Preface: I have to admit that the uppity snobby bits of my reading psyche are not quick to confess to reading this book. It’s Oprah. It’s shamelessly smutty, it’s 973 pages long and it’s set in medieval England. But still.

The Pillars of the Earth (Deluxe Edition) (Oprah’s Book Club)… by Ken Follett

I didn’t read this for the descriptive genius (snicker) or the subtle eloquence (hee) of Follett. Nope. I read it because I’m interested in the historical period and the quotidian life of the High Middle Ages. And for that, it was decent.

It reads like a soap opera (though the flip side is that it’s definitely not hard to get through), so don’t expect delicate intricacies or elegant metaphors. You know. It’s for readin’. For enjoyment.

Oh, and it’s trashy. Sometimes I found this gleeful, other times just trying. Sex, gore and cliffhangers. Follett’s day job as a thriller writer is starkly apparent.

And don’t expect any stunning plot twists, really. If you look at the state of things about a quarter of the way through the book, you’ll most likely guess the general way everything comes out.

I’m leaving something out, though: this book is fun to read. It’s a good beach or travel grab, and, even though it’s 973 pages long, it goes by quickly enough. And if you’re as into Medieval European history as I am, you’ll enjoy the well-researched elements of it. ( )

Tags: england, history, read, reading

Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Brontë

Funny how a book written 160 years ago can be this eyebrow-raising. I actually found myself saying to myself (almost out loud): “Oh no she didn’t” and “She slept where?!” and “He said what?!” Compared to Austen (who, granted, wrote 40 years earlier), which I’ve been reading lots of lately, this is raunchy stuff.

It’s also remarkably plot-driven, much to my relief. And the plot (again to compare to Jane Austen) broaches the boundaries of mere courtships and the quotidian. A few true twists happen. There are indeed still long passages of description (enjoyable, still) and religious reflection (less enjoyable to me), but mostly, we’re talking page-turner here.

In true Victorian literature fashion, expect some improbable coincidences and melodrama. But what Brontë excels at here–I mean really excels!–is character development. Some of the dialog in Jane Eyre is so good it’s obvious that no one would ever actually SAY that, but it’s still so good. Brontë manages to make middle-aged Rochester kind of hot, and then there’s the surprisingly full-sketched figure of St. John Rivers.

All in all, I can say this wasn’t what I expected, and mostly in a good way. Having read Dickens, Thackeray (contemporaries) and Austen (earlier) this year, Brontë really stood out on her own, with a strong, engaging style. ( )

Tags: 19th century, british, read, reading, review, victorian

lyzadanger’s review: “I finished this nigh a week ago but I’m still challenged to say exactly how I feel about it.Reading this book is like getting off a bus and finding yourself in a third-world country where you not only don’t speak the language, but you don’t even understand the brand of humanity exercised around you. It’s a whirling confusion of sweetness paired with inhuman destructiveness. From my admittedly sheltered perspective, the leap of understanding required to conceive of how anyone could behave this way, playing fast and loose with human life in such an elementally evil way, is difficult to grasp. But I suppose that is the point.

All that said, I find that I like Beah. Anyone who can start sensitive, devolve into the Heart of Darkness and somehow come back again is a deep character in my book.

Watch out reading this if you, like me, are sensitive to graphic imagery. There were times when I had to force myself to keep reading, assuring myself that I *needed* to know about this, to understand this chaos. I found it difficult to read at night or when I was feeing tense.”

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2007), Hardcover, 240 pages

**** (of 5)
, Read for Book Club

Tags: 50 book challenge, africa, autobiography, bookclub, memoir, nonfiction, read, readin2007, sierra leone, war