Presidents' Day Sale!

Please visit my etsy shop and enjoy 5% off your order by using the coupon code PRESIDENT5 at checkout!  I look forward to seeing you there!

Book Review: The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories by Leo Tolstoy

My Review:

After finally finished Atlas Shrugged, I wanted something quick to read so I turned to a few short stories from Tolstoy (best known for War and Peace  and Anna Karenina - two very long novels). This book contains three stories: "How Much Land Does a Man Need?," "The Death of Ivan Illych," and "The Kreutzer Sonata."

"How Much Land Does a Man Need" was a quick 14 page read but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I normally try reading long novels rather short stories because I love becoming involved with the characters and seeing them grow and mature.  However, I liked this story for the point that it made, which I'll leave at: "Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed" (The Kreutzer Sonata and other Short Stories Tolstoy 14).

"The Death of Ivan Illych" was a bit longer, ~50 pages and told the story of the end of a man's life. I found that this story seemed to drag just because I didn't really care about Ivan Illych.  However, I can see Tolstoy's reason for writing this story as he was going through his own spiritual crisis and awakening at the time.  Significant lines: "'It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up. And that is really what it was.  I was going up in public opinion, but to the same extent life was ebbing away from me. And now it is all done and there is only death'" (Tolstoy 56-7) and "'What if my whole life has really been wrong?'" (Tolstoy 60).

"The Kreutzer Sonata" was the longest story in this collection.  It relates the story of a man on a train who tells a fellow passenger why he killed his wife. I know that this story was written to somehow mimic Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, but beyond that, I don't think it was anywhere near a remarkable story.  I was often bored with the man's story except for the action at the end, but even that was only action without much insight to the man's choice.  We are told why commits murder and how he felt, but there just wasn't the same depth that you can find in Tolstoy's longer novels such as Anna Karenina and War and Peace.

Overall, I once again confirmed that short stories are not my cup of tea. Within this collection by Tolstoy, I surprisingly enjoyed the shortest story the most, "How Much Land Does One Man Need?"  I loved the point of that story and especially the last line.  The other two stories were rather boring because I felt they lacked the depth that I can find in novels.

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Winner's Choice: Sun Set Collection Cotton Washcloths

I recently sponsored a giveaway on Wicked Cool Giveaways. The winner received their choice of any of the washcloth sets in my etsy shop and they chose the sun set collection!  Congratulations to the winner and everyone else, please check out the winner's choice as well as the rest of my shop for great handmade housewares!

Book Review: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Synopsis:

At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback.

With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most popular novelists of the century, but one of its most influential thinkers.

Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit.

* Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club (Image and synopsis from amazon.com).



My Review:

The premise of this book is an interesting idea... what if the movers and the shakers of the world stopped moving and shaking? Well, what if? While I think some of Rand's points are extreme and she idealizes corporate figures and demeans the common worker for the sake of making her point, I do think she makes some excellent arguements and is definitely worthwhile reading.

Dagny Taggart runs Taggart Transcontinental, the largest railroad company in the U.S., in reality, although not in name.  Her brother Jim Taggart is the president of the company, while Dagny is Vice-President in Charge of Operations. Through her skills, intelligence, and hard work, Dangny manages to keep her railroad running in spite of the opposition and hatred of business found in Washington D.C.

The government is run by 'social'- minded people who care more for the human need than the greed of corporations.  This government continues to spew  out orders, directives, and laws that eliminate any freedom that businesses had, including the freedom to fire workers who are incompetent or not needed!

Along the way, we find the lost city of Atlantis. But I won't say anymore about that! :)

Atlas Shrugged is a political coming of age novel.  Not a coming of age in the sense of a character moving from childhood to adulthood but from ignorance to full acceptance of a political, spiritual, and realistic philosophy. Dagny must mature and grow to accept the philosophy that has ruled her life without her knowing it. 

While Atlas Shrugged is a long novel, it is compelling and keeps moving.  However, I must admit that I did skip one part towards the end, it was basically a reiteration of Rand's philosophy- which only the most dense reader would not have already recognized in the novel, so I saw no point to spend my reading time on 60 pages of what I had already learned. 

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Giveaway Spotlight

I am sponsoring a giveaway on another blog, Wicked Cool Giveaways.  If you didn't win a set of crocheted cotton washcloths from my own blog/etsy shop, please check out this blog enter for another chance! This giveaway ends 2/14 and has a low entry, so you have a good chance to win!

Here is the link for the giveaway: Enter the giveaway!

Enjoy :)