The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Intriguing, nothing but. I was so absorbed in this cruel little book that I hardly noticed the end coming. It was written as hauntingly beautifully as the picure in the novel was painted. It has a circular poetic nature to the story and it's fascinating. I really don't want to say much about it, I feel as though any bit of summary would completely ruin the surprise. I only knew this book was a classic when I began to read it, I had no idea what the cover held inside for me. Because of that I truly enjoyed the book. So if you want to know why the Picture of Dorian Gray is so famously mentioned throughout history in other books and top rated music, I guess you will have to read it yourself.

J.L.Wills

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K.Rowling

My children and I enjoyed this wonderful little book. As dear to us as Mother Goose, bringing back those lovely memories of Hogwarts and our dear friends there. Each tale is followed by an excerpt from Professor Albus Dumbledore, which is also a bit of timeless wisdom. If you are a fan, I'm sure you've read it and I don't need to go on about J.K.Rowling's brilliance. And if you are not a fan you probably have no interest. But if you are curious, this little book may be the first step of yours into our world. Come on in and get lost.

J.L.Wills

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

The book reviews on this are great, the novel...not so much. To wrap it up in one fair sweep: I was bored. The entire time, bored. There was no connection between the main character and his situation. He was stale and distant from everything about his wife leaving him to his mother's death. Finally in the last paragraph, the very ending of the book does he show this bit of humanness, this bit of reality that is poetic and genuine. Oh, I tried so hard to enjoy this book, I pressed on with it though I wanted to fling it to the floor. And still after getting over half way through I hadn't even touched on anything minutely interesting, so I skipped to the last ten pages or so and claimed it finished. And even those last few pages were stale as last year's bread and I found myself blah-blahing through sentences, trudging toward the ending like through two feet of wet sand. There is nothing compelling in the story, nothing to move you forward because the main character is not compelled, he cares nothing for what comes his way, for the people around him, whether his wife comes back to him. Certainly I don't blame his wife for leaving him in the first place (which, by the way, is not even pondered by the character on why she left) because I was also ready to fly to another country and be done with this man. I'm sorry, I don't agree with the famous reviews of this one. I am dissappointed and can't believe I bought a hardback edition of this, which is going to the used bookstore today. These are the kind of books that make me think some of these book reviews have cash incentives behind them. Simply boring, a waste of my time.

J.L.Wills

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

This is a picasso of music and prose. A beautiful novel set amongst the ravages of WWII in Italy. There are four major characters; the burned english patient; the young nurse, Hana; the government hired thief, David; and the indian sapper, Kip. All of them so beautifully different. I loved it, swerving in and out of their lives, seeing what hurt them here or there, where they came from, how they all came to be so closely loved by eachother, how they had to leave eachother. It is a novel you have to be on your toes about. With the beginning of each chapter you are placed in someone else's life, in some other time. It is a mosaic of four lives. Not an easy read, but an elegant one. Four stars.

JLW

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

This is for the philosophical romantic, the reader of tragedy and the questioner of life. This is great writing. Never once was I bored or uninterested. Every page was full. And it's such a good look at post WWII Germans, which we don't hear much of. Most of the tragedy of that war is given to pity the genocide of the Jews, but what about the country that had to overcome such an atrocity on their hands, on their parent's hands, in their history forever, in their memories? It is a good story for many good reasons and I will probably read it again one day, not many books make it to my reread list but this one did. Nothing extravagant, just real.

J.L.Wills

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis

This is a wonderful book to read aloud to your kids. Me and the girls enjoyed every moment of this. I never had to ask them twice to come listen to me read about Narnia, in fact I had to be careful and make sure I could follow through with it because once mentioned they wouldn't be happy without a dose of Lucy, Peter, Susan, and Edmund. This is the second book but is always the first of the movies when movies are being made on Narnia. Still, the first book sets the stage and gives a fuller appreciation of the entire story. C.S.Lewis writes to enthrall not only children but anyone who has been a child once. He is brilliant.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this. And by the twentieth page I was scared. Really scared. The beginning is so dark and inescapable that I had to stop and remind myself to quit holding my breath. The middle is still tense but not nearly as quivering as the beginning of the book. It is written as a collection of newspaper articles and journal entries in the first person of many characters so you get personal with the all the main characters. And the ending is gallant, bloody, and unsure. I rave Bram Stoker, he did honor to the strength of femininity. It is a long book and it took me even longer being ill in the middle of it but it was such an adventure, such a great adventure.

J.L.Wills