I'm getting through this list faster than I expected! Here are some more mini-reviews for the next handful of books I've read:
To Kill a Mockingbird - I remember starting this book in high school, but I'm pretty sure I didn't finish it. I say that because I feel like I would remember how it ended, which I did not. All that to say, I LOVED THIS BOOK. I couldn't put it down. It only took me two days to read it because I was completely engrossed in it.
Charlotte's Web - I read this book in elementary school, and as I was reading it this time I was surprised at how much of the story I remembered. My fourth grade teacher was smart in having us read it. It's a chapter book with pictures, which I feel is perfect for children in that age range who maybe still aren't super comfortable with reading. Plus it's adorable.
Animal Farm - This book was about as political as they come. It was a quick read though, which was nice, but that also means the plot escalated super quickly. I liked the message, but I can't help but relate this book to our current political climate, and that makes me sad/scared.
The Grapes of Wrath - Okay, I loved this book so much right until the end. I always think that every dystopian novel I read is going to have a happy ending for whatever reason, and I'm always wrong. This book was extremely well-written but also very depressing... Same as with 1984, I was hoping the people would come together to overthrow those in charge, but they just... didn't. Life just went on as depressing as it was before.
The Kite Runner - Again, this book was very well-written but was also depressing. Overall I liked this book, especially the historical parts, but the fate of Hassan was really sad. Actually, the fate of most of the characters was really sad. I understand that authors are trying to make a point when they write sad stories, typically about the world in which they live, but I'm learning that these types of books are not my favorite. Give me back my Charlotte's Web...
Macbeth - All I have to say is thank goodness for footnotes. I'm pretty sure I would have NO clue what this was about without them. I always have good intentions to understand Shakespeare without footnotes or Cliffs notes, but my brain gets so focused on the rhyming that I forget to pay attention to the plot. I'm just glad this one was short...
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - This was a slow-moving book, but it was an easy read regardless. I feel that there are a lot of parts to this book that don't advance the Injun Joe plot line at all and could easily be left out. Maybe I'm missing some bigger picture though. Reading reviews on this book, however, has made me very excited to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, because it angered enough people politically that it was banned from schools for a bit (though I'm pretty sure I read it in high school, or at least started it...).
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass - I feel like Lewis Carroll was eating some magic mushrooms of his own when he wrote these books... They were entertaining to be sure, but if I had read them as a little kid I feel like my mind would have swirled and I wouldn't have understood a lot of it. Also, I'm glad I'd already seen the animated Disney version of this movie, because it helped me visualize things in my head I'm not sure I would have been able to otherwise.
Anna Karenina - This book took me several months to get through, not because it was particularly difficult to understand, but because there was an insane amount of information that had nothing to do with the story at all. Basic premise - Anna is a slut and feels so guilty she chucks herself under a train at the end. Not sure why it took nearly a thousand pages to get to that conclusion. WHO CARES ABOUT LEVIN?!
The Things They Carried - This book was incredible. So incredible, in fact, that I gushed on and on about it to the person who let me borrow it and he ended up buying me my own copy. This book and its stories about the Vietnam War reminded me just how hard people in the military have it - I wish more people would read this book, honestly.
The Road - This was a really, really good book, another one I couldn't put down, but it just has one flaw in my opinion - WHAT IN THE HELL HAPPENED?! I understand that this book takes place in a post-apocalyptic time, but I want to know how they got to that point. The author touches on it just enough for me to want to know more, but he never fully explains what happened. I guess that's not the point, but I'm too curious to let it go.
Crime and Punishment - After my months-long experience with Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, I was terrified to read anything by Dostoyevsky. But since it was on the list, I had to read it, and I was pleasantly surprised. I just assumed all Russian novels would be as convoluted and ridiculously wordy as Tolstoy's, which I now understand is a silly notion. Either way, this book was way better than I expected it to be, though I'm still not sure what made Raskolnikov kill the woman in the first place...
I'm currently working on Little Women, and it's slow-going (bordering on boring) for sure. We'll see if it gets better. Next is Don Quixote, and it's terrifyingly thick and heavy. Also, it was written many centuries ago, and I'm afraid it's going to take me all summer like Anna Karenina did last year. Let's hope I'm wrong. =/
