Book Review: Jack London Call of the Wild

Last year I bought myself a bunch of Puffin Classics (intended for children but classics nonetheless) and Jack London’s The Call of the Wild is the first of these books that I’ve gotten around to reading.

At first I didn’t like this book. The treatment of animals hurt my heart. That being said, I realize that this book was written at a different time when people weren’t up in arms about animal rights, etc Furthermore, despite the fact that half of the book had me up in arms, the other half was positive and special.

I don’t think kids today would appreciate the message of this book. Although I think it offers a good message, the key activities of the book and the behaviours surrounding them aren’t something today’s youth has ever been expose to. Perhaps it would be good to expose them to this?

From Amazon:

First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London’s masterpiece. Based on London’s experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike.

Buy The Call of the Wild on Amazon.

What food could you not give up?

This may seem like a random post, which it is, but these questions have somehow come up a lot lately in conversation.

Question 1:

What one food item/meal could you not give up and live off of forever if you had to?

My Answer:

Pizza. SO many possibilities.

Question 2:

If you were granted one fat free food that you could eat oodles of without consequences, what would it be?

My answer:

Chips. Once again, so many possibilities in flavour choices. Runner up would be bread and cheese (all kinds of both). Mmmmm

Book Review: Cassandra Clare City of Lost Souls

What’s better than finishing your latest book review? Seeing a WordPress message saying there’s been an error and your review couldn’t be posted and has somehow disappeared. Anger. Well, here’s a shorter version of what I just finished writing…

I wasn’t going to buy City of Lost Souls (book five) of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare for awhile but I’m a nerd and I did. I found that I was confused and had forgotten certain plot points because I had read book four a year prior and in the mean time started reading Clare’s other series The Infernal Devices which features the same families but from several generations before.

Lost Souls was a good read and attention-keeper but I didn’t think it was as climactic as some of the other books in the series. That being said, like any good series book, it does end on a quizzical note. Clary grows up a bit more in this book and we get to dabble a little more in the lives of some of the other characters as well.

If you liked Twilight, you will also like this series. Keep in mind that the last book of The Mortal Instruments series doesn’t come out until 2014. The last book of The Infernal Devices series comes out next year (unless Clare decides to write more Infernal books like she did with the Mortal series). So I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you finish the Mortal series and then jump into the Infernal series, don’t forget what happened in the former like I did!

Buy City of Lost Souls on Amazon.

Anne Bronte Despondency

I have gone backward in the work,
The labour has not sped,
Drowsy and dark my spirit lies,
Heavy and dull as lead.
How can I rouse my sinking soul
From such a lethargy’
How can I break these iron chains,
And set my spirit free’There have been times when I have mourned,
In anguish o’er the past;
And raised my suppliant hands on high,
While tears fell thick and fast,

Gavin Brown

  

I’m obsessed with  Gavin Brown paintings. They’re fierce, sensual, raw, and explosive.

Brown’s work draws you in. There’s a couple paintings I don’t particularly like or that I think are a bit strange but I can’t help but looking back at them: I’m drawn to the different details.

See more at his website or check out his blog.

Artist Statement:

Glimpses of private worlds fascinate me and I enjoy being an observer and commentator of popular culture in all of it’s excesses and hedonism, it’s beauty and ugliness. I hope to gain an emotional response from the audience, through creating scenarios and narratives, that they can interpret and continue themselves.

Gavin Brown, Melbourne 2011

Anne Bronte Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day

My soul is awakened, my spirit is soaring
And carried aloft on the wings of the breeze;
For above and around me the wild wind is roaring,
Arousing to rapture the earth and the seas.

The long withered grass in the sunshine is glancing,
The bare trees are tossing their branches on high;
The dead leaves, beneath them, are merrily dancing,
The white clouds are scudding across the blue sky.

I wish I could see how the ocean is lashing
The foam of its billows to whirlwinds of spray;
I wish I could see how its proud waves are dashing,
And hear the wild roar of their thunder today!

Poet: Anne Bronte

Anne Bronte (January 17, 1820 – May 28, 1849) was a British novelist and poet.

It is said in comparison to her sister’s romantic work,  Anne’s work is realistic. I still think Anne’s work is slightly romantic.

From Wikipedia:

She wrote a volume of poetry with her sisters (Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, 1846) and in short succession she wrote two novels. Agnes Grey, based upon her experiences as a governess, was published in 1847. Her second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is mainly considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, appeared in 1848. Anne’s life was cut short with her death of pulmonary tuberculosis when she was 29 years old.