Posts made in March, 2007
Rory’s Book Club: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
“The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” by Michael Chabon was the first time that I’ve read a Pulitzer Prize winning book. As such, I thought it would be over my head. I don’t know why I thought a story about boys in the 1930′s writing comics would be over my head. There are even comics on the cover, but still, the Pulitzer Prize, I was scared. I didn’t understand why it would be on Rory’s book list. I’ve never once heard her mention her love for comics. Then I read the book & all that went out the window. It’s on the book list because it is brilliant. If I was giving stars 5 stars would not be enough. I would have to steal some stars from somewhere. I’m giving toaster pastries though, so it’s getting 5. I will definitely be reading more books by Michael Chabon. It didn’t win the Pulitzer for nothing.
The way we were
One of my favorite “Gilmore Girls” episodes is from Season 5 believe it or not. I love the episode “Say Anything”, right after Emily makes that mess at her vow renewal & Luke & Lorelai break up. Lorelai watches “The Way We Were” & then calls up Luke & says something to the effect of I just need you to be my best friend. I watch this episode every time I break up with someone. I find myself wanting to break up with people just so I can watch this episode again.
So it made sense that I would watch “The Way We Were”. There were some good moments to it, but I just didn’t like it. It’s like spinach, it’s good for you but you aren’t excited to see it. This is a spoiler so stop reading here if you don’t want to know. When they are standing in the street at the end & Babs runs across the street I find myself thinking ‘The only way this movie could be saved is if one of them gets hit by a car right now”. No one got hit by a car, so I wasn’t a big fan. I just found the movie to be a downer. So I wasn’t a fan of “The Way We Were”, but I still like the episode of “Gilmore Girls” that quoted it. That didn’t make a lot of sense, I better simplify. “The Way We Were”= 
Gilmore Girls talking about “The Way We Were”= : )
Rory’s Book Club: An American Tragedy
I’m usually not a fan of books over 400 pages. I can’t imagine many things that need that much explanation. Anything longer than that, make into a series. So I was skeptical when I picked up “An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser. I thought, at the very least it will be good for smashing spiders. Then I read that Dreiser based the book on a notorious 1906 criminal case, in which Chester Gillette was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend in upstate New York. I didn’t know that this case was famous, but I was still intrigued. It was a graphic description of how good boys go bad, at least in the early 1900′s. It was fascinating, I read the whole thing in two weeks. There weren’t any tedious descriptions of rural farming in Russia in the 1800′s like Tolstoy. Dreiser used every single page. It was still 817 pages long, but as far as 800+ page books go, it was a good one. I had too much respect for “An American Tragedy” to kill any spiders with it. Besides, I’m a little scared of spiders & am just not that brave.
