All Times List

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Luckily, I was "forced" to read Mrs Dalloway for one of my classes last semester (Brit Lit), and I am happy that I was introduced to the novel in such a way a book club is set up. Not only did I enjoy reading Mrs Dalloway, but I got to spend a couple weeks discussing the book with my classmates. Because, after all, I didn't choose to be an English major with a promising career after graduation. 

Mrs Dalloway takes place post WW1 and over the course of a single day. If you know anything about my reading interests, you know I am a sucker for condensed writing and stream-of-conscience. I am also a sucker for parties, and By Golly! There is a party to be had at the end of the book! The reader is swept away by the narrator Clarissa, who is excellent at seeing the truths behind human nature in an uplifting/condescending way. Basically, Virginia Woolf is a human nature observation guru.

I think my favorite aspect of this book is the complete opposite life Clarissa and Septimus live. It's painful as a reader to travel back-and-forth from "happy-go-lucky" to depressed and dying. Woolf takes the reader on a heck of an emotional ride. 

If you start reading Mrs Dalloway and hate it, don't be distressed or put-off by the meaningless details Clarissa explains (it all) in the beginning. Trust me, just stick with it for a little longer and you will be happy you did. It's a satire piece, and the sooner you realize this, the happier you will be. Enjoy the little one-liners that mock society, those are my absolute favorite. The structure of writing will blow your mind, jumping from one stream-of-conscience to the next and interweaving until the end.

I recommend Mrs. Dalloway to (of course) my friends exploring Times Best Book list, anyone into classical/canonical novels, and people that love society satire pieces.

Some memorable quotes:

"He thought her beautiful, believed her impeccably wise; dreamed of her, wrote poems to her, which, ignoring the subject, she corrected in red ink."

"It may be possible that the world itself is without meaning."

"Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame."

Fifty Shade of Grey Review

What I was expecting...

What I got instead...

I was so completely distracted by the ridiculous writing in this novel to even slightly enjoy any of it. This is the worst book that I have ever read. In order to finish the rest of it halfway through I decided that someone should turn it into a drinking game (I can't drink right now because I am pregnant but I would have gotten WASTED).

"Oh crapola" is actually written in this book along with "he is yummy". And among the "Ohhhhhh fuck" and "Ohhhhh shit"'s in this book I wanted to hang myself. Actually halfway through I took a count of how many times "Holy (insert Fuck, Shit, Cow, Moly here)" and just in the last half it's written 83 times. 83 times!

Another expression that was giving me readers anxiety was the main character's reference to her "Inner Goddess" which in the last half of the book is written 41 times. Kill me.

You can tell the author just wanted to play with her thesaurus with sentences such as, "it's not how I envisaged my first romance," and "finally, my medulla oblongata recalls its purpose." *gag* *kill me please*

The same words are written on every page of this book. Here is my summary of the book...

"Jeez, my inner goddess is screaming holy fuck" he mutters while she blushes [insert violent sex scene where after the girl cries].


By the way whomever classified this novel as "the best romance ever written"...Seriously? Seriously? This guy beats her to the point where she is crying and she admits staying with him because he is beautiful and rich. Who ever wants a relationship based on this one is seriously "fifty shades of fucked up" like the main character describes himself. I am so angry at this book that I can't even go into depth about how wrong it is. And there are two more!?!?! No thanks, I will insert my above sentence into word and copy and paste it all about 300 pages worth and tell people I read the other books.




Please, for the sake of your sanity, don't waste time reading this book.  And if you do, don't tell you I didn't warn you.

Book Review- Catching Fire

Like I promised, I am finishing the trilogy before I move onto the next book on my bucket list.  Catching Fire was surprisingly just as good as the first.  It's starts off a little slow and I would lie if I said I wasn't begging (in my mind) for Katniss and Peeta to do the dirty deed.  Really, I think they should and I am about a quarter way through the third book and still screaming at my kindle for them to get it over with!

I won't go into too much detail about Catching Fire because I feel like anything I can say would give away something.

But if you read the first one and loved it then I would suggest moving along to Catching Fire and I can guarantee you won't be disappointed.

#184 My list of Books: The Bluest Eye

My professor has really chosen some heartbreaking books for our class this semester. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison just happened to be on my list of books that I had made that I wanted to read. I just killed two birds with one stone!


The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, is about a young black child who only wishes to have blue eyes so she can be "beautiful". The little girl, Pecola, idolizes Shirley Temple because Shirley is "the perfect American girl." It is truly sad knowing that The Bluest Eye was written in 1970 and that we, as as society, have not progressed very much. In today's society adults still put pressure on their little girls to be perfect, when in all reality perfection is unrealistic. I guess one could say that I am "fortunate" enough to not know what it feels like to be discriminated and disliked because of the color of my skin like the main character in this novel. But, what Morrison does do in the process of shedding light on the color issue, is also shed light on the "cover-girl" issue also. Morrison uses a girl character to really show the problems with children forming their own identity in today's society.

The Bluest Eye also focus's on the importance of family and one's upbringing. We see that children who have what I like to call, "daddy issues," tend to have a harder time in life. The reader see's this in many character's throughout the book. One of the most prominent is Cholly, Pecola's father who is shown to have the worst "daddy issues." Cholly's issues result in a very violent act toward his own child, and because Morrison does such a great job explain Cholly's background, the reader tends to feel sympathy towards him (not saying that what he does is right because it's down right horrible).

I enjoyed The Bluest Eye a lot. I think Morrison brings to light a lot of issues whether it's race, society, religion, self-image, or simply family dynamics. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who likes a good read. It's also in Oprah's book club if that convinces you further.