1997: Audition

Book Name: Audition

Author: Ryu Murakami

Genre: Horror, Romance

Year Published: 1997

   Audition... This was a weird book. I mean, I figured it was going to be from the fact it's described as being both a romance and a horror novel. Those two don't generally go together. Written by Japanese author, Ryu Murakami, and also a film (which unfortunately I haven't seen yet), this was a pretty good read overall, though it had a lot of build up to a short climax. Maybe a fifth of the book has something that's really interesting happening, the rest is just filler/descriptions.

   The storyline is an interesting one. Aoyama is a single father, his wife having died some years ago, and his son suggests he get a new wife. This results in an audition being held on the pretence of finding an actress for a film, but with the real goal being for Aoyama to find a nice lady. Enter Yamasaki Asami. Aoyama quickly falls in love with her, though his friend thinks there's something a little odd about her and she doesn't seem to have any friends or family... Also there's a guy in a wheelchair who freaks out when he sees her. But who cares about that? She's clearly the most wonderful woman in the whole world. 

   You may get the gist that this is the romance part. If you don't like spoilers, at least know this. The bit at the end really is the horror part. It's very short-lived, but pretty bad. If you're squeamish or anything like that - don't read this book! It may seem like a lovely romantic novel. It isn't. You've been warned.

   That aside, I would say it's a shame really the horror part wasn't longer somehow. The romance part of the book is nice and all, but it's rather long in getting to the point, despite the writing being really smooth. The descriptions are well-written and it's easy to imagine yourself there in the moment, but after a while it just doesn't have a draw to keep reading. The good thing is, it's short. So if you have a few days spare, you can easily read and enjoy it. I do recommend reading it. But it's not one you're going to want to come back to again.

Other Books I Considered:The Bone Collector - Jeffery Deaver; Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier; In the Miso Soup - Ryu Murakami; Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden; A Song of Stone - Iain Banks; Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom
Books I Read Inbetween: The Moth Diaries - Rachel Klein

1912: Daddy-Long-Legs

Book Name: Daddy-Long-Legs

Author: Jean Webster

Genre: Epistolary

Year Published: 1912

Daddy-Long-Legs is an epistolary novel, meaning it's written in the form of letters. All of these letters are from Jerusha (Judy), an orphan who is sent to college by one of the asylum's trustees, who chooses to remain anonymous. She is tasked with writing to him about her progress and the book therefore consists of said letters, in which, knowing nothing about the man, she addresses him as Daddy-Long-Legs, because she glimpsed him once at the asylum and recalls him as tall and skinny. 

I'd been requested by someone who reads this blog to put a short piece concerning what the novel is about at the start of each review, but I have to say I find it a little difficult and clunky to write these kind of blurbs. I hope the above suffices... I'll try and do a better one next time, and maybe with practice they will get better! 

Now, I really liked this style of writing. I've read similar books before which used letters, e-mails, texts and other media during the novel to convey how relationships between characters were progressing, but I don't think I've read one in which the entire novel was based on them. I remember thinking at the time that they broke up the book nicely, in a new and interesting fashion, because I wasn't used to books doing that I suppose, but of course this book was written quite a while ago in 1912 so it's clearly not a recent concept.

It was strange at first having all the letters be from Judy to Daddy-Long-Legs, without any responses from him. I liked the way you could clearly read her emotions in her letters, from confusion at being in a new place, to frustration when he didn't respond to her, to her happiness or sadness when things occurred in her life - all these things were expertly conveyed in the writing. As the letters are sent over 4 years you get to really see the changes in Judy's life and learn a lot about her as a character. It's a lot more intimate than the relationship you might develop with a normal novel's characters therefore. 

Now, the next paragraph is going to consist of a MASSIVE SPOILER. So if you don't want to read about the novel's culmination you're best off skipping to the bit where I've written "spoiler ends" further down in capitals. 

During the book, Judy befriends and indeed falls for a man - Master Jervie - who is the uncle of one of her contemporaries at college. She writes a lot to Daddy-Long-Legs about him of course, as well as everything else that is going on her life. At the end of the book, it is revealed (though there are a few clues here and there earlier on) that Daddy-Long-Legs is in fact Master Jervie. I couldn't decide honestly whether this whole book was therefore really weird or not. It's kind of nice of course that he's sent her to college and they end up falling in love etc. but at the same time she goes on about how well they get on together and he likes the same things as her and so forth and all I can think is Well, of course he knows all about you because you write to him every week about everything you're doing and what you're interested in! So I guess it's a little creepy in a way...?

SPOILER ENDS

Despite the strangeness of the book's ending, it was still fun to read, very light and good pacing. I read quite a lot of it at a time which is always a good sign, and there was no point at which I struggled and thought I didn't want to carry on reading it. Anyway, if you read the bit in the spoilers paragraph and have read the book, I'd love to know your thoughts... If you haven't read it, read it and then let me know! So undecided!

Other Books I Considered: Greyfriar's Bobby - Eleanor Atkinson; In Desert and Wilderness - Henryk Sienkiewicz; The Crystal Stopper - Maurice Leblanc; Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey

1929: All Quiet on the Western Front

Book Name: All Quiet on the Western Front

Author: Erich Maria Remarque

Genre: War

Year Published: 1929

Right, this one was kinda difficult to write about. It's a famous and popular novel about World War I, written from a German perspective, though I get the feeling that most perspectives would be pretty similar.
Honestly, I struggled to get into it. Before I read it, people told me it would make me feel sad, so I was a little wary of that, but these fears were actually unfounded. Being a novel about war, undoubtedly there were sad moments in the book, but I didn't feel sad in myself. I think that is because I've not got any experience I can relate to being in a war. I can't imagine those intense emotions and so I don't connect with them when I read about it.
Despite this, I did like the book. I wouldn't say it was one of my favourites or anything, but as an introduction to war novels it was pretty good. I've never been drawn to reading this genre before. People's friends dying, horses dying and the threat of personally dying is a subject I tend to avoid, particularly in something I do for pleasure such as reading. However I guess it's important not to ignore it at the same time. Wars happen. Death happens. The experiences of the people caught up in all this actually makes for some pretty intense reading at points.
At others, the story can kinda drag. Halfway through the book I nearly quit reading it. The same stuff happens over and over. Bombings, hunger, injuries, death, homesickness. I had to persuade myself to continue for the challenge. Luckily I did, because it definitely picks up. You really get to see Paul (the narrator)'s character develop. Remarque does an excellent job really of showing the emotions one goes through over time in such a harsh environment. I don't really want to write all the stuff that happens. It's much better if you read it yourself.
Don't go in expecting all the feels. Just try to experience it I guess. And hope like hell you never have to go through that yourself.

Other Books I Considered: A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway; Some Prefer Nettles - Junichiro Tanizaki

Books I Read Inbetween: The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

1926: The Blue Castle

Book Name: The Blue Castle

Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Genre: Romance

Year Published: 1926

So, you may have heard of L.M. Montgomery seeing as she wrote Anne of Green Gables, but actually I've never read it... You're probably now wondering, why did you decide to read this, one of her lesser-known works then? Well, there's two reasons. The first one is out of the books that looked vaguely interesting which were written in 1926, this was the easiest to get hold of. I was able to read it online for free, which was a little weird as I had to scroll down the whole web page over and over to read it. But hey, new experiences and all that. The second reason is that she's a famous female Canadian author and indeed the only Canadian on my list which is intended to feature a wide range of countries.
Anyway, The Blue Castle is a romance novel - one of my least favourite genres. It's meant to be for adults, even though most of Montgomery's works were aimed at children. I did find the writing a little simple and very feminine. As most of the books I like are written by men, I purposefully included a number of female authors on my list to try and expand my horizons, but I'm afraid this style just didn't cut it for me. Some of the main highlights were her uncle's terrible, terrible jokes and the over the top sections on how amazing woods/forests are.
On the other hand, the story itself wasn't awful. Valancy (what a cool name!) Stirling is an "old maid" who has a horrifically boring life and no prospects for the future. When she finds out she is likely to die within a year, she decides to leave home, work at the home of the local drunk and eventually asks a man everyone thinks is a crazy lawbreaker to marry her, resulting in her family practically disowning her.
SPOILER ALERT: Turns out the doctor sent her the wrong letter and all turns out ok. SPOILER ENDS
The book is filled with whimsical notions of a better life - Valancy's Blue Castle is where everything is as she wants it to be with a wonderful lover and beautiful rooms/views etc. Through her escapades, Valancy realises that all she really wants is to not be at the beck and call of her mother and be the butt of her family's jokes because she hasn't got married by her late 20s.
Overall then, it's a pretty typical story of a woman rebelling against society in an age when all that was expected of her was to get married and have kids. Not the most original or exciting read, but it had a good flow and due to some of the chapters being only a few paragraphs long it was very easy to delve in and out of. If you like romance books, it's probably your cup of tea though.

Other Books I Considered: Durandal - Harold Lamb; The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

Books I Read Inbetween: Shouldn't You Be In School? - Lemony Snicket

1960: To Kill A Mockingbird

Book Name: To Kill A Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

Genre: Fiction

Year Published: 1960

So, somehow I got to 26 without reading To Kill A Mockingbird, so I just had to put it on my list. I know loads of people did it for GCSE and often people really hate the books they did for that on account of having to go over and analyse them so much, but people still seem to like this one anyway. (I did Catcher in the Rye, in case you're interested). Anyway it's so popular and yet I had no idea what it was about before I started reading. I'm kind of glad of this as I was able to approach it completely anew and without anyone else's opinion on it.

I really really liked this book. You may have noticed my posts are normally quite infrequent, but this one is less than a month after The Ghost Pirates and that's because I read it in only 10 days (this is really good for me as I'm a slow reader). I was reading it all the time when I was at home, eager to see what happened next and thoroughly caught up in Scout's life. Scout reminded me a bit of myself when I was younger which helped me enjoy her story more I think - preferring trousers to skirts and being friends with boys more than girls etc. 

The racism side of the book was actually really interesting to me. I guess that fortunately it's something I don't have to think about much and I was as disappointed as Scout and Jem when the jury convicted Tom despite evidence to the contrary. It really makes you understand how unfair and ridiculous everything was and it did make me a bit angry too. I really like the way the book is done through the eyes of children. Their innocence makes you realise how stubborn adults can be sometimes.

Anyway, I know maybe you might have been avoiding this book because everyone goes on about it, but it actually is worth your time. It's well written, interesting, thought provoking and has a good mix of suspense and humour. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Other Books I Considered: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane - Henry Farrell

Books I Read Inbetween: Demon Dentist - David Walliams; The Locked Room - Paul Auster; Into the Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes; Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett