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.

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,

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.

 

Book Review: Gail Tsukiyama The Language of Threads

After reading Women of the Silk, I wanted to jump right into Gail Tsukiyama’s sequel The Language of Threads.

Like it’s predeccesor, it was a somber yet beautiful read. I actually found myself getting angry at certain points in the book because it seemed unfair that so many awful things could happen. Most of the things you want or hope to happen, don’t, making the story even more frustrating. That being said, the main characters continue to live on with as much hope as possible.

It’s not a very long b0ok so it won’t take long to read. It definitely has more plot points and twists than it’s predecessor so you’ll find yourself unable to put the book down.

From Amazon:

Tsukiyama offers a sequel to her 1991 work, Women of the Silk, which introduced readers to a young Chinese girl working in a silk factory. It is 1938 and Pei, now 28 years old, has traveled to Hong Kong, where she finds herself working as a domestic servant and caring for a young girl named Ji Shen. Though the novel spans 35 years, it is mostly given to covering the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and its aftermath through 1952. During those years, readers follow Pei and Ji Shen’s struggle to survive fear and hardship, as British and Canadian civilians are interned under Japanese authority.  

Buy The Language of Threads on Amazon.

Read my Women of the Silk review.

Emily Bronte Love and Friendship

Love is like the wild rose-briar,
Friendship like the holly-tree –
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms
But which will bloom most contantly?
The wild-rose briar is sweet in the spring,
Its summer blossoms scent the air;
Yet wait till winter comes again
And who wil call the wild-briar fair?
Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now
And deck thee with the holly’s sheen,
That when December blights thy brow
He may still leave thy garland green.

Emily Bronte The Bluebell

The Bluebell is the sweetest flower
That waves in summer air:
Its blossoms have the mightiest power
To soothe my spirit’s care.

There is a spell in purple heath
Too wildly, sadly dear;
The violet has a fragrant breath,
But fragrance will not cheer,

The trees are bare, the sun is cold,
And seldom, seldom seen;
The heavens have lost their zone of gold,
And earth her robe of green.

Poet: Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte (30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet remembered for her one and only novel Wuthering Heights. I haven’t read her novel but I have read quite a bit of her poetry.

Not a lot is known about Emily other than the fact that she lived a guarded life, wrote under the assumed name of Ellis Bell, came from a creative family, and died young. Despite her small writing repertoire, she is considered one of the finest writers of the 19th century.

Book Review: Gail Tsukiyama Women of the Silk

After reading Gail Tsukiyama’s The Street of a Thousand Blossoms, I knew I wanted to read more of her books. While at a secondhand bookstore I picked up Women of the Silk, her first novel. I didn’t really realize the order in which I read her books until recently. I started with her latest and just read her first. Although from one book to the other her writing was poetic, graceful, and truly picturesque, I definitely saw significant growth in her writing.

Women of the Silk is a somber book. Expect little glimmers of happiness here and there but also expect heartbreak time and again.

From Publishers Weekly:

An auspicious debut, this sensitively written, impressively researched novel covers 20 years in the life of Pei, a Chinese girl sent to work in a silk factory during the first decades of the 20th century. Quick-witted, inquisitive, spirited Pei spends her early childhood on a poverty-stricken fish farm; her uncommunicative parents consign her to the factory for the wages she will send home. Initially terrified, Pei soon settles into the communal routine, and finds the 12-hour factory day made bearable by the kindness of supervisors and fellow workers. Details of the process of spinning silk, the close bonds among the sisterhood, and contrasts between the tradition-steeped existence the young women enjoy and the upheaval attending the new communist regime create a compelling narrative.

The climax of the book is near the end of the book which in a way is frustrating because it doesn’t leave much room for a “happy” ending. That being said, it ends on a note that makes you think that a sequel could easily be written.

I don’t know if Tsukiyama did this intentionally but she did in fact write a sequel seven years later. I just started reading the sequel,The Language of Threads,and I’m hoping that certain things I hoped would happen in the first book, will happen in the sequel.

Buy Women of the Silk on Amazon.