Top Ten Tuesday- Books to Re-read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers’ answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND post a comment on our post with a link to your Top Ten Tuesday post to share with us and all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

If you can't come up with ten, don't worry about it---post as many as you can!

This week's topic:

Top Ten Books I want to Reread

 



1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling- I've lost count how many times I have read this series, but it's never enough times to get tired of it. This is one of my two favorite series.

2. The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien- Did you guess that this is my other favorite series? Then you guessed right! I love the imagery, imagination, and action of the LOTR series.

3. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky- I first read Crime and Punishment in high school. From that point on, I was hooked on 19th Century Russian literature... which is why I took a class in college on the Masterpieces of 19th Century Russian literature. It was my favorite class during my undergraduate career, and I am not a literature/english major. And my love affair with Russian lit all started in high school with Crime and Punsihment. Every time I read it, I find some new way to look at Raskolnikov or discover a new aspect to the story. It's wonderful!

4. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell- I first read this in this past December. It now competes with Crime and Punishment as my favorite book and I definitely want to reread it soon.

5. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton- This is a beautifully written and tragic book that I fell in love with in high school and continue to read it every couple of years.

6. Little Women by Loisa May Alcott- I read this back in elementary school. I remember liking it but thinking it was a little boring. I've been feeling a strong urge recently to read it again and see what my adult self thinks of it.

7. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy- I read this during my Masterpieces of 19th Century Russian Literature course as well. It's a wonderful book and I highly recommend Tolstoy.

8. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy- I read this back in high school but I would love to read it again since I now have a much larger Russian history/fiction background to compare it to. I think I would get more from it than when I read it the first time.

9. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand- This is one of those books that people either love or hate. They may love or hate it because of its political stance or large size. I love it for both! I've read it twice now, once in high school and once rather recently, but I could always get right back into it again. Maybe I'll read it next year as we gear up for the Presidential elections, that seems a little fitting since we need to pick a great leader.

10. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot- I think this is a wonderfully written piece of work about the true story of Henrietta Lacks and her legacy to science. Since I am in the scientific, and soon to be, healthcare field, it's also a great cautionary tale about the importance of patient rights and privacy. I think it's something that anyone in the science field should read and be reminded about.

Let me know what you're 10 ten rereads are!



Book Review: Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen

Reign of Madness

By: Lynn Cullen

Pub. Date: August 2011

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Format: Hardcover , 400pp

ISBN-13: 9780399157097

ISBN: 0399157093

Source: Library

Synopsis:

Juana of Castile, third child of the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando, grows up with no hope of inheriting her parents' crowns, but as a princess knows her duty: to further her family's ambitions through marriage. Yet stories of courtly love, and of her parents' own legendary romance, surround her. When she weds the Duke of Burgundy, a young man so beautiful that he is known as Philippe the Handsome, she dares to hope that she might have both love and crowns. He is caring, charming, and attracted to her-seemingly a perfect husband.

But what begins like a fairy tale ends quite differently.

When Queen Isabel dies, the crowns of Spain unexpectedly pass down to Juana, leaving her husband and her father hungering for the throne. Rumors fly that the young Queen has gone mad, driven insane by possessiveness. Who is to be believed? The King, beloved by his subjects? Or the Queen, unseen and unknown by her people?

One of the greatest cautionary tales in Spanish history comes to life as Lynn Cullen explores the controversial reign of Juana of Castile-also known as Juana the Mad. Sweeping, page-turning, and wholly entertaining, Reign of Madness is historical fiction at its richly satisfying best.


My Review:

Reign of Madness is an historical fiction book chronicling Juana of Castile's life. Juana was the third child of Ferdinand and Isabel, rulers of Spain. Juana had no hope of ever becoming Queen but she let her parents sends her off to the Netherlands to be married to Philippe the Handsome.

At first, Juana is taken away by her new husband. He is caring and loving... and handsome. Over time, though, he begins to change. Neither Philippe or Juana originally wanted power but Philippe seems to be persuaded by his grandmother to begin to seek the throne back in Spain.

Juana grows more distant to her husband as he becomes more power hungry. Eventually, after some family misfortunes and misunderstandings, Juana is in a place to take her mother's throne. However, Philippe does not want to be a consort King, so he arranges for Juana to appear crazy to the public. Juana becomes a pawn to her husband, father, and son, as they all want her power. Meanwhile, Juana is locked up waiting for her adolescent love to save her, Diego, son of Christopher Columbus.

Juana's story is, without a doubt, interesting and has the right amounts of green and corruption. However, many times I was just bored or confused.

Juana's relationship to her mother is like that of a modern adolescent, not a girl raised to become at all powerful in her own right, like her mother did. I kept waiting for Juana to grow up and drop the petty drama.

As for being bored, Christopher Columbus enters the story several times with his exploits to the Americas. I'm not sure why he was included though. My guess is that his presence adds some historical context that everyone knows about, but he isn't relevant to Juana's story and just served to distract the reader. Even her relationship to his son, Diego, was a little boring. There were just small moments when they stood and talked to each other and then nothing came of it. Boring and unnecessary.

Also, as Juana's relationship to her husband changed, her feelings and knowledge of what was going on seemed to be only superficially explained. I kept wanting more. I wanted to know how Juana did not guess what her husband was doing to her sooner, especially since the reader could guess right away. There was a lot of foreshadowing throughout the novel, so I knew all of what was going to happen long before it did.

I normally love historical fiction for the richness of detail and learning about important figures. I think Reign of Madness lacked a lot in the details that makes historical fiction so enchanting and escapist. I never really felt myself pulled into Juana's world. I did learn more about Juana the Mad/of Castile, but I'm sure I still have a long way to go before I feel like I knew her.

Overall, it was an okay/good read but not great. I guess it's a good introductory story to one theory on the life of Juana the Mad.

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

By: Stieg Larsson

Pub. Date: November 2010

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Format: Hardcover, 563 pages 

Series: Millennium Trilogy Series

ISBN-13: 9780307595577

ISBN: 0307595579

Source: Personal Copy

Synopsis:

This novel not only puts the cap on the most eagerly read trilogy in years; the sequel to The Girl Who Played With Fire marks the completion of its Swedish author's career; Stieg Larsson died at the age of fifty in 2004. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is, however, too exciting and too adept to be read simply as a major author's memorial. From its onset, with "avenging angel" protagonist Lisbeth Salander lying in intensive care, this fiction pulses forward. One British critic called it "intricately plotted, lavishly detailed but written with a breakneck pace and verve...a tantalizing double finale;first idyllic, then frenetic."

My Review:

I can't decide if I like The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo more from Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. They were two different novels. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had more action and suspense whereas The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest was more political intrigue and character-focused. The middle book, The Girl who Played with Fire, was a good book but really just set everything up for the third installment.

In The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, we find Lisbeth Salander, an anti-social girl with a horrible past that is coming back to haunt her, is in the hospital in critical condition- she's suffering from three gun shot wounds, one to her head. While Salander is locked in her hospital room, government and law enforcement officials and the media are scrambling to discover the truth about Salander. The people from Salander's past, meanwhile, are busy covering everything up... again.

Mikael Blomkvist, a top journalist and one of Salander's few friends, does everything he can to learn more about Salander and help her out- including figuring out how to get Salander to be able to help herself even while she's in a locked and guarded room.

One thing I loved most about The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was the political intrigue. It was very interesting to learn more about the structure of the Swedish government. One aspect that I noted about my reaction to the political corruption though, was that because this was happening in a foreign country that I'm not familiar with, it was kind of like reading a fantasy book. Things can happen in fantasy but not in books about our real lives because as readers, we're a step removed from the location, and therefore the characters. I think if The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest took place in the U.S., or even a country that I know more about, I would have had a stronger reaction to Lisbeth's treatment because that would have meant that it could happen here... not just in a place that I will probably never visit. (I hope my connection to the fantasy genre and my reaction analysis made sense. I'm not sure if I explained myself well enough though).  However, regardless of where this took place, I was intrigued by the government/police scandals and investigations.

Another aspect that I liked from this book was that we learned a lot more about Lisbeth Salander. The reader learns all about her childhood and why she behaves the way she does and why she makes some of the decisions that she does.

On the other hand, while we learn a lot about Salander's past, she doesn't do much in her present. True, she is recovering from severe wounds, but I kept expecting her to get better, leave the hospital, and take things into her own hands... which happens, but not until about the last 50 pages of the book. Before then, it's Blomkvist who does all the running around and work to save Salander. Since the titles are based on Salander's character, I wanted her to do more, and yes, she is very interesting, but I do think that Blomkvist is the main character of the series (and especially thing final book), not Salander.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book... enough that I stayed up reading it last night and only got 5 hours of sleep. I would change a few things but I do recommend it.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl who Played with Fire

By: Stieg Larsson

Pub. Date: November 2010

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Format: Hardcover, 503 pages 

Series: Millennium Trilogy Series

ISBN-13: 9780307595577

ISBN: 0307595579

Source: Personal Copy

Synopsis:

Part blistering espionage thriller, part riveting police procedural, and part piercing exposeé on social injustice, The Girl Who Played with Fire is a masterful, endlessly satisfying novel. Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander's innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.

My Review:

Blomkvist returns from Hedstad, where he spent most of the first book in this series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which I reviewed here), and tries to return to his normal life as a journalist at a small but mighty monthly journal. However, he can't find the girl he worked with in Hedstad, Lisbeth Salander.

Salander has left the country, and especially Blomkvist. The point of her trip surprised me buts I guess it made her seem more like a real person who maybe didn't want to stay as anti-social as she had been before. The rest of her adventure out of the country was interesting, but did not play a role in the main action of the book.

Blomkvist begins working with an investigative journalist who is writing a piece on the sex trade in Sweden. Right before Blomkvist's journal is ready to publish the piece, the journalist and his girlfriend are murdered and Salander becomes the prime suspect.

Media chaos ensues. The media circus surrounding the murders and search for Salander sounded like what could, and probably does, happen here in America. The media takes little bits given from the police and jumps to conclusions and sensationalizes the 'facts' based on little evidence.

Blomkvist, while still grieving for his lost friends and scrambling to change the journal issue before going for publication, becomes convinced that Salander is innocent and begins his search for her. Salander is incredibly difficult to track. Along the way, we learn more about Lisbeth's past.

I found the beginning of The Girl who Played with Fire to be really slow and many things to be rather irrelevant to the plot. However, the second half of the book was exciting and suspenseful. I recommend this book for a very good story, as long as you are willing to drag through some of the slower parts. Plus, the book ends right in the middle of action which makes you want to start the third book right away. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it certainly creates a lot of suspense!

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Library Visit

Have I ever said how much I love the library system in Pittsburgh, PA?

I LOVE to buy books! I love to gaze at my book shelves and ponder all the beautiful stories contained within their covers. But I don't have unlimited resources, either in money or space. Therefore, I've increased my borrowing habits from the library.

I use to live in Oakland, the neighborhood in Pittsburgh where the University of Pittsburgh is located. Oakland is also home of the main library for Pittsburgh. It's a massive, beautiful building that is also connected to the Pittsburgh Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Art.

Since I've graduated, my husband and I have moved out of Oakland but still live in Pittsburgh. There is a very small branch just up the hill from where we live now. It may be up a steep hill and it may be closed two days a week, but the service is just as great. I requested two books online mid-day last Friday. The library was closed Sunday and Monday and my books were still in bright and early this morning!

While I was in there, I glanced at the display of new books and there was another book I wanted to read! Even at the little branch campus!

The books I picked up today are:

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Katie Jacobs

Blood, Bones, & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen

Any suggestions on which book I should start first?