Susan Hated Literature

Author: Timothy Findley
ISBN: 0140050116 DDC: 813.54
See also: Library Thing ; The Stay at Home Bookworm ; Wikipedia

Prologue
She was standing in the middle of the railroad tracks. Her head was bowed and her right front hoof was raised as if she rested.

The Wars tells the story of Robert Ross, an officer in the Canadian army during WWI, a young man full of guilt over the death of his sister. This sister, Rowena, suffered from hydrocephalus, and Robert had promised to never leave her. But, when she is being watched by their younger brother Stuart, she falls, hits her head and dies. In the aftermath, Robert enlists.

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Dir: Alfonso Cuarón
Writ: Richard LaGravenese & Elizabeth Chandler, based on book by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

• Liesel Matthews … Sara Crewe
• Liam Cunningham … Capt. Crewe/Prince Rama
• Vanessa Lee Chester … Becky
• Eleanor Bron … Miss Minchin
• Errol Sitahal … Ram Dass
• Kelsey Mulrooney … Lottie

Sara Crewe lives a spoiled life in India with a devoted, doting father, until World War I intervenes, and he enlists, sending Sara off to boarding school in New York to keep her safe. There she must adjust, whereas before she had free rein to do as she pleased, now she must submit to rules and regulations that she doesn’t understand. And, most difficult for her, she must keep her imagination in check. But Sara isn’t a selfish, “poor little rich girl”, she is bright and kind, and soon makes friends with most of the other girls, from those in her class to the scullery maid. She is also the only one who can really get through to Lottie as they have both lost their mothers.

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Author: Sebastian Barry
ISBN: 0571218016 DDC: 823.914
See also: Library Thing ; Three Monkey’s Interview ; Dublin’s One Book One City ;

He was born in the dying days.
It was the withering end of 1896. He was called William after the long-dead Orange King, because his father took an interest in such distant matters.

It seems to have taken me ages to finish this book. I’ve been dipping in and out for a while now. Nothing to do with the book itself, more to do with my lack of attention, because it is a very good book. Gripping would be the cliché. But true nonetheless.

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Author: Louis De Bernières
ISBN: 0099478986
DDC: 823.914

The people who remained in this place have often asked themselves why it was that Ibrahim went mad. I am the only one who knows, but I have always been committed to silence, because he begged me to respect his grief, or, as he also put it, to take pity upon his guilt.

I’m not really sure where to start with this review, because this book covers so much. It is set in a small village in Anatolia, in the finaly few years of the Ottoman Empire, just before the forced separation of Turks from Greeks, and Muslims from Christian. There are a multitude of characters, sometimes they tell their own stories in first person narration, other times a third person narrator details their lives as they intertwine and grow apart.

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Author: Arthur Phillips
DDC: 813.6
Read with Historical Favorites

Journal: Arrival in Cairo via rail from Alexandria. Set to work immediately. Have scheduled five days in Cairo for logistics and background wailting prior to heading south to site

The Egyptologist didn’t really grab me when I started to read it, I’m never a huge fan of first-person narrators, and stories told by a mix of letter and journal can often put me off. But I stayed with it, and was pleasantly surprised.

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• Diane Kruger - Anna Sörensen
• Benno Fürmann - Nikolaus Sprink
• Guillaume Canet - Lieutenant Audebert
• Gary Lewis - Palmer
• Alex Ferns - Gordon
• Daniel Bruhn - Horstmayer
• Steven Robertson - Jonathan
• Ian Richardson - L’évêque/Bishop
• Natalie Dessay - voice
• Rolando Villiazon - voice

Before the opening credits rolled on this film I had been thinking that I really wasn’t in th emood for seeing a foreign film that I’d have to read. And then some bint knocked over my popcorn so I wasn’t too happy. The credit sequence was long, and too be honest, not all interesting, but once the film began I really got sucked in and would have to rate it as once of the best films I’ve seen.

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