The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald // A Lovely American Classic

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Publication: May 27, 2003, by Scribner
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Pages: 184
Format: Hardcover
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing, and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby---young, handsome, and fabulously rich---always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

My Thoughts:

The Great Gatsby has been on my to-read list on Goodreads for years. YEARS. I bet that I first added it when I opened my account... when I turned thirteen. I always had that fantasy that I would read the BEST books in high school, so I waited until this past semester of school where I discovered that I would be reading it. F. Scott Fitzgerald has created a literal masterpiece that I recommend TO EVERYONE. If you want to see beauty in terms of greed, corruption, forbidden love, and the famous American Dream. This is a quick read, however, the amount of events that occur in between the lines ARE IMMENSE. 

This is the kind of book that hooks you midway. It's not something that you'll start adoring as you begin reading, or even after two chapters. Gatsby's story develops very slowly, like a metamorphosis (do you see my attempt to sound lyrical over there?). And after I watched the movie with Leo DiCaprio, I felt a greater connection to the novel as all became clear and I was truly able to appreciate the era in which it was written... an era I would love to travel back in time to: the Roaring Twenties. I would want to see what it was like to be a flapper, to attend extravagant parties with jazz music playing in the background... all of that. Since I cannot gain that experience, Fitzgerald did that for me; he created a gorgeous experience and setting for all readers.

The setting of the story is what continues to draw me in to this day. New York City is the most important from them all; even though it appears to be so luxurious and full of glitz and glamour, it is really corrupt. It's where crime and bootlegging happened... where some of the characters took their positions out of hand, where infidelity occurred. Then, we also had a division in Long Island, between West Egg and East Egg. Although both parts of the island contained individuals who you may describe as "filthy rich," they were practically polar opposites. West Egg contained the "new rich," including Gatsby and Nick Carraway, our novel's protagonist. The East Egg, on the other hand, contained the "old rich," those who are careless and didn't have to work for their money. This was made up of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, major characters of the novel. 

AGH. There are many things I would do to receive some sort of sequel for this novel. It is a pure American classic that highlights the fact that money doesn't buy happiness; that humans are always striving for something more. And, in a way, this is a corrupt love story.

  

The Great Gatsby is a novel every human being must pick up at some point in their lives. Whether you're a teenager, or a middle-aged person, this book will formulate some kind of emotion in your heart. You'll get easily attached to Gatsby's world, and the rest will be history. You'll be talking about this gorgeous piece of literature for ages.

Have you read TGG? What is your impression of it?

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje // A Very Confusing Story

Running in the Family, by Michael Ondaatje
Publication: November 30, 1993, by Vintage
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Contemporary
Pages: 208
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 

In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India, " Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by an exceptional writer.

My Thoughts: 

I guess me admitting to you that this was a book I read for school is what helps you see WHY I didn't really enjoy Running in the Family. I had high hopes for the story, even though most of my friends who previously read the book hated on it, however, I was equally disappointed as they were. This was one of the most random and confusing stories I have ever read. I totally get that it is a memoir, and the random-ness of the writing style Ondaatje promotes is meaningful and metaphorical (in a way), however, I did not enjoy it. I am writing this review to obviously tell you if I recommend this or not, and even though I was forced to read it for school so I could analyze the author's purpose, I am trying to tell you to steer away unless you enjoy analyzing every bit of a novel for no good reason. 

This book is... not necessarily about the author's life. It's more about everything that has to do with his life. His family, where he was born, his family's issues, things that run in the family... all of the things that aren't specifically about Michael. What was most interesting is that Ondaatje went from one time period to another so frequently that I was just left confused. The chapters are relatively short, separated into sections that have titles that are supposed to have some kind of metaphorical meaning. I couldn't see it, whoops. There were poems scattered all over the place about feminism, life in Ceylon (which is now Sri Lanka), and weird stories about Ondaatje's family that will put a smile on your face before you realize that... it's just weird.

So that is what I got out of this book when I read it for the first time, without going online and reading sources about what others think. However, when I began making notes about this book, I began to see that IF the metaphorical meanings are true, they are beautiful and somehow related to Michael's story. These metaphorical meanings helped me enjoy the book, even though they could truly be based on someone's opinion. Readers will never fully understand why an author wrote a novel or article or... whatever it may be.

Running in the Family may be your kind of book if you're some English genius who is the best at analyzing novels and diving deep into them. I am no English major genius, so this was a weird experience for me. If this were written in a normal, chronological order, there definitely would have been some kind of potential for it to be enjoyable.

What are some books that need to be analyzed in order for one to enjoy reading it?

Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke BLOG TOUR // Read This Quirky Story!

Nice Try, Jane Sinner, by Lianne Oelke
Publication: January 9, 2018, by Clarion Books
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary
Pages: 416
Format: ARC 
Source: Publisher
Rating: 

The only thing 17-year-old Jane Sinner hates more than failure is pity. After a personal crisis and her subsequent expulsion from high school, she’s going nowhere fast. Jane’s well-meaning parents push her to attend a high school completion program at the nearby Elbow River Community College, and she agrees, on one condition: she gets to move out.
Jane tackles her housing problem by signing up for House of Orange, a student-run reality show that is basically Big Brother, but for Elbow River Students. Living away from home, the chance to win a car (used, but whatever), and a campus full of people who don't know what she did in high school… what more could she want? Okay, maybe a family that understands why she’d rather turn to Freud than Jesus to make sense of her life, but she'll settle for fifteen minutes in the proverbial spotlight.
As House of Orange grows from a low-budget web series to a local TV show with fans and shoddy T-shirts, Jane finally has the chance to let her cynical, competitive nature thrive. She'll use her growing fan base, and whatever Intro to Psychology can teach her, to prove to the world—or at least viewers of substandard TV—that she has what it takes to win.

 My Thoughts:

Nice Try, Jane Sinner can be best explained by labelling it as refreshing. It is different, more alluring than most books I've been reading these days. For one, we FINALLY have a college student YA protagonist. Normally, protagonists in New Adult novels are college students (or a little older), but the fact that this fits in the YA genre is lovely. Since the first time I learned about this story through an event Lianne Oelke, the author, attended, I was hooked to read this book. Reality shows, drama, and college life are what hooked me in, and let's just say that those were the aspects that sticked with me even after I finished reading this. 

I actually don't think I've ever read a book about a reality show. Make sure to prepare yourself for a realistic, contemporary experience that is the complete opposite of your typical Laguna Beach/90210 story. Oelke beautifully accompanied her writing with humour that actually made me laugh out loud. (I normally laugh in my head when viewing bookish humour, to be honest.)

Now - time for the flaws and cons. Before I get started, please note that I definitely recommend this book. Just because the writing style didn't work for me, does not mean that it will ruin your experience! I found it quite difficult to equally enjoy the different formats in which the book was written. There were text messages, conversations and short-term names that bored me. The story also felt really unnecessarily long, which I am ALWAYS picky about. It took me a long time to start to connect to the characters, which was a major flaw.

HOWEVER. I did enjoy this story nevertheless, and found that the best part was our protagonist, Jane Sinner. House of Orange, the reality show she is part of, allows readers to see how cameras and pressure can manipulate a person and help others see how they are. This was great.

Nice Try, Jane Sinner is a read you must devour if you are looking to meddle away from your typical YA contemporaries. I hope more books like this will be published... with, of course, faster pacing and a plot that intrigues me earlier.

*A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a honest review. Thanks so much!*

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Q AND A WITH THE AUTHOR

Q: Would you want to be in a reality show? If you do, what kind of show would be your dream one?

A: There’s a reality show on the History channel called ALONE, where contestants are dropped off in the middle of the wilderness on Vancouver Island. Not only do they have to survive on their own for months (build shelter, fish, hunt, forage, hope a cougar doesn’t eat them), each contestant has to film themselves, as there’s no crew around. Some of the contestants spend months out there, trying to be the last person standing. I really enjoy camping, so I would love to be tough and skilled enough to take it to the next level– and maybe I’d last a day or two on ALONE– but more likely, I’d be radioing for help as soon as the sun went down. There is nothing more terrifying than glowing eyes in the dark. Also I’d have a hard time committing to months away from home because I’d miss my cat too much.