The Gift of Asher Lev

Rating: ★★★★★

Methods of Reading: Public library hardcover novel, 370 pages
Dated of Reading: February 26, 2011-March 19, 2011
Author: Chaim Potok
Publication Year: 1990
Recommended To: Students who enjoyed the original Asher.
Quotes:
   "And a man should think only of what he has to do for God that day, and it will not be too burdensome for him" (147).
   "'I'm between things now.'
'Dawn between things or dusk between things?'" (240).
Movie: Nope.

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_Asher_Lev
Link: http://potok.lasierra.edu/Gift.syn.html

My View: A very, very strong sequel. At first, it threw me off because Asher's voice has become so different from the original, but you can definitely hear him in the maturity. Fast-forwarding him so many years was an excellent choice on Potok's part. Asher has become more 3D and it is so intriguing seeing him interact with is wife (Especially the way he speaks so devoutly about religion), his children (Wait—Asher LEV is a responsible parent?!?) and his parents after their reconciliation (Hey, so his dad is a nice guy. Who knew?). There are some very interesting lines in here which I could ponder for long stretches of time, particularly in the art-artist-audience relationships. Asher's relationship with Avrumel, so different from the one he had with his own dad, is also wonderful to analyze (For instance, Asher at one point gives Avrumel a glass of orange juice and tells him to drink it before the vitamins run out.). His relationship to time, confusing due to his frequent tense changes, is also intriguing. At any rate, Potok did a very nice job maturing Asher, his art, and his life. I think it was a great idea to start this book off with a direct contradiction to how the last ended: With Asher as a criticized artist struggling to move forward rather than as an applauded young man with too much easy praise. Bravo, Potok!

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliographic info:
Potok, Chaim. The Gift of Asher Lev. New York: Knopf, 1990. Print.

My Name is Asher Lev

Rating: ★★★★★

Method of Reading: Personally owned paperback novel, 269 pages
Dates of Reading: November 2, 2010-December 7, 2010
Author: Chaim Potok
Publication Year: 1972
Recommended To: Anybody, especially high schoolers who have just read Portrait and need to re-gain faith in art.
Quotes:
   "'Everybody is listening,' she said. 'There would be no problem if no one were listening to you, Asher'" (111).
   "'One man is not better than another because he is a lawyer and the other is a painter. A life is measured by how it is lived for the sake of Heaven'" (192).
   "'I don't think I want to free myself that way'" (203).
   "I could not be a wh*re to my own existence" (328).
   And many, many others.
Movie: No... :/

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_is_Asher_Lev
Link: http://potok.lasierra.edu/Potok.asher.html

My View: Uh-maze-ing. This is one of my new favorites. It is gripping, shows true passion and feels very real but refined/edited appropriately. Insightful and enlightening, I couldn't put it down and I was annotating constantly as themes, motifs, and interesting analytic and character questions piled on top of each other.

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliographic info:
Potok, Chaim. My Name Is Asher Lev. New York: Knopf, 1972. Print.

Mansfield Park

Rating: ★★★★★

Method of Reading: Kindle, 480 pages in paperback
Dates of Reading: November 15, 2010-December 11, 2010
Author: Jane Austen
Publication Year: 1814
Recommended To: High school girls and Austen fans.
Quotes:
   "'I pay very little regard... to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person."
   "He pressed her hand, looked at her, and was gone."
   "She was of course only too good for him; but as nobody minds having what is too good for them, he was very steadily earnest in pursuit of the blessing."
Movie: Of course.

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_Park
Link: http://www.austen.com/mans/

My View: The most subdued of Austen's books as far as I've read, this book still follows the typical Austen pattern: Intense, emotionally detached but moving set-up followed by drawn-out central plot twists and ending with a concise profession of love and a little happily ever after. This novel, however, had me wondering more than in most of Austen's books who was better for Fanny and whether she would ever get her fantasy moment: Edmund or Crawford? Both had their failings and both had their merits, and both made me wonder exactly who they really were. Great book with a compelling central character (if only because of her differences from Austen's typical heroines) and worth re-reading. The Cinderella of Austen.

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliographic info:
Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Electronic.

13 Little Blue Envelopes

My Rating: ★★★★

Method of Reading: School library paperback novel, 141 pages

Dates of Reading: October 21, 2010-October 22, 2010

Author: Maureen Johnson

Publication Year:  2005

Recommended To: High school girls looking for something to read during a reading workshop.

Quotes:

Movie: No.

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_Little_Blue_Envelopes

Link: http://www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com/books/13-little-blue-envelopes/

My View: Great. I had inexplicable difficulty putting this book down, which is rare for a travel story. Upfront, it must be noted that Ginny is a completely blank slate: No character traits, very little is said about her own life or mindset (much like the main character or The Center of Everything which numbed me into stopping reading). But this blankness doesn't hinder the book's progression. The important things are in all of the stuff she goes through and how it affects the reader. Her "everywoman" allows you to explore your reactions to all of the happenings in her life. It's a common technique, but used surprisingly well. Every strange, unimportant--sometimes even boring--event keeps you reading and learning. I feel different after reading it. Excellent.

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliographic info:
Johnson, Maureen. 13 Little Blue Envelopes. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.

She's baaaack...

Your Bibliomaniac here! I'm back from school and I'm ready to rumble. My format has been updated so it is far easier for me to post now (thank the Dear Heavens). I will continue posting and get you lots of new books I have read!

Let me know if you're reading this and what you're reading otherwise! I hope to hear from some other bibliomaniacs soon!

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Rating: ★★★

Method of Reading: Personally owned paperback novel, 276 pages
Dates of Reading: September 9, 2010-October 27, 2010
Author: James Joyce
Publication Year: 1916
Recommended To: OCD English nuts
Quotes:
Movie: Yep 1977.... That would be a snoozer.

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Portrait_of_the_Artist_as_a_Young_Man
Link: http://www.gradesaver.com/protrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-men/

My View: The way that critics rave over it is understandable, and it is truly brilliant. It simply doesn't hold a whole ton of interest FOR ME. Beware that this book is written in extremely old, Irish-dialect-y language and can be hard to understand, especially thanks to the lack of quotation marks. Old writer, old story, old-fashioned. I'm all for retro and vintage or whatever, but this can be snooze-inducing.

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliographic info:
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York: Viking, 1964. Print.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to my (still unidentified and probably nonexistent) readers! I hope 2012 brought you happiness, blessings, and abundant books and that 2013 will bring even greater joys! Here's a link to a listing of some of literature's greatest annual awards and their recipients or the current nominees for 2012.

National Book Awards:
http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2012.html#.UOHgsL-9Kc0
•From this list, the only book I picked up was This is How You Lose Her, which I neglected to finish. I may try it again soon but I lost the a lot of my interest in it several chapters in when the narrator changes without explanation, the new one lacking enough energy and wit to keep me entertained. Powerfully written in certain pockets, but woefully lagging in others.

National Book Critics Circle Award nominees:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/01/22/national-book-critics-circle-awards-_n_1221954.html
•I haven't read any of these books yet but they look interesting. Two books that particularly caught my attention from this list are Open City and The Marriage Plot, and I need to look into these further.

The Newberry and Caldecott Awards, both for young fiction:
http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/2012/01/2012-newbery-caldecott-medal-winners.html?m=1
•I haven't read either of the winners but I'm still intrigued by YA fiction so there's a good chance I'll try one of these down the road. Both have been highly acclaimed so far.

The Pulitzer Prize:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Pulitzer_Prize
•Perhaps one of the world's most renowned and coveted literature awards, the fiction Pulitzer Prize was not awarded this year because none of the three nominated works (all of which seem vastly interesting to me) won a majority of the Pulitzer panel's votes (as detailed on this Wikipedia page). I can't help but notice the recurrence of Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention on award lists, which has me very curious about it.

The PEN/Faulkner award nominees:
http://litreactor.com/news/finalists-for-the-2012-penfaulkner-award-announced
•I haven't read any of these books but several sound interesting, particularly the three-part novella series by Anita Desai, whose work on Baumgartner's Bombay I enjoyed.

The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Chinese author Mo Yan, whose page on the Nobel Prize website can be found here:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2012/yan.html
•I have not read any of this author's work.

*The Bibliomaniac Book of the Year Award this year goes to Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It wasn't written/released this year or even this century but I read it for the first time this year and thought it was wonderful! This is a stellar read and I hope to get its review posted here soon. This fought an extremely difficult war against The Night Circus, a new work by Erin Morgenstern, for the top spot. Other finalists for my list also included Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.


If you've read any excellent works in 2012, let me know! Post in the comments or drop me a line at YourBibliomaniac@gmail.com. Happy holidays everyone!
Always, Your Bibliomaniac