Archive for March, 2010

Title: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Genre: Memoir, Spiritual, Autobiography
Publisher: Penguin Books
Year: 2006
Acquired via the lovely Santa Clara University Library

My Thoughts

When I started reading, I thought that Gilbert was just going through a midlife crisis.  She feels discontent for her life.  Even though she appears to have it all: the husband, the great job, the great friends, the New York success story, Elizabeth Gilbert feels empty.  So she decides to give it all up and journey around the world to Italy, India, and Indonesia in a search for .. pleasure, spiritual enlightenment, and finally a way to balance the two.  The book chronicles these journeys as Liz tries to get her self back by leaving her former life behind.

Once she left New York, I fell in love with Elizabeth Gilbert.  I wanted to take her out of the pages and make her my best friend.  She is refreshingly honest in a voice that is so easy to relate to.  I loved hearing her talk about all the wonderful new people she met in all these wonderful places.  Her descriptions were wonderful but even better than simple descriptions were her beautiful introspective thoughts on all she was experiencing.  Liz did not idly consume on her trips but she was very mindful of everything that was happening to her as she embarked on all the stages of her journey.

And that’s what makes this book stand out. It isn’t just some crazy women traveling around the world to experience different cultures. Liz is going on a spiritual journey in hopes of finding her true self.  It’s a beautiful sentiment – something I wish everyone could do at some point in their life.  And that’s what I think really makes this book special: I mean, this book is a risky thing: she is letting countless people into her innermost thoughts and experiences.  It’s a brave thing to do.  But I feel like I learned a lot accompanying Liz on this journey.  I found her anecdotes to be truly inspirational.  I tagged so many parts of the book.  I just wanted to take it all with me.

I highly recommend this book.  Although it took me a while to get through, I loved every section of it.  I didn’t want to miss any of the journey but savored every piece of it and I encourage anyone who hasn’t read this to do the same.

And with that I will leave you with Liz’s favorite Italian word, one that I have grown to love because of her: attraversiamo.  Let’s cross over.  Beautiful sentiment that maybe you too will pick up in your life.

I think my teacher characterized this book perfectly in class.  Before he started discussion about the book he said, instead of a book jacket, Dracula needs a straitjacket.  I have to admit that after struggling through over four hundred pages of Stoker’s land of lunacy, I fully agree with his assessment.

I have to admit, when I heard that we would be reading Dracula in my Victorian Literature class I was incredibly excited.  The class had been divided into two major sections of Gothic literature: ghost stories and vampire stories.  I always associated Dracula as one of the major pieces of literature that created the modern vampire that has inspired so many modern day marvels like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. However, the class had introduced me to many of the stories that inspired Stoker’s creation of Count Dracula like Le Fanu’s Carmilla, which oddly enough tells the tale of a strange lesbian vampire relationship – you have to read it to believe it.

Strangely enough, Dracula isn’t really all that much about vampires.  Even though he is the title character, Dracula is not the main character.  The story doesn’t really revolve around him.  In fact, it is questionable whether there is a main character in the story.  Told in fragments through a nonlinear narrative of numerous characters, it can be difficult to figure out exactly what Dracula is about.  At first we meet, Jonathan Harker, who in the end is responsible for bringing Dracula to London which is where the “horror” begins as Dracula begins to prey on the local girls.

So what it really boils down to is that Stoker is writing a very strange misogynistic manifesto.  Dracula is not a threat to Harker and his friends because he is a vampire per se but because he is a foreigner (from Eastern European Transylvania) who comes into the heart of England, London, to taint the women there.  Lucy, his first victim, becomes the fallen angel.  So all the men get together to protect Harker’s wife, Mina, who is the model of the Angel in the house (what every woman obviously is meant to be).

I find it extremely unfortunate that this book has had such a lasting effect on our society.  In my opinion, Stoker takes the rich history of the vampire legend and destroys it by using it to reinforce stereotypes about women and foreigners.  Instead of opening people’s eyes and challenging their opinions about subjects that concerned them, Stoker is only preaching a very tired message about the dreaded “other.”

Hearing wonderful things about Tim Burton’s newest piece of work, I had to go see it.  I’m a big fan of his visual masterpieces and this movie did not let me down.  I have to admit, I was a little skeptical.  I’m not too fond of the story of Alice and Wonderland.  I have never read the actual book by Lewis Carol but the first Disney interpretation did not impress me at all.  Even more, I have never seen a movie in 3D so I was a little nervous when I had to put on those dorky glasses and delve into a world that made me feel a little uncomfortable.

But as soon as the movie started, I was drawn in.  I loved the 3D experience.  I won’t go out of my way to see every movie in 3D, but this one is definitely worth it.  Seeing Tim Burton’s colorful wonderland pop out at you was quite a treat and I enjoyed every second of it.  The costumes and settings were absolutely fantastic in every way.  I wanted to jump into the movie and wear the clothes myself!

Even more, the casting was phenomenal.  I found it refreshing to have Alice cast as an unknown in the midst of all the other wonderful stars that I recognized and loved.  Helena Bonham Carder as the Red Queen was extremely entertaining.  I love her.  Even better, Johnny Depp did not disappoint (me, at least) as the Mad Hatter.  Anne Hathaway didn’t necessarily blow me away, but her performance was definitely decent.  Plus, she’s so beautiful that sometimes it’s fun just looking at her.  All the characters were endearing.  My boyfriend noted how fabulous the animation of the Cheshire Cat was, which I definitely agree with (although, I have to say I enjoyed the Blue Caterpillar a little more).  But really, it’s hard to play favorites with this movie because all the animation was phenomenal. This movie was just fun to watch visual – so beautiful.

So do I recommend it?  Definitely.  Especially for fans of Tim Burton or Johnny Depp.  It’s really a good time, feel good movie that I feel like everyone can enjoy.

Like many of Poe’s stories, The Turn of the Screw is a story that refuses to be read.  From the very beginning, you aren’t really sure what exactly this story is about.  Even after you have delved into the story completely, you’re still uncertain.  And the story doesn’t really give you many clues either.  For this reason, I am not going to summarize the story, because every piece of it is all based on reader interpretation.  There are very few facts in this book.  In fact, the only fact I could walk away with is that there is no objective reality: only interpretation.  The details of this story are absolutely unimportant and irrelevant.  It’s more of an experience than a novel.

Still, I highly recommend it.  I understand why it is a must for English majors.  This is definitely the emergence of the postmodern.  The story is full of suspense and disbelief.  The whole time, the reader is left wondering what the newest development means to their interpretation of the events so far: is your take on the story supported or completely destroyed?  I changed my mind about this story several times only to change it several more in my class discussion.

This book is definitely nightmarish, but it shows the creative possibilities of fiction work.  James take a story that he reportedly heard from a Protestant pope and turned it into a psychological thriller.  If that isn’t awesome, what is?

Although it was difficult for me to get through at times – the language is a little daunting and the story is definitely difficult – it is a worthwhile journey.

This morning, I was browsing through my Google Reader when I came across a truly wonderful and inspired idea from Jennifer at Crazy for Books: The Book Blogger Hop!  Immediately, I signed up.  Obviously, this is something that interests me as I have been eagerly searching for new ways to get my blog out there and discover new blogs.  Seriously, the more I blog, the more I realize I can’t get enough of it!  So I highly recommend that if you haven’t yet, you head over there and check out The Book Blogger Hop.