve already been dangerously close to doing.  Maybe an interesting topic for a character study...      

2011 Reading Challenge Update - February

We’re very excited to report that February was another great reading / listening month!!!  We (Evan) completed 12 books bringing our (Evan’s) yearly total to 23.  The bad news, and there is some gnashing of teeth here at Two Bibliomaniacs – only 2 of our 2011 completed books have been reviewed and posted.  We promise to step up our game, although our backlog from 2010 is still quite long.  Now, before we shift to the second piece of bad news, we’d like to take a moment of silence.........

While on a memorable family road trip to Disney World our (Evan’s) MP3 player mysteriously disappeared at a routine gas station / bathroom stop.  This presents two significant problems.  First, our audio listen of Atlas Shrugged is now delayed indefinitely – 55 of 63 parts completed and now we’re left hanging without any hope of moving the plot forward.  AHHHHH!!! (Give us a second to pull ourselves together)... 

The second problem is that this development will also delay the start of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which we were very much looking forward to in March.  We can only hope that our next update will contain rejoicing over a new MP3 player acquisition.

Here are the 2011 reviews we’ve posted so far:

Very good, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse

Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

Here are a couple of highly recommended 2011 reads - reviews soon to follow (hopefully)! 

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

Shutter Island – Dennis Lehane

The Hundred and One Dalmations – Dodie Smith

Here’s an update on our 2011 Challenge.  All the gory details can be found HERE.

Gothic Reading Challenge – 2/8

Back to the Classics – 3/8

What’s in a Name Challenge – 1/6

2nds Challenge – 6/20

100+ Reading Challenge – 23/100

How did everyone else do in their February reading endeavors?  Send us a link so we can check out your progress!

Top 10 books we had to buy... but are still unread

Question: Top 10 books we just HAD to buy... but are still sitting on our bookshelves (unread).

Answer: While we pride ourselves at stocking our home library with many of our favorite completed novels, there have been several that remain in a holding pattern on our TBR shelf.  The genres of these unfortunate books are as far reaching as the excuses we plan to employ below.  The good news is that half of these titles are already slated on to be read in 2011 (barring any unforeseen changes of course...). 

1. Scarlett (Alexandra Ripley) – Gone with the Wind is one of our favorite, favorite novels of all time.  Because of this, we’re still kind nervous to mess with the plot of the original work.  We’re still unsure if Rhett and Scarlett should be reacquainted.

2. Shogun (James Clavell) – A classic example of a classic we bought that remains unread.  Hopefully 2011 is the year...

3. Jamaica Inn (Daphne Du Maurier) – We loved Rebecca, yet for some reason we have not sampled one of Du Maurier’s other novels.

4. The Floating Book (Michelle Lovric) – This was a bargain book with a really cool cover.  

5. The Fifth Elephant (Terry Pratchett) – It’s hard for us to pass up any of the Discworld novels, unfortunately we were slightly underwhelmed by The Color of Magic. 

6. The Princess Bride (William Goldman) – Funny story.  We were quite disappointed to find that this novel is only an abridgement of S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale.  Only recently did we find that the whole thing is a silly ploy and that the entire novel was actually written by William Goldman...  S. Morgenstern does not actually exist. 

7. Adelé (Emma Tennant) – We’re always game for any Jane Eyre spinoff.  

8. Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton) – One of these days we’ll tackle this one.  I think we’re trying to wait until we’ve completely forgot the plot of the movie.

9. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Victor Hugo) – This one’s a monster and we refuse to commit to any read date.  At least it still looks good collecting dust on the shelf.

10. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe) – Another unread classic way down at the bottom of our TBR list.

Have a great week and head on over to The Broke and the Bookish to join the fun!

Napoleon's Pyramids

Napoleon's Pyramids – William Dietrich

Evan’s ESS = 7.4 out of 10

Erin’s ESS = out of 10

Content = R (Adult Content, Violence, Language, Sexual Content, Impeccable Heroines, Unwelcomed Gambling Spoils)

Why: Because every now and then you need to satisfy a mindless Action / Adventure craving and reading Clive Cussler for the 23^rd time just isn’t going to cut it. 

Napoleon’s Pyramids is historical adventure at its best, although admittedly, we’ve dabbled very little in this genre.  Apprenticed by Benjamin Franklin himself, the hero of this novel bursts onto the scene in style.  While trying to satisfying a minor gambling fix, Ethan Gage secures a magnificent Egyptian treasure that invites a whole host of trouble and more than a few attempts at his life.  What would any reasonable adult do when faced with similar hardships?  That’s right; join the French army under the capable command of Napoleon Bonaparte...            

Wait!  Now before you start pushing past old women and children to reserve this book, there are a few things you should know.  Napoleon’s Pyramids was created from the same vain as many every other Action / Adventure novels.  Rest assured there are plenty of eleventh hour escapes, horribly nasty bad guys, hilariously witty good-guy comebacks, and just in the nick of time cleverness.  We’ll let you decide whether these are good or bad attributes.  What makes this novel a bit unique is the whole 1777 French invasion of Egypt thing you might remember from history class.  And for all of you Napoleon enthusiasts (we know you’re out there), the same storied French commander from War and Peace makes several personal appearances.   

Okay, you’re now released to track down a copy of Napoleon’s Pyramids by any means necessary.  2 points for old ladies and 1 for small children...   

Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

Evan’s ESS = 9 out of 10

Erin’s ESS = out of 10

Content = G (High Seas Adventure, Presupposing, Pretend Epic Sea Battles, Eavesdropping)

“Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won’t drown.”

Why: If there was a single emotion we felt upon completing this book it was probably jealousy... and a pinch of bitterness.  Fine, we’ll just say it – We want to be the Walker children!  Seriously, how cool would it be to sail to an uninhabited island and set camp for an extended period of time?  Actually, our utter lack of seaworthiness would have prevented us from reaching any sort of island.  Still, we make a habit of living vicariously through books.  

 

Swallows and Amazons is a story about 4 children who win approval from their parents to camp on an island near their summer lake home.  Roger, the most experienced sailor takes the helm of Swallow and sets sail with his siblings for Wild Cat Island.  The adventures that follow are as vast as their imaginations and when the Walker’s bump into a pair of sisters who sail Amazon, the stakes are raised even higher.  And then, when a theft occurs on a nearby house boat, the stakes are raised even higher.  And then... sorry, we’ll be done.

 

What we loved about this novel is how well Arthur Ransome captured the adventurous spirit within all children.  Throughout, the Swallows and the Amazons strive to stay in character, forcing the reader to take their camping experiences seriously.  Anyone not on the island is a native, lemonade is rum, and the menacing owner of a nearby houseboat is the dreaded pirate from Treasure Island (not Long John Silver).  The characters felt real.  The relationships felt real.  Even the staged sea battles felt real.  Our only advice to US readers: brush up on your British nautical terms.

Ulysses: Read-along - Part 2

Ulysses – James Joyce (Read-along)

Evan’s ESS = TBD out of 10

Erin’s ESS = out of 10

Content = PG – 13 (Adult Content, Very Mild Language, Morbid Reflections, Wandering Contemplations)

Well, time for another check in, and truthfully, the name of this second post should be called: What in the world did we sign up for...  We definitely needed considerable “help” to navigate through the first half of Part 2 and we owe a debt of gratitude to the many online resources available.  Unfortunately, there’s no online guide to describe our thoughts on this next section.  Soooo, in sticking with the theme of the novel, we’ve decided to utilize more of a random thought model... 

Summary of what we think we read:  Part 2 opened with Leopold Bloom carrying on a conversation with his cat and reflecting on the nature of his pet. Maybe not the most exciting way to start a historic day, but at least we were finally introduced to the main character.  From there, we encountered a post office, a morbid funeral service, and multiple restaurants.  A whole lot of other stuff happened; unfortunately we don't really know what they were.  Oh, and there’s an uneventful chance encounter between Mr. Bloom and Stephen Dedalus.

Random thought: While the narrative jumps are quite disorienting, it’s that much more rewarding when you actually comprehend a string of paragraphs.  You want to smile, as if to say “Ha! I’m wicked smart too!”  Then you realize the people nearby are wondering why you have a weird grin on your face and you feel stupid all over again.

Interesting way to describe suicide:  “Death by misadventure.”

Condemning thought on main character:  We felt some mild disappointment in the main character, highlighted by the following example.  If one is going to go through all the trouble to create a secret alias, they’ve got to do better than Henry Flower.  No offense, to anyone named Henry Flower, but if the entire alias naming world is at your disposal, surely you can do better.  We’re thinking something like... okay, maybe this is harder than we thought.  Still, our disappointment remains.

Another random thought: As you read Ulysses, the novel does have a sort of style and elegance.  Like it’s just a little too brilliant to fully grasp.  Like Joyce was way too smart and wanted to play a joke on “normal people” like us... 

Stream of Consciousness at its very best:  Right in the middle of a funeral service and without any warning or precedence, Mr. Bloom makes the following observation: 

“My kneecap is hurting me.  Ow.  That’s better.” 

We actually thought this little gem was pretty funny. 

Abbreviated wrap up: Okay, we’re dangerously close to going over our arbitrary word count limit, so until next time... chin up!