v.c. andrews – Confessions of a Book Lush

10 Books I Want to Reread

May 18, 2011 6 Comments

got this idea from Sarcastic Female Literary Circle (what a great name for a blog btw!) and thought I’d do 10 of my own. So, here we go!

1) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: As I have probably mentioned before, I first read TKAM in 6th grade. After literally spending months analyzing this damn book, I think I can safely say that more than a few of us were sick and tired of it. Still, I consider it to be a masterpiece, but I’d definitely like to give it a try without all the analysis.

2) A Separate Peace by John Knowles: I read this the summer before high school, not expecting to like it very much, but I ended up loving it. I also ended up crying because of what happens to Finny. I had cried over books before this but this was the first time I cried over a human character (that’s right…all previous sob-fests had involved an animal). Recently bought this at Housing Works so I could eventually reread it (also, because I actually didn’t own it).

3) The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton For whatever reason I did not like this book quite as much as I thought I was going to or as much as other people do. I’d picked it up a few years after reading The Custom of the Country but found that I liked the underappreciated work a lot more. Last year, I bought the Modern Library edition with the express intention of eventually rereading it.

4) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald As I mentioned in the 30 Day Book Meme, I really loved Gatsby when I first read it but recently came to the random and unsubstantiated conclusion that this book is overrated. I’d definitely like to give it another shot.

5) Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews You didn’t think I was only going to name classics did you? Yes, sometimes I really do feel like revisiting this (as well as the rest of the series). But I also feel like some things are better left alone.

6) After Dark by Haruki Murakami It has not been that long since I’ve read this book, but I read it SO quickly, and on my computer surprisingly enough! It just flew by. I loved it, but now I can’t remember very much of it. So definitely need to revisit in the future.

7) Wayside School Is Falling Down by Louis Sachar Gotta revisit my favorite children’s book, c’mon son!

8) Arcadia by Tom Stoppard The one and only book I did not finish in my ILS (Integrated Liberal Studies) class in high school. We didn’t have to know it for the oral exam and so I never actually read the end myself (I think I looked it up later on or gleaned the ending from class discussions) and all I remember thinking was shit! I should’ve finished that, it sounds so good!

9 & 10) The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer A two for one special! Nah, but seriously, I’d love to read both of these again, especially The Iliad… oh Achilles, you’re so sexy when you’re ragey!

Filed Under: reading Tagged With: a separate peace, after dark, arcadia, edith wharton, f. scott fitzgerald, flowers in the attic, harper lee, haruki murakami, homer, john knowles, louis sachar, the great gatsby, the house of mirth, the iliad, the odyssey, to kill a mockingbird, tom stoppard, v.c. andrews, wayside school is falling down

30 Day Book Meme: Day 4

March 31, 2011 22 Comments

Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series
So I see that it might have actually been better if I had paired up Days 3 and 4 rather than Days 2 and 3. Oh 20/20 hindsight, you so funny!

Note: this post started off short enough but then I started discussing my feelings on each book. If you are just interested in the answer to the question, you can stop reading after the first sentence.

My favorite book from the previously mentioned Dollanganger series is the first, Flowers in the Attic:

Flowers in the Attic sets the stage for what happens later on (duh, that’s why it’s a series yea? obvious comment is obvious), but it’s also the one with the most interesting premise. Four kids locked up in an attic for several years so their selfish mother can inherit a fortune. Two boys, two girls under the care of an over-religious grandmother who loathes their existence (and we find out early enough why). WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? The first book has the best character development, the most tension, the highest stakes and is the one firmly situated in the female Gothic (you can’t have characters locked in an attic and not immediately think of Jane Eyre). It’s also the strangest and most discomforting, as well it should be.

The second (and also next favorite), Petals on the Wind is far more singular in its motivation. It’s also the longest of the five I believe. I read it very quickly, and when I went back to re-read it, I realized, I’d missed a lot (see what happens when you go through books like they’re crack?). Cathy is dead set on revenge and who can blame her really after all the shit that goes down in the first? The third, If There Be Thorns is my least favorite of the series. Here the story shifts to her children’s perspectives and when I first read it I assumed that meant we would never see Cathy’s perspective again due to the V.C. Andrews Pattern* of leaving the main character “behind” once she changes point of view. But Andrews does return to Cathy in the fourth, Seeds of Yesterday, which is probably why it’s my next favorite after the first two books. Despite my dislike of the third, it was interesting to see how the children saw their parents (mother and um…stepfather). With the Andrews Pattern, usually the main characters are dead or die early on in the fourth novel, so that the narrative changes focus to the daughter completely. In If There Be Thorns, you get to see for once, firsthand, how other people see Cathy and Chris, even if those people are their children. It’s also the only case I can think of where Andrews shifts the narrative to the male point of view. The last book reveals something previously unknown in the first book and sheds a lot of light on why the Grandmother is the way she is. It’s sometimes presented as the first book in the series, but really, it should be read last. It’s far more interesting, satisfying, and illuminating that way.

um, crap now I want to re-read them. Must resist urge to indulge in ~guilty pleasures~ that will not improve me in any way.

* The V.C. Andrews Pattern: Usually the first three books are told from the main character’s point of view, then the fourth moves on to her daughter, then the fifth is a prequel told from the mother or grandmother of the original narrator. The Dollanganger series instead goes MC, MC, MC’s children (sons), back to MC, and then finally MC’s Grandmother. Crediting the pattern to V.C. Andrews herself is a bit misleading since Andrews actually died very early in her career, before a pattern was truly established. The pattern that exists in her books I tend to blame on the ghostwriter. Yes, she supposedly had outlines and stuff, but outlines and finished product are different. Any writer knows how much gets changed along the way and so I often wonder if and for how long Andrews would have actually stuck with the series pattern and thematic elements had she been writing them herself. After all, all she completed were the first four of the Dollanganger series, the first two books of the Casteel series, and the stand alone, My Sweet Audrina. Who knows?

It’s kind of tragic how every day I have to re-look up how to write the Read More tag *facepalm*

Previously on the 30 Day Book Meme →

Filed Under: fun and fancy free Tagged With: 30 day book meme, dollanganger series, flowers in the attic, garden of shadows, if there be thorns, petals on the wind, seeds of yesterday, v.c. andrews

30 Day Book Meme: Days 2 & 3

March 29, 2011 29 Comments

Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times

I don’t know if there’s a book I’ve read more than three times in its entirety. I will often go back and re-read chunks of my favorite books, sometimes re-reading as much as 90% of the book, but an entire re-read, cover to cover is pretty rare for me. I also don’t always re-read in order, but flip around. For those I have re-read in their entirety, the number doesn’t top more than two. I feel bad not really providing an answer for this one so I’m going to do Day 3 as well…

Day 03 – Your favorite series
I’ve read so few series in the past 10 years that I actually have to dig back to my V.C. Andrews days in order to provide an answer. I was pretty hooked on V.C. Andrews in high school, with my favorite series being the Dollanganger series. I feel like this is the part where I’m supposed to feel bad for liking her stuff, but I don’t. Cathy and Chris are still two of my favorite characters and sometimes I want to revisit my adolescence and re-read the books.