Emma by Jane Austen

The trouble with Emma was that I've seen "Clueless" far too many times. (Some might argue that once is too many times, but I love the movie myself.) This created two difficulties. First, the majority of the plot twists were unsurprising as they'd been revealed in the movie. Second, I could not stop myself from comparing and contrasting Clueless--the movie and Emma--the book which almost certainly detracted from any real connection or absorption that would have normally been possible while reading Emma.

In case you live under a rock and have never seen Clueless or even the movie adaptation of Emma (curiously I don't remember nearly as much about the latter), Emma is a young single girl in mid 19th century England who has passions for a) caring for her father b) remaining single and c) matchmaking.

I felt that this book was filled with horribly mundane details, cliches (although some of these cliches may originate here), and typical love stories. Please feel free to comment on what you believe to be the merits of this story which I have so clearly missed.

Favorite Quote: "How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!"

If this book were a movie, I’d rate it: PG for adult themes.

Overall Grade: D

Would I recommend this book to my friends? Nope, not so much.

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

I walked into my favorite local bookstore and said to my favorite clerk, something to the effect of—I’m really embarrassed to be asking this, but do you have Bridget Jones’s Diary. To which he replied—“I’ve never taken anyone’s diary”. See, when you buy books at Rediscovered, you even get a joke to go with it. Just one more reason to justify buying books when I have no money to buy anything.


I had just finished War and Peace and chose Bridget Jones’s Diary because it seemed like the easiest, fluffiest book on my list. It was.

This is one of those rare books where if you’ve seen the movie, you don’t really need to read the book (I almost never say this.) The book is a diary of a single British woman who is on a quest for self assurance, men, weight loss and sobriety. Very funny. Very British. Very much like real life.

Favorite Quote: “I’m not going all the way to Huntingdon to celebrate the ruby wedding of two people I have spoken to once for eight seconds since I was three, just to throw myself in the path of a rich divorce who describes me as bizarre.” (p.182) Also: “It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr. Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party. It’s like being called Heathcliff and insisting on spending the entire evening in the garden, shouting ‘Cathy’ and banging your head against a tree.” (p.12)

If this book were a movie (and it is), I’d rate it: R (which it is) for sex and language.

Overall Grade: Really tough to grade. The book lover in me can’t bear to rate it high because it can’t even loosely be defined as literature, but it was quite amusing, so what the hell—B

Would I recommend this book to my friends? Yes.

War and Peace by: Leo Tolstoy

When I was about eight years old, I remember my mom reading War and Peace. I was in awe over how HUGE it was and thought she must have been a genius to be able to read this epic novel. As I stood in the airport on Oct. 31st, trying to find a book that I knew was on my list (I didn’t have internet access), I saw War and Peace and decided that the time had come for me to become an amazing reader like my mom.

War and Peace was significantly less intimidating that I had convinced myself it would be. I cruised through the first 700 pages—which were exciting and easy to read (okay, keep in mind I'm a history geek) and then I trudged through the next 400 pages—which were mostly about war and therefore more difficult for me to get through. The last 150 pages were back to the fun stuff (fun meaning people dying in non-war settings) again.

What I enjoyed most about Tolstoy’s take on war was his cynicism. He has a dry sense of humor and I found that the humor was of the type that if you blink you will miss it, but if you don’t blink then it is enlightening.

Everyone has heard of War and Peace but for those who don’t know what it is about (like me about a month ago), it is the story of several families and 1) their daily lives and 2) their experiences during the Napoleonic Wars in Russia. War and Peace is historical fiction—I learned from reading the preface that Tolstoy was a general in the war. He originally wrote history, but started writing fiction because pure history left out too much about people’s lives.

Favorite Quote: “Lady luck is nothing but a whore.”
If this book were a movie, I’d rate it: PG-13 or R This could go either way depending on how bullet wounds are portrayed.
Overall Grade: B
Would I recommend this book to my friends? Yes, but only a few of them. This is no Harry Potter read.

Good Omens by: Terry Pratchett

I read Good Omens on a cruise ship which means my brain was at least partially turned off. This was my first Terry Pratchett—I had heard good things about him—that he is cynical and clever and irreverent (all things I like). Good Omens was all of those things—not to the extent of someone like Christopher Moore, but cynical enough to be worthwhile.

The story is about the apocalypse. Two friends (one angel and one demon) who have been on earth together since the beginning are left to their own devices as they try to prevent the world from coming to its end. Aziraphale (the angel) owns a rare bookshop—not to sell books, but just to have a place to keep them. Crowley (the demon) drives an old Bentley. The witch—Anathema Device—has a book written by her prophetic grandmother 300 years prior which directs her own activities. The antichrist is planted by the demon—Crowley—as a baby. The story is creative and fun and was (as I had hoped) a good, easy cruise ship read.

If this book were a movie, I’d rate it: PG-13—a much harder PG-13 than Wuthering Heights. There was some language, but not a ton. There were some sexual references, but nothing explicit.
Overall Grade: B-
Would I recommend this book to my friends? Yes

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Online reviews told me that Wuthering Heights was much less pleasant to read than Jane Eyre because Heathcliff is such a jerk. Yeah, he’s a jerk, but his personality didn’t negatively affect my enjoyment of this book. The way I looked at it, this was a love story between some crazy people who, in today’s world would have been heavily medicated, but in 1830 were left to their own devices, which creates a far more interesting story.

This was a quick read and yeah, there were a few disturbing, gothic parts, but what would life be without tragedy? It would be cheesy like Jane Austen. The entire book (more or less) was the account of the lives of the main characters by a housekeeper who witnessed it all. The ending seemed a bit abrupt, but otherwise I felt that it was very well written.

I believe that the Bronte sisters only wrote one book each. I applaude them both for just writing the one good story that each posessed and leaving us with two wonderful gothic romances.

If this book were a movie, I’d rate it: PG-13…possibly PG. If it was produced exactly as written it would be PG-13, but you could easily make it PG.
Overall Grade: B
Would I recommend this book to my friends? Yes

Catch-22 by: Joseph Heller

My experience with Catch-22 was really odd. This is exactly the kind of book I like. It was bizarre, funny, quirky and morbid. Therefore, I can’t exactly pinpoint the reason that it took me a month to read. I think it was because I don’t have a good understanding of the military and its idiosyncrasies. Do generals rank higher then corporals? What’s a lieutenant? What’s the food like normally? Was it common during WWII to visit whores in Rome regularly?

Basically, I was unable to make a real connection to any of the characters and therefore didn’t become enthralled by the story. Having said that, it was very enjoyable. One tip—the entire book is character development. There are a lot of characters, so try to stop wishing for the character development portion of the book to end.

The style of humor in the book reminded me very much of the old “who’s on first” routine with the characters confusing each other, whether intentionally or because of insanity, it is not particularly clear. It is rumored that the TV show M*A*S*H was based at least loosely on this book and I can definitely see the similarities.

If this book were a movie, I’d rate it: R for violence, sexual references, and language (I think—I forget to notice it).
Overall Grade: C
Would I recommend this book to my friends? Yes

Jane Eyre: Charlotte Bronte

When I went to the bookstore to purchase Jane Eyre, the bookseller asked if I’d read it before and when I said “no” he said “I don’t blame you”. Okaaayyyy…Also, I’m not into romance novels at all, so the only thing that made me think this book would be tolerable is that it is described as a “gothic romance”. Gothic—now we’re talking.

The book drew me in from the get go—mostly because Jane reminded me of myself; but I’ve heard others say that the beginning is slow. The first 40 pages are basically the same plot as the first 40 pages of Harry Potter, so I don’t know how you can complain too much.

My biggest gripe when reading Jane Eyre is that I don’t speak French. The young girl that Jane teaches is a native French speaker and there are entire paragraphs that are completely French. There were bits and pieces that I could puzzle though, but mostly I just didn’t understand those paragraphs. I don’t think I lost too much meaning.

As it turned out, I really enjoyed this book. It is by far my favorite 19th century romance to date. It was definitely a romance, but it wasn’t so sappy as to make you sick. Every time it got too Disney princess on me, almost immediately something Edward Scissor-hands would happen. If Tim Burton ever gets a hankering to do a romance, this is the one he should pick up.

If this book were a movie, I’d rate it: PG-13 for a little gore.
Overall Grade: B
Would I recommend this book to my friends? Yes

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams

My husband and I read this book together aloud. I don’t have a lot to say about this one as I thought it was “good” but nothing exceptional. It was like those movies you see that last a little too long and have a few funny lines, but you don’t really want to see them again. I am surprised that this is on the Big Read list.

Having said that, it is obvious that I missed something—otherwise this would not be ranked so high on the top 100 list. I’m just not sure what that something is that I missed. I like sci-fi, but I don’t love it, so this may have served as an impediment to my enjoyment. I’m not sure. If anyone has an explanation as to what it is that I failed to “get” in this book, please explain.

If this book were a movie, I’d rate it: PG
Overall Grade: C-
Would I recommend this book to my friends? Maybe—after I ran out of other books to recommend.

His Dark Materials By: Philip Pullman

I was mildly apprehensive going into this series as I knew that it was controversial among some Christians. In my opinion--if the author’s aim was to offend, he totally failed. One of the characters did proclaim Christianity to be a mistake, but aside from a small section where this particular character tells her own story of abandoning religion, the series leaves little by which to be offended (unless, of course, you go looking for it).

The first two books are absolutely riveting. They are full of creativity and action. The characters and settings are developed to a perfect level. They are easy to read and hard to put down.

The third book was the most difficult to finish. This is mostly due to one particular character’s story, which is just plain dull and proved to be a regular stopping point whenever her chapter came up in the rotation. If you’ve read the books, I’m sure there’s no doubt about who I am speaking.

Having said that, the end of the third book was inspiring and heart wrenching, and as I tried to read it aloud to my husband, I was unable to read as I was crying so hard.

Are there holes in the story line? Yes. Are there inconsistencies? Yes. As I always say: come on people—it's fiction!

Ultimately, the moral of the story was to be good, kind people and to build the kingdom of heaven (in whatever way you define heaven).

I think the series is a great read for adults and teenagers. It was easy, but didn’t feel too shallow to be a good solid adult read. If one of my own children (under maybe 14) was reading the series, I’d want to make sure that they a) had a good understanding of what fiction is and b) some people don’t believe in God and some people do and everyone is free to follow their own heart.

If this book were a movie, I’d rate it: PG-13 for some violence and mature themes
Overall Grade: A-
Would I recommend this book to my friends? Absolutely