I told someone (you’d better be reading!) I would make a list of some of my favourite books, so I thought I would post them here. I was going to put them all in one post but after writing some of the reviews, I decided that they could stand alone.  Also, these are in no particular order, just as they happen to occur to me.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand:

Rand was born in Russia and lived through the revolution that led to the rise of communism.  Her experiences in communist Russia were apparently decidedly BAD as evidenced by her anti-communist, anti-socialist and anti-religious leanings.  Atlas Shrugged takes place in an America that is slowly and covertly abandoning a free market economy.  In response to this, the country’s most talented minds decide to do something drastic about it.  Some deliberately run their businesses into the ground, others merely disappear, leaving their ventures to be run by people who are less competent. The story continues as the blundering government tries to make do without the more intelligent entrepreneurs.  You can probably see where the story is leading and it is very political.  I still found it very entertaining and well written.

The development of objectivism is attributed to Rand and many say that this book is where she perfected her philosophy.  At times the novel gets very heavy and even overwhelming but even these parts are worth reading.  I learnt a lot from reading these parts.  As someone who lived through the Cold War but didn’t really know much about world politics, I never really understood what the big deal was.  Reading Atlas Shrugged and other books by Rand I have come to realize that communism, the way it was implemented in the Soviet Union is really very dangerous and destructive.  In my opinion (as a good little Canadian socialist) her viewpoint is extreme but after going through what she did, I think she is entitled to a little extremism.

I would suggest that before a person tackle Atlas Shrugged (1000+ pages – eek!) a good starting point is another of Rand’s novels – We The Living.  Rand herself has said that this is the most autobiographical of her works and it definintely helped me to be more sympathetic to her ideas.

I just finished reading Peony in Love by Lisa See.  It’s about a young Chinese woman (Peony) just before she is to be married in an arranged marriage.  She has never met the man who is to become her husband.  As the book begins, Peony’s father has staged a performance of an opera called The Peony Pavilion.  Peony is obsessed by this opera and has read it several times and in fact the opera plays a central role in the rest of the story.  During the performance, Peony wanders through the family garden and meets a young man with whom she immediately falls in love.  Her love for the young man and her obsession with the opera lead to a circumstance that was completely unexpected for me, but based on other parallels is really quite predictable.  The story continues as Peony learns to deal with her new situation and spends several years trying to right a wrong that was done to her.

What I find so amazing about this book is that the author based much of the story on historical fact, and in fact Peony was a real person.  To fully enjoy this book, I had to set aside my own religious beliefs and accept Chinese beliefs as fact.  It was interesting to be able to see some of these through new eyes.  I tend to look at a lot of these rites and ceremonies as superstitious and backward and it was refreshing to be able to view them differently.  I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommend it!

Ok, confession time…I really like to read books by Jodi Picoult.  Her books are a little cheesy (ok, a LOT cheesy) and overly dramatic. The characters are perfect stereotypes and the plots are just a bit too convenient.  She also likes to write about heavy issues and because her books are so “light”  it’s almost irreverant. But…I still get drawn into every book I’ve read of hers and I continue to pick up more.

Anyone else have some author they love to read (like John Grisham, Dan Brown or Stephenie Meyer) that you know is really just trash but you just can’t help yourself?

There has been so much hype lately about The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer with the movie and book four coming out. Why does everybody love these books so much? Were my copies of the books switched out? Did I read something else?

At first I enjoyed the books, they were entertaining, but I wondered what all the fuss was. I figured maybe they got better so I picked up the second and third books hoping for something a little more captivating. The second was was also okay, but the third was the worst of the bunch. The more I thought about the books and read some truly amazing young adult fiction (The Book Thief – EXCELLENT!) I realized how terrible these books actually were.

I have to start out by saying that I am NOT a book snob. I can enjoy a nice trashy chick-lit novel just as much as true literature. The one thing I cannot abide though is bad writing. The writing in these books was B.A.D. (Close second to Mary Higgins Clark for the worst writer ever.) There’s not much else to say than that, it was just bad.

As for the story, it was ridiculous, and not because it was about vampires. I can deal with that part. It was just so not believable. The characters were completely unrealistic. The main character, Bella, is a high school student who acts NOTHING like any high school student I have ever come in contact with. (And as a high school teacher, trust me, I’ve come into contact with many.) And the plot, brutal. So stupid, overly dramatic, contrived, immature. It was like she was just grasping at straws, trying to throw as much drama into the plot as possible.

And the books just got worse as the series went on. I almost couldn’t finish the last one and I probably won’t even bother when the fourth one comes out. I was just going to keep my mouth shut but I’ve just been so shocked by the intelligent people that loved these books. Seriously people, what is wrong with you?