On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

After reading and loving The Hate U Give as part of my Finally in 2019 Challenge, I knew that I wanted to check out Angie Thomas's second novel, On the Come Up. This book was just released a couple of months ago, and I actually pre-ordered it ahead of time, so it was already sitting on my shelf. I decided to try something different and sit down to read it while it was new, instead of being years behind the times (you know, like I normally am). Interested to see if I would enjoy this novel as much as her last one, I dove in.

On the Come Up takes place in the same fictional inner-city as The Hate U Give, Garden Heights. The city is still plagued with drugs, violence, and gangs, but now they have the added turmoil of dealing with a stronger police presence after the events of the officer-involved shooting from the first book. The setting is where the connections between the two novels end. While some of the characters will vaguely reference the events of the The Hate U Give, this novel focuses on a completely different set of characters and story.

This novel focuses on sixteen-year-old Bri Jackson, an aspiring rapper trying to make it in Garden Heights's underground rap scene. Aside from her natural talent at writing lyrics and performing, Bri has her lineage going for her. Her father was a popular rapper in the neighborhood too, until he was shot and killed by a rival gang when Bri was a little kid. She hopes to carry on his legacy while making a name for herself and finding her own place in the music industry. At the beginning of the novel, she starts to make that name by performing well in a rap battle. Her rhymes attract the attention of her dad's ex-manager, and he begins to show some interest in representing her.

Unfortunately, it's tough for Bri to take a measured approach to building a music career. Her home situation is in turmoil. Her mother, a recovering drug addict, has recently lost her job and is having difficulty finding another one. Her older brother, Trey, is trying to help provide for the family, but despite having a psychology degree, he is only able to find work at a local pizza place. Bri has to deal with not having enough food in the house, the constant threat of eviction, and losing access to heat and power as the bills start to pile up.

Things at her magnet high school are similarly not going well. Bri has a fiery personality; she is quick to anger and jump to conclusions. Her eye-rolling and snarky comments have gotten her labeled as "aggressive" at school, and she frequently winds up in the principal's office, despite not having done much wrong. Things come to a breaking point when she gets involved in an altercation with a pair of school security guards that ends with her being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed after refusing to submit to a backpack search. Her friends use this incident as a rallying point to begin protesting the unequal disciplinary treatment that black and brown students at the school seem to receive in relation to their white peers. Bri, however, does not want to become the face of this movement, which brings her into conflict with some of her friends.

All of these factors make Bri feel more determined than ever to make it in the rap industry. She sees it as the only way out for her and her family and is prepared to do anything to make it happen. In response to the incident at her school, she pens and records a song called "On the Come Up," which she means to serve as an anthem for herself and for others that feel oppressed and labeled by society as "thugs." However, some of her lyrics include references to guns and violence that the white community vilifies her for once the song takes off. As Bri works to try and rise in the music scene, she must try to balance her determination to achieve her dream with the social issues in her community, the racism she encounters all around her, and the personal issues going on in her family.

This book was excellent, and one of the main reasons for that was the strength of Thomas's writing. Bri's character was very well-written. She felt like a real teenager with a clear voice and opinion. Her use of slang, pop culture references, and dramatic moments felt very natural and brought the narration to life. In truth, Bri was not an easy character for me to like. I often felt frustrated reading about the decisions she made, because they seemed so short-sighted and sometimes dangerous to me, but they were definitely the kind of decisions a teenager with her personality in her situation would make, so I can't fault them. Even though I frequently disagreed with her point of view on things, I could understand where she was coming from, so I could still enjoy her story. She wasn't perfect, none of the characters were, and that made the story feel very genuine. The one drawback in felt in this area was that I'm not sure how much Bri changed by the end of the novel. She goes through a lot over the course of the story, but her personality remains mostly the same. I would have liked to see her mature a little bit more, but this feeling wasn't enough to prevent me from liking the writing.

 Similarly, the social justice issues Thomas explored were realistic and handled well. The issue of black and brown students facing harsher disciplinary measures at school than their white peers is absolutely something that happens, and I enjoyed seeing the book address that. I also enjoyed the discussion on rap lyrics and responsibility. This wasn't a topic I paid much attention to before reading, but there is quite a lot of food for thought there. Bri writes a song that references guns and violence, even though she is not personally involved with either of those things. Does this make her a liar, irresponsible, or is it just her artistic license? Furthermore, can these lyrics incite violence in the real world? If they do, is Bri responsible? Rap has long been blamed for the ills of the black community, and this novel helps to examine that question and reveal how unfair the concept is.

The vicious cycle of poverty, gang involvement, and drugs was also explored in this novel. These three elements have become horrifically entwined in Bri's life. Her father was shot and killed in a gang-related incident. The grief from this experience was at the root of why her mother turned to drugs. Her mother's dependence on drugs led her on a path to poverty for herself and her children. It's a terrible cycle that touches every part of Bri's life. After reading about these seemingly insurmountable problems, it becomes easy to understand why she is willing to make risky decisions throughout the novel to break free of all the problems and drama. It's a raw and powerful read that doesn't hold back on the reality of these tough issues.

Ultimately, I did not like On the Come Up quite as much as The Hate U Give. There were a few plot elements that didn't add up for me. For example, Bri's mom seemed remarkably oblivious to nearly everything Bri was doing, and when she did find out the extent of sneaking around she was doing for her music, she didn't care enough. Also, the ending felt too convenient when compared to the messiness and imperfections of the situations in the rest of the book. However, it was still an excellent read. Thomas is definitely an author to keep on your radar, and her voice is very important in the young adult literary community. She has the knowledge, ability, and bravery to discuss important racial and social justice issues head on, and we need more of these stories out in the world. These characters and situations can help build bridges between different groups and broaden our understanding of the world. This was a moving read that I would definitely recommend to all teens and adults.

Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 7/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 15

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

When it comes to the classics, I struggle with modern and postmodern fiction. I really wish that I  liked novels from those time periods, but truthfully, I just don't enjoy the weirdness and confusion that reading them entails. I like to get lost in a book when I read and just drift with the story. Modern classics don't give readers that luxury. They are often puzzles full of surreal moments that keep their audience guessing about what's real and what's not. It's just not my cup of tea. Despite this, I was sure to put a handful of modern classics on my Classics Club list, including Pale Fire. I always want to challenge myself as a reader, so I refuse to give up on them entirely. Besides, reading a 20th Century classic is usually a Back to the Classics Challenge category (like it is this year), so reading a more modern classic every now and then keeps me covered there.

I came across Pale Fire through my husband, who is a big Nabokov fan. I read Nabokov's most famous novel, Lolita, years ago and was both impressed and nauseated by it. It was a weird mix of emotions to feel while reading. I was interested to see if this novel would serve up another unique experience. It didn't take me long to realize that, yes, Pale Fire is certainly a unique book, but in a completely different way from Lolita. Honestly, I have no idea what I just read. Let me try to explain.

Pale Fire centers around a 999 line poem, its foreward, and its end notes. The poem, titled "Pale Fire," itself is written by a character named John Shade and it details different parts of his life. He discusses topics ranging from his childhood, to his wife, to his daughter. It's a relatively simple, beautifully written poem. The foreward, end notes, and index to the poem are written by a different character named Charles Kinbote. In the foreward, he informs the reader that John Shade was killed on the very day he finished writing his poem. Kinbote, who explains that he was both a fan and friend of Shade, was granted permission to publish this work, along with his notes on it. This is where things really go off the rails.

Kinbote's notes, which form the bulk of the novel, dissect the poem nearly line-by-line, providing additional details on Shade and commentary on the work itself. However, the further you read into his notes, the more you realize that Kinbote's writing seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the poem. Instead, he's twisting Shade's words to tell a story that he wants to tell--that of his distant homeland of Zembla and the escape of the Zemblan king during a political revolution. He cherry-picks words throughout the poem to draw specious connections between Shade's meaning and his own story. In reality, his notes have their own plot and purpose, and that plot has nothing to do with what Shade was trying to convey at all.

Alongside his story about Zembla, Kinbote also details the movements of the man who eventually kills Shade on the day he finishes writing the poem. He includes this man's location throughout the body of his notes, creating suspense as the notes (and the poem) near their conclusions. This man, named Jakob Gradus, is described as being dim-witted, bumbling, and filled with blind devotion to the extremist party that took over back in Zembla. His connection to Shade, and why he ends up killing him, form a central part of Kinbote's narrative.

I have definitely never read anything like this novel. Its unusual structure made the act of reading a bit of a challenge. Right away, I had to decide what order I wanted to read the parts in. In the foreward, Kinbote himself suggests reading his commentary first, then the poem, then his commentary again. I didn't want to do all that rereading though, so I started off reading the poem and the commentary simultaneously. It got annoying flipping back and forth all the time though, so after a little while, I switched to reading a canto of the poem, then reading the notes for it, then going back to read another canto, and continued in that pattern until I reached the end. Reading it either way would work, which was a weird concept to me--the idea of being able to read a book in several different orders and still have it make sense. It was weird, but very unique. I enjoyed the strangeness of it.

The mystery of Kinbote was the main aspect of this novel my mind focused on. All throughout the detailed commentary section, he states several things that cause the reader to doubt his sanity. His apparent obsession with Shade was my first indication that something was off. His relationship with him seemed to go far beyond being friends, as he describes peeking into Shade's windows to watch him write and detailing his belief that Shade's wife was evil and trying to keep them apart. He describes how he would take long walks with him and tell him all about Zembla, fully believing that Shade was going to transform this story into an epic poem. His notes about his home country of Zembla are equally suspicious. I couldn't tell if this was a place that really existed in the confines of this novel, or if it was a place that existed only in his head. It didn't take long before I began to question and examine every single thing he said, looking for the key that would tell me if he was nuts or if his story was based in reality. Of course, as we are limited to Kinbote's narration, the question remains cloudy. 

One thing that is not cloudy, however, is the excellence of Nabokov's writing. His prose is beautiful and easy to read. The fact that he is not a native English speaker never ceases to amaze me. While I don't generally enjoy novels that are a conceptual puzzle, the writing in Pale Fire is a joy to read, and made up for some of the weirdness for me. So ultimately, even though this is exactly the type of novel that I don't normally click with, I didn't have a bad time reading it. For me, this was at a 3/5 star level of enjoyment. If I was rating it based on its uniqueness, or its contribution to the development of postmodern literature, it would be a 5. I would most definitely recommend it to anyone interested in this genre of literature. In my case, I'm just happy that it didn't end of being torture (like Ulysses). I'm going to count this as a success for me. It's probably my favorite experimental/postmodern novel that I've tried so far.


Challenge Tally
Back to the Classics 2019 (20th Century Classic) 4/12 Books Read
Classics Club (#7 on my list): 40/100 

Total Books Read in 2019: 14

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Years ago, I read E. Lockhart's We Were Liars and fell in love. With its perfect blend of mystery and suspense, not to mention its shocking twist ending, it promptly became one of my favorite young adult books. Naturally, when Lockhart published Genuine Fraud, I had to check it out. Even though I was extremely excited to read it, I ended up falling into my old pattern of buying the book and then never getting around to it. I put it on my Finally in 2019 list so that I could see if it would end up being another favorite for me.

Genuine Fraud starts off under unusual circumstances. It begins on chapter 18, in which we are first introduced to our protagonist, Jule. The usual exposition you would get at the start of a novel is not included here; the reader is just dropped into a story-in-progress. From context clues, we can infer that Jule is living in a luxury hotel under a different name. She has disguised her appearance, is using a fake accent, and is in some sort of trouble with the law. A police officer is hot on her trail, and as chapter 18 comes to a close, the officer finally catches up with her--then the story starts moving backwards.

The chapters start counting down from this point, with the reader learning all about how Jule came to be living in this situation bit by bit. We discover that she is a talented con artist with a penchant for stealing identities. We also learn that she comes from a troubled past and is likely dealing with mental health issues. As time flows backwards, the mystery surrounding her situation begins to unravel and it becomes possible to piece together her story and start understanding her motivations. Eventually, the last chapter of the novel returns us to the present time where one final twist remains to surprise readers and end the story.

Sadly, this novel was only okay for me. I did appreciate the unusual design structure, which kept things mysterious and interesting. I've never read a book that goes backwards before, so I enjoyed having that new reading experience. One drawback of this format, however, was that it made me feel like I never properly got to know or understand Jule as a character. Lockhart didn't provide enough detail throughout to give me a strong sense of who this character was. I understand that part of the plot was her dissatisfaction with her own life and her compulsion to step into the lives of others, but the quick bursts of information each chapter presented to me weren't enough to make her feel real. The story was very fast paced, with each chapter bringing with it a new revelation, but the pace came at the cost of character development. This made the backwards structure feel gimmicky at times, rather than essential or important to the story.

Without a well-developed character to focus on, the point of reading became trying to figure out the mystery. The plot was definitely interesting and a challenge to try and "solve," but it did make the experience more like a logic puzzle than a story to escape into. I was engaged, but not enthralled. Interested, but not fascinated. I'm not sure everything lined up and made sense at the end, either. Compared to We Were Liars, a novel that had me utterly captivated from page one, this novel is definitely inferior. This is a fun read to consume if you want something quick and entertaining, but it is shallow. It's so shallow that I don't have much more to say about it.

Genuine Fraud was the last novel on my original Finally in 2019 list, and it was also the weakest novel on it. I still enjoyed reading it overall, and I rated it three stars, but knowing the kind of storytelling that E. Lockhart is capable of made this feel like a weak effort. Younger readers will definitely like it, however, and I can see myself recommending it to some of my more mature students.

On a happy side note, I have now officially completed my Finally in 2019 Challenge! I finished it much earlier than I was expecting--I set my goals low so that I didn't feel too pressured throughout the year. Now that I polished off my original list, I will continue to add on books that I just really feel like reading at the moment that I haven't gotten around to yet. I do so many reading challenges that I sometimes feel like I don't have the freedom to just pick up whatever book I want, so I'm excited to see where my whims take me!

Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 6/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 13

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

“We give all we have, lives, property, safety, skill...we fight, we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up.” 

Johnny Tremain holds a special place in my heart because it is one of the first books I can recall pushing myself to finish reading. It was assigned to me in my seventh grade English class, and I remember not feeling too impressed with the story in the beginning. The temptation to put it aside and read something else was high, but I made myself stick with it and ended up really enjoying it. Of course, at this point, I barely remember anything about the plot. All I really remember is being glad I made myself finish it. That was really the start of my feelings on sticking with books today. I always finish the books I start now, and this little book was the origin of that.

When I was designing my Classics Club list a few years ago, I knew that I wanted a selection of classic children's books on it. In my search for titles I wanted to try, I came across Johnny Tremain again. I decided to put it on my list to see if I still would feel the same way about the story when I revisited it--bored, but eventually entertained. I don't count something I read when I was twelve as a re-read for these purposes, so I felt fine including it. A short trip to Boston a few months ago, in which I visited Paul Revere's house, sparked my interest in reading this novel again, so I decided now was the time to pick it back up.

The plot of the story follows a young orphan boy named Johnny Tremain who is growing up in Boston in 1773. Johnny is working as an apprentice silversmith for the Latham family, a position that his mother was able to secure for him before she died. He shows such skill and promise in his craft that every other silversmith in town, including the famous Paul Revere, is interested in him. Unfortunately for Johnny, he knows how skilled he is and he delights in lording his talents over the other apprentice boys he lives with. He has a good heart, but he is also bossy, mean, and quick to anger. His pays a heavy price for this pride at the beginning of the novel when he burns his hand with molten silver in a tragic accident.

His injury is severe enough that he can no longer work as a silversmith, and the loss of his future career is a devastating blow to the young boy. With no real family to rely on, he is forced to find another way of earning a living that he can do one-handed. After a long and agonizing search, he winds up delivering newspapers for The Boston Observer, a local Whig newspaper. His new job thrusts Johnny into a world he previously ignored - the world of politics. The Observer happens to be the headquarters for the Sons of Liberty, a secret Whig group that desires freedom from England. Once Johnny has proven himself to be a trustworthy ally to their cause, he is running errands for Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, James Otis, and many other major American patriots in addition to his newspaper duties. With tensions between England and the American Colonies rising, Johnny gets a front row seat to the events leading up to the American Revolution, including the Boston Tea Party and the "Shot Heard Round the World." Along the way, he grows up a bit, learns to control his temper and understands what it means to become a part of a movement that's larger than himself.

Coming back to read this as an adult turned out to be an excellent idea, because I don't think that a twelve-year-old reader is capable of appreciating everything Johnny Tremain has to offer. The first time I read this, in middle school, I had to push through boredom to make it all the way to the end. I ended up recognizing it was a good book, but I didn't enjoy the whole journey. Reading it now, I understand what a little gem it is.

One reason for this is Johnny's character development. Many of the young boys in children's adventure novels are a bit flat. Jim Hawkins and Tom Sawyer, for example, have a great deal happen around them, but they ultimately change little in their respective adventures. Johnny, however, experiences quite a lot of growth throughout his journey. He begins the story as a prideful, snobby boy who likes to bully others. After his accident, however, he needs to find new ways to interact with people in order to survive. He slowly learns to hold his temper, be kinder to others, and take responsibility for his actions. He also learns to grapple with jealousy and fear as he discovers how to live with his injury. He realizes that there are some things he can't do and other things he can, if he has enough heart to work hard for them. He even manages to maintain a fragile peace with Dove, the selfish and petty boy that caused his accident. By the end of the novel, Johnny is brave, respectful, and admirable. Realistically, he does not attain perfection, but he comes out of his ordeal a better person than when he went in, which makes him a character that is easy to root for.

Another strength of the novel is the wealth of historical information it contains. Johnny Tremain is historical fiction, but it is absolutely stuffed with facts about the colonial time period in the U.S. and the early days of the Revolutionary War. I felt like I learned more from reading this novel than I learned in my actual history classes. Home life, different professions, politics of the day, and the factors that led the colonies to war are all explored in a way that doesn't feel intrusive to the overall story about Johnny's life. Esther Forbes masterfully weaves in her history lessons with the fictional plot points, creating a read that is engaging and educational. Obviously, one shouldn't take everything in the novel as an absolute fact, but it is obvious that great efforts were made to keep the story as true as possible for the time period.

One last element of the story that stood out to me was how successful this book was at inspiring a feeling of patriotism in me. I'm not the kind of person that's easily moved by U.S. history stories. That's not to say that I don't appreciate my country, because I certainly do, I'm just not the type to feel particularly patriotic. Reading Johnny Tremain, however, made me feel some twinges of pride for our forefathers that stood up for what they believed in and fought for freedom from tyranny. It probably helped that I'm originally from Massachusetts and love Boston in particular, but I was surprised at how moved and interested I was by this story. John Otis's speech to the Sons of Liberty, which gives us the novel's most famous lines, was particularly inspiring. His assertion that, "We give all we have, lives, property, safety, skills...we fight, we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up," had me practically cheering. The story wasn't perfect. There were still some spots that moved a bit slowly. Overall, however I was engaged in and inspired by what I was reading and cheering on Johnny and his Whig buddies.

I went into reading Johnny Tremain not expecting too much. I was interested to see if I would still find it boring, and figured that I probably would, at least in part. What I discovered instead was an exciting adventure that brought the Revolutionary War to life for me. I teach seventh grade right now. My students are the same age as I was when I first read this novel. There is a push in modern education to read books that are "relevant" to our students' lives, so stories like this don't make the cut anymore. It's a shame, but I do not think that this novel can be a hit with most young kids at this point anyway. They've been fed on a diet of instant-gratification entertainment for too long. However, for patient and thoughtful readers of any age that enjoy history, Johnny Tremain remains a treasure.


Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#27 on my list): 39/100 

Total Books Read in 2019: 12

The Power by Naomi Alderman

"Gender is a shell game. What is a man? Whatever a woman isn't. What is a woman? Whatever a man is not. Tap on it and it's hollow. Look under the shells; it's not there."

I first came across Naomi Alderman's, The Power on a few different "best of 2017" lists. The synopsis of the book immediately intrigued me, and when President Obama named it one of his personal favorite reads of the year, that clinched it. I had to read this novel. I got it as a Christmas present from my mom, and then, like so many other books I am excited to read, I stuck it on my shelf and never got around to picking it up. It was a very easy decision to include it in my Finally in 2019 challenge this year, as this title has never really left my mind. Since I've been in the zone lately with making my way down my Finally list, I decided to sate my curiosity about The Power and give it a try.

The plot of the novel explores a world in which women suddenly develop the power to deliver powerful electric shocks through their hands. Their new abilities are biological; they are the result of exposure to a chemical put into the water during WWII and somewhat mirror the abilities of an electric eel. At first, these powers emerge in uncontrolled bursts; women end up shocking others (usually men) in moments of extreme stress. Eventually, however, women learn to harness and control their electricity. They are no longer the weaker sex, and the men of the world start to get very nervous. Told from a variety of different perspectives the eventually weave together, the story examines what happens when the balance of power between men and women is completely flipped on its head.

This novel was very enjoyable, and a big part of my enjoyment was the multiple perspectives approach. Most of the chapters alternate between four different characters, each offering a unique perspective on how the emergence of the power affects them. The first character we meet is Roxy, the daughter of a powerful crime boss. She uses her abilities to settle scores with other gangsters and cement her role in the family business. She works on the development of drugs that can be used to enhance women's powers, and takes the lead on manufacturing and importing the drug into countries around the world. Her rise shows the potential for illegal activities in this new reality, but navigating the criminal underworld doesn't come without its share of danger and heartbreak.

The next character, Tunde, is a young, male reporter. He catches some of the early instances of women using their powers on his phone and is vaulted to prominence when he starts uploading his videos onto YouTube. Soon, he is following the development of the power all around the world, and capturing the conflicts that occur as women start rising up in countries where they had limited, or no rights at all. He offers us the perspective of a man in a woman's world, and his growing fear of the opposite sex mirrors women's general fear and caution of men in our world today. Before long, he is afraid to be outside alone, and is always on the lookout for women looking to commit sexual violence against him, as that is now possible with the use of their electricity applied to the right places. As one of the women he captures on film shouts out, "Now [men] will know...that they are the ones who should not walk out of their houses at night. They are the ones who should be afraid."

Another character, Margot, is a small town politician. She uses her powers to climb the political ladder and become a powerful world leader.Out of all the characters that the novel follows, I found her to be the least compelling, but her story was still interesting to read. One part of the novel that struck me in particular was a conversation Margot was having with another politician in her city. She realizes, while listening to him arrogantly yammer on about something, that nothing he has to say is very important because she could kill him easily at any moment if she wanted to. She thinks that, "it doesn't matter that she shouldn't, that she never would [hurt him]. What matters is that she could if she wanted. The power to hurt is a kind of wealth." It made me wonder if a man's confidence now actually springs from this knowledge that they are physically more powerful than most women. Maybe. I'd probably feel more confident too if I knew I was the strongest person in a conversation.

The last major character, Allie, starts out as an orphan in the foster system. She first uses her power to escape an abusive foster home. Then, following the instructions of a mysterious voice in her head, she goes on to form a religious cult around the power. She becomes a living goddess among her followers and founds a powerful church that spreads around the world. She figures out how to use her electricity to cure certain maladies and becomes a faith healer to promote her vision. Eventually, she is able to use her influence to rewrite Christianity, changing parts of the scripture and editing religious iconography to reflect a woman-centered view.

As these women's stories eventually cross paths, a powerful narrative is formed around the corrupting influence of an unbalanced power structure. The strong come to dominate the weak, in ways both big and small. The comparisons to modern day gender relations are obvious, and it was very illuminating to consider how close the fictional events in The Power resembled the real-life injustices women have had to endure at the hands of men over the years. It was very engaging to see these concepts flipped around with women as the aggressors and men as the victims.

I was really into this story throughout the entire text, but the cleverness of the ending was what really made this a five star read for me. I had seen a couple of reviewers say that they were disappointed with the ending, so I was curious to see how I would feel. This isn't a happy story, and I didn't expect the ending to be light and fluffy. It wasn't, and I was fine with that. What I really did enjoy though, was the way the author ended the framing of the novel. At the start of the story, we get a series of letters between a male writer and a female publisher. The writer, Adam, is submitting the text of The Power in the hopes of getting it published as a historical novel, to explain the events leading up to an event called The Cataclysm that happened 5,000 years ago. At the end of the novel, the letters between these two return, and the way they discuss the story's believability and publication was just so smart and satisfying. I absolutely loved the last few paragraphs.

So, The Power was definitely a winner for me. I really enjoyed spotting the parallels to our present day culture and exploring the possibilities of what could happen in a world where gender roles were suddenly reversed. There is a lot of smart, clever writing in this novel and it feels like an important read for women, along the lines of The Handmaid's Tale. This is one of those books that earns the time you put in to read it. It's not a story for idle enjoyment--it's one that will stick with you for a while and make you think of the world differently. Anyone in the mood for a thought-provoking read should give The Power a try.

Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 5/6 Books Read

Total Books Read in 2019: 11

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

I have a selection of Shakespeare plays on my Classics Club list, so when "Classic Play" was a category in my Back to the Classics challenge, I knew right away which texts I would be picking from. I already happened to have The Taming of the Shrew on my shelf, so I went with that one for this year. I was interested in it for two reasons. First, I am a big fan of the musical Kiss Me, Kate. This Broadway show is based on The Taming of the Shrew, and I spent a lot of time when I was younger memorizing its soundtrack. Second, I am also a big fan of 10 Things I Hate About You, which was a teen movie based on this play from the 90s. Since those two things were a big part of my childhood, I was interested to check out their original source material.

The play centers around two Italian sisters from a noble family, Katherine and Bianca Minola. The sisters are completely different from other another in personality. Katherine, the older sister, is bad-tempered and prone to violence. She is rude to everyone she comes across and fights with her sister constantly. Her anger is legendary around their hometown of Padua. Bianca, the younger sister, is gentle and compliant. She is kind to everyone and acts with much more decorum in her social life. As a result of her easy temper, Bianca has several suitors vying for her hand in marriage. Katherine, predictably, has no suitors, as most men don't want to deal with her caustic personality. Their father, Baptista, despairs of ever finding a man to marry Katherine off to. In the hopes of encouraging suitors to take her on, he decides that he won't allow anyone to pursue Bianca until Katherine is safely married off.

Bianca's suitors are horrified at this resolution. They resolve to join forces and come up with a plan to get Katherine married. Luckily for them, an eligible bachelor named Petruchio arrives on the scene. He is looking for a wife, and he claims that obtaining a large dowry is his sole deciding factor for securing a marriage. Delighted, the suitors pay him to court Katherine. They warn him of her temper, but he claims to be able to tame any shrew in short order. He moves quickly to secure her hand in marriage. As he has no competition, he succeeds in marrying her in short order (completely against her will), and takes her away to his home.

Petruchio begins his campaign to tame Katherine by behaving towards her exactly as she has been behaving towards everyone else. He fights, complains,and is intensely disagreeable to those around him. His strategy is to show her what her own behavior looks like to others. In addition to this approach, he won't let her eat or sleep until she becomes more agreeable. Eventually, she breaks and becomes compliant to the point where she mindlessly goes along with everything Petruchio says. 

Meanwhile, Bianca's suitors have been engaging in some clever deceptions in order to win her heart. One of these men, Lucentio, pulls off an elaborate scheme which involves swapping identities with one of his servants and pretending to be a Latin tutor in order to gain access to her. Eventually, his plan works and Bianca falls in  love with him. They elope shortly after Petruchio and Katherine get married, disappointing the other men who had hoped to try for her hand.

Eventually, all of the characters come together for a wedding feast at the end of the play. Petruchio shows off how obedient Katherine has become, which impresses everyone present. Her wifely devotion is now even more admirable than Bianca's, and she winds up lecturing her sister on how their duty as wives is to "place their hands under their husbands' feet" and serve them in everything.

I knew going into my reading that this play was going to contain a lot of problematic elements. It's unfair to judge a play written in the 1500s using modern standards, so I will refrain from criticizing its obviously sexist and abusive elements. Simply put, this work has not aged well and it's not funny in this century. It still contains Shakespeare's characteristic wit and charm, and there are great lines and speeches throughout the play, but its objectionable plot points are a major distraction for a modern reader. It's tough to sit and enjoy Shakespeare's wordplay while you are reading about a women being starved and tortured until she agrees to call the moon the sun.

Some interpret the plot as being an ironic take on marriage and relationships and claim that Shakespeare was being purposely ridiculous here--that he was in on the joke, as it were. I strongly doubt that, but I also don't hold his views against him. He was living in a different time where very different attitudes and traditions prevailed. The modern versions of this play that I enjoyed as a kid definitely softened the sexism and rendered the story much more palatable. It was still interesting to see the origin of this story, but The Taming of the Shrew does not hold up to the other Shakespearean works I have read and loved and as a result, I don't have much to say about it. I'm ready to move past this one and get into some plays that explore more universal and relevant themes.


Challenge Tally
Back to the Classics 2019 (a classic play) 3/12 Books Read
Classics Club (#1 on my list): 38/100 

Total Books Read in 2019: 10

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

I have been interested in reading The Goldfinch since it won the Pulitzer back in 2014. There was just something about the plucky little bird peeking out on the cover that drew me in and made me curious to pick the book up each time I saw it in the bookstore. I've actually owned it for ages, but its length, plus my participation in other challenges, have prevented me from actually reading it. It's one of those ones that stuck out in my mind as a book I really wanted to get to one day, so I put it on my Finally in 2019 list. This month, I decided that it was time to give it a shot.

The story follows a boy named Theo, who is 13 at the start of the novel. His life takes a dramatic turn when his mother is killed during a terrorist attack at an art museum, an attack which he miraculously survives. In the chaos that unfolds immediately after the incident, Theo takes possession of a priceless painting that his mother admired, named "The Goldfinch." Once the dust settles and he comes back into his right mind, he hesitates to bring the painting back to the museum. It was something that his mother had loved, and its beauty captivates him. Before long, it's too late to return it without fear of legal consequences, so Theo carefully hides it among his other possessions and brings it with him through the string of homes he floats through in the wake of his mother's death.

Throughout the rest of his adolescent and teenage years, Theo floats from home to home. He spends time with the wealthy family of a friend in New York City, with his estranged father and his girlfriend in Las Vegas, and, strangest of all, with an antique shop owner he meets through a very unlikely chain of events. The grief he feels from losing his mother is intense, and most of the people he is forced to rely on in her absence do not provide a safe or loving space for him to heal in. Before long, he turns to alcohol and drugs to dull his pain and begins taking part in some shady dealings. "The Goldfinch" is with him throughout it all; it's his blessing and his curse. The stress of having it is leading him down a path of ruin, but he can't bring himself to let it go. It's an irreplaceable work of art, and he is its caretaker now.

Eventually, Theo's self-destructive habits begin to catch up with him and he is drawn into a dangerous scheme in which the safety of his precious painting hangs in the balance. The Goldfinch is the story of his journey, from grief-stricken kid to damaged adult, and how he tries to wade through his emotional pain to turn things back around.

This novel won the Pulitzer, so I knew it was going to be good, but I was absolutely blown away with this one. The Goldfinch is a masterpiece. Donna Tartt's skill is obvious from page one; she is certainly one of the best authors that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The book is nearly perfect; the writing is beautiful, the story is heart wrenching, and the characters are intensely real. Theo is a sympathetic and complex protagonist. His pain and grief over his mother's death are palpable and his fall is difficult to watch. As a reader, you root for him to finally be at peace, and you mourn the loss of the person he might have been if he hadn't been in the museum that day. The story is heavy and it makes you feel heavy right alongside the characters, but it is also full of enough hope and thoughtful observations that you learn something from the reading experience.

The novel deals with several themes including family relationships, grief, addiction, and friendship. Most interesting to me though, was the discussion of how people relate to art. I don't know much about art myself, and haven't really thought about the effect it has on anyone. In this novel, it functions as a kind of balm to the soul. It's a source of hope and inspiration that those who appreciate it can share. When Theo looks at "The Goldfinch," it connects him to his mother, its artist, and to all of the people who have admired it over the years. He feels less alone having it in his possession, even though it brings him a lot of pain. I enjoyed considering how art might influence and comfort someone. It was a new way to think about something I hadn't paid much attention to before, and it made me feel like I should learn more about paintings. 

The Goldfinch is Tartt's third novel, and I definitely plan on reading more of her work in the future. Her writing is a cut above most of what I read, and I'm excited to see if I end up loving the rest of her books. I do wish that I had gotten to this novel earlier; it's definitely a new favorite for me. While I've tried to detail here why I enjoyed it so much, I'm finding that it's difficult to put my feelings into words. This story is special. It has that indescribable magic that great literature has. This is most definitely a book worth reading, and I am very happy to have put it in my Finally in 2019 Challenge.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 4/6 Books Read

Total Books Read in 2019: 9