Friday, April 15, 2016

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel (Illustrator) REVIEW

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn’t really appreciate this book. It was weird nonsense to me that never delivered anything exceptional.

I did like the writing and the way Alice never took any of it very seriously. Alice gave the reader a pass to just enjoy. If she could roll with the punches, so could you, as the reader. I felt in on the joke, but it went on too long. Each chapter had some interesting aspect to it, but at the end of each chapter, I didn’t care. I knew that nothing would end up meaning anything.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has appealed to generations of children. My son told me that, when he read it as a child, he loved it. It is a whacky adventure that I think most kids would enjoy, but it was a miss for me personally.


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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Ethan Frome REVIEW

Ethan FromeEthan Frome by Edith Wharton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

***SPOILER***

I couldn’t muster much sympathy for Ethan Frome. He married a woman he didn’t love out of fear. Then, he managed to blame her for his unhappiness. Just as he didn’t have the gumption to make the life that he wanted for himself when he, finally, met the woman of his dreams, he didn’t have the will to seize the day. What was his final answer to all of his problems—suicide. What a weak cop-out, but I wasn’t in the least bit surprised. I saw it coming a mile away, which made it worse. 

The entire story was too melodramatic for my taste. However, I’m giving it three stars, because it did, eventually, capture my interest enough for me to want to know how it would end.

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