Book # 7 - The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings Book 2 of 3) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Since I loved The Fellowship of the Ring, it goes without saying that I also greatly enjoyed The Two Towers. The book is split into two halves. In the first half we follow the quest of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas as they try to rescue Merry and Pippen and eventually meet up with the riders of Rohan, defend Helm's Deep and go to Saruman's tower. In the second half we follow Frodo and Sam (and Gollum) as they continue onwards to Mordor, meet Faramir and encounter the giant spider Shelob. This book just gets better every time I read it... so many details to always pick up. A+

Horror Book # 12 & Sci-Fi Book # 31- Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was another book I read (actually reread) while I was on vacation last month. The story involves a lawyer that meets an ugly strange and rude man named Mr. Hyde that is somehow involved with the life of one of his good friends Dr. Jekyll. The lawyer becomes curious and tries to figure out how the two people are connected. And as everyone already knows it turns out that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are actually the same person. In an effort to separate the good and evil parts of his self, Dr. Jekyll creates a potion that transforms him between the two... but unfortunately his body becomes accustomed to the potion and he ends up staying Mr. Hyde longer and longer and is unable to return to his normal self.

The story is entertaining and I'd imagine the big reveal was more shocking when the book was first published. I found it interesting that Dr. Jekyll thought his intentions were actually good and that he at first didn't feel like he was responsible for Hyde's actions. However the more Jekyll allowed his dark side to come out the more he began to enjoy it and seemed to become addicted to it. Something to think about. I'll give this one an A, it is a classic.

Horror Book # 11 - The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

While on vacation I needed to find a book to read on the way back and saw a cheap copy of The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty for sale. Since Halloween was coming up I figured now would be a good time to read it. The story is well known... The daughter of a movie star gets possessed by a demon and then there is an exorcism.

With a book that has such a well known movie it is hard not to continually compare it to the film. The film is faithful to the book but really minimized the roles of all of the supporting characters... so much so that they are hard to remember in hindsight. In the book the roles of the Regan's nanny, the police detective and Father Dyer are all expanded and give the whole story more depth. Now that I think about it, most of those characters are pretty pointless in the movie.

I enjoyed the book. There weren't really any surprises since it the film stuck pretty closely to it, but I liked getting an expanded version of the story with a bit more depth. And of course it was scary. I'll give it an A.

Sci-Fi Book # 19 & Horror Book # 68 - The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

Unlike Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells tells the story of a man who is literally invisible. One day a small inn takes in a man completely covered in bandages. At first everyone assumes that the man has had some kind of accident. After some unusual crimes people become suspicious and the invisible man's secret gets out.

Much like Wells' War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man shows normal people encountering something that seems unbelievable and the result is panic.  I enjoy Wells' style and can imagine how groundbreaking his work was when it was published. This one gets an A.

Book # 7 - The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings Book 1 of 3) by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings is a book that most people are already familiar with... so there isn't a need to recap the story. There's Frodo and the ring, Gandalf the Wizard, Gollum, Aragorn... etc.

This will be the third time that I've read this book and after reading The Fellowship of the Ring it the most enjoyable time so far. There is just so much information throughout the book that Tolkien just casually throws out there that it can be hard to take it all in on a first (or second reading). Seeing the films multiple times also helps. This is a book meant to be read several times... and it is well worth it. There will always be new details to be picked up.

Did I mention that this is one of my favorite books of all time? The first book gets an A+.

Mystery Book # 36 - Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers

While reading Strong Poison I knew that it was part of a series of books... what I just now realized is that FIVE of those books are on my mystery reading list. The series follows Lord Peter Wimsey, a British gentleman that solves mysteries in his spare time. In this book he is following the case of Harriet Vane, a woman accused of poisoning her ex-boyfriend. He believes that she is innocent and sets out to solve the case before Harriet is convicted... and he also falls in love with her.

The book was entertaining. Maybe I'd have liked it more if I didn't start with a book from the middle of the series. It reminded me of one of those Masterpiece Mysteries that Lucinda is always watching. It is definitely very British. I'm glad I enjoyed it since there are four more books on this list. I'll give it a B+.

Book # 48 Remembrance of Things Past (Part 4 of 7)- Cities of the Plain by Marcel Proust

Volume one of Remembrance of Things Past was great. Volume two was entertaining and moving. Volume three started to get on my nerves but was still worth reading. Volume four was tough... and took me a year to slowly get through. All I can say is that it is incredibly boring.

In Cities of the Plain the Narrator has become a part of French high society and attends a lot of parties. And he details all of the people me meets and their snobbish behaviors in great great detail for hundreds of pages. Probably three quarters of the book is just his descriptions of some gathering of people gossiping about other people (and it isn't a short book either). As for the other quarter of the book, I actually enjoyed it when the Narrator talked about his evolving feelings about his friend Albertine and his thoughts on random stuff in life.

It is kind of hard to give this one a grade. Some parts are incredibly well written and beautiful... but most of it is snobby French people talking about other snobby French people. I guess a B-. It makes me think that anyone that lists Remembrance of Things Past as the greatest book ever written is a bit pretentious. Also, the book mentions Don Quixote and Anna Karenina