One For the Money Review

I like the cover of this. Very 1950s-mystery-thriller. That being said, it isn't the right one.
One For The Money is about a woman named Stephanie Plum who is out of a job and selling her furniture off one by one to feed herself and her hamster Rex. She ends up working for her Uncle Vinnie and becoming a Bounty Hunter, the worst one ever. Hilarity ensues. If you've ever seen Dominoe imagine her opposite. R-E-V-I-E-W T-I-M-E
Review: This series, to me, reminds me of those little pecan pinwheels my momma used to get when I was a kid. They were small and one wasn't really enough, but by golly they were tasty and not good for you at all. Now if you ate nothing but the the pinwheels you would surely turn into a fat slob and possibly suffer a sugar coma. Well, with this series, it's the same. One definitely isn't enough, so be prepared to want more. But if all you read is Evanovich, your brain will surely suffer for it. Not to say it isn't witty, because it is. It just doesn't edify your mind intellectually, or your soul spiritually.
Evanovich also feels no need to beautify anything. She makes me want to stay the hell away from Jersey. But I like the fact that she didn't try to make Plum overly sexy and girly girlish. She's not too cool or confident, not too smart, but not too dumb. She doesn't shoot three bad guys as she jumps through the air after a major explosion happening just yards away. Actually she kind of hate guns. And is more afraid of herself with a gun then the baddies she's chasing.
I'm not going to bother with a theory, it is just what it claims to be and there are no deeper meanings. Here are some quotes:
"As a backup, I intended to get a quart of defense spray. I wasn't much good with a gun, but I was bitchin with an aerosol can."

Now this book was published in 1994, and in this quote it is painfully obviously so.. "I took a shower and spent some time on my hair, doing the blow-drying thing, adding some gel and some spray. When I was done I looked like Cher on a bad day. Still, Cher on a bad day wasn't all that bad. I was down to my last clean pair of spandex shorts. I tugged on a matching sports bra that doubled as a halter top and slid on a big, loose, purple T-shirt with a large, droopy neck over my head. I laced up my hightop reeboks, crunched down my white socks, and felt pretty cool."

Yup, I remember feeling pretty cool in my white turtleneck and sweatshirt in elementary school. And the bad fashion train moved forward slowly but surely creaking and screeching all the way through my teen years.
Wrap up time: Good vacation books. Or if you can't go anywhere: mental-vacation books.

What I'm Reading...

The Evanovich train pulled in and I hopped on board...
I got the first two at the library, and 48 hours later I was mad because they aren't open on Sundays so I couldn't get the third installment of the 'One for the Money' series. So, I secured my week by putting the next five on hold. Certainly I'll have to get the next 8 put on hold in about 3 days (yes, there are that many.) I don't want to have to be put in the situation of having to watch t.v. on a sunday afternoon again!

The Scarlet Letter

A novel by Nathaniel Hawthorn. The story is set in colonial times when the Puritans came to America searching for religious freedom. Oh, how ironic. Seeing as how the main character of this novel (Mrs. Hester Prynne) finds herself the the victim of a new kind of punishment in the form of the scarlet letter. What does the 'A' stand for ? Amorous? If Mr. Hawthorne mentions what it means it passed right over my head.
It's hard to review this book, I mean, of course it's awesome. Every paragraph is so poetically written and charged with spiritual and patriotic indignation that it's hard to pin anything down and say "here, this is the best part!" If you haven't read this book yet, you are missing out on an incredible story. No, do not see the movie. Get your history from a man who knows it.
I usually search through hundreds of pictures to find the one I like the best to put up on this here blog-of-the-universe. And if you google The Scarlet Letter and hit 'images' you'll come up with some real nastiness. (This is not a suggestion) Point is, the book is not as sexually charged as people like to make the story out to be. It doesn't start with sin. It starts with the CONSEQUENCE! In fact there are no love scenes. Only the aftermath. Which is the point of the story.
Hawthorne doesn't see fit to make Hester a victim, nor is she a heroin, but equally she is not a villain. She is a woman who screwed. up. big. She is now living with it. It is walking beside her in the form of a child who is also doomed to live life as an outcast.
The story starts with Hester walking out of a prison cell holding a babe that is the source of the controversy. She walks over to a scaffold for the entire town to view her and her new symbol. This is the most famous scene from the novel.
The story carries through her life as the town outcast. The priests use her constantly as a reference point in sermons and even in the middle of the street they will stop her and say "take this example of a woman given over sin."
The sin that earned her the scarlet letter was adultery. Her husband sent her to this town to establish a home for them until he could join her. Cut to two years later and we find Hester on the scaffold, her husband in that time had never made an appearance. Which is what made it so obvious that she had committed the offense.
I am by no means done with the discussion on this book. There is simply too much to try and force into one article. I'm going to pick up again on How Hester has established herself in her life as the town scandal.

The Scarlet Letter - Introductory

The Introductory of The Scarlet Letter is so loooooooong that I decided to separate it from the main story and treat it as it's own entity.. It starts out as a proclamation that it is not an autobiography. And to add to that it has a formal letter in the beginning of the book disclaiming any ill will to a certain individual that the author is supposed to have particularly expressed an.... oh hell, here is a quote; "As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives." Hawthorne didn't write that part himself but the did write the introductory. Said letter is in reference to the fact that the introductory contains both how he received and lost his job at the Custom House. Attributing the loss largely to one particular individual. This is what Hawthorne had to say about the Custom House, where, by the by, he got his inspiration for this book;
"Its front is ornamented with a portico of half-a-dozen wooden pillars, supporting a balcony, beneath which a flight of wide granite steps descends towards the street Over the entrance hovers an enormous specimen of the American eagle, with outspread wings, a shield before her breast, and, if I recollect aright, a bunch of intermingled thunder- bolts and barbed arrows in each claw. With the customary infirmity of temper that characterizes this unhappy fowl, she appears by the fierceness of her beak and eye, and the general truculency of her attitude, to threaten mischief to the inoffensive community; and especially to warn all citizens careful of their safety against intruding on the premises which she overshadows with her wings. Nevertheless, vixenly as she looks, many people are seeking at this very moment to shelter themselves under the wing of the federal eagle; imagining, I presume, that her bosom has all the softness and snugness of an eiderdown pillow. But she has no great tenderness even in her best of moods, and, sooner or later -- oftener soon than late -- is apt to fling off her nestlings with a scratch of her claw, a dab of her beak, or a rankling wound from her barbed arrows."
This statement could describe the America of today. It was published in approximately 1850, and yet acutely describes America in the age of the setting of the story (approx. 200 years prior to being published) all the way through it's history to modern day. America has been this weird mix of freedom, oppression, comfort, and indignation. And the writer Mr. Hawthorne is evidently very aware of it. This awareness stems from his own family tree.

"The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was present to my boyish imagination as far back as I can remember. It still haunts me, and induces a sort of home-feeling with the past, which I scarcely claim in reference to the present phase of the town. I seem to have a stronger claim to a residence here on account of this grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steeple-crowned progenitor-who came so early, with his Bible and his sword, and trode the unworn street with such a stately port, and made so large a figure, as a man of war and peace -- a stronger claim than for myself, whose name is seldom heard and my face hardly known. He was a soldier, legislator, judge; he was a ruler in the Church; he had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil. He was likewise a bitter persecutor; as witness the Quakers, who have remembered him in their histories, and relate an incident of his hard severity towards a woman of their sect, which will last longer, it is to be feared, than any record of his better deeds, although these were many. His son, too, inherited the persecuting spirit, and made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him. So deep a stain, indeed, that his dry old bones, in the Charter-street burial-ground, must still retain it, if they have not crumbled utterly to dust I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties; or whether they are now groaning under the heavy consequences of them in another state of being. At all events, I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred by them -- as I have heard, and as the dreary and unprosperous condition of the race, for many a long year back, would argue to exist -- may be now and henceforth removed."

It seems to me that Hawthorne is both unifying and yet separating himself from the era of The Scarlet letter, and the Salem witch trials. And maybe feels the need to show the effects of religious and governmental persecution so that we don't fall back to it.
Hawthorne was living American history. And as I can now look back on it and say 'wow, the first settlers of our country, in effect, stole this land and persecuted many people in horrific ways according to their stiff legalistic religious spirit according to how it suited them.' Hawthorne is saying ' yeah, I was close to it. I know how bad it is.' Much in the same way a descendant of a slave owner might feel today.
The place, The Custom House, more accurately it's attic, was the where the author found the scarlet letter, and yes it was an actual thing, and Hester Prynne was an actual woman, the bearer of the letter.
The author goes on to describe some of the characters of the custom house. One of whom I feel close to my own personality.

"though seldom, when it could be avoided, taking upon himself the difficult task of engaging him in conversation -- was fond of standing at a distance, and watchinghis quiet and almost slumberous countenance. He seemed away from us, although we saw him but a few yards off; remote, though we passed close beside his chair; unattainable, though we might have stretched forth our hands and touched his own. It might be that he lived a more real life within his thoughts than amid the unappropriate environment of the Collector's office."
Yeah, I understand that guy. I'm not great at casual conversation and usually save my breath for something that interests me. It's quite the opposite when I write. It might seem I'm long-winded when it comes to this here blog-of-the-century, but in reality it's almost painful for me to have to speak to actual people sometimes. Which is why my closest friends (including the husband, BFFs!) are very long-winded. I'm just very much in my head most of the time.
Mr. Hawthorne lists many different men that, while in his office of the Surveyor, he had grown to love. But he also knew that he could not stay in office and do what he loved the most. You guessed it, writing. Luckily, or unluckily he gets fired due to a change in political office. A new governor I think, maybe even president, any way, which brings us back to the beginning of the article in which he is supposed to have had any "ill-will".
Thus the story is able to be made, and thus it is.

My Book List

This is my Book List. I started it about 3 years ago and it has done nothing but get longer. I sincerely cannot keep up with it.




A lot of these titles come from other books I've read, like Richard Adam's 'Watership Down', which begins each chapter with a quote from a different book. Or 20,00 Leagues where Jules Verne quotes 'The Ancient Mariner'. And a good portion comes from a book I picked up from the library on Homeschooling. The lady who wrote it lists quite a few titles that are good for teaching culture, history, and language. She writes that books, not just curriculum style books, have been her greatest asset in teaching. My kind of woman! Some others have come from friends and family.




Also I've created this list to make up for the lack in my education. I was a dumb kid and decided to bolt high school. So, in the same style I teach my kids I've decided to make up for it by exploiting what I'm good at and using it as a tool for learning. I like to read, so I make sure that what I read edifies my mind in some way. National Geographic has been one of my favorite tools in my quest for knowledge. But as always lacking in storyline and plot, I've always needed additional literature to keep the hunger alive (eating the pages, har ya har).
This list that I'm posting now is not complete, not by far. I have about 200 in my written list, I just thought I'de throw these out for now, and I'll update often. Hopefully... (stinkin at&t dsl!)




Thus The List is created. Please, anyone reading feel free to add or give your own reviews on these books. Bai, I already know how you feel about Ben Franklin's Autobiography. So here goes, they are in no particular order, #1 has been #1 since the list was created.

1. Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan


2. The Oxford Book of American Verse


3. A Tale of Two Cities, by Dickens


4. Moby Dick, by Herman Melville


5. Walden, by Thoreau


6. The Adventures of Huck Finn, by Mark Twain
7. The Everlasting Man, by G. K. Chesterton
8. City of God, by Augustine
9. The Drifting Island, by Walter Wentworth
10. The Tiger of Mysore, by G. A. Henty
11. The Speckled Hen's Story, by Amy Prentice
12. Adventures Among the Indians, by Kingston
13. Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling (super sweet movie about him on KCPT, you could probably pick it up at the library)
14. Rob Roy, by Walter Scott and Ian Duncan
15. Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson
16. Essay on Man, by Alexander Pope
17. Carlyle's Essay on Burns, by Carlyle
18. The Citizen of the World, by Oliver Goldsmith
19. The Virginian by by Owen Wister
20. Relationships Pure and Simple, by Alan Wibbels and Marti Wibbels
21. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (she writes some pretty good poetry too.)
22. Little Men, by see above
23. The Story of Roland, by James Baldwin
24. Legends of Charlemagne, by Thomas Bulfinch
25. Birds and Bees: Essays, by John Burroughs
26. The Adventures of a Brownie
27. History of a Little Goody Two Shoes, by Oliver Goldsmith
28. Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
29. Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
30. The Sketch-Book, by Washington Irving
31. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, above
32. Tales of a Traveller, above above
33. The Heroes, by Charles Kingsley
34. The Day's Work, by Rudyard Kipling
35. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
37. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
38. The Boyhood of a Naturalist, by John Muir
39. The Boy's Life of Ulysses S. Grant
    
40. The Oregon Trail, by Francis Parkman
41. Redgauntlet, by Sir Walter Scott
42. Lives of the Hunted, and...
43. Animal Heroes, by Ernet Thompson Seton
44. Midsummer Nights Dream, by Shakespeare
45. Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
46. The Hourglass, (now, upon looking up the author of this title I kept two things in mind: 1, it's going to be old, 2, knowing the person who recommended the book I could figure out the correct author by reading a small summary. BUT, with this one I stumbled across one probable author, and one who intrigued me. So, the probable author being Will Brennan, pub. 1916. And the one who intrigued me, Barbara Metzger, pub. 2007.)
47. The Divine Comedy, by Dante
48. Politics and Poetics, Aristotle
49. The Age of Fable, by Thomas Bulfinch
50. Ben Franlikn's Autobiography
51. The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
52. Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
53. Essays & Lectures, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
54. The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli
55. Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained, by Milton
56. The House of Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
57. The Illiad, and
58. The Odyssey, by Homer
59. Lives of Ten Noble Greeks and Romans, by Plutarch
60. Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott
61. Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy
62. Drums, by James Boyd
63. The Robe, and...
64. Magnificent Obsession, and...
    
65. The Big Fisherman, by Lloyd C. Douglas
66. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
67. In the Reign of Terror, by G. A. Henty
68. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo
69. The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emuska Orczy (i must admit i had a little fun writing that last author's name.:)
70. Quo Vadis, by Henryk Sienkiewicz
71. The Merchant of Venice, by Shakespeare
72. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, (mom read this to me when I was a babe, so now I want to read them to my babes.)
73. The Bronze Bow, and...
    
74. The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare
75. Ben Hur, by Lew Wallace
76. The Source, by James A. Michener
77. Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkein (already read the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and loved them! especially The Hobbit!)
78. Don Quixote, by Cervantes
79. Martha Stewart's Housekeeping Handbook (yes, I need it.)
80. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
    

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is a novel written by Jane Austen. It's about two sisters, young women finding, losing, and finding the love of their lives. Written in 1811, this novel was her first published. In those times money, especially inheritance, was at the forefront of every decision, including how you treated someone and who you married. In one instance, Mr. Dashwood doesn't know how to treat Colonel Brandon, (I call him The Colonel), until he knows just how much The Colonel is worth. With this in mind, the girls (Elinor the eldest, and Marianne) having very little money and virtually no inheritance, therefore, have little prospects for marriage. This is the theme of the book: Money, marriage, heartache, and love despite it all. Review anyone?

Review: I had the advantage (or disadvantage, whichever way you want to see it) of seeing the movie first. Don't get me wrong, the movie was excellent as well as the book. The casting was perfect, especially Kate Winslet as Marianne. I really abhor Hugh Grant as Edward, but I abhor Hugh Grant as anything so that's really neither here nor there. At any rate, the ending was thus ruined for me. The only real pleasure I got from the book was in getting the story, the dialogue, and feeling of the story from Jane Austen herself instead of the movie maker. You never really do get the full picture of a book when it's been turned into a movie, until you've read the book. And also I'de seen the movie like two years ago so I remembered how the story ended, but not the details on how it unraveled itself, so I was always anticipating that last conversation between Elinor and Edward. I'm entering into theory territory so I'll end with this: I loved this book, read it, it's a great love story. I promise though that I will not like all books I read. Bad reviews will be coming up. Janette Oke... watch your back! spoilers ahead ...

Theory: My favorite character in this book is, hands down, Marianne. She's sensitive, passionate, modest, smart, and indignant. I definitely identify with her more then Elinor, who is more of the quiet strength variety. I know that I like Marianne's character the most because of the growth in her character. When she feels something, she feels it "to the utmost", but she will move on her opinion when she's wrong. Growth. This is truly evident in the fact that she does end up marrying the Colonel. Who is less flagrant with his emotions then Marianne's first love Wiloughby. At first The Colonel's phlegmatic disposition is off putting to her, and she saw it as a lack of character.
"Long before I was enough recovered to talk, I was perfectly able to reflect. I considered the past: I saw in my own behaviour, since the beginning of our acquaintance with him last autumn, nothing but a series of imprudence towards myself, and want of kindness to others. I saw that my own feelings had prepared my sufferings, and that my want of fortitude under them had almost led me to the grave. " ...... "I did not know my danger till the danger was removed; but with such feelings as these reflections gave me, I wonder at my recovery,--wonder that the very eagerness of my desire to live, to have time for atonement to my God, and to you all, did not kill me at once. Had I died,-- in what peculiar misery should I have left you, my nurse, my friend, my sister!--You, who had seen all the fretful selfishness of my latter days; who had known all the murmurings of my heart!--" Quote from Marianne after realizing just how stupid she acted over the loss of Wiloughby. Speaking of him. I know too many just like him.
"Her thoughts were silently fixed on the irreparable injury which too early an independence and its consequent habits of idleness, dissipation, and luxury, had made in the mind, the character, the happiness, of a man who, to every advantage of person and talents, united a disposition naturally open and honest, and a feeling, affectionate temper. The world had made him extravagant and vain--Extravagance and vanity had made him cold-hearted and selfish. Vanity, while seeking its own guilty triumph at the expense of another, had involved him in a real attachment, which extravagance, or at least its offspring, necessity, had required to be sacrificed. Each faulty propensity in leading him to evil, had led him likewise to punishment." - Elinor speaking of Wiloughby. Ugh.. what a jerk! And I know so many guys who are just like him. But what really irks me is that they really start to feel sorry for the guy, as if spending beyond your means and being completely self centered were some kind of debilitating disease that can cause you to use people without fear of consequence. Like he is some kind of victim of his own stupid behavior. Do I sound bitter? I might be, I know so many men just like him, not one of whom is my husband (thank God) but having to see so many of his friends and certain people, who shall not be named, acting just like Wiloughby, it really bugs the crap out of me!
On a lighter note, I love this quote because it's true:
"--for though a very few hours spent in
the hard labor of incessant talking will despatch more
subjects than can really be in common between any two
rational creatures, yet with lovers it is different.
Between THEM no subject is finished, no communication
is even made, till it has been made at least twenty
times over." This is of Elinor speaking with Edward after their engagement. It was good to finally be able to picture them being outwardly affectionate with one another.

Maybe I have my mommy-dar on a little too much right now, but, um, I find it a little weird that Sir John was always rounding up young people to party with. a case of emotional immaturity maybe? Maybe his wife wasn't sufficient enough entertainment? Whatever it is, it's creepy.

And is it only me or doesn't it seem like the Miss Steeles did a whole lot of staying at other people's houses? Slackers.

I think maybe the moral of the story here is that most women prefer the handsome young vivacious man, instead of the steady, mature, stable man. Even though the stable would definitely love them better. So here's to all the ladies who chose the boring stable guy!!

Coming Soon....... Sense and Sensibility!

The Holidays have really put a damper on my reading schedule, so please forgive the long delay. I must confess that I have never read this many love stories in succession in all my life. I have always been rather partial to history/ action (Clive Cussler), science (Jules Verne) and classics such as Dickens, Tolkein, Richard Adams, authors like that. So this venture on love is an obvious sign of growth in the area of emotion! Yay, I was waiting for this! We'll have to wait and see if it makes me more stable....