Too short.

Life, that is.  Too short for me to slog through City Sister Silver.  I'm sure it is a very nice book.  It is a stream of consciousness about the Czech people during and after the downfall of the Soviet Union.  I found it violent and too stream of consciousness/post modern for me.  I just couldn't do it.

I am aware that this is a very well regarded book.  Just not all that well regarded by me.

Cops and Robbers.

It has been a while since I updated this blog.  At the end of December/beginning of January, I got sucked into The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.  Which is a fantastic book, but is about 700 pages long.

Then I started City Primeval by Elmore Leonard.  I really enjoyed this one.  It is a book about a police officer in Detroit who is tasked with bringing a murderer to justice.   What I liked about the book was that it was obvious the whole time who did it.  The officer knew who committed the crime, but the issue was whether he would be able to get the guy.  The book was written about the 1970s, I think, so there were little mentions of various things from that era that I liked, too.

City of God, or, why I need things spelled out for me.

Sometimes you just don't get it.

There were parts of City of God that I really enjoyed.  The narrative of the young Jewish boy in the Lithuanian ghetto was interesting and compelling.  And I liked the story of how the cross wound up on the roof of the synagogue, and the relationship between Pem and Sarah.  I could not, however, figure out how all of the different stories fit together.  About three-fourths of the way through the book, I had the idea to look at the book jacket and the lightbulb finally went on.  The novel is actually in the form of a writer's "workbook" where he records different story ideas and things, and the parts that I liked and got interested in were story ideas.

So.  A little convoluted, to say the least.  But, it didn't diminish the interesting parts.  It just made everything a little more confusing for me.  I think I just need a more traditional novel where I can basically follow what is going on from beginning to end!

Sick people.

I took a long time to read Cigarettes.  It was really slow going.  I was able to follow the story (sort of) but I just didn't enjoy it very much.  The book follows relationships between a group of people in the 1960s and basically, everything is very screwed up.  No one is faithful to anyone else, they are all scheming behind each other's backs, and some people are into some very sick things.

I didn't enjoy this one.  I am not really sure what point the author was trying to make.  It was just lost on me.

Books 161-170

161. City of God by E.L. Doctorow (2000)
162. City Primeval by Elmore Leonard (1980)
163. City Sister Silver by Jachym Topol (1994)
164. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (1749)
165. The Clay Machine-Gun by Victor Pelevin (1996)
166. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
167. Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks (1998)
168. Cocaine Nights by J.G. Ballard (1996)
169. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (1932)
170. The Collector by John Fowles (1963)

Some modern stuff on here!

Rules were made to be broken.

Sometimes dealing with a 4 year old and an almost 2 year old has me spinning in circles.  One is old enough to know better (don't jump on the couch) while the other idolizes his big sister and does whatever she does.  Even the most clear rules are simply disregarded when they are having fun together.

The Cider House Rules is an incredible novel that is all about, well, rules.  While the basic point of the novel is the abortion debate, each set of characters has his or her own rules that they opt to follow (or not) throughout and the reader observes how these rules shape their lives.  For example, Dr. Larch feels morally obligated to perform abortions as well as deliver unwanted babies to be left at the orphanage.  To further his perceived moral imperative to do so, he breaks more basic, commonly-held rules such as not falsifying another person's medical degree and lying about a living patient's heart condition.  It is interesting to see how the dichotomy works between the characters' self-imposed rules and the external rules.  Most of the characters have no problems breaking the external societal rules when they find their own rules are more important.

This is a very, very sad book.  I really enjoyed it and the characters will stick with me for a while.  But it also definitely brought me to tears in parts.  And I found I could sympathize with the characters even when, like Dr. Larch, they don't necessarily agree with my own beliefs.

Warm, with cinnamon.

I like my cider warm, with cinnamon.  Especially in the fall.  It doesn't quite feel like fall here yet, but it will be soon.

I also found Cider with Rosie a warm, homey look at life in England after World War I through the eyes of a young boy.  It was warm and sweet and gentle.  I read aloud a few pages about Christmas caroling to Pea, even.  I especially liked the layout of this book - it was more like a coffee table book style and most pages had a painting or a picture on them.