Jane by April Lindner

Jane, by April Lindner, is a modern retelling of Jane Eyre. I kind of expected to swear off reading Jane Eyre spin offs after reading this book, but actually it was really good! It was a surprisingly believable modern telling of possibly my favorite story of all time.

In this telling, Jane is a girl whose parents die in a car accident during her first year of college and their will left the family house and money to her brother and sister. Jane is left with nothing and is forced to quit school and take up a nanny job for the famous Nico Rathburn, a legendary rock star who has a 5 year old daughter named Maddy. Jane and Nico fall in love and almost get married, until Jane learns the truth about Nico's first wife, a schizophrenic living in his attic. Jane runs away without any money or resources and finds Diana, who offers to let her sleep on her couch. Jane stays with Diana along with her sister and brother and works at the local soup kitchen. In this version Diana, Maria, and River are not her long-lost cousins, they just turn out to be nice people who take her in.

I like how the story was told; since it was modernized I felt like I could relate to Jane in a different way from before. Like when she left Rathburn/Rochester, I started to think about what I would do in that situation: no money, no friends, no place to sleep at night, no family, no support whatsoever. And I was reminded of how incredibly lucky I am and how blessed I have been in my life to have had a wonderful, loving, and supportive family, to have gotten an education that enabled me to get a job, and to always have had a roof over my head and food to eat. I can't imagine going through life the way Jane did without any love or support.

Anyway, fun book, not entirely original but definitely an enjoyable read, especially for any Jane Eyre fans!

3.5 out of 5 stars

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

Well it's been almost a month since my last post, which tells you that this book was a little intense because I have definitely been working on it since I finished my last book. I was recommended this book by my lovely sister in law Allison! This was definitely not a book that I could read in a couple of days, evidenced by my taking nearly 4 weeks to complete it.

A general summary: Daughter of Fortune is about a girl named Eliza who grows up in Valparaiso, Chile and falls in love with a poor boy named Joaquin Andieta, who goes off to California during the Gold Rush. Eliza leaves her family and follows her lover to California with the help of a Chinese doctor friend Tao Chi'en.

I began this story with the knowledge that it was a love story about a girl who follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush. While it does follow this girl's story eventually, there are many other characters who are thoroughly developed that, at first, I had difficulty getting interested in. I kept expecting to jump right in to Eliza's story and had a hard time adjusting to Allende's slow and thorough style. Once I figured out that I needed to be patient and just take the book one chapter at a time I grew to really enjoy her methodical storytelling. I remember mentioning to Chris when I first started reading that I thought this had the potential to be a great book because it was taking the time to develop characters and weave a complex and beautiful story. Upon completion I think I can say that this is a mostly great book; it's definitely very good. I had a couple minor issues with the ending, but I'm rarely completely satisfied when good books end.

I gained some interesting and somewhat difficult insights into my home state of California, particularly San Francisco. San Francisco was founded during the Gold Rush, which consisted of people immigrating from all over the world with the primary purpose of getting rich quick. Once in CA, greed, violence, and racial hatred prevailed. It became a state of people looking for a new beginning, which is all fine and good, but I think that the new beginnings based off a frenzy to find gold negatively impacted the state as a whole for generations to come. The kind of people attracted to what California had to offer during the Gold Rush were under the illusion that they could become rich without working hard. They were obsessed with money and traditional humanity was lost. I think that the Gold Rush set the stage for modern California, which I love because it was my home, but it has some serious problems. It was interesting for me to read about my home state and gain a greater understanding of it's history, giving me insight into it's present.

I definitely would recommend this story to all, with the advice to be patient because all of the characters and side stories throughout the book connect wonderfully and beautifully in the end.

4 out of 5 stars

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale. Can I just say that Shannon Hale is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors?? I LOVED her Books of Bayern series, and this story was just as fabulous!

Loosely based off the Brother's Grimm tale "Maid Maleen" (which I've never actually heard before...) and set in medieval Mongolia. It's written in diary format from the point of view of Dashti, the maid to Lady Saren. Dashti agrees to stay with her lady who is to be locked in a tower for 7 years as punishment for refusing to marry the man her father chose for her. Conflict, adventure, humor, and a love story ensue.

I was surprised by how much adventure there was in a story involving 2 girls locked in a tower! The writing was gripping and magical and I got lost in the words each time I read. I typically read during my hour lunch break at work, and I had a particularly hard time putting this book down at the end of my hour. Beautiful and heartwarming and satisfying read. Recommended to all!

4.5 out of 5 stars

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

This book was recommended to me per my ward's book club list. When I started reading I realized that I have read this book before, once upon a time in my youth. I used to love Jerry Spinelli's books growing up, especially Maniac McGee. I thought his books were fun. So rereading this book was a pretty interesting experience since it's been so many years I'd forgotten most of what happened.

Stargirl is a beautiful story about a girl who, after being home schooled all her life, starts 10th grade at Mica High School in Arizona, a school where conformity is the way of life. She is unlike anyone the school has ever seen; she sings to people on her ukulele, wears pioneer dresses, and performs random acts of kindness everywhere she goes. She messes up the delicate social balance of the school and her fellow students come to hate her for who she is. The story is being told from the viewpoint of Leo, who finds himself head over heels in love with Stargirl, though he isn't always brave enough to be her boyfriend.

This was a tender story that celebrates non-conformity and I think everyone should read it. At the end Stargirl's family moves and Leo never sees her again, at least not within the 15 years of him telling the story. I like to think that Leo does meet up with her again and that he is strong enough to be proud of who she is and love her unconditionally.

Great book, especially for those who are in the insecure growing up stage of life. Every middle schooler particularly should read this book.

4 out of 5 stars

Gone by Lisa McMann

The final installment of the "Wake" trilogy. Was horrible.

And then.

It sucked some more. I wanted to die.

Dead.

Gone.

Ok, enough imitation of Lisa McMann's writing style. If the above made you want to cry and rip your hair out, that's how I felt while reading this book. We continue on Janie's story of being a dreamcatcher (see my reviews of "Wake" and "Fade" for more info) and in this book she meets her biological dad, who turns out to be a dreamcatcher too. Surprise! There was nothing new or very interesting added to this book; it was written in the same, annoying style as the first two in the series, but by this time my patience was wearing quite thin. Sentence fragments really irritate me, especially when I think the author is writing that way just to try and sound cool and fit in with all them hip teenagers out there. I enjoyed the first book of the series, Wake, even though the broken sentences were annoying; and even Fade was interesting enough to balance out my annoyance. But there wasn't a whole lot to look forward to in Gone, and I was truly happy that it was a short and fast read and that I finished it quickly. I definitely would NOT recommend this series finale.

1.5 out of 5 stars

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This book came to me as a recommendation from my mother who read it in her book club. Turns out this is a highly popular book club choice, and after reading it, I can see why. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, is set in the 1960's in Mississippi and is told from the perspective of 2 black maids (Aibileen and Minny) and 1 white lady (Skeeter), all of whom are tired of the rigid rules and lines that define their lives. Skeeter wants to be a writer and starts the project of writing a book from the point of view of the maids working in white families. She interviews a dozen or so maids in Jackson who tell their experiences working in a white world, even though it's very dangerous to be telling stories, good or bad, about your past and present employers. Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny work hard to see this project come to fruition and eventually influence the way the people in their town view each other.

It took me a couple tries to really get into this book, but once used to the tone and language the story is written in I really, really enjoyed it. There wasn't much of a love story to it, which is usually something I look forward to in a good book, but I didn't feel like the story needed any romance. It had a good amount of suspense and humor and dealt with real life issues. It made me think about what it might have been like to grow up in the south and deal with issues of race. Having grown up in California where diversity was celebrated, I have never really experienced or understood racism. Now living in Virginia, where I think scars of racism still exist, I have been thinking more about how silly it all is. People are people, and that's that. I really love the character of Aibileen in the story. She's this sage grandmotherly/motherly woman who is strong and kind. She takes care of a little white girl, Mae Mobley, and tells her "secret stories" about Rosa Parkes, Green Martian Luther King, and other examples to teach her tolerance and love for everyone, that they are all the same. She tells Mae that she is smart, kind, and good, hoping that she will see these things in herself and be a good person for it.

I didn't particularly care for the ending; I was expecting everyone to live happily ever after, but it didn't end that way. I won't say what happened, but I was hoping for more. But even still, I was left feeling full of love for people, especially the kids I work with. They frustrate me, tire me out, give me bad dreams, make me want to rip my hair out, but I really do love them. Each one is special and it breaks my heart to know that many of them do not get the love they need from home. The take home message for me from this book was about love, and I think that's a pretty fabulous feeling to get from a book. I definitely recommend this one.

5 out of 5 stars

Jane Slayre by Charlotte Bronte and Sherri Browning Erwin

Ok so I've been a little excited to blog about this book since I checked it out from the library last week. I remember hearing about the book "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and feeling slightly horrified at the thought of someone taking such a classic and adding zombies. Distasteful, right? So while browsing the Henrico County public library catalog I ran into Jane Slayre. A rewrite of Jane Eyre??? GASP! For any of you who don't know, I am a HUGE Jane Eyre fan, so when I discovered Jane Slayre I was a little shocked but also intrigued. At least, my curiosity was piqued enough to get me to check out the book, which I did, and soon enough finished.

For any unfamiliar with this new genre, Jane Slayre was sort of written like a giant Mad Lib where the author substitutes new words to change the story around according to the theme (in this case vampyres with the occasional zombie attack), which is why they still have to give credit to the original author (Charlotte Bronte). I'd say more than half of the book is composed of direct quotes from the original work and follows the original storyline almost exactly.

I won't go into storyline specifics on this post since it's just like the original except for the fact that Jane is a born vampyre slayer. I had pretty low expectations going into this book so maybe it's not too surprising that I enjoyed it more than I had anticipated. I thought the language and editing were pretty good, and the vampyre slaying and zombie attacks were funny. In this version Jane was a stronger character with more backbone, which I suppose is to be expected if she is fighting vampyres and zombies, and it made her interactions with Mr. Rochester a little more interesting. It's almost like Sherri Erwin tried to improve upon the original Jane by giving her more courage to make a more satisfying romantic relationship with Rochester. It sort of worked but I mainly feel like the changes were overindulgent, tailoring to what she thinks a modern society would expect out of our heroine rather than something more realistic and traditional. But since we're working with vampyres I guess realism goes out the window.

Anyway, it was a fun read, though mainly due to the fact that I just love the Jane Eyre story so much, otherwise I probably would have been too bored or too annoyed to finish. Curiosity has been satisfied, may I never read a supernatural take on a classic again.

2 out of 5 stars