From Goodreads: Elliot Gabaroche is very clear on what she isn’t going to do this summer. 1. She isn’t going to stay home in Sacramento, where she’d have to sit through her stepmother’s sixth community theater production of The Importance of Being Earnest. 2. She isn’t going to mock trial camp at UCLA. 3. And she certainly isn’t going to to the Air Force summer program at her mom’s base in Colorado Springs. As cool as it would be to live-action-role-play Ender’s Game, Ellie’s seen three generations of […]
A Classic and a Classic and a Classic
The Picture of Dorian Gray – 5/5 Stars I wasn’t sure I was going to listen to this audiobook or not. I like the era (love Sherlock Holmes) and I’ve read a handful of Oscar Wilde plays, but never his fiction. Luckily, Simon Prebble is a great reader (he narrated The Moonstone earlier this year for me and I like that a lot), and it turns out this is a great novel. It’s interesting because I have a huge schema for what I thought this […]
Dazzled by a Pretty Face: It Gets You Every Time
“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.” – pg 161 Aaaaah, my dramatic boy Oscar Wilde did cause a stir, didn’t he? And it’s kind of ironic that this line was included in a book that then faced so much controversy and was considered immoral, huh? But there are indeed some psychological truths to be found in this novel, even after all this time. I first read this novel a few years ago and enjoyed […]
Ugly painting, uglier soul.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is one book that I’ve had on a reading list for years and years without getting around to reading. Having a nice long winter break is helpful for meeting some of those goals. My only prior experience to Oscar Wilde was watching an adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest and hearing bout grad student friends’ obsession with him. After reading, I totally understand the obsession, although Wilde is not going to unseat Jane Austen for me. This full review […]
A Serious Play About Trivial Matters
Most days I wish that I could create my own hybrid Algonquin Round Table and use my razor sharp wit to amuse my (fake/dead writer) friends. While I wish I was a good person all the time, I’m actually “best” when scathing…it’s a blessing and a curse. As I’ve grown up, I think I’ve tucked away most of these tendencies but I still think about my perfect round table. My line up shifts here and there over the years but always at the table are […]
Hauntingly Beautiful!
Fiftieth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Oh! Is there anything even close to an Oscar Wilde novel? If there is something that is horrifying and disgusting, yet somehow most reassuring and beautiful, this is it. A novel that shook up the world into which it was born. So ahead of its times! So exquisitely written with such a rich language and splendid narrative! I honestly don’t find myself capable of reviewing such a book. I write this only because I had decided that I […]