Top Ten Tuesday - Bookish Confessions

I didn't want to do this week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by our The Broke and the Bookish, but it was too much fun to miss out on. I have many...

1. I judge people based on what their favorite books are - I try not to be a snob and I'll read anything, but I think a favorite book says a lot about a person. If you're over twelve and your favorite book is Twilight I will think you're a twit without a brain. If your favorite author is Joyce, I expect us to have a nice conversation about him and his books. If your favorite author is Paulo Coelho or Dan Brown, I will think that you don't know enough words to explain why they're your favorite authors. 

I've had a lot of these conversations:

A person: Oh, you like reading. You should really read The Alchemist, it changed my life....

A voice in my head: You, sir/madam, are a moron.

Me: Yeah, sure... (Poker face)

2. I use books as coasters - I always have books around me. Usually what I'm currently reading or my favorite books that always have to be near me. I always have a cup of coffee. This leads to an insane amount of coffee stains on my favorite books. The more stains it has, I've probably read it more times.

3. I write all over my books - Sometimes it's just underlining, sometimes I write a sentence I liked, sometimes I write my own thoughts.

4. I've never actually done this, but - I wouldn't feel guilty about not returning a book to a library - If I really, really wanted it and I couldn't find it anywhere to buy, I would just say I lost it and pay the fine. I've never done this because... My fifth confession.

5. I don't go to libraries - If I have to find something for class, I will borrow a library book. But a casual read... Hell no. One of the main reasons - My sixth confession.

6. I never return a book in time - Back in the day when I tried going to libraries, I hated that I had to read a book in two weeks. It's not too short and I could read it in less, but I hated the pressure and it stopped me from enjoying the books I read. So I just stopped going to libraries. 

7. I never lend my books - There are exceptions, like my aunt, but generally no. I will usually say that I don't know if I have the book and I need to check or that I have so many that I need time to find it do to my poor maintenance skills.Then I hope they've forgotten about it. The truth is, the only thing I keep organized and neat are my books and I can tell I which books I have any time of the day. I hate it because people seem to consider my books like public property and don't take me seriously when I say I want them back. My money, my book. Just return it! Also, my shelves are a whole, they seem sad when there's a part missing.  

8. If I  do lend you my book - I will hunt you down until you return it. I don't care how psycho it makes me look. My money, my book! I don't care if I said I didn't like it.

9. I read the last page - Then I try guessing how the plot gets there. I don't mind spoilers at all, whether I'm reading or watching a show or whatever. I'll usually just go finding spoilers on my own. 

10. Danielle Steel and Sidney Sheldon - I read more of their books than I can count. Don't judge too harsh. I was ten and I stumbled upon them at home. I was just proud I could read "real", "grown up" books. To this day, I think Master of the Game and Bloodline are awesome books.

I could go on like this forever, but it seems to be enough.

Girls

I recently saw the first episode of a relatively new TV show called Girls. I had nothing better to do, didn't feel like watching Downton Abbey, so inspired by all the praise I've been hearing, and all the Emmy nominations, I decided to give it a shot. 

It's not bad by any means. I could say it seems fantastic considering that I've seen just one episode. But something about it seems gloomy and dark. I'm so not in the right place to watch Girls. I'm a bit younger than the main characters, I'm still in college and I don't really want to think too much about what happens later. Especially not while watching a dark and depressing show. Not to be too dark, it did have some funny parts. I snorted with laughter when Hannah said that there were two angels in the kitchen, one a Victoria's Secret angel and the other a fat baby angel. 

The four mane characters, Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna; are inspired by the characters from Sex and the City. So far, I don't really see it. Girls from Girls seem more realistic, but bare in mind I'm talking based only on the first episode. They seem to deal with bigger problems than Sex and the City. If maybe not bigger, than in a more serious way. They go through life one mistake at a time (the line is part of the tagline, I find it clever and catchy).

Described as the life of a generation of girls that grew up watching Sex and the City. I think I was too young to watch Sex and the City when it first aired, but I did watch the series later and I can't consider myself to have grown up with it. I don't know if it's just me or what, but I thought it was just some cheap fun, fluff. It didn't have any affect on me what so ever. When did we start taking things so seriously? The reason why I watched so many episodes of Sex and the City was to look at some nice clothes, laugh at some outfits that I'd never wear in my right mind, laugh at some jokes and spend thirty minutes not thinking about anything serious. It showed me a life I didn't have and a life I didn't want. I'm writing this because I'm only a little bit younger than the girls from Girls, so it comes to me surprising and unbelievable that anyone could make their decisions based on four silly fictional characters. Is Sex and the City a cult? Does anyone really believe that you can spend almost every day having lunch, breakfast and drinks with your friends, that you can write one lousy column in a shitty paper and still afford all those designer clothes? If you do, you have a problem. And that problem isn't Sex and the City.

Everyone with half of a brain should know that you can't live your life the way those girls did. Everyone knows that shows like How I met your Mother or Friends aren't real because no one can lead a lifestyle like that. But I don't see anyone making shows about the life of a generation that grew up watching Friends and now thinks that the can live their entire lives just sitting in a coffee shop drinking the entire day without a worry in their mind and still afford the fabulous apartments they live in. I'm just wondering how many future doctors will be extremely depressed because medicine isn't exactly what we see on House or Grey's Anatomy. Come on, people, common sense isn't that difficult to find.

Sex and the City was a phenomenon mainly because it showed a generation of emancipated women that didn't need, but wanted a man; and because it handled a topic that wasn't actually addressed before: what does it mean to be a single woman in her thirties. And all that in a slightly ditsy, humoristic manner. 

Girls isn't a bad show, it really isn't. At least not from what I've seen so far. I'm just more caught up in people who take all of this shit so seriously and try to find out whether they're a Samantha or a Carrie, a Charlotte or a Miranda. Or, whatever. If you get around to it, watch an episode or two of Girls. You might really enjoy it and you could be in a better place than I am for a show like this.

Top Ten Tuesday - Favorite Books I've Read During the Lifespan of this Blog

I'm a bit late on this week's Top Ten Tuesday, a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. I haven't been blogging long enough to read ten books in the lifespan of my blog, so I'll write about the books I loved lately.

1. One Day by David Nicholls - A refreshing, slightly melancholic story of two people spanning over two decades. My review. 

2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - One of the best books I've ever read ant not only during the span of my blog. Truly a favorite and a book I'll be returning to plenty of times in the next years. My review.

3. The Return of Filip Latinovicz by Miroslav Krleža - A book by a Croatian author, dealing with some of his favorite topics. Art, liberty, homesickness, love, infatuation, crime, family, human psychology, existentialism, decadentism and many, many more. A true gem of Croatian and other south Slavic literatures.  

4. Inshallah, Madonna, Inshallah by Miljenko Jergović - A short story collection, each was inspired by a traditional Bosnian folk song. A book that breathes and smells of my native Bosnia.

5. The Counterfeiters by André Gide - A gentle book that seems to float somewhere between a dream and reality and has one of the most interesting compositions I've ever read featuring a novel in a novel. A lot of events are inspired by Gide's real life.

6. The Woman of Rome by Alberto Moravia - I wrote a paper on this book and thanks to the paper i had to delve deeply into the text which got me thinking about the beauty of Moravia's language, the excellent portrayal of the main character, Adriana, and his subtle writing about Rome, politics and human destiny. Had there not been my paper, I probably wouldn't have liked it as much.

7. Balthasar's Odyssey by Amin Maalouf - Balthasar is a Christian living in the Levant. He sets of to a journey to track down a book. The journey takes him as far as London. Maalouf's themes are universal and almost the same from book to book, and yet always brought to us with a dash of new thinking.

8. Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque - A powerful antiwar book that shows us what happens when guns fall silent and you have to continue with your every day life. Strong, moving and above all - haunting.

9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - A gentle book that reminded me a lot of Dickens. A bildungsroman about a girl who's drawn in to events she can't understand, thus being forced to grow up sooner. In the end, her childhood innocence is lost forever and we are left with a strong message: that it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

10. The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco - Plenty of literary critics have said that this wasn't one of Eco's finest, but I disagree. Maybe I'm just too fond of Eco, but I think The Prague Cemetery is as good as his earlier work. It's a story of conspiracy, murder, mystery and fine philosophy. 

I've read all of these books during this year and this list features some really great books. I'm happy!

Downton Abbey - the Beginning of Season One

So far I've seen the first four episodes of the series Downton Abbey. The show centers around the life of a noble family and the lives of their servants. It opens in 1912. right after Titanic sank. Downton Abbey is an estate which can only be inherited by male heirs and the Earl of Grantham has three daughters. His heir, who was engaged to his eldest daughter, died on Titanic. This reveals the center conflict of the show, how will they get accustomed to the new heir who isn't a part of their noble world. Or will he be the heir at all?

Hugh Bonneville takes the role of the merciful aristocrat Robert Crawley, his American wife is played by Elizabeth McGovern. They have three daughters, Mary, Edith and Sybil. They are joined by the heir presumptive, Matthew, and his mother Isobel Crawley. The entire family is watched over by the firm eye of the matriarch of the family - the Dowager Countess who is marvelously brought to life by the brilliant Maggie Smith. 

The Crawley sisters are interesting, but I also feel a bit sorry for them. They lead such boring lives. They wake up, they get dressed, they eat, they talk, they frequent other people. I know this was the normal life for an aristocratic woman, but I think we might get to see a lot of changes for them. Especially since we know that World War One is approaching. 

So far, Sybil is my favorite sister and it seems that we are starting to see a lot more of her. She's the only one of the sisters that seems to be doing something with her life. She's open minded and outspoken. It seems the Earls won't have an easy time with her.

Mary is an interesting character and i think her whole life could be summed up in a single sentence I'm not as rebellious as everyone thinks. I think she's a woman trapped in certain rules that she doesn't know how to get rid of, nor does she know if she wants to. I'm not sure how I think about her yet. At times, I admire her, and sometimes I think she's being mean and petty and unreasonable. Being open minded is great, but she doesn't seem to think about the consequences of anything she does. She's seduced by the Turkish diplomat who dies in her bed, discards Napier too easily. If she doesn't become a bit more careful, she might lose everything. 

Cora's accent was a bit annoying at first. I thought that she should well decide whether she wanted to be American or British. But then I realized that considering the time she's been living in England, she probably would have acquired some foreign accent, but also never would have completely lost her old one.

The servants' story begins with the arrival of the new valet, Mr. Bates. He's a mysterious man with a limp and knows the Earl seeing as both of them had served in the war. The ambitious servant, Thomas, is hurt by this as he had hoped to become the Earl's next valet. The other servants are William, Daisy, Carson, Mrs. O'Brien, Anna, Gwen and Mrs. Hughes. 

One thing I don't like so far is that the relationship between Thomas and William seems a bit forced. We haven't really seen the core of it, the only thing they have in common is Daisy. But Thomas isn't interested in her, he only wants her so that he could get to William. I don't want to accept that the only reason behind the conflict is that Thomas is a prick who doesn't like the fact that William is nice. I hope they explore this a bit further. Their relationship is basically the thing that runs everything with the servants. They seem to be divided in two polar opposites, the bad ones who enjoy plotting - around Thomas: and the nice ones, the martyrs - around William. I hope they change this and we get a bit more insight.  

I'll make a guess here and say that Bates's story hides something deeper and that and the plot line with Kemal Pamuk will be the center of future conflicts.

These four episodes have all been interesting and I'm curious to see how will World War I change things in Downton Abbey. 

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

I admit that I tend to give more importance to some stories than they realistically have. I guess that Corpse Bride is one of them. I'm going to justify that by two simple facts. One, I'm a big fan of Tim Burton, and two, I love cartoons! Sure, there have to be a few more, but these two are the first ones that come to mind.

So, basically, the story is this: Victor is supposed to marry Victoria, but just can't seem to get his vows right. He goes to a forest to practice them and there he accidentally marries a corpse, Emily. Isn't it great?

My general opinion on Tim Burton these days is that he should take a giant brake from filming with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. I love all three of them and I think they've made some great stuff together, but right now I think everyone is fed up with the two of them in crazy, out of the ordinary roles. My impression is that he just makes movies around the two of them, fitting the roles to match the actor, instead of trying to find the perfect actor for the role. I don't know how often that is among directors (there is the whole story with their muses), but Tim Burton is starting to be a bit unimaginative and boring. Let's dress up Johnny and Helena in a costume and make them do weird, crazy shit! Victor looks just like Johnny Depp and Emily looks just like Helena Bonham Carter. That being said, I did like them in this movie, but too much is too much.

Beneath a simple story, there lies a deeper message. One I liked the most was exploring the concept of marriage. Victor comes from a rich family, but their wealth is newly acquired. Victoria is from a noble family, but unfortunately, the family wealth is no more. Victor's family needs social status, Victoria's family needs the money. There is no thought of love here. Nobody cares if the two people are even going to like each other, let along love the other one. The wedding is stopped after Victor is too nervous to say the vows. Aren't the vows lovely: With this hand I will lift your sorrows, your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine, with this candle I will light your way in darkness, with this ring I ask you to be mine.

I always enjoy a nicely told love story, but it's important to note that Corpse Bride isn't a typical love story. In the beginning we see a moment between Victor and Victoria. I'd say that the emphasis was on Emily and her failed marriage, the one the left her as the Corpse Bride. At first, we get the impression that she isn't bitter, but as the story progresses, it's easily seen that Emily still holds a grudge (perfectly understandable, I'd say) and that she's having a difficult time letting go of her past life. She doesn't want to understand that Victor has a life above the Earth and will do anything she can to bring him to the afterlife.

There's a glitch, Victor can't stay in the afterlife as the only living thing, he has to stop hi heart forever in order to give it someone forever. Victor and Emily organize a wedding in Victor's world and decide that in the end, Victor will die. I thought it was symbolic and beautiful in a creepy, eerie sort of way.

I found myself thinking a lot about the portrayal of the afterlife. I don't know if it's heaven or hell, or maybe just some sort of limbo, but it's unusual seeing that everyone gets to go to the same place after they've gone. It's as if they're saying that just by enduring everything in the life of the living, you deserve to go to the same place. The afterlife isn't perceived as a punishment or as a reward for your actions during your life. It's more of a next thing, just a natural progression, where you continue your life in almost the same way as you lived it.

Tim Burton decides to give us a happy ending. Emily realizes that, no matter what the social norms and the proper thing is, you can't make someone love you. She finally finds her peace leaving us with the message that, in the end, the only thing we do need for love is a beating heart.

Top Ten Tuesday - Romances That Could Survive in the Real World

This weeks topic hosted by The Broke and the Bookish is a bit more difficult. I don't read that many romance novels and those that I have read are completely unrealistic. Let's give it a shot:

1. Fermina Daza and Dr. Juvenal Urbino from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera - Their marriage is out of interest. Fermina is pretty, Juvenal is sort of rich and they get along together. It's not a love that conquers all, that moves the universe, an undying passion, but they did live a happy life for fifty years. Maybe it did conquer all?

2. The Reader and Ludmilla from Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - This isn't a typical romance, but then again, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler isn't a typical novel. You are the Reader and you're stuck in a book, but it's not really you. Trust me on this one. There, you meet Ludmilla, the other reader and you go on an adventure together. In the end you get married and are pronounced the Reader and the Reader (in Italian Lettore and Lettrice). Face it, relationships between readers work. Most of the time.

3. Pelagia and Antonio from Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Technically, they didn't have a love story, but I think it was very realistic. They fell in love, life separated them and they spent their life wondering what could have been. Sounds like real life to me. 

4. Sibel and Kemal from Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence - Their relationship didn't work out in the book, but had they lived outside of a book, I'd bet it would have. Men of Kemal's background and breeding don't leave their sophisticated fiancées in order to pursue a girl who is almost fifteen years younger, outside of his class and doesn't want to be caught. At least, this one wouldn't have the courage.  

5. Holly and Gerry from Cecelia Ahern's P.S. I Love You - I hated this book and will fight everyone who says it was amazing, but I can't deny that stories like this exist. A couple gets married way too young and then one of them doesn't know how to go on with their life without the other one.

6. Lotte and Albert from Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther - The entire book is written from Werther's perspective and we don't really know how Lotte feels, but from the glimpses we get of the real her and not the one that's constantly on Werther's mind, she's in love with Albert, and Albert is in love with her. They chose each other and are as happy as they can be.

7. Lata and Haresh form Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy - While I was reading this book, I didn't want Lata to marry Haresh. I was rooting for her to defy her family and marry the one who she chose, even if it would have been more difficult. In the end, she makes the sensible choice and marries the hardworking, sweet guy her mother chose for her. Most people do make the sensible choice.

8. Marguerite and Armand from Alexandre Dumas's The Lady of the Camellias - A girl who is using a guy who's smitten. I know there's a lot more to The Lady of the Camellias than all the using, but this is the part that certainly works in real life.

9. Cecilia and Roby from Ian McEwan's Atonement - Both of them are stubborn and know what they want. Even though they come from different social backgrounds they decide to fight for each other in the book and are each other's equal. I think a similar thing would happen in real life.

10. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Not a love story, but I want a tenth and don't want to leave it at nine! And while we're at it, they could work in real life. And they're almost a love story. 

I can't believe it I've listed ten of them! Well, this is basically every love story (if we interpret a love story as a story that has some love in it) I've ever read that's a tiny bit realistic. Some of my favorite love stories are from The Master and Margarita, or A Tale of Two Cities, but they don't have the tiniest shot of happening in real life. 

The Christmas Cookie Club - Ann Pearlman

The first word I came up with when trying to describe this novel is lovely. It's an interesting story of eleven women whose lives collide a bit before Christmas. These women (Marnie, Charlene, Rosie, Juliet, Laurie, Alice, Jeannie, Allie, Sissy, Vera, Tracy, Taylor) all gather once a year to exchange their holiday cookies and stories behind them. Each chapter is named after a different character, begins with a recipe and ends with a story about a different ingredient or spice, presenting us with some more or less known trivia about them. I have to be honest and admit that i didn't actually read all the recipes. I can't cook and they didn't mean anything to me, so I just skipped most of them, but i guess that it could be an interesting part for someone who enjoys cooking.

I really loved the composition of The Christmas Cookie Club. It was interesting and the thing that initially drew me to read it, but it could have been implemented better. I know that the plot is based on true events and that the author participates in the real cookie club, but there are just too many characters. I know that most of us know a lot of people and a real life club can exist with more than twelve members. But it doesn't work in a book when it's only some two hundred pages long. 

The Christmas Cookie Club is supposed to show us the value of friendship and love and that we can go through a lot with the help of loved ones. It manages to do so in a certain extent, but it's naive most of the time. I thought their stories weren't explored enough and that they should have been shown with a bit more insight and depth. We don't have enough time to get to know and care all of them and to understand their motivations and feelings There are just so many of them that it was difficult to follow which story belonged to who. The book would have been a lot better if it had dealt with only three or four people and their entire stories. This way, I constantly thought I was reading a draft for a really lengthy novel.

My favorite part of the book is the cover. I think it catches the essence perfectly: holidays, cookies, gifts and women walking alone into a house where they will find moments of happiness and understanding. I know there are many people who think that the cover isn't important and that it's a trivial thing to care about, but I can't help loving beautiful cover art. Each time I look at the cover my book, I can almost smell a special blend of tea I drink at Christmas time, apples and cinnamon.  

My cover

I appreciated not sugarcoating almost anything. These women are ill, they cheat and are cheated on, they fight with finances, raise their children on their own and with help. It got me thinking if any genuinely happy people exist. Of course, everyone has their own problems, but the problems of these women are difficult and feel very real. Marnie's husband passed away from cancer, her second husband cheated on her, her younger daughter, Tara, is pregnant at eighteen, her elder daughter, Sky, has had two miscarriages and a stillborn. Charlene's son died in an accident on a construction sight. Taylor lost her job and had to move out of her house. If I had written it, I would have had Sky's baby ill. I know this makes me an awful person, but I think it would have made the story a bit more realistic and I prefer unhappy endings.

The Christmas Cookie Club doesn't actually have a happy ending, it's more bittersweet. Some things have gone okay, the others not so much, but it leaves hope that something will change and that their lives will get better over time with the help of friends.