Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

This book is described as one of the greatest suspenseful romances.  I found it mostly not suspenseful and definitely not romantic!  That said, it is still a good book and gets interesting after you get past the first half, which drags interminably.  I thought the real story would never start!

The story starts in the future and comes back to a young lady who is very unsure of herself.  She meets a wealthy older man and marries him.  They travel to his family estate where everything is still run as his first wife, Rebecca, dictated.  The second wife quickly feels extremely inferior to the mysterious Rebecca.  Maxim, the husband, is very secretive and extremely sensitive.  (At the end of the story, you get the impression that this may have changed, but from the initial glimpse of the future we know he is still very sensitive.)  No one speaks of Rebecca much, except the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who loved her to distraction.  Everything winds up in a dramatic finish.

The second wife is a little annoying.  She repeatedly excuses her timidity and reactions to being young and inexperienced, which is reasonable but this reader would still like her to have more of a backbone.  Maxim isn't much of a romantic figure to my way of thinking because he is sooo sensitive.  Even after everything has happened, he still turns white and goes into a downward spiral when his wife reads him a passage that reminds him of his family home!  We learn he has a good reason for his morbid sensitivity, but that doesn't change the fact that you have to read about it for the entire book!  Mrs. Danvers is by far the best character.  She is fantastically creepy while being imminently efficient.  Rebecca also feels like a very real character who plays largely in the story, even though she is dead before it begins.

This book is worth the time, if only because of its huge popularily!  Be prepared for a very slow start.

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

This is a novel about a platoon in the south Pacific during World War II.  It is definitely a war novel.  There are a lot of battle scenes depicted and explanations of military protocol as well.  Because it was published during 1948, though, the swearing has been replaced with the alternate word "fug," which I actually prefer.  There are some personal story lines as well, and we learn a bit about the Sergeant and Lieutenant Hearn.  It is sad, not just because war is terrible, but because the men don't seem to care that it is and there is almost no mourning or mercy or even sensitivity shown in the platoon.  It seemed very real to me.

It is an easy read and worth the time, although be prepared to get a realistic, not very positive view of the war.

The Secret Desires of a Soccer Mom by Robyn Harding

I was expecting a murder mystery when I started this book, but in spite of the mysterious murder, it is really straight-up chick lit.  Paige is a 38-year-old mother of two who goes into a crisis when her good friend Karen confides she is having an affair.  Paige becomes somewhat obsessed with the secret and its implications (including areas of her own life that seem to relate--her relationship with her husband, her too-small breasts, etc), and it only gets worse when Karen ends up murdered.  Paige does solve the murder, but it isn't a traditional whodunit and deals much more with the personal issues and relationships in the suburban neighborhood rather than clues to the suspicous death.

It started a little slow for me, but I eventually found myself very involved in the story and really wanting to finish.  There are a few questionable word choices and many references to sex, so it isn't a "clean" read, but it is free from sexual scenes and most swearing.  It is easy and reads quickly.  It is worth the time.

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

I didn't love this book and struggled to get through it.  It is very symbolic with a lot of detail.  The book has 12 chapters and is only one day long!  Each chapter is from a different character's point of view, which makes it feel a bit confusing and disjointed.  The book tells the story of a consul in a Mexican city whose wife left him one year before.  She returns at the beginning of the story to start the events of the day.  At the end, (Spoiler Alert!) the consul dies.  (You're safe again!)  I really didn't love it, and it takes some time.  It isn't worth it.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

This is an absolutely wonderful book.  Steinbeck makes you really see the dust bowl and the people who live there and leave seeking a new life.  The reader also becomes completely involved with the Joads, one of the families who leaves Oklahoma to go to California.  The Joads seem very real and you really start to care about them and what happens to them.  My favorite part of this novel is how real it all seems.  Steinbeck does a fantastic job of describing things and is very faithful to his style of realism.

It is definitely worth the time!

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

I am not really super fond of Hardy, but this book is entertaining.  It does have the occasional appallingly bad piece of prose that is usual for Hardy, but it also has some words that are wonderfully inevitable as is also common for him.  The plot line is very structured and fairly obvious, but it wouldn't be right for it go any other way.  The main female character is rather pointless and not very well-developed.  And I will never understand the appeal of the "bad boy" character!  The male characters are all developed much better and greatly add to the story.  There are some very nice descriptions of nature and the world around us.  It is worth the time, but I wouldn't put it at the very top of my list!

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

I am just not a Lawrence fan.  I don't particularly enjoy his style, and I'm never fond of his subject choices and his treatment of them.  So, don't expect a very positive review.  If you do like Lawrence, my thoughts are probably not helpful for you.

Sons and Lovers tells the story of a refined young lady who meets and falls in love with a miner.  They marry, and she joins the lower classes where she doesn't fit in and has nothing to do.  The two drift apart, and she puts all her love and attention on her oldest son.  (It's actually a strange relationship where the son takes the place of the father.)  The oldest son tries to leave her and ends up dying.  Then she places all her affection on the second son.  He also develops a strange relationship with his mother and seems unable to leave her, in spite of trying to have relationships with other women.  Then the mother dies, and he is cast adrift.

It is realistic in that I know plenty of mothers who let their children become their whole lives and are lost without them, but the undercurrent of incest (which is never outright stated, thank goodness) seems unrealistic and made me very uncomfortable.  Lawrence is also a somewhat challenging writer, and it is a long book, so it takes a lot of time to read.  It isn't worth it!

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

This book seems to be about Russia during the Stalinist purge, although Russia isn't named, and the dictator is always referred to as No. 1.  It tells the story of Rubashov, a somewhat older man who has been imprisoned by the same regime he used to be a part of.  He has a couple of fellow prisoners and two interrogators who are also characters in the story.

It is sad obviously, since it takes place in a political prison.  It is also sad as he is being held by his former comrades.  It is also interesting and a fairly easy read.  It is worth the time.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Obviously this is a well-known book, since the phrase "catch 22" has entered the English language.  I didn't know anything about the story, though, before I started the book.  When I started reading it, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through.  It has a lot of stream of consciousness writing.  It isn't chronological and has some made up words and phrases that were initially very confusing.  After a while, though, I got very involved in the story and didn't want to put the book down.  I would say this is one of the best books I've read.

It tells the story of Captain Yossarian.  He is a bombardier stationed with his squadron on an island in the Mediterranean Sea.  All the members of the squadron are trying to stay sane long enough to go home.  (And finding it challenging!)  The catch-22 of the title refers to the bureaucratic nonsense the military puts its men through.

This is a fairly short book although it is challenging due to its narrative style.  It is definitely worth the time.  Yossarian lives!

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Faulkner can be a challenging author to read, as he shuns the traditional narrative style and loves to write in "stream of consciousness" style.  I do prefer this book to some of his others.  The book is divided in four parts.  The first part is the most challenging as it jumps around chronologically and isn't a straight narrative.  It is all right, though, because it is being told from the point of view of a mentally challenged character and it feels believable that he wouldn't be completely clear and coherent.  The stream of consciousness style, which I don't usually like, seems to give a better understanding of Benjy's world and mental processes.  There are three more parts to the story that flesh out the story of the Compson family.  The connecting thread between all these parts is Caddy, the older sister.  All of the narrators are very focused on her and her life and her choices, although we never hear from Caddy herself.

This book can be a challenging read, but it is worth the time.  If you want to read Faulkner, this is the book I would recommend.

In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin

I listened to this as an audio book.  (I like to do that while I exercise.)  It took soooo long!  It was nice because a lot of the writing is quite poetic, so it's good to hear it aloud, but it is a big time commitment to listen to it rather than reading it.  It also has a few unexpected uses of the f-word (which feel strange because they don't fit the general style of the book) and I prefer to read those by skipping over them or replacing them in my mind, and you can't do that when you're listening to the book! 

This is mostly a love story between Harry and Catherine.  It is set in the 1940's.  It also has other story lines.  Harry has been home from the war for a year and he remembers quite a few war experiences.  Catherine is an aspiring Broadway actress and a wealthy socialite.  Harry's family business is in danger of failing due to the mafia extorting large sums of protection money.  Due to these story lines, sometimes the books reads a little like an army story or an action story.  Helprin doesn't write in that style, though, and the action sequences are interrupted by poetic thoughts or flashes to other places, so they never flow enought to really fit the action/adventure genre.  I found Harry's memories of the war particularly entertaining.

It is worth the time, although it takes lots and lots of time, especially if you listen to it rather than reading it yourself!