My Thoughts: The Hours by Micheal Cunningham

I wasn't overly impressed by the film for this, but it was on my challenge list for both the Pulitzer prize and the 1001 list so I thought I had better give the book a go, and it was so much better, much more rounded.

The book spans across the day in the life of three women, each at a different point in history.

Virginia Woolf, in London in 1927, trying to start writing Mrs Dallloway, but also struggling with the pressures of depression and a desire to just slip away from this world.

Mrs Brown, in America in 1949, a housewife with the perfect little family, but they just don't satisfy her. She wants to escape, to a different life, to the book Mrs Dalooway, and also contemplates commiting suicide.

And Clarrisa, nick named Mrs Dalloway, who is preparing a party for her dying friend in modern day New York.

All the women are feeling seperated from life in some way, and suicide comes up a lot. Not agood novel for if you are having a bad day!

Challenges:

20th century Reads: 1999

Pulitzer Prize Challenge

1001 Reading Challenge

Book Awards 2 2/10

My Thoughts: Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

It has taken me a very, very long time to read this, but I have enjoyed every page. I have never seen the film or knew a great deal about the story except Rhett and Scarlett's name so everything was all new to me.

As I'm sure most people know this novel focuses on just 12years in the life of Scarlett O'Hara. In that 12 years she faces a lifetimes worth of events and emotions. From a flighty, flirty and selfish teenage with a spread of men laid at her feet for her choosing, she ends up in a loveless marriage because she couldn't have the one man she wanted. This marriage leaves her a mother and a widow by the age of 17. The war betweeen the Yankees in the north and the south rages, at first leaving Scarlett with a sence of freedom and then a series of burdens and worries. Scarltett's fierce soul helps here battle her way to safety, fight poverty and kill a man so she can keep the hous that she loves going and in her possession. For the safety of this house and those in it she enters yet another love less marriage and produces yet another unwanted child. She is yet again left a widow and marries the Scalleywag Rhett Butler, a marriage full of passion, hatred, lies and deciet.

As much as Scarlett should be a hated character I couldn't help but like her determination, her way of getting what she needed - yes she was spiteful, and self absorbed but the reader always seemed to be kept on her side, in the knowledge that deep down she wasn't as strong as she liked to show. Melly, took a while to capture me, but she was created with a weak body and a stong mind and soul. Yet the most captivating character in the novel was Rhett, we had to learn to read the expressions on his face, just as Scarlett had to try and decipher them. We never knew how he was going to react to any situation, or to Scarlett's scorn. I loved all the passages about him with Bonnie, a way to love Scarlett through another person.

I shall definately get my own copy of this book, as I'd love to read it again in the future, and I shall hire the film in the next few weeks to see how it compares. The best book I've read this year by far.

Challenges:

The Southern Challenge Book 2 of 3

The Classics Challenge Book 4 of 5

Unread Authors Challenge Book 2 of 6

What's in a Name Book 5 of 6 (Weather)

1001 Project

Around the World

20th Century Project 1936

Pulitzer Project Book 11 of 81

If anyone has reviewed this, please leave a link to your review in the comments and I'll add it in

The Pulitzer Project: My Reading's from the list

The Pulitzer Project is being held by 3M, this is an ongoing project to try and read all 81 books from the list.

Below is a copy of the list. In Red I have highlighted the books I have already read, with a star rating and in Blue the books I hope to read from the list this year, 2008

2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

2007 - The Road (McCarthy)

2006 - March (Brooks) ****

2005 - Gilead (Robinson)

2004 - The Known World (Jones)

2003 - Middlesex (Eugenides) *****

2002 - Empire Falls (Russo)

2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)

2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri)

1999 - The Hours (Cunningham)

1998 - American Pastoral (Roth)

1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (Millhauser)

1996 - Independence Day (Ford)

1995 - The Stone Diaries (Shields)***

1994 - The Shipping News (Proulx)****

1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Butler)

1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley)****

1991 - Rabbit at Rest (Updike)

1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Hijuelos)

1989 - Breathing Lessons (Tyler)

1988 - Beloved (Morrison)

1987 - A Summons to Memphis (Taylor)

1986 - Lonesome Dove (McMurtry)

1985 - Foreign Affairs (Lurie)

1984 - Ironweed (Kennedy)

1983 - The Color Purple (Walker)*****

1982 - Rabbit is Rich (Updike)

1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)

1980 - The Executioner’s Song (Mailer)

1979 - The Stories of John Cheever (Cheever)

1978 - Elbow Room (McPherson)

1977 - None given

1976 - Humboldt’s Gift (Bellow)

1975 - The Killer Angels (Shaara)

1974 - None given

1973 - The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)

1972 - Angle of Repose (Stegner)

1971 - None given

1970 - Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Stafford)

1969 - House Made of Dawn (Momaday)

1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner (Styron)

1967 - The Fixer (Malamud)

1966 - Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Porter)

1965 - The Keepers Of the House (Grau)

1964 - None given

1963 - The Reivers (Faulkner)

1962 - The Edge of Sadness (Edwin O’Connor)

1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)*****

1960 - Advise and Consent (Drury)

1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (Taylor)

1958 - A Death in the Family (Agee)

1957 - None

1956 - Andersonville (Kantor)

1955 - A Fable (Faulkner)

1954 - None

1953 - The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)

1952 - The Caine Mutiny (Wouk)

1951 - The Town (Richter)

1950 - The Way West (Guthrie)

1949 - Guard of Honor (Cozzens)

1948 - Tales of the South Pacific (Michener)

1947 - All the King’s Men (Warren)

1946 - None

1945 - Bell for Adano (Hersey)

1944 - Journey in the Dark (Flavin)

1943 - Dragon’s Teeth I (Sinclair)

1942 - In This Our Life (Glasgow)

1941 - None

1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)

1939 - The Yearling (Rawlings)

1938 - The Late George Apley (Marquand)

1937 - Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)

1936 - Honey in the Horn (Davis)

1935 - Now in November (Johnson)

1934 - Lamb in His Bosom (Miller)

1933 - The Store (Stribling)

1932 - The Good Earth (Buck)

1931 - Years of Grace (Barnes)

1930 - Laughing Boy (Lafarge)

1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary (Peterkin)

1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilder)****

1927 - Early Autumn (Bromfield)

1926 - Arrowsmith (Lewis)

1925 - So Big (Ferber)

1924 - The Able McLauglins (Wilson)

1923 - One of Ours (Cather)

1922 - Alice Adams (Tarkington)

1921 - The Age of Innocence (Wharton)****

1920 - None

1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons (Tarkington)

1918 - His Family (Poole)

11/81 Read