Review: "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Classic a Month #2.2014

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
3 out of 5 stars

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. 

Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

I asked a group of friends for a suggestion for a "romantic" classic for February and this book came up. Since it had already been recommended by another friend before, I decided to give it a shot. Now that I have finished it, I find it incredibly interesting that the first friend considered this a romance. Brief warning: my classics reviews always discuss the books in full, so if you haven't read it and prefer to remain spoiler free, please stop here! :) I read this on my Kindle, which had the boring plain cover, so I found this one instead. It was the most how I pictured Dorian (get it? "pictured Dorian"? I crack myself up).

This book is, in its essence, a story of the constant struggles between the soul and the brain. Sin and guilt, beauty and intellect, youth and mortality. It is also highly quotable, so I apologize for that in advance! A young man, Dorian Gray, sits for an artist named Basil and the two become close friends. Basil is enchanted and inspired by Dorian's beauty and creates his most perfect painting in the boy's likeness. He refuses to show it to anyone beyond his immediate friends though, as he is afraid he has put too much of his own soul into the painting and people will be able to read all his secrets. Basil's good friend, Lord Henry (or Harry as he is confusingly called throughout the book), insists on meeting the innocent Dorian and when he finally does, succeeds in turning the boy's head with fancy double talk and flourishing soliloquies. 

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also.

For nearly ten minutes [Dorian] stood there, motionless, with parted lips and eyes strangely bright. He was dimly conscious that entirely fresh influences were at work within him. 

At times reading this book, I wondered if Henry were the devil or a truly magical creature of some sorts, but it seems that he is only brilliant at putting ideas into people's heads, especially Dorian. After Henry changes his entire outlook on life and Basil shows him the true beauty of his soul, Dorian utters those magic words that make the story what it is..."If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that--for that--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!" And with that the handsome, young man stays forever youthful while his soul shrivels and twists within the picture. At first he is horrified when he sees what is happening, but eventually he delights in his new freedom. Soon rumors are flying around about the perpetually young man who seems to bring shame to everyone he encounters. Respectable young men can no longer show themselves at the club, fine upstanding ladies are now rumored to be ruined. He no longer has any close friends, except for that rascal Lord Henry.

Henry's attitude towards women must be discussed as it is truly abysmal. But really, it's kind of laughable as well because we get little gems like this: "My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals." Henry's blatant sexism is counteracted by Dorian's love for women and his assertion that "women give to men the very gold of their lives." Dorian seems to be in love with the idea of love and most definitely enamored with his own reflection.

The story continues on, with Dorian living in sin (literally it seems, there are strong hints of homosexuality throughout the book, which was illegal at the time). He reaches his breaking point though, when Basil confronts him about all the nasty rumors. Dorian blames Basil for all his troubles and ends up killing him in his attic, after showing him the painting. He then blackmails one of his former friends into disposing of the body. But soon the guilt starts eating at him and after a strange conversation with Henry, who implies that he knows Dorian's secret, Dorian decides that he can't take it anymore. He'd rather grow old than be so corrupt. He gets it in his head that if he destroys the painting, then he will be able to live his own life again. But of course, it doesn't quite work that way. By stabbing the painting, he stabs himself thru the heart and is immediately transformed into the hideous man from the portrait and dies. And that's the end of the book.

I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.

Review: "Morning Glories Vol 1 & 2"

Morning Glories Vol 1 & 2
words by Nick Spencer
pictures by Joe Eisma
covers by Rodin Esquejo
2.75 out of 5 stars combined

I'm not sure where I first heard of this series but I have been wanting to read them for probably a year or more. I got lucky at Half Price recently and found the first two volumes, so I decided to give them a shot. And...I'm not sure about them yet. There are some things I really liked and then some things I pretty much hated. I ordered the next two volumes on Amazon yesterday though and am going to give them another chance. Actually, I went graphic novel crazy yesterday :) so I'll probably have another haul post up again when they all arrive.

Okay, so let's start off with a brief summary and then move on to the good and bad. Morning Glory Academy is a fancy pants boarding school that handpicks its students using a strange and mysterious criteria. Six new students arrive at the school for the new year (or maybe in the middle of the year? not sure) and are immediately thrown into some crazy and dangerous situations. And by "dangerous" I mean people dying in the first few pages. Graphically. So this series is not for the faint of heart. Or those annoyed by mysteries within mysteries within mysteries. Because there are lots of those too.

I've seen many reviews refer to it as a twist on the TV series LOST and I'll just have to take their word for it, because I've never seen a single episode. But I know enough that it has those same twisty mysteries that hardly ever get solved and I really hope that MG doesn't end up like that, because that's one of the things I didn't like. I would like to have some explanation, eventually, of why there are weird bald, ghost girls wandering around the basement and what the spinning sphere thing is and what the kids have to do with all of this.

The second thing I wasn't crazy about was the artwork, or more specifically, how the teenagers are drawn. And getting down into the minutia, the teenage girls. They wear school uniforms, which is fine, but there are lots of heaving bosoms straining the buttons of their shirts and waaaaay above dress-code short skirts. Is that really necessary, especially for a series geared towards teens/young adults? It was difficult at times to tell who was a teen and who was an adult, other than the uniforms.

Volume 2 was a smidge better, in my opinion. We get some background on each of the six new students (one story per chapter/issue) and it was really interesting to see where the kids were coming from. There were still some mysteries thrown in from the present day, which was frustrating, but for now I am going to trust that the author knows what he is doing and wait anxiously for my next books to arrive.

My Favorite Children's Books #2: "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"

This is a feature I decided to start to share my favorite children's picture books. And I want to hear about your favorites too!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
written by Judi Barrett
drawn by Ron Barrett

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movies, but did you know it was first a children's book? Even though this book was first published in 1978, I had never heard of it until I did a children's book swap on Craftster back in 2003-ish. I received this book from my partner and had to create some items for her based on the story. I only remember that I made her a wind chime out of a plastic bagel and plastic cutlery with jingle bells lol. And just now, when I was adding the Goodreads link above, I found out there are 2 more books in the same land! How cool.

This story kind of goes along with Rain Makes Applesauce...both are nonsense stories about food. Actually I just realized they both have weather too. I made a theme and I didn't even know it! Cloudy starts off with a normal family eating breakfast and when a pancake flip goes haywire, it sets off a story about a small town called Chewandswallow. Chewandswallow is a normal town in many respects, except for one very important detail. Their food does not come from the store but from the sky.

It never rained rain. It never snowed snow. And it never blew just wind. 

It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed mashed potatoes and green peas. 

And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers.

Everything is hunky dory until the weather turns nasty one day. There are maple syrup floods and giant meatball hail and tomato tornadoes. The sanitation department, usually so efficient with their giant scoopers and tupperware, can't keep up. The townsfolk decide they must leave and so they sail away on boats made of stale toast and pizza sails.

Rereading this just now, I was surprised that it differs so much from the movie. There is no scientist and the reason for the foodnomaly is never explained. I haven't seen the sequel yet, but I want to. The part with the "leek" in the boat makes me giggle every time I see the commercial. (In case you didn't know already, I'm basically a toddler!)

Book Hauls of 2014...so far.

Oh wow, I haven't done a book haul post since last September?! I know I haven't bought a lot of books, but that's crazy! I've been posting them lately on my Instagram so I'm going to do a quick overview of my bookstore and library hauls for the new year so far. And I made a new graphic for them...do you like it? :) That's my actual to-read shelf, so it's a hodge-podge of books.

Okay, my first haul of the year was courtesy of the library and had two big hits, a decent read, and a snooze-fest. I'll let you decide which was which lol.
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz
Gimme a Call by Sarah Mlynowski
A Midsummer Night's Scream by RL Stine

My next haul was thanks to a little bit of cash and a lot of luck at Half Price Books. I very rarely find any of the graphic novels I'm reading there, but I found volume 1 & 2 of Morning Glories, which I had been wanting to try for a long time. Review will be coming up of those some time this week! I also found the 3rd in the Hater series by David Moody, which was slightly annoying because I still needed the 2nd one lol. So I ordered it cheap on Amazon and am excited to start on those soon. And finally Shrinking Violet.

In between here somewhere, I picked up two holds from the library, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and Cress by Marissa Meyer. Both loooooved.
Next up is my library haul from this weekend. I'm reading Eleanor & Park right now and it is so good. I seriously need all of Rowell's books for my very own.
This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E Smith
The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd -impulse pick! But dangit, just realized it's a series. I hope they have all of them.

And finally, another Half Price Books haul this weekend. I couldn't help myself, I had that 20% off coupon burning a hole in my phone lol. I only spent $18 total though, so a great deal! Do you like my fancy graphics? I'm finally using the 50 thousand photo apps on my phone lol.
Messenger & Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry-sequels to The Giver
2 Wayside School books by Louis Sachar
Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray-3rd book in the Gemma Doyle series, I'm on the 2nd right now.

And that's it for now...what was your last big book haul? I want to see or hear about it! :)

Review: "Fangirl"

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
5 out of 5 stars

I feel like I'm the last person in the world to read this book, even though it just came out this past September. There has been so much hype in the blogosphere (rivaling TFIOS mania) and I was a bit leery at first about it. But then my library hold came in and I started reading it Saturday afternoon (at the library!) and I stopped briefly to drive home and eat dinner and then I read...and read and read until I finished it around 11pm. And now I am a Rainbow Rowell convert and I must have ALL THE BOOKS!! :)

I didn't know a whole lot about this book going into it, in fact I thought Simon Snow was a rockstar not a book. Oops. But then when I figured out that he was actually a Harry Potter-esque boy in a huge book series, that just made it all that much better. This book really feels like the ultimate thank you to JK Rowling for all her hard work on Harry Potter. And that is awesome. But then it goes so much deeper than that and you start having feelings and then you cry and laugh and it's just ugh. I'm trying not to fangirl too much here, but it's hard!

Cather and her twin sister Wren (another confession: I didn't get their names until Levi did) are starting their freshman year of college and for the first time ever, they are going to be living separate lives. For Cath, it was not by choice. She is perfectly happy being a twin, a matching pair, but her sister is ready to be an individual so she requests different dorms and totally different class schedules. Cath is pretty upset by this, understandably, but she is devastated when Wren doesn't want to do their fanfiction for Simon Snow anymore either. Cath has developed a huge following with her stories and Wren doesn't care anymore. The mixture of the real story and the Simon Snow story by made-up author Gemma T Leslie and the fanfiction by Cath is a little confusing at first, but you get into the rhythm pretty quickly. I loved loved loved Cath's twist on Simon and Baz's relationship. Like seriously, I would read all kinds of stories about that.

Cath and Wren's relationship is strained to say the least. Both girls were pretty damaged when their mother left them as children. The girls and their father were broken for a long time and all 3 still show signs of not being totally okay. The discussion of mental health and getting the help you need was refreshing to see in a young adult book. Cath is probably, in most people's minds, a typical fangirl/blogger...a little bit nerdy, quiet on the verge of being mute, unable to make real relationships or see when people actually want to be her friend. Her upperclass(wo)man roommate, Reagan, is pretty anti-social herself but even she tries to bring Cath out of her shell. And then there's Reagan's male friend, Levi. Oh yes, Levi. Slightly weird looking, always smiling, and always trying to get Cath to react/interact. You see where that's going, right? I don't have to spell it out for you? I knew y'all were some smarty pants!


This may just be the perfect book for me. And maybe for you? I think so. :)
It's got it all...book talk within a book (and within a book?), romance, humor, sister relationships, father/daughter relationships, mother/daughter relationships, Harry Potter fanfic, school, snow, sweaters...


"Look at you. All sweatered up. What are those, leg sweaters?" [Levi]
"They're leg warmers." [Cath]
"You're wearing at least four different kinds of sweater."
"This is a scarf."
"You look tarred and sweatered."

This review written with the help of Fangirl mixes on 8Tracks. Check them out! :)

Sleeping Guys in Libraries...

Who doesn't love a nice catnap in the sunshine and a comfy chair? Unfortunately, some chatty teenagers came and sat down at the table in front of him, so his nap was cut short. And he looked super cranky as he was leaving lol.

Review: "Demo: The Collected Edition"

Demo: The Collected Edition by Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan
3 out of 5 stars

I think I should have liked this more than I did. Brian Wood did New York Four & Five, which I enjoyed a lot, and Demo has a similar feel to that. All the stories are connected to New York City and center around young people (late teens/early twenties) going thru identity crises in some way or another. So it has all the right ingredients for me to love it...but. But, I just didn't connect to the stories. I've never had a problem reading an anthology or trade paperback edition of graphic novels, in fact I prefer it so I don't have to wait. Demo is the first one that I've come across where that is a negative thing. The stories are not connected to each other, which I was expecting, so reading them one after the other didn't let them sink in. I would have done much better reading one a night, so that is my advice to you! And now let's look at a few of my favorite stories in particular.

All the teens have super powers of some sort or another. Some of them are very subtle or never fully explained. In my opinion, several of the stories would have done great as full length graphic novels. For example, Emmy is a young girl who stops speaking after she realizes her words have power...real power. People listen when she speaks and sometimes there are deadly consequences. And in "Bad Blood", Samantha not only has to deal with her estranged dad's sudden death, but she finds herself strangely attracted to her half-brother and must deal with a surprising family secret.

"Girl You Want" confronts the stereotypical images that people (mainly men in the story) see in a youngish, seemingly single girl. The heart of this story, that people see what they want to see, really gets to you when you start thinking about it. As does "Mixtape", about a man who must come to terms with his girlfriend's suicide thru a mixtape last note she made him.

And finally there's my personal favorite, "Midnight to Six", or better named "The Slacker Pledge". Who hasn't had that feeling of utter slacker-dom in their twenties (thirties...) where they just want to do enough of their job to squeak by and get it over with? Three teens sign a pledge to always do the bare minimum, so as to live life to its fullest. Ten years later, they're still doing the exact same thing, but for two of the friends, that's not enough anymore.  

"If wanting a better life for myself makes me a fascist, whatever. I'll accept that."