Oh, Africa.

A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul was one of those books on the list where it is a novel, but it is also intended to teach something. It wasn't heavy handed or annoying though - I really was interested to read the story set in a post-colonial African city. I knew nothing at all about this topic before beginning the book. The main character is not from the city and goes there to set up a little shop and witnesses all the changes and troubles that people have there. The main character is not necessarily likeable (I'm mainly referring to the fact that he beats up a woman at one point).

Another interesting point is that his family (who lives on the coast of Africa) had slaves dating from a long time ago but it has become way different from US pre-Civil War slavery. The tables have kind of turned on his family and they can't do anything about the slaves. The slaves (which have now multiplied and become numerous) are entitled to the family's care and support.

This was generally pretty interesting, if a little slow at times.

Books 71-80

Here are the next 10 books on the list!

71. La Bete Humaine by Emile Zola (1840)
72. The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni (1827)
73. Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf (1941)
74. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)
75. Billiards at Half-Past-Nine by Heinrich Boll (1959)
76. Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow (1989)
77. Billy Budd, Foretopman by Herman Melville (1924)
78. Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse (1959)
79. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks (1993)
80. The Birds Fall Down by Rebecca West (1966)

Lepers.

When I told Mike that Ben-Hur was next on my list, he told me that he saw the movie and it freaked him out about getting leprosy. I can totally understand that from reading the book too. I can't figure out why it didn't kill off everyone in the world if it was that contagious. Yikes.

This was a really interesting book. It was unique to me with the use of Jesus as a character. The plot advances with rough parallel to the life of Jesus and He figures in a lot of the things that go on. (I suppose you could say that He figures in everything that goes on, but what I mean is that His life intersects with Ben-Hur's.)

This also was another book that must have been pretty amazing to read in 1888.

Hold your baby just a little tighter.

Beloved, by Toni Morrison, was really hard for me to read. Just to imagine the desperation that the main character felt to resort to such a horrific action. And then the let down when she realizes that the baby ghost is out for no good rather than just to be with her...this was just so unbelievably sad. I had to stop reading it at night before bed because I was finding it so upsetting that I couldn't fall asleep. And when Peanut woke up in the morning, I just hugged her so tightly, appreciating who she is and how lucky we are to live our life.

I laughed, I cried, and I read and read and read and...

Belle du Seigneur by Albert Cohen is 974 pages long! I was really daunted by this book when I first picked it up (and the interlibrary loan deadline with NO RENEWALS looming) but I made it through! While I was worried that this was going to be long, boring and unreadable, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself really enjoying it.

The story is kind of a love story, kind of a comedy, tragedy, drama, social commentary, political commentary, pretty much everything you could imagine all rolled into one. And it was LONG. Although, last night when I finally finished the book, I turned to Mike and told him that I was going to miss those characters. I had spent so much time with them over the past couple of weeks and all of a sudden they are gone.

I am shocked that this book isn't more popular. I understand it being so long and everything, but it was really, really good and I'm surprised that more people don't read it. I am curious whether any of Cohen's other books are on the list as well. (This book is the third in a series of novels that follow the same main character.)

Happy New Year! (Peanut is still saying Happy New Year - so cute, she will just come up to me once in a while with a big smile on her face and say, "Happy New Year!" - so Happy New Year to you, blog.) Last year I read 64 books in total I think (counting a few non-list books as well) - I am not sure I will ever top that as a record.

Ding-Dong!

The Bell by Iris Murdoch is a beautiful, complicated novel that left me feeling like I missed a lot of nuances. I even went back and read the introduction again after I finished the book to see if there was anything there that could illuminate things for me. This was a good story about a lay community next to an enclosed group of nuns and the various people in the community. There are some interesting themes here about religion and spiritual life. As I said though, I think I may have missed some things. Which leaves me feeling like a ding dong (heh) or as Peanut would say, a doovis.

I can see where this is going...

I knew next to nothing about Sylvia Plath before I started to read The Bell Jar. Wow, this is an amazing book. I was truly amazed and saddened by the author's ability to lay out in detail what she was going through at the time of her mental breakdown. It was just heartbreaking to read especially because the one thing I did know about Plath was about her death. I think this was an important story and I'm pretty embarrassed that I was 32 before I read it!

One amazing thing is how the author is able to alter her writing almost imperceptibly to show how the bell jar is descending and ascending again. I found myself rooting for the main character even though I knew sort of what was going to happen in the author's life.