Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Today is kind of like the day that my husband realized he's not a Republican. Today, I no longer can honestly say “ugh, I hate Dickens”. Just goes to show that when you’re 15, you’re not always right. Fancy that. Great Expectations was a GREAT read. It was intense, humorous, Dickens didn’t wax too verbose, it contained both creepy, crazy characters, and also those who were sweet and likeable. I kept waiting for the book to suck, but it never did.

The story is about “Pip” who was a young orphan, raised by his aunt and her husband. His uncle is raising him to be a blacksmith but Pip is a boy of “great expectations” who, upon meeting the beautiful and wealthy Estella, and her guardian Miss Havisham, he thirsts for his own wealth. For Pip, the grass is always greener somewhere else. He mysteriously stumbles into a fortune of an unknown size and still finds no happiness in his station, as he loves Estella who refuses to love him in return. The story continues and gains intensity as Pip unexpectedly runs into an old acquaintance who surprises him and once again the course of his life is changed.

My biggest disappointment was the ending—not so much because of what happened, but because the final third (or so) of the book was so intense and compelling and I felt like it came to a screeching halt and the end felt abbreviated. Everything was resolved and the story concluded, but it just felt incomplete to me. The edition I read also contained the original ending; which I read with hopes that it would be more definitive, but it was even less appealing to me. Am I the only one who thought "huh? that's it?" at the end?

Favorite Quotes:
"We Britons had at that time particularly settled that it was treasonable to doubt our having and our being the best of everything: otherwise, while I was scared by the immensity of London, I think I might have had some faint doubts whether it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow and dirty." (pg 162)

"As to forming any plan for the future, I could as soon have formed an elephant." (pg 325)

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade." (pg 429)
If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG-13

Overall Grade: A- (I think that’s fairly accurate, but I may be biased based on the fact that I had such low expectations going into the book.)

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yes.

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

This was my favorite Terry Pratchett so far. The main character was Sam Vimes—to whom I was introduced while reading Guards! Guards!. He was the watch captain in that book. Vimes played a slightly different roll in the majority of this book as he travels back in time 30 years after falling through the ceiling of the Ankh-Morpork library (known to be enchanted). He lives a dual reality in this earlier and darker Ankh-Morpork as he plays the role of John Keel—the boss of the young, rookie copper—Sam Vimes. Vimes, as John Keel leads a rebellion against the corrupt government of Ankh-Morpork while trying to find out how to return to the future where his wife is in labor with their first child.


Night Watch was an intriguing, intense, energetic and entertaining read. I normally view time travel as a cop-out for lack of creativity, but it was very well played in this book. The story had a far more somber tone than some of Pratchett’s other works, but humor interposed.

Favorite Quotes:
“Oh dear, here we go again, thought Vimes. Why did I wait until I was married to become strangely attractive to powerful women? Why didn’t it happen to me when I was sixteen? I could have done with it then.” (pg 214)

“…Vimes found it better to look to Authority for orders and then filter those orders through a fine mesh of common sense, adding a generous scoop of creative misunderstanding and maybe even incipient deafness if circumstances demanded, because Authority rarely descended to street level.” (pg 65)

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG-13

Overall Grade: B

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yes.

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

To be completely honest, had I read this book in Spanish, I probably would have comprehended about as much as I did in English. (I probably only know about 100 Spanish words.)


Here’s what I understood. The story is about a guy named Rincewind, an almost wizard (he flunked out of school), and his travels with Twoflower—a guy from another planet. Oh, and when I say another planet, I don’t mean—a planet besides Earth. What I mean is—a planet besides Discworld. Discworld is the flat circular planet which rides around space on the back of the Great A’Tuin—a turtle—and the planet where Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is set. (Fancy that.)

Twoflower and Rincewind get themselves into some trouble and are manhandled around the planet for a while until they end up in Krall. Krall is significant, but I’m not sure how. I was drifting in an out of sleep during the last pages of the book, so I won’t spoil the ending for you…mostly because they are a bit foggy.

Something can be said about a 200 page book that takes me three weeks to read. I’m not sure can be said, but it says something. I wanted to like it; really I did. The combination of fantasy and Britishness was just too much for my puny little brain to handle.

Favorite Quotes: “In an instant he became aware that the tourist was about to try his own peculiar brand of linguistics, which meant that he would speak loudly and slowly in his own language.” (pg 196)

“Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.” (pg 161)

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG…I think (I might have missed some stuff)

Overall Grade: it wouldn’t be fair for me to rate it.

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yeah, I’d recommend it to my friends who like fantasy.