Audrey_E's Journal: Books and Movies

37 Jane Eyre  Charlotte Brontë  (England, 1847)

Well, it's a good classic . Very modern in many ways.  The only thing is that I also read Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. And Jane Eyre is very dull compared to Wuthering Heights. I know it's silly to judge a book by comparing it to another, but I can't help it. 2,5/5
38 Winter's Tale  Mark Helprin  (USA, 1983)

My first Helprin. His writing was magical. The first part was perfect. Unfortunately after this first part I was completely lost.  The story was so weird I didn't get a thing

39 The Celtic Twilight  W.B. Yeats  (Ireland, 1902)




40 Vile Bodies  Evelyn Waugh  (England, 1930)

29 Interview withe the Vampire    Anne Rice  (USA)  (1976)



Short description (Amazon): In the now-classic novel Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice refreshed the archetypal vampire myth for a late-20th-century audience. The story is ostensibly a simple one: having suffered a tremendous personal loss, an 18th-century Louisiana plantation owner named Louis Pointe du Lac descends into an alcoholic stupor. At his emotional nadir, he is confronted by Lestat, a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses Louis to be his fledgling. The two prey on innocents, give their "dark gift" to a young girl, and seek out others of their kind (notably the ancient vampire Armand) in Paris. But a summary of this story bypasses the central attractions of the novel. First and foremost, the method Rice chose to tell her tale--with Louis' first-person confession to a skeptical boy--transformed the vampire from a hideous predator into a highly sympathetic, seductive, and all-too-human figure. Second, by entering the experience of an immortal character, one raised with a deep Catholic faith, Rice was able to explore profound philosophical concerns--the nature of evil, the reality of death, and the limits of human perception--in ways not possible from the perspective of a more finite narrator

My first Anne Rice. The writing was simply beautiful. However I enjoyed the first half much more than the second as I found the nature of relationships between the characters a bit to unclear towards the end. 3/5

30 The Grapes of Wrath    John Steinbeck  (USA) (1939)



Well, everybody knows the story . This book is even better than a lesson on the depression of the 30s.  3/5

31 The New York Trilogy   Paul Auster   (USA) (1985 and 1986)


Short description (amazon): Paul Auster’s signature work, The New York Trilogy, consists of three interlocking novels: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room—haunting and mysterious tales that move at the breathless pace of a thriller.

It took me ages to finish these three short stories. I love NYC and I'm interested in everything that concerns this wonderful city, this is the first Paul Auster I read and I was really excited about it but I just couldn't understand what the deeper meaning was. His characters are not human they are more like robots. They stand for ideas which are very unclear to me.  2/5

32 Nine Princes in Amber   Roger Zelazny (USA) (1970)       
33 The Guns of Avalon                                               (1972)          
34 Sign of the Unicorn                                                (1975)
35 The Hand of Oberon                                             (1976)
36 The Courts of Chaos                                             (1978)


Short description (amazon): Amber is the one real world, casting infinite reflections of itself -- Shadow worlds, that can be manipulated by those of royal Amberite blood. But the royal family is torn apart by jealousies and suspicion; the disappearance of the Patriach Oberon has intensified the internal conflict by leaving the throne apparently up for grabs. In a hospital on the Shadow Earth, a young man is recovering from a freak car accident; amnesia has robbed him of all his memory, even the fact that he is Corwin, Crown Prince of Amber, rightful heir to the throne -- and he is in deadly peril . . . The five books, Nine Princes in Amber, The Guns of Avalon, Sign of the Unicorn, The Hand of Oberon and The Courts of Chaos, together make up The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny's finest work of fantasy and an undisputed classic of the genre. 

If I hadn't bought a one volume edition I would have stopped at the first book in the series. I can't believe this book has such a good reputation. I mean you always have to be careful with Fantasy because it can be really bad, but Zelazny is a respected author.
The Princes keep ploting against each other because they don't trust their own family, but in the end there is no space for real psychology and complex characters. The main character, the one that tells the story, Corwin is incredibly dull and insipid. In fact after 5 books you don't feel particularly close to him.
The funny thing is that the last book, The Courts of Chaos, was the only one that was good (especially compared to the other four) because it gives more space to magic in the celtic tradition. Too bad it wasn't like that from the beginning.

I give 1/5 to the first four books and 2/5 to the last.

36 / 50 (72.0%)

THE BREAKFAST CLUB

Director: John Hughes

Cast: Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy

USA, 1985 


 I usually hate teen movies because I've never been able to relate to them. But this one was really good because it plays with common stereotypes, although the ending is a bit too idealistic.

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones), Cate Blanchett (Irina Spalko), Shia LaBeouf (Mutt Williams) 

USA, 2008



I'm a big fan of Steven Spielberg, movies like Schindler's List, Munich, Minority Report are among my favorites but I have to say that this movie was his biggest mistake as a director by far (Did he make another mistake?). I thought the aging Harrison Ford would be a bit ridiculous and that's why I disapproved of the project as soon as I heard of it. The truth is he was not ridiculous, the PLOT WAS. Things like surviving a nuclear explosion in a fridge...Oh man I don't want to talk about it, it's too traumatic...

THE LEOPARD  (Il Gattopardo)
Director: Luchino Visconti

Cast: Burt Lancaster (Prine Don Fabrizio Salina), Alain Delon (Tancredi Falconeri)...
Italy (1963)



I usually dislike Italian movies and this one was no exception. It was incredibly long and boring and since know nothing about italian and sicilian history I didn't understand most of it.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY

Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Phyllis Dietrichson), Fred MacMurray (Walter Neff), Edward G; Robinson (Barton Keyes)...

USA, 1944



One of the best film noir I've seen so far. Edward G. Robinson and Barbara Stanwyck are really great in this movie. Fred MacMurray is perhaps a bit too stiff but apart from that everything else is perfect. 4/5

27 The Razor's Edge Somerset Maugham (England) (1944)



Short Description (Amazon)
Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters - his fiancee Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.

I was so excited about reading this book because I'd never read Maugham before, and really it was a disappointment. Not because of the writing, but because of the structure of the book. We get most of the story through the writer's discussions with the main characters and for some reasons it generated a lack of interest in me. Besides none of the characters' made an impression on me. I was expecting so much more! I really have to try another of his books...  2/5

28 The Rainbow D.H. Lawrence (England) (1915)



Short Description (Amazon)
Lawrence's frank representation of sexuality in "The Rainbow" caused a furore and the novel was seized by the police and banned almost as soon as it was published. Today it is recognised as one of the classic English novels of the twentieth century. "The Rainbow" is about three generations of the Brangwen family of Nottinghamshire from the 1840s to the early years of the twentieth century. Within this framework Lawrence's essential concern is with the passional lives of his characters as he explores the pressures that determine their lives, using a religious symbolism in which the 'rainbow' of the title is his unifying motif. His primary focus is on the individual's struggle to growth and fulfilment within marriage and changing social circumstances, a process shown to grow more difficult through the generations. Young Ursula Brangwen, whose story is continued in Women in Love, is finally the central figure in Lawrence's anatomy of the confining structures of English social life and the impact of industrialisation and urbanisation on the human psyche.

D.H. Lawrence is without a doubt one of my favorite writers. I don't have much to say because with his books it is more about being transported by a flow of extreme feelings than anything else. I'm always amazed at his ability to describe feelings that are profound and primitive.
And I'm thinking why do people read these stupid historical romances and other cheap novels when they can find the passionate feelings they need in masterful classics (not only D.H. Lawrence).  3,5/5

28 / 50 (56.0%)

25    Lady Oracle  Margaret Atwood   (Canada)  (1976)



Short Description (wikipedia)

The novel's protagonist, Joan Foster, is a romance novelist who has spent her life running away from difficult situations. The novel alternates between flashbacks from the past and scenes from the present. Through flashbacks, the reader sees her first as an overweight child whose mother constantly criticizes her, and later, hiding her career, her past as the mistress of a Polishcount, and her affair with a performance artist called The Royal Porcupine from her bipolar husband Arthur.

Margaret Atwood is such a great writer! Lady Oracle is hilarious and insightful at the same time. Loved it.

4/5


26   A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man    James Joyce  (Ireland) (1916)


Short Description (Amazon)

Young Irish Catholic, Stephen Dedalus, rejects religion and national ties to develop unfettered as an artist. Stronly autobiographical, the novel is one of the founding texts of Modernism and the precursor of Ulysses. Its originality shocked contemporary readers on its publication in 1916 who found its treating of the minutiae of daily life indecorous, and its central character
unappealing. Was it art or was it filth?

I didn't understand this book AT ALL. So I can't give it a mark really.

26 / 50 (52.0%)

Restart 

KEY LARGO
Director: John Huston
Cast: Humphrey Bogart (Frank McLoud), Lauren Bacall (Nora Temple), Edward G. Robinson (Johny Rocco)...
USA, 1948



Good claustrophobic movie.

2,75/5


THE WIZARD OF OZ
Director: Victor Fleming
Cast: Judy Garland (Dorothy Gale), Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz), Ray Bolger (The Scarecrow), Bert Lahr (The Cowardly Lion), Jack Haley (The Tin Man)...
USA, 1939


 

I love musicals, I like Judy Garland and I'm still into children stories. I was sure to love this movie and yet...
...I didn't like it at all. I didn't think the songs were great and the Cowardly Lion really got on my nerves! On the whole I think only the wicked witch was cool. Too Bad.
1/5

FORT APACHE
Director: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda (Lt. Col. Owen Thursday), John Wayne (Capt. Kirby York), Shirley Temple (Philadelphia Thursday)...
USA, 1948 
                                  


Plot (IMDb):In John Ford's sombre exploration mythologising of American heroes, he slowly reveals the character of Owen Thursday, who sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, Thursday attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.


It's not my favorite John Ford but once more he proves that his Westerns are very complex, and much more ambiguous than what people have in mind when they think "western".
Gosh Henry Fonda is so annoying in this movie! The pair John Wayne-Henry Fonda works well in this movie and the landscapes are beautiful (as usual)

2,5/5 (considering that movies like My Darling Clementine and The Searchers are much better) 




BRINGING UP BABY
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Cary Grant (Dr David Huxley), Katharine Hepburn (Susan Vance)...
USA, 1938


Plot (IMDb): David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances, he meets Susan Vance, and the duo have a series of misadventures which include a leopard called Baby.

This movie made me laugh much more than I expected! But then old comedies always make me laugh more than I expect. It was funny to see Cary Grant playing a clumsy nerd.

3,5/5



 

23 The End of the Affair  Graham Greene    (England)  (1951)

Short Description (Amazon): 
Set in London during and just after World War II, Graham Greene's The End of the Affair is a pathos-laden examination of a three-way collision between love of self, love of another, and love of God. The affair in question involves Maurice Bendrix, a solipsistic novelist, and a dutifully married woman, Sarah Miles. The lovers meet at a party thrown by Sarah's dreary civil-servant husband, and proceed to liberate each other from boredom and routine unhappiness. Reflecting on the ebullient beginnings of their romance, Bendrix recalls: "There was never any question in those days of who wanted whom--we were together in desire." Indeed, the affair goes on unchecked for several years until, during an afternoon tryst, Bendrix goes downstairs to look for intruders in his basement and a bomb falls on the building. Sarah rushes down to find him lying under a fallen door, and immediately makes a deal with God, whom she has never particularly cared for.

My first Graham Greene book! It was a really good! It doesn't matter if you're religious or not this book will make you question the concepts of faith and love in a very subtle way. It is also a very powerful love story. I can't wait to read another of his books. 3,5/5


24 Confessions of an English Opium Eater  Thomas de Quincey (England) (1822)

Short description (wikipedia)
The book follows the course of the author's experience with opium from his first encounter in university to the time of his malicious addiction later in life

If you expect, like I did, to get an account of the effect of opium and descriptions of opium dreams just don't read this book. The book is pretty short but the author spends most of his time explaining how he started to take opium and why it was impossible to stop. Believe me, it is incredibly boring and devoid of poetry. 1/5


 

24 / 50 (48.0%)

21 The Trail of the Lonesome Pine  John Fox Jr   (USA) (1908)

Story (wikipedia):
Set in the Appalachian Mountains a the turn of the twentieth century, a feud has been boiling for over thirty years between two influential mountain families: the Tollivers and the Falins. The outside world and industrialization, however, is beginning to enter the area. Coal mining begins to exert its influence on the area, despite of the two families feuds. Entering the area, enterprising "furriner" (foreigner) John Hale captures the attention of the beautiful June Tolliver, and inadvertently becomes entangled in the region's politics.

Although this book seems to be pretty much forgotten, it was a best-seller the year it came out.
I really enjoyed it! It was exactly what I needed to read to feel good. Now the writing is quite old fashioned and it gives it a lovely touch. You miss it when it's over.        3,75/5


 
22 The Remains of the Day    Kazuo Ishiguro  (England) (1989)

the story (amazon):
The novel's narrator, Stevens, is a perfect English butler who tries to give his narrow existence form and meaning through the self-effacing, almost mystical practice of his profession. In a career that spans the second World War, Stevens is oblivious of the real life that goes on around him -- oblivious, for instance, of the fact that his aristocrat employer is a Nazi sympathizer. Still, there are even larger matters at stake in this heartbreaking, pitch-perfect novel -- namely, Stevens' own ability to allow some bit of life-affirming love into his tightly repressed existence.

This book was really interesting because you learn a lot about England during WWII and the profession of Butler. Most of the time there is a conflict between what Stevens wants you to believe about him and what you can read between the lines. But  the character was so cold I got bored at some points. 2,5/5

22 / 50 (44.0%)

16  Gulliver's Travels  Jonathan Swift  (1726) (Ireland)

The book is a very witty satire yet I felt I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have, simply because I don't know enough about the historical context.  2,5/5


17 Long Day's Journey into Night  Eugene O'Neill (1941) (USA)

This play is a powerful domestic tragedy that is impossible to forget! Eugene O'Neill, one of the greatest American playwrights, tells the story of one day in the life of his family. The atmosphere gets more and more claustrophobic as the characters keep discussing the same painful issues from morning to night. I loved it because it was both personal and universal. 5/5


18 Leaving Las vegas  John O'Brien (1990) (USA)

Ben is an alcoholic who has decided to drink himself to death. Sera is a prostitute who has no intention to change her life despite the dangers of her situation. The two finally meet in Las vegas and fall in love.
The author of the book committed suicide "two weels after learning that his novel was to be made into a movie".
Leaving Las Vegas is a great book, but if you're depressed, it's not going to help you  4/5


19 Rabbit, Run  John Updike (1960) (USA)

Harry "Rabbit" used to be a basketball star but now he's just stuck whith his pregnant wife he's not sure to love. Tired of his life he suddenly decides to leave the city and settles with his new mistress. But things get complicated as Rabbit isn't able to make decisions.
The characters of this novel lack of depth which makes the story very boring. I know it was very successful and has a series of sequel, well frankly I don't understand why. 1/5


20 Riders of the Purple Sage  Zane Grey  (1912) (USA)

I read this western because I knew it would be useful for my essay on the concept of Heroism in the West and I was right. This book tells the story of Jane a young and rich mormon woman who has to face the anger of her neighbors because of her gentile friends. At the beginning of the novel she encounters Lassiter (the typical western hero), a well-known rider whose past is mysterious. He intends to help her .
The lanscapes are beautifully described and on the whole the novel is quite entertainy. 2,5/5 

20 / 50 (40.0%)

 11 The Crying of Lot 49  Thomas Pynchon  (USA) (1966)

Now it's true that I have a tendency to dislike most of the things related to the 60s. I can't help it. But I still tried to understand what was so great about this book, there was no point, I hated this book from the very beginning to the end. Pynchon's story is probably full of irony but I couldn't possibly feel this irony when I was too busy trying to concentrate on this awful writing.
Sorry if there's a fan of Thomas Pynchon's work among you, but it's definitely not my cup of tea! 0/5


12 The Pillow Friend  Lisa Tuttle  (USA) (1996)

This book was simply AMAZING! I don't understand why it's not well-known, it certainly deserves fame!
It tells the story of a girl who gets more and more lost between her dreams and reality and just like the main character, the reader never really knows what really happened in her life and what was just a fantasy. Read it, you won't regret it 4,5/5


13 Morgan's Run  Colleen McCullough  (Australia) (2000)

I was expecting a lot from this book and it was a mistake. This has to be one of the dullest books I've ever read. It tells the story of an English convict who is sent to Australia (when it was a British colony of course) and has to learn to start a new life. The characters are not interesting at all, the novel is very long and yet nothing much happen. I give it 1 point because McCullough did a lot of historical research to write the book but that's it 1/5


14 L'Ecume des Jours  Boris Vian    (France) (1947)   (English Translation is apparently Foam of the Daze)  

Some people  say that this is one of the greatest modern love stories. Well let me tell you that I strongly disagree with this statement. The writing is very childish, a bit like Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince and according to me it's no compliment .     O,5/5


15 A Room with a View  E.M. Forster  (England) (1908)

A Room with a View is a good classic like we love them, about a young girl's coming of age. Although the story may be predictable, the characters are so hilarious and touching that it makes it quite unique.   3/5



 

15 / 50 (30.0%)

1 The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper  (USA)  (1826)

Although the descriptions of the landscapes are amazing, I didn't like this book that much. The story is repetitive and the characters are not complex enough for you to relate to them. 2/5 


2 Daisy Miller and other stories Henry James  (USA) (1878)

Very interesting short story about the relationship between the Old and the New World. A pleasant read. 2,75/5 


3 The Yellow Wallpaper and other stories Charlotte Perkins Gilman  (USA)  (1891)

The main purpose of Gilman's short stories was political. She wanted to bring equality between men and women. The Yellow Wallpaper is an excellent gothic story about a woman's madness. The problem is it has nothing to do with the rest of her work. The other stories that were in my copy were just boring because it had only a political purpose. 1,5/5

4 My Antonia Willa Cather  (USA) (1918)

Set in Nebraska during the westward expansion, My Antonia is the story of the relationship between a young American and his friend Antonia, a bohemian who has just arrived to America with her family. Pleasant read . 2,5/5


5 The Black Dahlia James Ellroy  (USA) (1987)

Well usually crime novels aren't my cup of tea yet I felt I had to read James Ellroy because I'm in love with the 40s and the 50s (in America). What a book! The characters are so profound, you can feel their obsession with the murder of the Black Dahlia are leading them to self-destruction. The memory of it is still vivid. 4/5 



6 Northern Lights  (England) (1995)
7 The Subtle Knife     (1997)
8 The Amber Spyglass  (2000) Philip Pullman 
Being an atheist, I really like some of the messages of this trilogy . They are very daring and I love that. The writer has a lot of imagination an you just can't put down the books. But I also felt Pullman managed to get away with certain problematic situations a bit too easily and that really annoyed me. I won't mention them here because that would spoil everything for those who haven't read these books yet. 3,25/5


9 Quicksand Nella Larsen  (USA) (1928)

Quicksand is the story of a young African American who keeps moving from one place to another and changing her mind about everything without knowing what she really wants. Quicksand is more than a powerful statement on race, it is the universal story of a woman in search of place where she belongs. Very moving 4/5

10 Tamed by the Barbarian June Frances   (England)

The members of my favorite forum and I decided to read a Harlequin type of book. I picked up a historical romance. I think the title says it all ;) . Well it's no masterpiece but at least I laughed a lot! 1,5/5
 

10 / 50 (20.0%)