Poppy's Paperbacks 2012

[frankie]

I'm sure I have loads to comment on the previous posts in this thread, but I cannot wait til I've done that to post this:

 

Oh it's embarrassing! I'm currently having fun with the goodreads never ending trivia quiz, and there was a question about Woolf's novels.

 

"Which of the following is not a novel by Virginia Woolf?

 

 

a. Night and Day

 

b. The Waves

 

c. The Hours

 

d. The Years

 

I thought, 'well, I know she's written The Waves and The Years, and The Hours surely sounds familiar, so the correct answer must be Night and Day!' and I clicked that. And good lordy, I got the unforgivable Red Alert for having gotten the answer wrong! I thought 'surely I'd gotten it right', and went over the alternatives and immediately realised, The Hours is Michael Cunningham's book about people who were in one way or another influenced by Woolf's novel/s. How embarrassing! I even own a copy of that book!

 

Then my eyes somehow caught the Friends Responses column and it stated clearly, in red, that my dear poppyshake got it wrong, too! Such a clever but disheartening trick question, was it not?

 

 

Edit:

 

Oi!!! What the heck is this??

 

"Which pair below did not star in a movie version of Pride and Prejudice?

 

a. Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth

b. Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier

c. Elizabeth Garvie, Jack Nicholson

d. Daphne Slater, Peter Cus... "

 

And the correct answer is C. Fine. But what?? So does the person who submitted this question suggest and claim that Ehle and Firth starred in a MOVIE VERSION??

 

Blashemy!!!

Edited March 8, 2012 by frankie

[poppyshake]

I keep forgetting to watch that (its on at the wrong time of day for me) got some good recommendations from it last year

That's why I tape it Sally .. I'd never see it otherwise because I'm always either making tea, eating tea or clearing up from tea (and for non Brits I mean dinner ) I saw bits of tonights one, though I (might) watch it in more detail later .. goodness Sharon Gless!! I might have got the wrong end of the stick but two of her book choices appeared to be every so slightly narcissistic .. one was a book written about Cagney & Lacey by her husband and the other was the book which inspired the play which she's just starred in/starring in. I watched the other episodes back from earlier in the week and enjoyed both Monday's and Tuesday's .. it does help when the guests are interesting.

[poppyshake]

I'm sure I have loads to comment on the previous posts in this thread, but I cannot wait til I've done that to post this:

 

Oh it's embarrassing! I'm currently having fun with the goodreads never ending trivia quiz, and there was a question about Woolf's novels.

 

"Which of the following is not a novel by Virginia Woolf?

 

 

a. Night and Day

 

b. The Waves

 

c. The Hours

 

d. The Years

 

I thought, 'well, I know she's written The Waves and The Years, and The Hours surely sounds familiar, so the correct answer must be Night and Day!' and I clicked that. And good lordy, I got the unforgivable Red Alert for having gotten the answer wrong! I thought 'surely I'd gotten it right', and went over the alternatives and immediately realised, The Hours is Michael Cunningham's book about people who were in one way or another influenced by Woolf's novel/s. How embarrassing! I even own a copy of that book!

 

Then my eyes somehow caught the Friends Responses column and it stated clearly, in red, that my dear poppyshake got it wrong, too! Such a clever but disheartening trick question, was it not?

Horrible question *hangs head in shame* Though I believe I answered it before I'd read anything of Virginia's .. I might have stood a better chance now .. though I doubt it. I don't play the quiz very often these days because once you've got past the first few hundred questions they begin to get quite random and you are asked twenty questions about books that you've never heard of let alone read.

And the correct answer is C. Fine. But what?? So does the person who submitted this question suggest and claim that Ehle and Firth starred in a MOVIE VERSION??

 

Blashemy!!!

Haha .. I'm glad it wasn't a movie for it would have been a lot shorter. I've never heard of the last one though .. but now I look it up it says it was on TV for six episodes .. so only one was a movie anyway .. they've phrased the question wrong. Jack Nicholson as Mr Darcy .. the mind boggles

[vodkafan]

My daughter (the reading one) has just read Pride and Prejudice, her first Austen. She liked it so much she started reading it all over again straight away!! Then when she was at my flat last week we watched the first 3 episodes of the BBC version....she was in raptures of pure pleasure.

[poppyshake]

My daughter (the reading one) has just read Pride and Prejudice, her first Austen. She liked it so much she started reading it all over again straight away!! Then when she was at my flat last week we watched the first 3 episodes of the BBC version....she was in raptures of pure pleasure.

Ahh lovely How I'd love to see it all again with fresh eyes. I remember taping it and watching it over and over until the next episode came on. I did the same with the book .. read it and then started it again. Such a revelation .. it was my first classic (and I was about 28 lol) .. it gave me confidence to try others. Hope your daughter goes on to enjoy more Austens and more classics

[poppyshake]

Have not been sticking enough to my March goals I've read two of the books on it but went entirely off-piste and read De Profundis by Oscar Wilde which has only been in the house about five minutes. Basically I just sort of glanced at it when it arrived in the mail and carried on

I haven't been keeping up or catching up with reviews either ... sloppy!!!!!!!

[poppyshake]

 

The Road to Wigan Pier - George Orwell

 

Waterstone's Synopsis: A searing account of George Orwell's observations of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, "The Road to Wigan Pier" is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, cramped slum housing, dangerous mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity. It crystallized the ideas that would be found in Orwell's later works and novels, and remains a powerful portrait of poverty, injustice and class divisions in Britain.

 

Review: As usual I'll be rambling on, so to sum up .. this was a book of two halves for me. The first half I enjoyed enormously but the second half wasn't so much to my taste however not to the point where I wanted to abandon. It's a bit of a controversial book. His publisher only wanted to publish the first half feeling that it was more in line with his original commission but Orwell's wife and agent (George was fighting in Spain at the time) refused permission and so the publisher included a foreword which tried to keep everyone happy (sadly the foreword is not included here but I guess some Googling would throw it up.) Despite not liking all of it I definitely want to read more of his non-fiction because the parts I did like were fabulous.

 

The first half of the book is George's descriptions, from his travels, of Northern working class life and from the moment he started recalling his lodgings at a tripe shop I was hooked. I sat in Waterstone's intending to just glance at it but before I knew where I was I'd read almost a chapter .. it was full of just the sort of stuff I like ... 'all the windows were kept tight shut, with a red sandbag jammed in the bottom, and in the morning the room stank like a ferrets cage. You did not notice it when you got up, but if you went out of the room and came back, the smell hit you in the face with a smack.' ... 'generally the crumbs from breakfast were still on the table at supper. I used to get to know individual crumbs by sight and watch their progress up and down the table from day to day' .. 'like all people with permanently dirty hands he had a peculiarly intimate, lingering manner of handling things. If he gave you a slice of bread and butter there was always a black thumb print on it' ... 'I heard dreadful stories from the other lodgers about where the tripe was kept. Black beetles were said to swarm there' .. 'Mrs Brooker used to lament by the hour, lying on her sofa, a soft mound of fat and self pity, saying the same things over and over again. "We don't seem to get no customers nowadays. I don't know 'ow it is. The tripe's just a-laying there day after day - such beautiful tripe it is too! It does seem 'ard, don't it now?" etc etc. All Mrs Brooker's laments ended with "It does seem 'ard, don't it now?" like the refrain of a ballad.' ... 'neither was capable of understanding that last year's dead bluebottles supine in the shop window are not good for trade.' and eventually 'On the day when there was a full chamber pot under the breakfast table I decided to leave'. This sets him off on his journey to the Northern industrial towns and villages.

 

Everything he saw he recorded. Detailed descriptions of coal mines ... 'Most of the things one imagines in hell are there - heat, noise, confusion, darkness, foul air, and above all, unbearable cramped spaces' and coal miners ... 'you can never forget that spectacle once you've seen it - the line of bowed, kneeling figures, sooty black all over, driving their huge shovels under the coal with tremendous force and speed'. He details their living and working conditions, their pay and outgoings (and there are some real revelations here .. 'death stoppage' for example which I had no idea about. If a miner was killed at work it was usual for the other miners to make up a subscription and this was collected by the colliery company and automatically deducted from the miners wages!) He goes on to detail housing in general .. lot's of examples such as .. ' House in Peel Street. Back to back, two up, two down and large cellar. Living room 10ft square with copper and sink. The other downstairs room the same size, probably intended as parlour but used as bedroom. Upstairs room the same size as those below. Living room very dark. Gas light estimated at 4½d a day. Distance to lavatory 70 yards. Four beds in house for eight people - two old parents, two adult girls (the eldest aged twenty seven) one young man and three children. Parents have one bed, eldest son another and remaining five people share the other two. Bugs very bad - "You can't keep 'em down when it's 'ot" Indescribable squalor in downstairs room and smell upstairs almost unbearable. Rent 5s 7½d including rates.' There are photo's included in the book which serve to illustrate his words only too well.

 

The second half of the book goes on to talk about class distinction and class hatred. George reveals his own initial revulsion of the working classes ... 'when I was fourteen or fifteen I was an odious little snob' ... 'As a child one of the most dreadful things I could imagine was to drink out of a bottle after a navvy' and recalls a pretty sticky situation on a train where pig-men and shepherds were passing round a quart bottle of beer .. 'I felt sure I would vomit' .. but goes on to say that he no longer feels that way thankfully and that 'rubbing shoulders with tramps' was his cure. There are long chapters about socialism which I found pretty tedious. They were informative to begin with but I felt he laboured the point (look who's talking ) and got too argumentative and contentious. As the foreword says it does sometimes have the 'slapdash and slapstick hilarity of a man who feels impelled to jump up and utter rude words in a Quaker meeting'. George's view at the time was that the way forward for this country was Socialism but he fears it won't happen and divides the blame between cranks ('fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer,sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist, and feminist in England ..also included are vegetarians and bearded men ) and the notion that Socialism is linked to progress ,, especially mechanical .. which people are understandably wary of. He takes side swipes at some of his fellow writers. H G Wells is thought of as outmoded and not as good as Huxley. WH Auden is 'a sort of gutless Kipling and the even feebler poets who are associated with him.' Galsworthy is 'a very fine specimen of the thin skinned, tear-in-the-eye, pre-war humanitarian' who, had he lived long enough, would have probably arrived at some 'genteel version of Fascism'. Swift 'lacked the vision to see that an experiment which is not demonstrably useful at the moment may yield results in the future' and George Bernard Shaw, William Morris & Waldo Frank are 'dull, empty windbags'. This is the side of the book that I didn't much care for, he's entitled to his opinions obviously but it felt ungenerous and provocative. However they were his views as he saw it and at least he's not being hypocritical.

 

Fascinating stuff, the good far outweighed the bad.

 

8/10

[vodkafan]

Good thorough review Poppy

[poppyshake]

Lol, it went on and on didn't it? .. this is why I am SO behind with my reviews.

[Roland Butter]

Yep, longer than the book . Interestingly, the "socialist hero" Orwell ended up as a government informant, so I guess you could say he went full circle.

[poppyshake]

Yep, longer than the book . Interestingly, the "socialist hero" Orwell ended up as a government informant, so I guess you could say he went full circle.

You cheeky monkey

I didn't know that about Orwell .. I've still got lot's to learn.

[vodkafan]

Yep, longer than the book . Interestingly, the "socialist hero" Orwell ended up as a government informant, so I guess you could say he went full circle.

 

That is very interesting. Maybe the Secret Services blackmailed him or something? That is the usual way to recruit informers.

[Kidsmum]

Great review Poppy, I've always fancied reading TRTWP but haven't gotten round to it yet. Another one for the wishlist methinks

[julie]

Miss Poppy

Just a quick post to say I have just completed Gillespie and I . Thanks SO much for letting me steal your idea ! WOW,what a book !

Can't wait to hear what YOU think of it .

[poppyshake]

Great review Poppy, I've always fancied reading TRTWP but haven't gotten round to it yet. Another one for the wishlist methinks

Thanks Kidsmum .. I think he is a fascinating man. I want to read more about him but I'm on a bit of a book diet now .. or at least a spending on books diet I live in hopes that the library will come to my aid.

Miss Poppy

Just a quick post to say I have just completed Gillespie and I . Thanks SO much for letting me steal your idea ! WOW,what a book !

Can't wait to hear what YOU think of it .

I'm so glad you liked it Julie but I can't take any credit for recommending it .. I was more or less entranced by the pretty cover (though I do always read blurbs .. if I get to the end of them without thinking 'oh, give it a rest' then it has a chance of being bought )

I'm encouraged now and look forward to reading it. It's great to get good recommendations for books you already have waiting on the shelves .. you feel more benevolent towards them. If I read a bad review of a book I've got, I start looking at it as if it's tricked me (probably by it's cover again) and it gets lower and lower down the list.

[poppyshake]

Oh ... :( ... me and Frankenstein didn't like each other (you jinxed me Steve ) I don't know if it's because I read the original text or whether I would have disliked it anyway. I just couldn't suspend my disbelief enough .. and I hated the narrator to pieces (I know there was more than one .. Frankenstein I mean.)

I am mortified to dislike a book that is loved by so many of you but like George whatsisface I cannot tell a lie (well I can but they're all calorie related or about Claudia Winkleman )

I will have to review soon to get it out of my system but lovers of the book will have to look away or throw virtual rotten tomatoes at me

[Karsa Orlong]

(you jinxed me Steve )

 

Yay, go me!

 

Makes pile of virtual rotten tomatoes in preparation

 

This is why I adopt the policy of reading books no-one else on here has read, then I don't have to worry about what anyone else thinks (not that I would anyway!)

Edited March 20, 2012 by Karsa Orlong

[Kylie]

Oh no! I was certain you'd like it, Poppyshake.

[poppyshake]

Yay, go me!

You rotter *shakes fist*

Makes pile of virtual rotten tomatoes in preparation

I will have virtual backache from all the ducking

This is why I adopt the policy of reading books no-one else on here has read, then I don't have to worry about what anyone else thinks (not that I would anyway!)

I'm not too worried but it is a bit like telling a mother that .. in your opinion ... their baby is ugly Not that I would .. I haven't got a deathwish It's my first 'meh' book this year and I think that in itself should be celebrated .. I was liking everything .. it was all a bit samey. Well done Frankenstein for shaking me out of my book love-in. I can't be trying to find books that no-one else here has read .. I've got my hands full searching for spotty shoes

Oh no! I was certain you'd like it, Poppyshake.

So was I .. it's one thing to dislike Madame B but quite another to dislike Frankenstein. I almost feel shame ... almost

 

NB: I didn't hate it .. I certainly didn't MB hate it I just didn't like it much.

[julie]

Miss Poppy

Yes, I'm influenced,too,by book covers or other reader's opinions. If the cover says BestSeller or if it wins an award of any type, I'll also fall for it ,so I'm easily influenced also .

 

I read Frankenstein MANY years ago,so really can't remember a whole lot about whether I liked the book or not . I think we read it for a class project one year ,so you know how long ago THAT was since I was in school. I THINK Frankenstein was just BUILT back when I was in school .

[Karsa Orlong]

I can't be trying to find books that no-one else here has read ..

Oh it's easy when you like the sort of books I like

[poppyshake]

I THINK Frankenstein was just BUILT back when I was in school .

Heehee .. oh you do cheer me up Julie they should bottle you for a tonic

Oh it's easy when you like the sort of books I like

Oh you mean the sort of books nobody else WANTS to read

[Karsa Orlong]

Oh you mean the sort of books nobody else WANTS to read

 

Nasty Poppy. Poor ickle authors

[poppyshake]

Nasty Poppy. Poor ickle authors

Heh-heh .. good job they've got you

[poppyshake]

 

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (1818 text)

 

Waterstone's Synopsis: Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life by electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

 

Review: I didn't like it!!!!! (possibly the shortest review I've ever written, though there will be more .. much more .. but this is the only bit you need to know, the rest will just be me whinging and getting out of my pram and I'll write it in spoiler tags because it'll all come spilling out and I'll be revealing too much - always a problem on a Wednesday night - plus it'll prevent lovers of the book from having their sensibilities offended and I don't want offended sensibilities.)

 

I've no problem at all in believing that Frankenstein made a creature out of graveyard bits and pieces and breathed life into him by means of electricity, even though we're only given the scantiest of details. It's the stuff of fiction .. especially 'monster fiction' .. but I did have a problem with nearly everything that came after.

 

One of the worst bits for me came when the creature learns all the finer intricacies of the English language whilst eavesdropping THROUGH A WALL!! I've only ever learnt language that would make a sailor blush and I had to turn the TV off and put a glass to the wall to glean that much. He learns all about language, history, tackles 'Paradise Lost' and by the end of it would not have embarrassed himself on Mastermind .. all in a year! .. and yet .. and yet ... THEY DON'T HEAR HIM AT ALL .. this 8ft creature!! He clears their path of snow, leaves wood outside their door and they are amazed but they don't think to look to see who their benefactor is and presumably, despite the bigfoot footprints, think it's elves or something. I know they say these days that you don't get to know your neighbours but I think I would know if a monstrous giant lived next door to me (he is pretty unpleasant though come to think of it ) .. he must have moved around with the grace of Nureyev.

 

For someone so large and not particularly gainly he is absolutely invisible. He is able to track Frankenstein across countries and even across oceans and yet Frankenstein never sees him. How did he get across the ocean? .. wade!! On the return journey it's thought he stowed away on board a ship .. stowed away!! .. he's 8ft!! Every now and then .. especially after some violence .. Victor says stuff like 'I sprang on him .. but he easily alluded me'!!! What was he going to do to him exactly? .. this 'gigantic monster' .. he would've been swatted like a fly. He says to him at one point that he'd better go away before he is trampled to dust ... that made me laugh for a good half an hour. Also, to me, it's just ridiculous that having created a monster who turns out to be creepier and more monstrous than you expect you'd run away ... surely the least you would do is reach for your shotgun or feed it a poisoned shepherds pie, before it's had time to figure out how trousers work. You wouldn't just let it loose on society and if you did and it started killing people then you would do your best to kill it even if you had to involve the Swiss army, you would tell everybody because the worst has already happened.

... and breathe

Victor never seemed to be looking over his shoulder for the creature, it was always out of sight out of mind for him which is nonsense given the circumstances, it would haunt your every waking moment. They had a couple of rendezvous where he could, with the aid of a weapon, have killed him .. but no, he waits (what was he hoping for .. that the monster might develop a love of Sudoku or something and settle for quiet nights in front of the fire?) until he's killed a few more people and then starts chasing him. Worse than all of this was Victors constant bleating about how he's going to avenge the deaths of his loved ones and right the wrongs .. 'I swear to pursue that daemon, who caused this misery, until he or I shall perish' well he'll be running around in circles then because the person who caused all the misery was himself. If he had put some more effort in with the creature .. cooked him dinner once in a while, shared a glass of Beujolais ...read some Byronic poetry to him etc then he wouldn't have felt so alone and turned murderous. I was incredulous when the creature threatens 'I will be with you on your wedding night' and the idiot takes it that his own life is in danger .. he even has these sort of fantasies about poor Elizabeths stricken face when she see's him in bits .. ridiculous given that what prompts the creature to utter it is the fact that his own bride has been trashed. Thus, on Victor's actual wedding night, he wanders off for pizza or something and Elizabeth is left unguarded (all his concerns were for himself .. if he had've been there he would've been completely wrong footed anyway .. probably would have made one of his unsuccessful springs again and she would still have been smooshed) .. Really!! ... I've only just coaxed my eyebrows back down. It could have all been put down to stupidity but Victor is not presented to us as a stupid man .. in fact he's presented as a man who we ought to have sympathy with .. it just didn't seem well thought out to me. Hardly anyone acted in character.

 

If all that wasn't bad enough .. though I found the creature a bit slapstick .. I found the story boring when he wasn't in it.

 

I liked the bones of the story but I didn't like the flesh. I couldn't suspend my disbelief and it all fell to pieces. I'm sooo disappointed.

 

6/10