"Joy Luck Club"

    Are you interested in Chinese women, their daughters, and a good round of Mahjong??? Then run out to the bookstore right now and pick up a copy of Joy Luck Club.  Amy Tan's famous novel was written in 1989.  It tells the story of four women of Chinese decent living in and coming to terms with the customs in America.  The four women gather weekly to play Mahjong which they have named the Joy Luck Club, in hopes of bringing joy and luck to each of their lives.

    The novel is split up into four parts.  Within each of these four parts there are different sections told from either the point of view of one of the mothers or one of their daughters.  Tan works very hard to discuss and demonstrate the kinds of differences there are between Chinese immigrant mothers and their first-generation Chinese-American daughters.  This is a great read for mothers and daughters and men alike.

I give it 4 out of 5 Wildes.

"Beowulf"

     Oh Beowulf, may no high schooler who ever had the misfortune of reading you forget the cruel fate imposed upon them.  But it isn't really Beowulf's fault.  It is just that the writing is so convoluted and difficult to understand that in a matter of 3 or 4 verses, one is so far into a comatose state that there may never be a chance of revival.  The author is unknown, and may he or she thank the gods because surely there would have been an army of ruthless high school juniors who would have slain him or her.
     The origins of this epic poem are known to be Old English. The story goes something like this.  Beowulf (a brave warrior of Geats) fights off three persons: Grendel, Grendel's Mother, and a Dragon.  That's really it.  I wish I could say there was more, but its 3000+ lines of poetry are dedicated mostly to describing the battles.  Again, it's not that it is a bad read, it is just a really tough one.  Poor poor Beowulf, ye never stood a chance.

I give it 2 out of 5 Wildes.

Brave New World

     By far one of my all-time absolute favorite books I have ever had the fortune to read.  Brave New World was written by Aldous Huxley in 1931.  Huxley went to great lengths to develop a futuristic setting that both answers the questions of it's readers and terrifies them.

     The story takes place in "The Year of Our Ford 632" (2540 AD) in the World State.  In this future, they worship the automaker Henry Ford for his invention of the assembly line and general amount of awesome.  There is also a strictly followed caste system consisting of the Greek letters.  Your caste determines what kinds of activities and career you will have, mostly because the caste system is based on a predetermined level of intelligence.  People are produced in a manner very similar to Henry Ford's assembly line.  The whole society is sexually ambiguous, constantly partaking in "orgy-porgies".  They also enjoy self-medicating on a mind altering drug called Soma.  Overall, it is basically a futuristic Sodom and Gomorra.
     The main character, Bernard, though does not like to partake in many of these activities as his fellow caste-mates do.  He is different.  The people of the World State often take vacations to "The Reservations" that are full of savages.  These savages are very much similar to the Native Americans of today.  These savages have access to things that were in the world prior to the rise of the World State.  Literature, for example.  One savage, John, is well read in Shakespeare.
     Bernard brings John back to the World State with him, and the reader finally gets to see the World State from the view of someone who is more connected with us than Bernard.
     Brave New World is another one of those books that everyone should read at some point in his or her lifetime.  Truly a masterpiece of literature.  Thank you, Mr. Huxley.  You have surely affected literature for the better.

I give this one 5 out of 5 Wildes.

"The Giver"

     I've heard people refer to The Giver by Lois Lowry as "Brave New World for kids".  This was a book that I very much enjoyed.  As in the style of Brave New World, this story takes place somewhere in the future.  And also as in Brave New World fashion, this one is a bit of a trip.

     It's all about a young boy, Jonas, living in this futuristic (and slightly strict) society.  When the children of this society reach a certain age, they are assigned jobs that they must then go off and begin to study.  It's very similar to when kids would apprentice masters of a certain trade in the past.  Jonas is assigned the future job of the "Receiver of Memory".  It is through this job that Jonas begins to receive memories of things that were eliminated from his utopian society (sadness, war, famine, etc.).  I am not going to give any more of it away, but overall it is a very easy read with a very heavy message.

I give it 4 out of 5 Wildes.

"Frankenstein"

     When one reads Frankenstein, one can't help but thinking, "My goodness, this sounds like it was written by an 18 year old girl!".  Well, good sir or madam, that is because it indeed was written by an 18 year old girl.  In fact, it was an 18 year old girl with almost no practice as a writer.  Mary Shelley's only claim to being a talented writer is that she is the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft - renowned philosopher and feminist writer.

     The reason this was ever written was because Shelley was spending a summer with her husband and several of their poet friends in a house on a lake.  One stormy evening, they all decided that they should have a contest (as crazy writers do) to see who could write the scariest story.  Ironically enough, Shelley won; this event remains a mystery to literary experts.
     The story itself is a story within a story.  It starts with the logs of a captain on his ship at sea.  From there it tells the story told by a man they found lost at sea.  Most of us are very much aware of the general story of Frankenstein; but are we all aware that most of the novel is actually just descriptions of the mountains, and they sky, and the grass, and nature in general.  It is truly the transcendentalist manifesto.
     But if you can detangle yourself from the descriptions and all of the adjectives, then you can finally see that there is somewhat of a plot thrown in there.  While the idea of bringing a man back to life sounds interesting enough, it is not nearly as much in Shelley's novel.  
     Had Shelley perhaps spent more time working on plot than on nature-related descriptions she might actually have had a really good book on her hands.  No one said classics had to be good.

I give it 2 out of 5 Wildes.

"The Awakening"

Oh, Kate Chopin, how you have scorned me.  I opened The Awakening expecting to read about the interesting life of people living in New Orleans at the end of the nineteenth century.  Instead, though, I was pelted with whining, crying, and a whole lot of crap.  It was just like going to a Wiggles concert.

     In all seriousness, though, this book is just awful.  It is the story of Edna Pontellier, a wife and mother of two, who gets bored with her life.  In an attempt to spice it up a little, she has an affair with another man while her husband is away on business and her children are visiting their grandmother.  But once she has done that, she is still bored and continues to look for things that will put an end to her boredom.  At some point she moves out of her beautiful home so that she can live in some small and awful apartment in an attempt to relieve herself of her duties and responsibilities at home in order to continue to fornicate with her lover.

     I am not even going to talk about the end, but we learn that she is incredibly selfish and self-centered.  If it's not all about Edna, then Edna just ain't happy.  And if Edna isn't happy, then no once can be.  I think Grease the Musical has a better message than this.  But I will say this, Edna was most certainly the original Desperate Housewife, only more annoying. 

I give it 1 out of 5 Wildes.

"The Crucible"

     "I spy a poppet, Goody Proctor!".  That was my most popular line when I "stared" in The Crucible by Arthur Miller.  A little background about why Miller wrote this.  In 1953 there was a rising fear of the spread of communism in the United States.  Senator Joseph McCarthy was notorious for interviewing, nay interrogating, members of the US public eye concerning any possible connection to the communist party.  This became known as The Red Scare.  If someone was accused of having connections, by the end of their trial, whether proven guilty or innocent, the person accused had lost all reputability and any social standing.

     Seeing this injustice, and lunacy, Miller likened these events to those that occurred several hundred years prior during the Salem witch trials.  This is the basis of The Crucible.  Several young girls begin to accuse various women of witchcraft.  With nothing more than the word of a child, these poor women were arrested, given a short trial, and generally executed in obscene ways.   The focus of this play is on John Proctor who has an affair with Abigail Williams.  When John breaks off the affair, Abigail accuses John's wife of witchcraft.
     It is a little terrifying to know that just a small group of 12-year old girls were able to fool an entire town into turmoil and terror.  In the end, John must decide between his life and his dignity "It is my name!".  Truly a magnificent play with a message to always carry with you.  The only issue is that it can be a bit of a tough read because it is all written in slightly confusing "Puritan-talk".
     On another note, we did this play my junior year of high school, and I had the lead role of Ezekiel Cheever.  Although I was only on stage for a few minutes, I was truly the most important character, without a doubt... Who would have arrested Goody Proctor???  Just sayin'...

I give it 4 out of 5 Wildes.

Extra Bonus Picture:

This is indeed me performing the line, "I spy a poppet".  What a stud.