September Reading (Part 2)

Matched by Ally Condie

"After leaving Society to desperately seek The Rising, and each other, Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again. Cassia is assigned undercover in Central city, Ky outside the borders, an airship pilot with Indie. Xander is a medic, with a secret. All too soon, everything shifts again."

What I Liked
I appreciate Ally Condie's love for poetry and art and the incorporation of several beautiful pieces into this trilogy. Some of her descriptions caused me to search for certain paintings and poems on my own. I am thankful for any author that encourages readers to appreciate culture and art.

What I Didn't Like
There is almost no context surrounding Cassia's "dystopian" world. A few of my questions about the government were finally answered, although in a vague and inconclusive way. The Society is run by several boards of Officials in multiple cities. There is a physical Pilot, but it never is made very clear how the Rising is orchestrated. There is an Enemy that is called only that: the Enemy. We never learn who they are, why they exist, and what point they have. The world-building in these three books is pitifully sub-par. Three stars.

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
"Shipwrecked passengers on a deserted island: how will they survive? After their ship founders at sea, the Robinsons—father, mother, and four sons—find themselves stranded in an uninhabited, idyllic land."

What I Liked
There is a heart of adventure about this novel. I remember reading as a young child a much-abbreviated Great Illustrated Classic edition that emphasized a few of the biggest events from the book. I was enraptured by the idea of a shipwrecked family forced to survive on their own in a new and foreign world, finding all sorts of beautiful animals and building houses in the trees.

What I Didn't Like
No matter how long ago this book was written or how famous it is now, I can't reconcile the fact that it is so unbearably unrealistic. Nobody gets ill or injured (beyond very minor instances) in the entire ten years they live on the island. They never go through a trial that lasts longer than a few hours. They never go hungry or suffer from exposure. Each experience serves as a brief moral lesson before they move on to their next happy task on the abandoned island. On top of this, the father seems to know all things about the wilderness. He can identify all sorts of animals, plants, and tools, although he certainly is no explorer. He has a baffling, endless supply of factual knowledge and wisdom. Two stars.

Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by Andrew Blum
"When your Internet cable leaves your living room, where does it go? Almost everything about our day-to-day lives—and the broader scheme of human culture—can be found on the Internet. But what is it physically? And where is it really? Our mental map of the network is as blank as the map of the ocean that Columbus carried on his first Atlantic voyage. The Internet, its material nuts and bolts, is an unexplored territory. Until now."

I had to read this for a communications class, by the way, but since I read it, I'm counting it into this year's reading tally.  

What I Liked
Blum is a talented writer. His phrasing is often beautiful. For example, "There was still this gap between the physical and the virtual, the abstract of information and the damp breeze off the sea." I wish he was a novelist; he understands how to word things in a compelling way.

What I Didn't Like 
This is a technical book. I won't go so far to call it a textbook, but it's certainly not light, fun reading. Blum spends a large portion of his time writing somewhat of a memoir instead of the subject of Tubes: the internet. I appreciate Blum's attempt to make a fairly dull subject matter into something more artistic, but the attempt fell flat. As a student trying to learn more about telecommunications and the internet, I found myself wading through empty words and detailed descriptions to get to the knowledge I wanted. One star.

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
"A protest against the passive, insipid 19th-century heroine, Lady Audley was described by one critic of the time as "high-strung, full of passion, purpose, and movement." Her crime (the secret of the title) is shown to threaten the apparently respectable middle-class world of Victorian England."

What I Liked
I've never met someone who doesn't like a good mystery, and this is exactly what Mary Elizabeth Braddon provides with Lady Audley's Secret. I'm surprised this is such a forgotten work of art; I'd never heard of the novel before or knew what to expect when I opened to the first page. 

Lady Audley is a fascinating character. She uses her outer beauty as a tool to avoid almost any conflict or confrontation in her life. She is a psychopath and a narcissist, a childlike and lovely creature who is in actuality capable of murder and more. It's clear why this sensation novel shocked and appalled those who lived in the Victorian era.

What I Didn't Like
Perhaps the ending would not have been as predictable 200 years ago, but it is today. I guessed the ending within the first few chapters. Four stars.
 

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
"Lily Bart, beautiful, witty, and sophisticated, is accepted by "old money" and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But as she nears 30, her foothold becomes precarious; a poor girl with expensive tastes, she needs a husband to preserve her social standing and to maintain her life in the luxury she has come to expect."

Initially I found this novel to be an unbearable read. I was overwhelmed and bored by its lengthy depictions of the upper class society at the turn of the century and all of their folly. I found Lily Bart to be extremely unlikable and I found Selden to be even worse. However, towards the second half of The House of Mirth I became captivated by Lily Bart and her steady decline from society. The second-to-last chapter was one of the most compelling I've read in years. Four stars.

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4
"It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." 

What are you reading?

I read for class: Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, Lady Audley's Secret, The House of Mirth
I read for fun: Matched, The Swiss Family Robinson
I recommend: Lady Audley's Secret, The House of Mirth, Matched

Two years ago: Fill Me
Three years ago: How we can end hunger in Africa.
Four years ago: Give food to a homeless person.