The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

April 9, 2010 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Vintage, 1977. Print. 243 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Named the best nonfiction book of 1976 by the National Book Critics Circle and winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1978, Kingston’s “memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts” tells of the Chinese myths, family stories, and events of her childhood as Chinese-American girl living in California that have shaped her identity. The five short stories don’t always connect to another; in fact, “At the Western Palace” and “A Song […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2010 Reads, AP Literature, Asia, China, Nonfiction, Short Stories, Textbook • Tags: Maxine Hong Kingston

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (Reread)

January 9, 2010 by Christina

Fiction — print. Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005. 544 pgs. Library copy. I recently re-read on my favorite books ever, Tess of the d’Urbervilles. The first time I read Thomas Hardy’s novel it was in conjunction with viewing the movie on PBS because I was too impatient to wait for the end to be broadcasted. I picked the novel up a second time because Tess has been on my mind for awhile now; I just had to read her story […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2010 Reads, AP Literature, Chunkster, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Reread, United Kingdom • Tags: Thomas Hardy

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

August 7, 2009 by Christina

This, this right here is the reason why I am so against abandoning books because, honestly, I probably would have given up on To Kill a Mockingbird had it not been summer required reading for my freshman year of high school. I know — blasphemy! It’s a book that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, it’s one of the most challenged books of all time, and one Yann Martel sent to Stephen Harper, the current Canadian Prime Minster. Despite all […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2009 Reads, AP Literature, Classics, Fiction, North America, Reread, United States • Tags: Harper Lee

Animal Farm by George Orwell

July 21, 2009 by Christina

Fiction — print. Signet Classics, 1956. Originally published 1946. 128 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Animal Farm is, hands down, one of my favorite books. In fact, my copy is missing the back cover; it fell off somewhere between reread number eleven and twelve. I was introduced to Orwell’s most popular work during my sophomore year of high school, and it’s because of Animal Farm that I found the real beauty in symbolism that smacks you in the face or is subtly […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2009 Reads, Animals, Classics, Dystopia, Fantasy, Fiction, Reread • Tags: George Orwell

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

May 20, 2009 by Christina

After reading quite a few sequels and spinoffs, I needed to return to the original and clean my brain out off all the plaque that comes from reading poorly written sequels. Pride and Prejudice, once again, didn’t disappoint. I’m sure you’ve already heard the story before; the five Bennet sisters – Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia – all attempt to find a husband under the ever annoying encouragement of their mother. Elizabeth suitors include her cousin, William Collins, but […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2009 Reads, AP Literature, Austen Inspired, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Reread, United Kingdom • Tags: Jane Austen

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

April 23, 2009 by Christina

Fiction — print. Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Originally published 1902. 105 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Heart of Darkness follows Marlow, a riverboat captain, on a voyage into the African Congo at the height of European colonialism. Astounded by the brutal depravity he witnesses, Marlow becomes obsessed with meeting Kurtz, a man of legendary idealism stationed farther along the river. What he finally discovers, however, is a horror beyond imaging. “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2009 Reads, Africa, AP Literature, Classics, Fiction, Textbook • Tags: Joseph Conrad

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

March 3, 2009 by Christina

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of those novels that literally makes me cringe when I hear my classmates say they are “just gonna SparkNote it.” Dorian Gray is a beautifully written story which delves into the role youth and beauty play in society. The painter, Basil Hallward, and his friend, Lord Henry, lavish praise and compliments upon the subject of Basil’s masterpiece, Dorian Gray. However, the painting essentially captures Dorian’s beauty and youth because while Dorian doesn’t age […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2009 Reads, AP Literature, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Textbook, United Kingdom • Tags: Oscar Wilde

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

February 8, 2009 by Christina

I read Frankenstein in three sections – chapters one through ten, chapters eleven through twenty, and chapters twenty-one to the end. (Actually, in the version I own, I read volume one to chapter two of volume two, chapter three of volume two to chapter four of volume three, and the remainder of the novel.) Therefore, my review will be divided into three sections. Overall, I wasn’t expecting to like Frankenstein as I haven’t had the best track record with school […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2009 Reads, AP Literature, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Textbook, United Kingdom • Tags: Mary Shelley

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

December 22, 2008 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the French by Francis Steegmuller. Vintage, 1991. Originally published 1856. 411 pgs. Library copy. For daring to peer into the heart of an adulteress and enumerate its contents with profound dispassion, the author of Madame Bovary was tried for “offenses against morality and religion”. Because the back cover left little to be desired, basically, Madame Bovary focuses on a doctor’s wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2008 Reads, AP Literature, Classics, Europe, Fiction, French, Translated • Tags: Gustave Flaubert

“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare

December 17, 2008 by Christina

Fiction — print. Simon Schuster, 2003. Originally published 1603. 342 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Hamlet, the young Prince of Denmark, is visited by the ghost of his father, who tells him that he had been murdered and that the culprit is his own brother, Claudius. The new King Claudius usurped the crown after taking Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, as his wife. Hamlet’s indecision and delay into how to enact revenge may be regarded as ploys by which he hopes to […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2008 Reads, AP Literature, Classics, Europe, Fiction, Scandinavia, Textbook • Tags: William Shakespeare

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

November 28, 2008 by Christina

Fiction — print. Kaplan, 2006. Originally published 1847. 669 pgs. Purchased. When I first picked up Brontë’s novel, my English teacher warned me that frame tale — the literary style of a story within a story — is the most complicated style there is. I shrugged my shoulders and turned the page. After all, I’ve done it before. But, man, Wuthering Heights is difficult with a capital DIFFICULT. And I’m still not quite sure I understand because, as painful as […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2008 Reads, AP Literature, Chunkster, Classics, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Emily Brontë

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

November 21, 2008 by Christina

In the summer of her twenty-eight year, Edna Pontellier and her children spend the summer in Grand Isle, an idyllic coastal community on the Gulf of Mexico. Away from her husband and the sweltering heat of 1890s’ New Orleans, Edna releases herself to her deepest yearnings, plunging into an illicit liaison that reawakens her long dormant desires, inflames her heart, and, eventually, blinds her to all else. The Awakening is a well-crafted, articulate novel that is considered a classic. (Why […]

Categories: 101 Great Books, 2008 Reads, AP Literature, Classics, Fiction, North America, Textbook, United States • Tags: Kate Chopin