Get Lost in Literature

"The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. What certainty had he that a single human creature now living was on his side?" Let me start by saying that a portion of my readers are not going to like my review as I plan to compare it to certain current events. Some Democrats (mostly online) have dramatically compared the current Administration to the government that exists inside this book. After reading the book, I think the comparison is a bit extreme, but they're not completely wrong about there being similarities. Winston Smith starts this dystopian classic by writing a diary, an act that is punishable by death. He lives in the totalitarian state of Oceania, where free-thinking is forbidden. As stated above I can't help but draw parallels between our current day world, and the world depicted in 1984 . Everyone in Oceania is under surveillance; their movements and conversations constantly videoed and recorded by telescreens and monitored by the Thought Police. T...

"We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam." This story takes place in a futuristic world where books are banned and burned. Guy Montag, whose job it is to burn the books, is about to become an enemy of the state. I'm having a hard time thinking critically about this book. It wasn't a difficult read, it was scary in certain places, and I found it deeply enjoyable (sometimes classic lit can drag on), and relevant to today's societal and political problems. Yet the review doesn't come easy. Guy Montag lives a life of normalcy. He gets up and goes to work everyday, lucky enough to have a job he enjoys. He comes home to his wife, Mildred who spends her days watching tv. Watching television has become a favorite hobby of the people of this dystopian society, their house installed with three wall-tvs, and Mildred begging for a fourth. She's the epitome of this 'perfect' society. She...

  "The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience." Frank Herbert, Dune Please forgive my lackluster review, this one is not current, written in 2020. As you know, 2020 was a trying year, Covid-19 sucking the life out of most people, myself included. I can see why this book touched so many and I enjoyed reading it for the most part. I think some of the plot devices were a tad bit lazy: every oh-so-convenient moment that fell in line with The Prophecy, for example. But the characters were delightful in their schemes. The setting was great. Plot would probably have been better for me if I wasn't overthinking on overdrive, stress makes me cynical. I maybe think the world building and vocabulary could have been improved upon, just a bit, but I might also be reading this at the wrong age. I liked the touches on environmental and ecological issues. I liked that he addressed political and theological conflicts, and the void between the ruling class...

  “The sun sinks to rise again; the day is swallowed up in the gloom of night, to be born out of it, as fresh as if it had never been quenched.”― William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist I would like to start by saying two things: 1. I know using Ex instead of X isn't quite the same thing, Ex being a sound and X being an unloved letter of the alphabet...And at least on my blog, this year, it's going to remain underappreciated because Ex was the best I could do. 2 Do not read this book before bed, unless you're the kind of person that enjoys sleeping with the lights on. The story opens with Father Merrin, who is working on an archaeological dig in Iraq and is overcome with a feeling of foreboding as he discovers a statue of the wind demon, Pazuzu. Miles away, in Georgetown, Washington DC, Chris MacNeil is finishing up the filming of her next movie with director Burke Dennings before going home to her daughter, Regan. A normal life in the day of an actress except for the Jesuit pri...

  “There's nothing in the sea this fish would fear. Other fish run from bigger things. That's their instinct. But this fish doesn't run from anything. He doesn't fear.” ― Peter Benchley, Jaws Amity Island thrives off tourism. The local businesses are run off of "summer people" who are visiting for the beautiful beaches. But when a Great White chooses Amity as its new hunting ground, people die, tourism fails, and the economy stumbles. The responsibility falls to Amity Police Chief Martin Brody to protect the people and figure out how to get rid of the shark. The book is decidedly not that scary by modern day expectations. There's an anti-elitist theme underlying the work; Brody's a working-class man with "traditional values" and he doesn't particularly care for the rich tourists his town depends on for survival. His wife Ellen, is a "traditional housewife" from an affluent family and he's become resentful that she might miss...

  "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow." Robert Walton failed writer turned sailor, opens the story by writing to his sister Margaret. He is sailing far north, when the crew rescue Victor Frankenstein who is lost upon an ice flow. Victor is a broken man with a story to tell. Even if you haven't seen the movies, even if you haven't read the book, you're probably familiar with the concept of Frankenstein: a mad scientist sews a body together and restores life to dead limbs, creating a hideous monster. This book wasn't at all what I was expecting. After Victor's mother dies he is sent away to university where he studies science and discovers how to reanimate the dead. He becomes obsessed with his science experiment, shunning all social contact an...

  "Straight away he raced, with Dolly, panting and frothing, one leap behind; nor could she gain on him, so great was his terror, nor could he leave her, so great was her madness." Call of the Wild by Jack London If I could only take 5 books with me to live on a desert island, this book would be top of the list. There has always been something about this book that calls to me like a wolf in the night. This is the story of Buck, pampered pet, stolen and sold into a life of toil in the wild North. And as he is introduced to the "law of the primitive," that a man with a weapon is a dangerous thing, and a fair fight becomes a thing of the past as survival of the fittest becomes paramount, he begins his transformation from the picture of domestication to a feral creature of the wilds. Jack London has been gone a long time, but his stories of the Yukon live on. Pitting man against nature has been a constant theme in his works and in this story, we learn about it through ...

"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow." Robert Walton failed writer turned sailor, opens the story by writing to his sister Margaret. He is sailing far north, when the crew rescue Victor Frankenstein who is lost upon an ice flow. Victor is a broken man with a story to tell. Even if you haven't seen the movies, even if you haven't read the book, you're probably familiar with the concept of Frankenstein: a mad scientist sews a body together and restores life to dead limbs, creating a hideous monster. This book wasn't at all what I was expecting. After Victor's mother dies he sent away to university where he studies science and discovers how to reanimate the dead. He becomes obsessed with his science experiment shunning all social contact ...

"...you cannot make an animal and not expect it to act alive. To be unpredictable. To escape. But they don't see that." Before I say anything about the book, I need to say Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park: The Lost World, are probably two of my all time favorite movies so I can’t really help but compare the books to the movies. I’ve probably watched those a thousand times. The movie were perfection and set the bar high; I never read the book because I was afraid it would suck and then how would I view the movie? Alternatively, what if the book was better and then the movie suddenly sucked? The third movie was a total disappointment. It would be a long time before I figured out the third movie had no book to support it, and I would then attribute the bad plot to the fact that the story had been nothing more than box office fan fiction. Now with advertisements for a fourth Jurassic Park , and a second fan fiction, I found myself once again intrigued and captivated b...

"Are you punishing Regan?" Yes . "You wish to harm her?" Yes . "To kill her?" Yes. "If she died, wouldn't you die too?" No. I would like to start by saying two things: 1. I have never seen the movie and have no idea how the novel compares with the film. 2. Do not read this book before bed, unless you're the kind of person that enjoys sleeping with the lights on. The story opens with Father Merrin, who is working on an archaeological dig in Iraq and is overcome with a feeling of foreboding as he discovers a statue of the wind demon, Pazuzu. Miles away, in Georgetown, Washington DC, Chris MacNeil is finishing up the filming of her next movie with director Burke Dennings before going home to her daughter, Regan. A normal life in the day of an actress except for the Jesuit priest watching the performance; Father Damien Karras. And it quickly becomes clear, that everything is not normal . Chris's Regan is developing ...

I loved this story, it was dark and exciting; the narrator is a survivor of an alien invasion, searching for his wife in the chaos. For the literature lover, this is a tale written when stories were produced to teach and not just entertain. HG Wells subtly used a martian invasion to snub his nose at British imperialism; presenting a vicious struggle between conquerors and their inferiors. The book ends with the hopeful thought, that even something little can stand up against something big. Of course, this is another instance of me seeing the movie before I read the book, so in this case the narrator--in my head-- sounded an awful lot like Morgan Freeman. And if we're ever invaded for real, I hope the aliens hire him to narrate their evil plans... I know my review for this is tiny, but I absolutely loved it. Rating 5/5 Review originally posted:  Jul 13, 13

Mattie Ross is a 14 year old girl, is hunting Tom Chaney, the outlaw who killed her father. She hires US Marshal Rooster Cogburn, accompanied by a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf, to help her find her man. Mattie Ross is a really cold character. When her father is murdered there is no grief, when a man is hanged there is no shock at the matter. She simply keeps moving on to the next decision and the next destination. A part of me wonders, if Charles Portis, did that on purpose or not... Did he not know how to write emotion? Or did he leave it out, so the readers could see the only differences between an outlaw and good citizen is in the choices made, so the lines between good and bad could be pleasantly blurred... This is my first time reading Charles Portis, so I really have nothing to compare to. I do think the dialogue between her and Rooster is awesome. I love how this little girl just takes charge of every situation, like she has no idea of her own age; she refuses to let herself...

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Tales from the Jazz Age   by   F.Scott Fitzgerald I've got a lot to say about this book. First, I'd like to say, this was a pain in the ass to rate. F. Scott Fitzgerald is a fine example of why classic literature is classic... These stories should be able to hit the full mark easily. They didn't for reasons stated in my  hack job  rant, but in case you missed that or don't feel like reading it, let me reiterate. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Tales of the Jazz Age , as produced by Seedbox Press is a hack job. There are dialogues that merge into narration, words and phrases dropped from sentences leaving gaps in paragraphs, missing punctuation, and character conversations merged into block paragraphs of chaos. I was happy to get such a collection at a bargain price until I realized the reason they offered it had more to do with its poor editing and formatting. If you're a Fitzgerald fan or h...