True Believer by Nicholas Sparks

*Warning: this post contains loads of sarcasm, read carefully.

I listened to this book on c.d. while doing my work at funnily enough, work. I usually like Nicholas Sparks. Okay so I've only read The Notebook (years before the movie came out, I might add). I guess what I mean is that I really like the movies that they adapt from his books. This book wasn't that good to me. The plot was pretty weak and a way cheesy ending that made me want to puke, me who if you read my other blog know I live for that crap.

The story revolves around Jeremy Marsh, a New York columnist who investigates supernatural phenomenons in order to disprove them. Well, his work takes him down to a small southern town which claims to have ghosts in their cemetary. Well where else would they be? These "ghosts" are exhibited by lights that show up when there is a dense fog. During his time down south, a whole four days, he meets and falls in love with a feisty librarian, Lexie, who in turn falls in love with him despite much, okay some, really very little resistance. However, obstacles ensue in the fact that he lives in New York and she lives there. Okay so there is one obstacle, but seemingly unovercomeable (not sure if that is a word but oh well.) Even when he tells her that he loves her and they can work it out whatever it takes, she refuses to believe and pushes him away. And he goes. Finishes his research which unearths a small scandal involving the town and mayor which if Jeremy releases the information, Lexie will never speak to him again. Tough decision. Well, you can guess what happens. Its pretty predictable... Okay they go their separate ways and Jeremy wanting to forward his career over his love life outs the mayor (not homosexually) which makes him super famous and he marries a supermodel while Lexie settles for the town deputy who has been love with her since childhood. Sorry I didn't mean to spoil it for you.

Suffice it to say Nicholas Sparks could have done and has done better. Well, at least in the Notebook, I already admitted I hadn't read anything else of his. Jeez.

House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

I really liked this book. I already knew the story because I had seen the movie (which I had forgotten until I got finished with the first couple of chapters) but the way Edith Wharton writes is quite nice. She does overuse a few words here and there but I got passed it.

So anyway the story is about a girl (Lily Bart) in her late twenties who lives off of her rich relations and friends and has the life goal of finding a rich husband to keep in her the life to which she has become accustomed. She has many opportunities but she tends to flake out and then she puts herself into compromising positions. The main reason for her diverting her attention from her goal is for the opinion of one man who sees who gold digging ways as a terrible thing and he tells her so. But she lives in a world where that is the life that is laid out for her.

Then she puts herself foolishly into a bad position where she owes money to a married man (who fell in love with here and wanted to paid back in other than money) She runs of course. Then she is crossed by her friend who is notorious for having affairs and only has Lily around in order to distract her husband. Lies are told and she is forced into poverty and only has a coupld of friends. In this she finds how unfullfilling her desires were but she is unable to let it go. She just goes into a downward spiral of depression. It is quite a sad book but beautifully told. It makes you wonder at a woman's position back in those days. Completely dependant on men and money.

Here is a quote that I think is a much true to today as it was back then for men and women:

"If I were shabby no one would have me: a woman is aked out as much for her clothes as for herself. The clothes are the background, the frame, if you like: they don't make success, but they are a part of it. Who wants a dingy woman? We are expected to be pretty and well-dressed till we drop-and if we can't keep it up alone, we have to go into partnership."

I like this quote too but because one of the reasons that Lily Bart can't pull herself up out of her depression is because the man she loves lost his faith in her and if he hadn't then maybe she could have been a better person.

"It is so easy for a woman to become what the man she loves believes her to be!"

This wasn't a very good review of the book but I did really like it. If you don't feel inclined to read it then rent the movie because it was pretty good too.

Turn of the Screw by Henry James

I read this book a couple months ago but forgot to do a reveiw of it so here it is. This book wasn't really that good. A short read about a ghost story. I think maybe I didn't like this book because I didn't read with as intelligent of thought as I should have.

It opened really nicely and with a gentleman saying has a ghost story that really happened to someone he knows that wrote it all down and the party anxiously wants to hear it. So a nice bookend right? Trust me it was.

So the story is about this young woman who takes a job being the governess for two young children with the stipulation that she is never to bother their guardian about anything. He lives somewhere else. So she goes to the children and finds how beautiful and charming they are. They are the perfect children in her eyes but then she starts to see images of people in random places. She knows that they are not really there. Ghosts! And she believes that the children know that they are there too but won't speak of them. So the book is mainly about her fears that these ghosts are influencing these children toward some evil and how she can protect them.

I went onto some websites to get more insight into this book and I have learned more about it but I was a little dissappointed in this book. Maybe just a little too deep for me.

Oh and the nice bookend? It didn't happen. the book just ended.