Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston
Begin: 1/24/08
End: 1/31/08
Quality: Seven out of Ten.
Reason: Unread.
Genre: Memoir. Non-Fiction. Asian-American Fiction.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1975
Fog Index:7.5/88% are harder.
Flesch Index: 75.7/90% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 5.8/88% are harder.
Complex Words: 6%/91% are have more.
Number: Second.
Synopsis: Hard to describe. It’s separated into five chapters which each recount events that effect her from an Aunt who killed herself and her illegitimate child to her mother’s experiences in Medical School to reimagining herself as Fa Mulan and others.
Thoughts: Good. I was expecting it to be better, I have to say. It’s not that I didn’t like it but for a book that is the most commonly taught text in modern university education, I was expecting to be fucking blown away. Overall, I did really enjoy it.

Marjane Satrapi's The Complete Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis
Begin: 1/24/08
End: 1/24/08
Quality: Ten out of Ten.
Reason: Unread.
Genre: Memoir. Graphic Novel. Non-Fiction.
Original Language: French.
Date of Publication: 2003
Fog Index: N/A
Flesch Index: N/A
Flesch-Kincaid Index: N/A
Complex Words: N/A
Number: First.
Synopsis: This is the autobiographical story of Marjane Satrapi growing up in Iran during a very tumultuous time.
Thought: Damn! This was so good. My friend Michelle has been trying to get me to read this for a very long time. I always wanted to but graphic novels are so damn expensive and I just read them so fast. I ended up reading it in one day. It was that mesmerizing. I literally could not put this book down. I just fell in love with everything about it.

Toni Morrison's Love

Toni Morrison’s Love
Begin: 1/19/08
End: 1/21/08
Quality: Seven out of Ten.
Reason: Reading Plan.
Genre: Fiction. African-American Fiction. Literature.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 2003
Fog Index: 8.1/85% are harder.
Flesch Index: 72.4/86% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 6.1/86% are harder.
Complex Words: 8%/82% have more.
Number: Third?
Synopsis: This is the story of the women in the life of Bill Cosey. We have his granddaughter, his wife, his former employer L and a few others.
Thought: As I have stated many times, I am completely obsessed with Toni Morrison. She is by far my favorite writer and I spend more than a little time immersed in her many novels. This might just be my least favorite of all of her books. I mean, I liked it. Don’t get me wrong. It just doesn’t have the same effect as say the Bluest Eye or Song of Solomon.

I loved the idea of a novel based around a character that is long dead and yet still carries so much weight in this novel. I also really wanted to spend time with L. What a captivating character! I mean I literally could read her section over and over again.

Herbert Mason's Translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh
Begin: 1/21/08
End: 1/24/08
Quality: Nine out of Ten.
Reason: Unread.
Genre: Epic. Summerian Literature. Ancient Literature.
Original Language: Akkadian.
Date of Publication: 7th Century B.C.
Fog Index: 12.2/57% are harder.
Flesch Index: 61.4/69% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 9.3/61% are harder.
Complex Words: 12%/64% have more.
Number: First.
Synopsis: This is an ancient Epic that concerns Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu and their adventures and then Gilgamesh’s reaction to Enkidu’s death.
Thought: I had always heard that this had a big influence on the writing of the Torah. I can see it a little bit but I was expecting it to be more in line with the Torah. I still enjoyed it. It was not like anything that I could have predicted. I still enjoyed it.

I was surprised by the situation between Inanna and Gilgamesh. How he pretty much called her out on her shit.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. The translation was really tight and the story very mesmerizing. I wish now that I had not gotten an abridged version but I will have to correct that at some point in the near future.

William Shakespeare's King Lear

William Shakespeare’s King Lear
Begin: 1/14/08
End: 1/19/08
Quality: Nine out of Ten.
Reason: Reading Plan.
Genre: Drama. Classics.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1608.
Fog Index: 6.8/88% are harder.
Flesch Index: 75.0/90% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 4.8/90% are harder.
Complex Words: 9%/75% have more.
Number: Fourth?
Synopsis: King Lear decides to retire and split his kingdom in three among his daughters. He furthermore decides that they should tell me before the full court how much they love him. Goneril and Regan flatter him quite a bit but Cordelia, his favorite, refuses to do this and is banished without any land. Once he leaves the throne, his daughters refuse to let him live in style. Eventually, Cordelia, who has married the King of France, invade to put Lear back on the throne. Tragedy ensues all over.
Thoughts: This is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. It is really quite good. I mean it’s horribly tragic and sad. It is probably one of Shakespeare’s most brutal plays. I can understand why it is so popular today with it’s rather nihilistic themes. And you also have some of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters. Edmund and Kent and Cordelia and Lear. It all fits together rather impressively.
Not really sure what else to say about a play that has been worked over by some of the greatest scholars so I will leave it at this.

Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros

Eugene Ionesco
Begin: 1/6/08
End: 1/12/08
Quality: Four out of Ten.
Reason: Unread. Modern Drama.
Genre: Drama. Theater of the Absurd.
Original Language: French.
Date of Publication: 1960.
Fog Index: 8.9/81% are harder.
Flesch Index: 67.3/78% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 6.5/84% are harder.
Complex Words: 12%/65% have more.
Number: First.
Synopsis: The play starts in this little café in a small town. Two friends are chatting about a number of topics. A few of the other towns people are also conversing. A rhino runs through the town which brings shock and awe to everyone. It eventually comes out that everyone in the town is turning into Rhinos. No. Seriously!
Thoughts: I have a tendency to like the idea of absurdist plays more than I actually like them. Does that make any sense?

I found this play to be rather tedious but now thinking back about and seeing the wider arc, I appreciate it more and find that I kinda of liked it. It’s like a monet. I only like it from a far off view. It makes sense and I get it better than when I was actually immersed in it.

So maybe the next time that I read this, I will get more out of it or it is possibly that I am only going to really like it from a far off perspective and never actually enjoy reading it. We shall just have to wait and see.

Mary Norton's Bedknob and Broomstick

Mary Norton’s Bedknob and Broomstick.
Begin: 1/13/08
End: 1/13/08
Quality: Eight out of Ten.
Reason: Unread.
Genre: Children’s Literature.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1943.
Fog Index: N/A
Flesch Index: N/A
Flesch-Kincaid Index: N/A
Complex Words: N/A
Number: First.
Synopsis: Three siblings gain a present from a witch in training and have numerous adventures including getting locked up in a jail in London, escaping from cannibals on a tropical island and even going back in time to converse with a 17th century necromancer.
Thoughts: The movie is one of my all time favorite Disney movies and so when I found the book outside of Shaw’s, I was very excited. I ended up reading it on the bus to Providence one day. I did really enjoy it but it’s just totally different from the movie. They took the basic idea and just switched and jumbled everything. I still did enjoy it, it was just weird getting used to the new story.