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

1909: The Ghost Pirates

Book Name: The Ghost Pirates

Author: William Hope Hodgson

Genre: Horror

Year Published: 1909



So this book I literally chose because it was called "The Ghost Pirates" and I'm pleased to say it didn't disappoint. Despite the occasional issue with nautical language I found this story really enjoyable (and to be honest I just substituted the words I didn't understand for "that place" or "that thing" and the sentences worked just fine :P) It's about a sailor on a ship with a bad reputation but nobody believes in ghost stories... you know, until they start getting killed off.
Anyway, I don't want to give away too much, so suffice to say, it has a good horror atmosphere, light on description of what's attacking them and heavy on the psychology of the main character and his mental state. Thanks to the tension and pace of the writing, I found this book hard to put down, which has been a pretty rare occurrence of late thanks to being super busy with work, theatre and NaNo.
Speaking of NaNo, that's basically the reason this blog post is so late - I actually read it in September, but then was doing prep in October and of course writing in November! Also, (spoiler alert!) my next book I'm reading is To Kill A Mockingbird and I was having trouble getting hold of a cheap/free copy. I don't like to start reading my next "100 Year Challenge" book before I've written the blog post on the old one XD
Anyways, I really do recommend this. It's not too scary if you're worried about that, but it does have some good old style horror (seeing as how it was written in 1909). It has some good characters and in particular the narrator is someone you can actually empathise with which is always a bonus. Plus the fantasy elements of the story are interesting to the point I'm considering stealing some for my roleplaying game :P So yeah, give it a read!

Other Books I Considered: Sorekara - Natsume Sōseki
Books I Read Inbetween: A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin

1919: The Moon Pool

Book Name: The Moon Pool

Author: Abraham Merritt

Genre: Fantasy

Year Published: 1919

When I was compiling my book list I tried to create a mix of titles I'd heard of and had therefore wanted to read for some time, as well as choosing some completely random ones so as to discover new authors and perhaps inspire people to read some older, less-known works. I had never heard of Abraham Merritt, but thanks to a quick internet search implying that he might have influenced H.P.Lovecraft I decided to give The Moon Pool a go.

I'm certainly glad I read this book, although it was a bit hard going at times. Merritt has a very descriptive style of writing which can make it feel as though you are reading a constant stream of metaphors and similes, but the story is overall compelling enough that it's not too much trouble. In fact sometimes it can be very interesting to be given such vivid descriptions, given the book's fantasy setting.

The main story of The Moon Pool is about the discovery of an underground race and a kind of monster, referred to as the Dweller or the Shining One, which comes to the Earth's surface and feeds on humans. The build up to the discovery and learning about the race and this 'lost world' scenario was really interesting, but I found that at times the book focused a little too much on the romance between one of the people exploring the underground realm and one of the inhabitants thereof. Without giving too much away hopefully, there is at least a reason for this development in the end, but I suppose I just didn't enjoy the fantasy/romance genre battle that seemed to occur occasionally.

Overall, I can see why this is cited as an influence on Lovecraft, though for me, Merritt's work didn't always flow as well and there's not as much of a horror element for definite. I would recommend it though for anyone who enjoys reading about alternate worlds and races and it's a decent old fantasy title that deserves a little recognition I feel.

Other Books I Considered: A Damsel in Distress - P.G.Wodehouse

Books I Read Inbetween: A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold - George R. R. Martin; When Did You See Her Last - Lemony Snicket; Newt's Emerald - Garth Nix; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard; French Without Tears - Terence Rattigan; Grace Note - Samuel Adamson

1983: The Piano Teacher

Book Name: The Piano Teacher

Author: Elfriede Jelinek

Genre: Novel

Year Published: 1983

So it turns out A Song of Ice and Fire is a terrible series to be reading alongside other books as I never seem to read anything else... but back in March(!) I did finish reading The Piano Teacher. (Thanks E-T for lending me a copy.) The cover described it as "the masterpiece of Elfriede Jelinek, Austria's most famous writer." I'm not sure how true this statement is as I know pretty much nothing about Austrian literature, but I had heard of the film adaptation and I certainly really liked the book. It is about the life of Erika Kohut, who lives with her super overprotective and overbearing mother, her fascination with sex and peep shows and her relationship with one of her students. Whilst the story is a bit hard to describe without just explaining everything that happened, it does cover various points of Erika's life with flashbacks and also follows her mother and student's actions in parts, which makes for quite a choppy and sometimes hard to follow storyline.

When I began reading The Piano Teacher I was worried it wouldn't flow for me. The opening sentences are extremely short and to the point e.g. "She is trying to escape her mother. Erika is in her late thirties."..."Erika entered, her father exited." Whilst these kinds of short sentences were commonplace throughout the book, I ended up finding them a nice change from other authors - Jelinek was able to fit a lot of depth and description into her work without having long winded and lengthy paragraphs about one small detail. On top of that, I also really enjoyed the way she described everything, with great use of metaphors, such as this description of a concert audience: "...fat islands floating in the amniotic fluid of the notes. They imbibe temporarily, but do not understand what they are drinking."

I really enjoyed this once I got into it and was able to deal with the story's rhythm. The way Erika's character was developed during the book and having such an intense link with her feelings and thoughts really made this a winner for me. There is definitely an adult theme to this book, including as mentioned sex, but also abuse/violence and perhaps depression, so bear that in mind if you were interested in reading it. It is certainly worth reading at minimum for Jelinek's wonderful use of language.

Other Books I Considered: Pet Sematary - Stephen King; The Sheep-Pig - Dick King-Smith

Books I Read Inbetween: An Abundance of Katherines - John Green; Across the Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn; How to Make a Golem and Terrify People - Alette J. Willis; A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow - George R. R. Martin

1934: Mary Poppins

Book Name: Mary Poppins

Author: P.L. Travers

Genre: Children's

Year Published: 1934

Once again I'm kinda late actually writing this blog post as I kept intending to go see Saving Mr. Banks but unfortunately as the cinema costs money & requires free time I haven't got round to it... Also my friends wanted to watch Frozen instead ^^;

Anyway, the book was pretty good although most of the stories weren't the same as the ones in the Disney musical. This is because Mary Poppins is a series so the stories are drawn from multiple books. However, when I rewatched the film after I finished the book, I noticed things I hadn't before. For example, in the opening song with Bert, he sings short pieces about Mrs Corry and her tall daughters as well as Andrew the dog's owner - Miss Lark. These characters actually have full chapters in the book.

Although I haven't got around to watching Saving Mr. Banks, I did see a documentary about P.L. Travers prior to reading the book. Apparently Walt Disney had a really hard time convincing her to let him make a film of Mary Poppins as she was worried how well the stories would be conveyed on screen. It took him around 20 years to persuade her meaning the film didn't come out until 1964 and even then she still objected to some parts such as the songs.

Anyway, I think I might have enjoyed this book more if I wasn't expecting the same stories as the film which is a problem I usually try to avoid by reading things before watching them. I'm doing this with Game of Thrones at the moment and it's taking forever but I always find this way works better. Of course it was somewhat unavoidable in the case of Mary Poppins, given the fame and popularity of the Disney film compared with the books. Interestingly, even when I went to get this out at the library and asked for Mary Poppins, the librarian directed me to the DVDs and asked a lot of questions about whether I was a teacher and how old I was when I indicated I actually wanted the children's novel. However, this is a classic of children's literature and I'd recommend it to adults also as a light read in the same way that you might enjoy reading Harry Potter.

Other Books I Considered: Goodbye Mr. Chips - James Hilton; Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie

Books I Read Inbetween: The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett; Kat, Incorrigible - Stephanie Burgis

1924: We

Book Name: We

Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin

Genre: Dystopian

Year Published: 1924

Despite We being a Russian novel it was not published in the Soviet Union until 1988. However, it was published in English in 1924, 3 years after its completion. As a result, I will be using it for my 1924 blog entry, as well as my first blog entry for a foreign language novel. When compiling my list I did my best to make it as varied as possible, so of course I didn't want to only include books by English authors. However, I will more than likely be reading translated versions as sadly I don't have the time to translate and read foreign works though I do find it fun to try occasionally. Hopefully therefore the translations will reflect the original works accurately, fingers crossed!

So, it's actually been nearly a month since I finished We but I've been pretty busy due to Stage Managing a play amongst other things! Despite this, I still have a pretty strong memory of the book and in particular the style of writing used by Zamyatin. For a start, the book is written in the form of diary entries, which makes for nice, short chapters with the storyline broken up mostly by the daily thoughts and recollections of the protagonist, D-503. (Note, I wrote mostly because to be honest I can't 100% remember all the diary entry dates or indeed whether I actually thought about whether any days were skipped whilst I was reading it...)

Second, as you may note from the character's name, the book references a lot of mathematical concepts, such as the humans in One State being considered numbers rather than people or the fact that the ship being built is called the Integral. I was a little worried when I first set out to read this book actually as I'd heard lots of people mentioning maths in connection to it but actually, despite the fact that maths is a common theme throughout the book, there were hardly any times when this meant I didn't understand something. Even if I didn't, it wasn't something that was plot relevant anyway, which is always good.

This brings me to my final point about the way the book is written - the type of description used. Often when authors describe things they use fairly obvious adjectives e.g. big, blue eyes or a large, old house. I realise these are kind of boring examples but nevertheless they are a common way of describing objects and people in novels. In We, I felt like the description was a lot more, well, descriptive. Zamyatin mostly uses shapes and colours to vividly help the reader imagine One State in a way I've not really found in other books. It meant that I pictured people as bodies and teeth and eyes rather than a whole person or the world in squares, circles and reds. It was really very interesting and the main thing that I liked about the book.

Overall, I'd say that I did enjoy reading We, but it did take me a very long time for what was technically quite a short book at only 226 pages. This is because I had to on occasion leave it for a bit and then go back to it a few days later to try and get into it again. There's a section in the middle where I did start getting bored and wonder if anything was particularly going to happen but then everything kicked off and it was interesting again and indeed it had a pretty good ending, if one that was a little short perhaps. I don't think I'd read it again but what I may do is reread 1984 now that I've read this as it is cited to have been an influence on George Orwell's dsytopia, so it will be interesting to draw comparisons sometime :)

Other Books I Considered: A Passage to India - E.M. Forster

Books I Read Inbetween: A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin