July Book Challenge

 

1.      A book set in the place where you live ~

女二 (Female Supporting Role)

Author: Joyoon Deng

Genre: fiction

Number of pages: 461

First published: 2023

Setting: Taipei

Rating: 2 stars

First sentence: She was barefoot, stepping into her sister’s cloth shoes.

One sentence comment: This is a book full of dialogues, a bit like a play.

 

I seldom read novels written by Taiwanese writers because I don’t relate much to the characters. However, this book was recommended in a philosophical professor’s video, and it got a Taipei Prize last year.

It’s about a young woman’s acting life and her psychology. The reason she wants to be an actor is that she doesn’t need to act the role of herself. She wants to conquer something. I like the idea that after one gets mature, one can be great without depending on dreams.

 

2. A book set in a different world

Revival

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Horror

Number of pages: 466

First published: 2012

Setting: US

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: In one way, at least, our lives really are like movies.

One sentence comment: I love the first two chapters, which are so vivid that I was brought in the methodist community in the sixties US, and felt similar heart-broken like the characters in the book had felt.

 I started the book in latter June. It was written by King in his mid seventies. The major theme is death and faith, which, I believe, he had personally experienced in his near fatal car accident and aftermath in previous years. King is a master in writing an antihero, especially the pivot of his change. The antihero in the book is most interesting. His surname, Jacobs, is the mixture of job and Jacob from the bible. The former was stripped of everything he loved in life, but the latter was determined to fight with an angle to get up a ladder to heaven. Curiously he also used his middle name Dan, which I think is from Dan Brown, the latest powerful antichrist writer.

 I adore this book either for its theme or characters. However, the weakness of the book is the portion of the narrator‘s band career and love life, which felt like superfluous add-on. Therfore, I only give it four stars.

 

3. A book by an author from a country different than your own

Sense and Sensibility

Author: Jane Austen

Genre: fiction

Number of pages: 353

First published: 1811

Setting: Sussex, Devenshire and London, UK

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex.

One sentence comment: The story is bland because I was affected by none of the characters.

 

This is the last of the Austen’s six novels that I read. I realized why the film of 1995 directed by Ang Lee was considered excellent because the actors made the characters’  feelings effective. Again it is a story of love constrained by financial situations but Marianne was surprisingly immature considering how they were forced to move out with her father’s death.

 

In my opinion, the theme of the book is Gossip. People who care about the two heroines, Elinor and Marianne, pass gossip for the benefit of finding husbands for them. However, Elinor and Marianne seem to be quite obnoxious, criticizing other people for their lack of taste or vulgar remarks. If these people don't exist, the sisters’ good taste of music or art can't be known for the purpose of either love or marriage. If they don't care for gossips, why are they eager to be informed of Willoughby's fortune and character from those who gossip? Actually the society they sit in is fed by gossip, but they act as if they are better than their companions. I think the two sisters are the most unpleasant characters in Austen's novels.

 4. A book with a place in the title

Murder on Bank Street (Gaslight Mystery #10)

Author: Victoria Thompson

Genre: historical mystery

Number of pages: 326

First published: 2008

Setting: New York City

Rating: 2 stars

First sentence: Danny didn’t like lying to the Doc.

One sentence comment: It becomes the easiest thing to continue this mystery series for everything that happens there seems so familiar to me.

 This book seems repetitive to me since many events happened then were talked by different characters. The readers have to read the same events a few times. The plot is most absurd. I think this is the worst book in the series so far. Had I not already bought a few later books, I may stop here.

 

5. A book with a landscape on the cover

Circle of Friends

Author: Maeve Binchy

Genre: fiction

Number of pages: 722

First published: 1990

Setting: Ireland

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: The kitchen was full of the smells of baking.

One sentence comment: It’s disappointing that there isn’t a mature female leading role as in the author’s previous books.

 

The story revolves around three 20 year old girls. Everyone has to cope with their drawbacks and yearnings. It’s a great story but not as great as the author’s earlier novels. Still, I enjoy reading a devious young woman in formation.