What I’m
going to start doing is reviewing books in groups of three. This way, I can do
concise reviews and knock out a few books at a time and give you all a wider
variety of books in one sitting. Here is the first installment and these three
books are the ones I knocked off my reading list from January to March.
Cold
Mountain by, Charles Frazier. War. Journeys. Mystical. Brutal. Sensual.
I put off reading Cold Mountain for a
long time. I remember watching the movie in high school and re-watching it in
college when I took a Civil War history class. Perhaps I refused to pick up the
book because I kept hearing Nicole Kidman’s voice crying “INMAN! INMAN!” and it
made me think of class papers and strange interpretations of the Civil War.
Nicole Kidman is quite the convincing Southern Belle, might I add. The Civil
War is one of my favorite periods in history to study and I’m always intrigued
by how it is interpreted in fiction. If you are seeking a Civil War novel that
is believable, I’m afraid you may
want to look elsewhere. This is a novel about a Confederate soldier, Inman, and
his journey home to Ada (aka Nicole Kidman) and how Ada endured through the war
on the home front. There is something mystical, ethereal even about Cold Mountain. There were several times
while I was reading it when I couldn’t determine if particular events in the
story were just dreamy, distorted figments of the characters’ imaginations or “real.”
Frazier elegantly blends descriptions of the landscape with the eccentric
characters that weave in and out of the novel in a way that makes the reader
feel as if they’re reading a dream. I was actually reminded greatly of The Odyssey by, Homer. This is a story about a man’s journey
home from war. Even if the topic doesn’t interest you, I definitely recommend
reading it just for Frazier’s beautiful writing style. His prose is very simply
put, lovely.
A Game of
Thrones: A Clash of Kings by, George R. R. Martin. Intense. Complex. Graphic. Fast-Paced.
Fantasy. A Game of Thrones are
somewhat intimidating books to attempt to review. There is just so much going
on; so many characters, plots and agendas, and there is always the risk of a
spoiler alert. How to say just enough without saying too much? A Clash of Kings is the second
installment in the Game of Thrones series and I enjoyed it just as much as the
first. I always feel A Game of Thrones
needs a disclaimer: these are graphic in every sense of the word. The content and
language is mature. This is not Harry Potter fantasy. A coworker asked me if it
was something their 14-year-old daughter would enjoy. Let me put it this way;
if you don’t let your children watch rated R movies yet, you most likely wouldn’t
like them reading rated R books – Reader Discretion is Advised. Also, if you
are a reader who does not like to read graphic content in general, these books
may not be for you. Disclaimer aside, let’s touch very briefly on A Clash of Kings. In a nutshell, the
second installment of A Game of Thrones
is centered on four individuals who claim to be King. There stems so many sub
plots that there isn’t enough time it the day to do them justice. George R. R.
Martin expertly marries the main plot with the sub plots in a way that does not
overwhelm the reader. The reader knows that everything will weave back together
in some shape or form. Keep in mind, all is not resolved, this is a series so
by the end of A Clash of Kings, the
reader may frantically go to Amazon to purchase the third book and select over
night shipping. George R. R. Martin also does not let the reader always have
their way. Try not to fall in love with too many of the characters. Rest
assured, death is inevitable. I do like it when an author isn’t afraid of killing
characters off. That’s how life is; you don’t always get what you want. And
there is something dark lurking in the background of the plot: something dark,
chilling, eerie and horrifying. And remember, winter is coming.
Miracles by, C.S.
Lewis. Philosophical.
Theology. Persuasive. Challenging.
Intellect. The only other work of C.S Lewis I have read has been The Screwtape Letters (a great read, I
highly recommend). I really enjoyed The
Screwtape Letters and was eager to read something else by Lewis. Let me
just get to it. I initially really liked Miracles
when I first started reading it. However, the more I read it, the more I
struggled to get through it. After a while it was like trudging through a foot
of snow. You’re excited at first and then the cold starts to find its way
through the seams of your clothing and through your boots and you get tired of
struggling through the dense wet snow. You think to yourself, “I don’t have
time for this. Why is this taking so much effort?” In Miracles, Lewis
is arguing that in Christianity, God uses miracles as a way to show His
involvement and presence in our everyday lives. Lewis uses logic and
rationality to support his argument as an attempt to appeal to cynics and
rationalists. I like Lewis’s ideas; I just think he took too long to get there.
I’m a very patient reader. I don’t mind dense material and I will stick with
it. I just couldn’t stick with Miracles.
I got bored, lost my interest and you know what I did? Something I almost never
do. I didn’t finish the book. I had about 100 pages left and I threw my hands
up and said, “Nope!” Lewis went around in so many circles and used too many
convoluted sentence structures and terminology that I got lost in the mix. I
majored in Sociology, so I’ve read my far share of overly complicated
literature and I’m used to it. But Miracles,
I had no time for after a while. I think the thesis and argument of this book
are great and really fascinating. It just needs to be simplified so the reader
doesn’t get bogged down. Lewis would spend pages and pages detailing a point
and then would drop one sentence that would sum it all up and I would literally
say, “Really!? See!? That’s all you needed to say in the first place!” The
exasperation was real people! Unfortunately, this is a pass for me, though I
still want to read other works by C.S. Lewis.
