Alex's This and That

19/100
The Persian Boy
I ran across this book when it came out in paperback about 1973 or so, I'd guess. That would have made me 13 or so. I think I may have already read Mary Renault's Theseus books, The King Must Die and The Bull From the Sea but this one blew me away.

Bagoas was such a beautiful character to a young girl with his yearning and his beauty. Renault's language was so poetic and lovely to me and still is. Just writing about it makes me want to reread it once again. Not sure how many times I have read it over the years, but it remains my favorite book of all books.

I am sure there are flaws in the book but I am not sure what they are. I loved the way Renault could make the reader feel as if they lived in the ancient world and knew Alexander and his contemporaries. She was wonderful at conveying life in ancient Greece.

I am taking this one up to finish




{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

I chose to do 100 movie or books that I loved or hated. I actually did 17 of them and you can find them under the tag '100 things'.

The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by Anne Rice
(The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, Beauty's Release)

These three are on my hated them list. I never loved Anne Rice’s writing that much to begin with. I read and reread Interview with the Vampire over and over before I decided that I liked it. You must understand that there just wasn’t much vampire anything out there at the time so I read it. I liked vampires.

Anyway, back to Beauty. I read them in the early 2000’s. Someone recommended them and like an idiot, I bought them. For some reason, reading these books made me want a bath. They were such a turn off. They weren’t sexy or hot. They were nauseating and disturbing. I wanted to rewrite them and murder Alexi.

Let me backtrack a bit. I do not like BDSM. Pain is not fun and being tied up by anyone just makes me insane and angry. I’d probably kill anyone who did those things to me again. My life is painful enough without help. I have tried to understand this and as the years pass, the whole thing has left me cold. I don’t understand anyone who lives this way and I certainly don’t want to waste any of my life reading Anne Rice’s take on it.

Anne Rice is a ponderous and pompous ass at the best of times and this is not her best work. These books are as badly written as bad fanfiction though not as bad as 50 Shades of Grey, nothing is THAT bad. Maybe if you like being a pony, you’d like them. *SHUDDERS* Her other 'erotic' fiction is as unsexy and stupid too.

I have tried to think of something else to rec in it’s place but the only other ones I’ve read were Story of O, which was almost as stupid as these are and Fanny Hill, which I don’t remember at all.

Maybe I’m just not the girl to read BDSM stuff!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is probably the funniest thing I have ever read. Hands down! There are five books in the trilogy:
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
3. Life, the Universe and Everything
4. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
5. Mostly Harmless

In these books we learn what is important when one travels the galaxy. First and foremost is that you should always take a towel. You never know when you'll need it. And of course, The Guide. The books are peopled with such unforgettable characters as Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox and the lovely Trillian. We meet the most boring species in the galaxy: the Vogons, the best drink in the galaxy: the pangalactic gargleblaster and of course the answer to question of Life, the Universe and Everything: 42.

We meet aliens and robots and even get to visit the Restaurant at the End of the Universe where diners can see the universe end nightly.

I found the whole series great fun and many giggles. In the world we live in, giggles are very important.

Don't forget your babelfish!

Sacajawea is another historical novel that I adore. It comes in at a whopping 1400+ pages but I found the read worth the time. It is the story of the young woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition to explore the lands in the west all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It's a story of a new country as well as the moving story of an Indian girl.

Sacajawea was the daughter of a Shoshoni chief before she was captured and made a slave in another tribe. She was won in a game by a white trader and ended up as one of his several Indian women. He joins Lewis and Clark as a guide and insists on taking Sacajawea, who is pregnant at the the time.

Ms. Waldo uses the known history of Sacajawea, though she does depart from the common thought that she died at 24. There is some evidence in oral tradition that Sacajawea lived many years with the Comanche then returned to the Shoshoni after her Comanche husband died.

This book is an adventure from first to last and I recommend it if you're interested in the subject at all!

Lost Souls is a vampire novel but it's not like any others I've read. Poppy Z. Brite's vampires are born, a separate species than humans but they do feed on humans. It is the story of Steve and Ghost, two human boys with a band called Lost Souls? and a group of vampires: Nothing, Zillah, Twigs and Molochai, and Christian. The boys live in a fictional town called Missing Mile, NC and the vampires blow into town and nothing is ever the same.

I think I found this one refreshing even when I read it years ago because the vampires were monsters, true monsters in every sense of the word yet I still felt for Christian, the eldest of the crew and the one who actually had sympathy for humans.

There are several short stories featuring these characters and another novel Drawing Blood that they appear in though it is not a true sequel. I think the real sequel was never finished. If you like dark, gothy things, give this one a try.

Poppy Z. Brite wrote several horror novels, then a few darkly humorous foodie novels and is now retired and living in New Orleans. Poppy is now Billy Martin and is a craftsman and fiction editor in his hometown. He makes wonderful little homemade blank books which you can find on Ebay.

The Lion King was the first movie I ever saw 6 times in the theater. Sara loved it so much that we went every chance we got. I think it is my all time favorite Disney movie. The opening music is wonderful and the movie nets lets you down. It has everything: humor, music, love, loyalty, evil, magic, jealousy, rage, murder, and Pumba and Timon with the meaning of life!

Jonathan Taylor Thomas was so cute as Simba. Who could resist him when he sang "I just can't wait to be King?" We already adored him from his role on Home Improvement and his other movies. James Earl Jones and Jeremy Irons, as heroic father and evil uncle were perfectly cast too. I can't see the Borgias now without calling the Pope Scar! Then there are the hyenas(Woopie Goldberg, Cheech Marin and Jim Cummings) and Simba's sidekicks(Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella). last but never least is Rowan Atkinson as Zazu and his songs are great!

The most outstanding thing is the music. Elton John did the music and there are some wonderful songs especially Circle of Life.

If you've never seen it, see it and remember "Hakuna Matata"!

Catcher in the Rye is not a book I love or like even. I read it a kid and again a few years ago to see if I liked it better. I did not. I simply did not identify in any way with Holden Caulfield. I have to admit that I was mostly bored by this novel but I find that is true of most of the 'famous' young adult novels of my time. (I'm thinking of A Separate Peace.) I found nothing that interesting in the story and I am having a hard time here coming with more than I've already said.

J.D. Salinger was famous for this and for being a recluse but he never produced anything approaching this one in fame. I do remember that he had his photo removed from the back of Catcher in the 90s because he didn't want anyone to see him. It had only been there for something like 35 years... go figure.

I won't say don't read it - but I will say don't blame me if you find it as dull as I did.

Gone with the Wind is one of my favorite books and movies. I originally read GotW when I was a teen, maybe 14 or so. I actually had a copy that was printed with two columns on each page and was very thick. And I read like it was food and water. For the week or two it took me to read this book, I was consumed by Scarlett O'Hara and her trials and tribulations. It was romance novel ahead of its time... it won a Pulitzer in 1936. Of course it was romanticized but I found it a very anti-war novel. The young and old men of the south found that there is very little romance in being hungry and dirty and often wounded with no way to come home and not much to come home to. It is also different in that it has no happy ending. I rec that you read it but read it with the idea that it was written in the early 1930s and reflects the world as it was then.

The movie -- oh my -- I saw it a few years later in a theater too. I believe a good movie deserves watching on a wide screen and this one was quite a spectacle to behold. It was done in 1939 when my mama was 4 years old and it's still beautiful to see. And Vivien Leigh, who was quite breathtaking as Scarlett. CGI didn't exist but the burning of Atlanta is still quite the scene. The story is shortened a bit but the essence is there and is still the same - the horror of war for the soldiers and the ones left behind, the coming of age of a woman who'd never done anything in her life but be pretty. The film itself is history even if the history is totally accurate.

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

100 Books and Movies that I love or hate:

2. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice is a book that I both love and hate. I cannot tell you how many times I've read it. I hated it the first two times I read it. I think it was simply the only vampire story out there at the time. The story is actually kind of dumb and poor dear Lestat comes off as a monster indeed in this first book of what would be a long and often dull series, interspersed with Lestat being surprisingly humane at times. But not in this first book. He is a monster, albeit a lonely one who makes a companion who does not like him while still being drawn to him. Claudia is the child he makes to satisfy Louis' need for someone to love and then even she is taken away. Claudia is VERY creepy, being a monster in a five year old's body.

I do have to say that I much prefer Lestat in all his carnations to any of the romance novel vampires or to sparkly Edward or even to Charlaine Harris' mundane Bill. He is hungry, beautiful, lonely and many more things. Human is simply not one of the things he is.

If you've not read it, give it a try. It's actually one of Ms. Rice's better books.