Bleak House by Charles Dickens

I have one bit of advice for anyone planning to read Bleak House. If your copy does not contain a character list, create your own as you read. I personally got about a third of the way through and realized I was getting characters confused, at which point I promptly logged on to Cliff’s Notes and downloaded a character list which much to my chagrin contained three spoilers. Way to go.

I’ve read several reviews stating that Bleak House is a slow read. I don’t necessarily agree with this statement, so don’t let such reviews frighten you off. It isn’t a riveting read, but isn’t too tedious—much more exciting than the middle section of War and Peace.

The following are (in my most humble opinion) the most major characters in the book, I would name the other major and minor characters but you would be bored to tears by the time I was through as there were so many.

The story begins with Sir Leicester Dedlock, and his beautiful and much younger wife. She has a secret that she has never divulged to anyone, not ever her husband. It is so secret, in fact, that even she does not know it in its entirety. We are then introduced to Esther Summerson, Ada Clare, and Richard Carstone who are wards of Mr. Jarndyce—a generous, kind fatherly character who is involved in a never ending, complicated and expensive lawsuit. The wards move into Mr. Jarndyce’s estate—Bleak House. The house is anything but bleak and is a place of solace for the three wards.
The story in all of its intricacies plays in out and through the aforementioned characters as they experience life. Their experiences include travels, love, heartbreak, obsession, sickness, murder, spontaneous combustion, death, trickery (or trickeration if I was an ESPN commentator), education, revenge forgiveness, and much more.

Favorite Quotes:
"Sir Leicester is generally in a complacent state, and rarely bored. When he has nothing else to do, he can always conetmplate his own greatness. It is a considerable advantage to a man, to have so inexhaustible a subject." (pg 167)
"He didn't at all see why the busy Bee should be proposed as a model to him; he supposed the Bee liked to make honey, or he wouldn't do it--nobody asked him." (pg 106)

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

Overall Grade: A-
Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yes.

Mort by Terry Pratchett

Mort was my favorite Terry Pratchett book on the top 100 list. I’ve now completed all 5 Terry Pratchetts on the list and more exciting than that is the fact that Mort was my 50th read on the list. (For those of you who failed 2nd grade, that means I'm halfway done!) Now, I’m just hoping that the second half of the list will take less time to read than did the first half (28 years).


This story (like The colour of Magic, Night Watch and Guards! Guards!) takes place on Discworld—the planet that travels through space on the back of a giant turtle. The main character’s name is Mortimer (Mort for short) and is regularaly referred to by others as “boy” due to his lack of skills, non-descript characteristics, and minimal self confidence. After failing to be chosen by any of the employers at the job fair for an apprenticeship, Death (yes THE Death) hires Mort to be his apprentice.

As the story develops, so does Mort. He learns through challenges and failures as he plays the role of Death; meanwhile navigating a relationship with Death’s adopted daughter. The story is very amusing, easy to read and the plot is clever and unique.

Favorite Quotes:

“The creator had a lot of remarkably good ideas when he put the world together, but making it understandable hadn’t been one of them.” (pg 5)

“Mort hesitated. He wanted to say: you’re wrong, he’s [Death's] not like that at all, he doesn’t care if people are good or bad so long as they’re punctual. And kind to cats, he added.” (pg 70)

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

Overall Grade: B

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yes…except for my friends who are Twilight series junkies.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

There was a page in the back of my copy of A Tale of Two Cities which read: “By the year 2000, 2 out of 3 Americans could be illiterate”. This ad was put together by the Ad Council in (I believe) 1989. I scoffed at the ad, but it made me wonder—what exactly does it mean to be illiterate? I don’t know for sure. I started reading Treasure Island—which I read once before in fourth grade. I distinctly remember understanding almost nothing my first time through; which is why it ended up on my “to read” list. This recollection made me curious. According to the introduction, Treasure Island was written in 1895 and is “aimed at a young and chiefly male readership.” I don’t know exactly how old “young” is but I’ll assume 10-13ish. This leads me to conclude that a) because the book was written for boys, I, as a 10 year old girl wasn’t able to understand it by virtue of the fact that I was a girl, b) I was illiterate, or c) I thought it was just easier to skim the book and use cliffs notes instead.

Well, even if I was illiterate at age 10, I’ve redeemed myself by comprehending Treasure Island much better this time through. It was only 190 pages and therefore made for a quick, two day read. I think I had the story mixed up with Robinson Crusoe and kept waiting for the sweet natural water slide and the treetop resort and was disappointed when I realized they weren’t coming. Aside from that, it was an action packed pirate story in which the young boy managed to commandeer a ship from pirates—so, as you can tell—it was very realistic.

Okay, I’ll stop with the mockery. In all seriousness, it was a cute story, well written, intriguing, and fun to read.

Oh, here’s a piece of trivia for you. You know the famous pirate Long John Silver? He originated in Treasure Island.

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

Overall Grade: B-

Would I recommend this book to my friends: I’d recommend it to parents who want something to read to their kids.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities was another great Dickens read. As it turns out, not only do I not hate Dickens, but I think I actually really like him. There. I said it.

A small bit of trivia for those who don’t want to read A Tale of Two Cities—the two cities to which the title refers are London and Paris. The story takes place in the late 18th century and seems somewhat historical in nature. Unfortunately, I don’t know how much of it refers to “true” history and what is fiction. Maybe someone can help me out there (Matt?...).

While overall the book was very well written and understandable, one thing is bugging me. Dickens, numerous times throughout the story, wrote paragraphs which were a string of sentences each beginning with the word “that” each of which seemed (to me) inconclusive.

I personally, might write a sentence beginning with “that” as follows. That the orange had long passed its prime, was obvious.

Dickens’ “that” sentences were more like this:

That the yellow bee had last week gathered nectar from the flower. That the hummingbird danced lightly on the planter, green feathers shining in the sunlight. That certain people are wrong in the majority of their opinions but insist on spouting garbage as if it is fact.

I simply don’t understand. These sentences leave me feeling as if I’ve accidentally stepped off the curb into traffic and can’t gain balance in order to retreat.

I assume the seemingly incomplete “that” sentences were grammatically acceptable during Dickens’ time but I’m going to need some explanation. Maybe my second grade teacher forgot to teach me about those.

I digress.

The story is a mysterious historical adventure drama about a man (Dr. Manette) who is imprisoned unjustly; his daughter (Lucie Manette), her husband (wouldn’t you like to know?), their banker (Mr. Lorry), and the hero (not telling). I’m leaving out a bunch of other characters including villains…because they’re jerks. I’ve decided not to expand much on the plot as the story is written such that the reader has little idea about what is going on until pieces unfold throughout. It is a great story. I’ll leave it at that.

Favorite Quotes:”When he cared to talk, he talked well; but, the cloud of caring for nothing, which overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light within him.” (pg. 136)

“All the women knitted. They knitted worthless things…” (pg. 171)

“A solitary old bachelor,’ answered Mr. Lorry, shaking his head. ‘There is nobody to weep for me.” (pg. 288)

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: You could easily make it PG-13 or R.

Overall Grade: A-

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Totally.

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.