If you have never heard of Sinclair Lewis before, you can think of him as F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s counterpart. He also published during the ‘roaring twenties,’ but wrote of many different classes of people. It seems he especially liked yoking together characters from high society and low society, to see how they get along. This yoking together is exactly what he does in Free Air (April 1922), the seventh of twenty-six novels he has written.

Similar to what we envision of the 1920′s, Lewis’ prose comes across as high and fast. The high part revealing the lofty and romantic language he uses throughout the novel (taken from the upper class); the fast part is revealed in long run-on sentences that the characters speak and seems to work particularly well in this time period.

Before I continue with my review of Free Air, I want to note that in 1930 Lewis won the Nobel Prize for literature and as a prize recipient, was required to write a short autobiography on his career so far. I strongly recommend anyone considering being an author (or currently in the struggles of becoming one) take a peak (you will also notice his ‘high and fast’ language here). My favorite quote from this autobiography comes at the very end where he reveals his ever-present satire: “I am settled down to what I hope to be the beginning of a novelist’s career. I hope the awkward apprenticeship with all its errors is nearly done.” Only after writing 14 novels and winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, does he finally allow himself to truely ‘begin’ his career as a novelist.

Free Air can be summed up as a book about the great American road trip. Claire Boltwood and takes her father Mr. Boltwood on a cross country car trip from New York city all the way to Seattle, WA. Although Claire describes their financial situation to be mediocre, I found out that they really are a part of the elite New York society that was akin to British royalty in the 1920′s. The road trip is full of humor and character building crisis’ for Claire (the modern reader will find the description of the roads very insightful due to their practical non-existence; all back country road, mud and the occasional small town). And it is in one of the first small city stops that they make do they run into Milt Daggett, the owner of the local car shop. At first sight, Daggett falls for Claire and what will only sound as creepy in this summary, decides then and there to follow her and her father all the way to Seattle. Stalker? Knight in shining armor? That is what I will leave for you to find out if you read Free Air.

This book was popular enough on its publication to have been made into a silent film in 1922, starring Tom Douglas as Milt Daggett and Marjorie Seaman as Claire Boltwood.

This novel is a fantastic reinterpretation of George Orwell’s classic Nineteen Eighty-Four and is written for teens. I found that Doctrow did a good job at reinventing this classic and found he made the world Orwell created in Nineteen Eighty-Four more relatable to us who were born after 1984. This book made me laugh a lot and I found myself really caring for the main character “w1n5t0n.”  This is definitely one of the more literary YA novels that I have read in while.  For all you teachers out there, don’t torture today’s student with 1984, but perhaps, let them read Little Brother….just saying!

Summary: Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

So take a look at their website, Out of Print, and feel good about supporting classic literature.

Here are some of my favorite T’s:

To read my review of The Great Gatsby, click here.

To read my review of Lolita, click here.

BIG BROTHER: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell was written in 1949 and is a dystopian science fiction novel about the future of America. It is everything the liberals fight against: mind control, perpetual war, government surveillance and propaganda.

Overall, I found this novel very hard to read and complete.  It portrays a very unreasonable society where ignorance is praised and common sense is punished. As you can read on the poster to the left, this is just one example of the many propaganda we are shown and it is very hard to swallow.  The main character, Winston Smith, is our guide through the new regime and Orwell does an amazing job of making the reader feel as uncomfortable as Winston does about how his world is being run.  He has absolutely no freedom: Big Brother is always watching!

Winston is part of a small group of non-believers who don’t agree with the government (it’s less of a movement, and more of a natural instinct), and these non-believers come in many different strands.  Julia, for example, is the character Winston “falls in love with” (which in this society, love is not allowed, nor does it exist). Coincidently, Julia feels the same for Winston and they steel away to the country, far from any eyes of Big Brother to break the law and participate in illegal love making. Winston is elated at finding another non-believer, but then he realizes that Julia does believe in Big Brother whole-heartedly, except when it comes to restricting love.

This book has been made in to many different movies, but here is the 1984 version of Nineteen Eighty-Four:

Overall, I tend to read for pleasure and this novel was anything but a pleasurable read. If you decide to take the leap and try reading this widely popular classic, good luck and don’t give up!

Valley of  the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann is described as a cult classic that boasts having sold more than 30 million copies world-wide. It was first published in 1966 and became an instant success. Jacqueline Susann became the first female author to sell such quantities of her novels, helping to pave the way for future female fiction writers, especially in the genre of chic-lit.

What are dolls: red or black; capsules or tablets; washed down with vodka or swallowed straight.

Valley of the Dolls chronicles the lives of three female characters in New York City beginning in 1945, oscillating from each females point-of-view from ‘chapter’ to ‘chapter’ (I use the term ‘chapter’ lightly because they are more like ‘sections’). There is Anne, escaping from a life of expectation and tradition in Lawrenceville, Massachusetts. The novel opens with her perspective and I found this first part hard to get through because Anne is very well-bred and with that comes very little excitement. However, as the novel progresses and you are faced with the calamities of the other pill popping dolls, Anne becomes the one constant I came to look forward to.

Next we are introduced to Neely, the bright faced vaudeville performer with light aspirations of ‘making it big’ on the stage of New York or the movies. Neely is a few years younger than Anne and looks up to her for help and guidance.  It is Anne in the end who provides Neely with her big break and she shoots to super-stardom, but of course, popping too many dolls along the way.I thought I would enjoy Neely’s sections the most since she is always on the go, but whether we blame the pills or world-wide success, Neely ends up being nothing but an ungrateful b****!

Finally we meet Jennifer, the stunning beauty who has a controlling mother at home.  Jennifer’s mother is the sole reason she continues to seek out rich men (because of her constant nag to send money home), but in the end, Jennifer makes it on her own as an actress in Paris. I would say Jennifer ended up being my favorite section to read, but was sad they were cut short…

The three girls briefly live together when they are between marriages and each finds solace and destruction when using dolls. If you like the television show Mad Men, this novel reminds me of the era it portrays 100%, except we focus on three successful women, who still live under the stigma of being nothing without a man.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel and once I got through the first section I could not put it down (finished in about 1 week!).  I think this is a great novel, especially for young girls to read, since it teaches you about humility, drugs, sex and love. Viva la sexual revolution! However, this does not stop it from ending on a very sad note… (which I of course will not give away!).

This novel was also turned into a movie in 1967. Below is ‘part 1′  found on YouTube (the entire movie can be watched here): Overall, I thought the movie did an amazing adaptation of the novel.  The three fierce actresses embodied Susann’s creations of Anne, Neely and Jennifer to pick-perfection. It even helped me better understand motives I found a little foggy in the novel.  But overall, I recommend reading the novel and then the movie or vice-versa.

If you are wondering, I ended up being a Faery for Halloween. My costume was inspired from Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series (I’m kind of addicted to these books right now).

In RT Book Reviews magazine, I came across these delightful e-reader covers that are fashioned out of, you guessed it, classic texts. Not only do these covers bring the old-school-feel we miss when having an e-reader, but I think they cleverly mask your possibly expensive investment.

Some of my favourites:

Not every cover fits every e-reader, so make sure to read the fine print before your order one of your own!

Check it out: CLICK HERE!

If you don’t see a favourite, the designer, Randy, does make custom orders!

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

Before there was Gothic, Ann Radcliffe set out to define exactly what a book of this genre should entail: a com bination of the elements of horror and romance. Only second to The Castle of Ortranto by Horace Walpole, The Mysteries of Udolpho is frequently used as a case study for what defines the Gothic genre.

Below are some of the prominent Gothic elements you will find in The Mysteries of Udolpho:

Scary/Haunted old building/castle with Gothic architecture:

Death & Decay: 

Madness / Hereditary Curses:

Secrets & Doubles:

Quick summary: After Emily St. Aubuert is imprisoned by her evil guardian, Count Montoni, in his gloomy medieval fortress in the Appenines, terror becomes the order of the day. With its dream-like plot and hallucinatory rendering of its characters’ psycological states, The Mysteries of Udolpho is a fascinating challenge to contemporary readers.

There’s good fun to be had in dark castles and secret passages, among mysterious voices and ghostly apparitions. Although the novel appears many pages long, reading was not unpleasant or dragging.

This is a Hogwarts Reading Challenge and the full details can be found HERE.

You pick books according to what class at Hogwarts they would fall into (for example, I would say most classical literature would fall into the Muggle Studies category).

I absolutely love how this blogger has made their website look like J.K Rowling’s website.  J.K’s website can be found HERE.

And don’t forget: Harry Potter makes you hotter!

Maybe a good Halloween costume?

4. The vampires from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We all know that there are going to be a lot of sparkly-skinned vampires running around this year, or even perhaps what has become the classic look for the vampire: black hair with widow’s peak and cape.  But what was Stoker’s real vision for these monsters of the night?

Description of Dracula by Bram Stoker: “There he lay looking as if youth had been half-renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey, the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst the swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood; he lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion.”

Now for the brides of Dracula. In Stoker’s novel, the three women that live with Dracula are never referred to as his brides.  Two are described as having dark hair, while one, the leader, is desrcibed as being blonde. The only description Stoker really gives is of there “high aquiline noses, like the Count’s”. I could not find any descriptions of their clothing, but in almost ever photo of them in Google images, they are wearing long, white flowing gowns.

I absolutely love their lines:

Act 4, Scene 1

SCENE I. A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches

First Witch:  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.

Second Witch: Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

Third Witch:  Harpier cries ‘Tis time, ’tis time.

First Witch:
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

ALL:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

It seems most witches in other tales stem from these three. Such lines as “In the Cauldron boil and bake; / Eye of Newt, and Toe of Frogge, / Wool of Bat, and Tongue of Dogge, / Adder’s Fork, and Blind-worm’s Sting,  / Lizard’s leg, and Howlet’s wing,  / For a Charm of powerful trouble  / Like a Hell-broth boil and bubble ,” seem to have been used countless times in our plays, movies and books (hello Harry Potter!).

So what is the vision of the witches that Shakespeare had in mind?  Here is a description by Macbeth when he first encountered them:

—”What are these
So wither’d and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants of th’ earth
And yet are on ‘t?”

Artists and costume designers have interpreted the witches in many ways, but the most consistent  costume seems to be long, white flowing hair and bodies covered with a long, black flowing cloak, sometimes with a hood.

So if you are a party of three this Halloween night, try this costume out (and don’t forget to speak in verse!).

If you happen to have an extra male on hand, make him your Macbeth and torment him throughout the night!

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Creepy actions by the three witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act 1, scene 1: