On the Road

On the Road. Wow. Ok,I get that everybody in the book represents a real life person. The names are somewhat changed, yadayadayada. But what did Jack Kerouac see in Neal Cassady? If he was anything like Dean in the book...then I don't understand it. I thought he brought some life to the party, but he was out of his mind, wild, crazy and just extremly out there. Can a person really be that non-sensical?
I always felt really sad for the character Sal. To me, he had such potential and Dean was always sort of a bad influence.
The entire book was not lost on me, not in the slightest. I loved the actual "on the road" theme. I love the chapter where Sal is a cotton picker. I really loved that chapter, actually. But the book and the characters were just not something i could relate to in the slightest. :(

The Lost Diary of Don Juan

I read this one in April of last year. I picked it up because of Johnny Depp and the character he portrayed in the movie "Don Juan De Marco" I thought it was a very interesting subject. One man who is loved by many--and he is capitivated by one woman. I mean, it IS interesting.
The author did a good job with the character, but the one Johnny Depp portrayed will always be my favourite-if only for that part in the end when he tells the truth. Johnny Depp was remarkable in that scene--in that transformation. I love it!

Dream: A Speech that Inspired a Nation

This book was all about one speech. And every page of it was amazing. It moved me so much. Around this time, I was going through a really strange 60's phase. The Kennedy's, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sandy Koufax, The Graduate, etc. It was really strange because I read this book, and then watched the movie, "Bobby". I was moved beyond words. I wasn't expecting there to be such influence from Dr Martin Luther King, jr-or baseball (GO DODGERS!) And there are two Graduate references!!! One of the two references broke me a little bit. I think I felt my knees buckle. Let me just say that The Sounds of Silence will forever hold a place in my heart because of the two movies it has been portrayed in. And the way Emilio Estevez added Kennedys voice over the song? His last speech. And the topic of the speech!!!!! I did not feel quite the same after I watched that scene. It changed me a little bit as a person-it was that powerful. I wrote a song about it in the end. And this book revolves around that period in my life. :) Amazing.

City of Fire

Haha, um. I pretty much read this book just for Los Angeles. I read it before I went back home, too, so I was really missing home because I hadn't been in two years.
And this book-not unlike myself-romanticizes Los Angeles. A character in the book mentioned a Los Angeles dawn. And how for one moment the world is perfect.
Listen, I know that Los Angeles has a pollution problem, but when you're there, underneath that sky-you can only marvel at its bright blue beauty. Example:



Just look at that sky! The book, overall...well, it was about a serial killer. So, it didn't bode well with me. But I don't regret reading it. It was about home. And I love home. <3

Zoli

Oh, this book inspired so much. It was about a gypsy woman named Zoli. And though the book didn't flow very well, it was still extraordinarily interesting. It didn't romantasize the life of a gypsy at all. There was such a truth to this story and the lives of gypsies. In the book, a regular non-gypsy guy falls for Zoli. He brings her talent to the real world, and he tries to conform her to his way of life. The normal way of life. But Zoli struggles and in the end goes back to the ways of the gyspy because she cannot live in the real world. She prefers the opennes of the forest and the way the leaves feel against her naked feet. :)
This book inspired a song-about a friend, about a gypsy, about nature-about love. So I bought a copy of the book for my friend and wrote out the song in books pages. :) She once gave me a necklace in the style of the book cover. The necklace had tiny leaves all over it. I remember when she gave it to me. She said she bought it because it reminded her of me. I said I loved it because it was something that reminded me of her. We have that kind of friendship. And the book-Zoli-her character is the two of us put together.

Suite Francaise

Wowsers, this book is amazing and at the same time utterly devasting. I love that there is a picture of a suitcase on the cover of this book, because thats where the manuscript of this story was found about 60 years later.
The author of this book, Irène Némirovsky was deported in 1942 to Auschwitz. Her two daughters escaped with a suitcase...the very suitcase which housed the manuscript. And it wasnt opened until a few years ago.
So, this novel has a lot of back story as well! And the novel is just so amazing. It's about the mass exodus from Paris right before the Nazi invasion and it follows different families from different backgrounds, with different histories, and how they each cope with the war differently. This book is so beautiful.

It's Superman!

Heck yeah, its superman! Just look at that picture! That is art at its finest. Set in the 1930's, this is a better period piece than a novel about Superman. This Clark was my least favourite Clark that I've come across...which is good news for Dean Cain, who held that spot ever since he first stepped into the limelight as the man of steel.
Interesting as a period piece, though, if you are into that sort of thing. Also, from reading thing book, I learned that Lex is short for Alexander. MY FAVOURITE NAME EVER BELONGS LEX LUTHOR!!!! So-you also know that if you watch Smallville, which I do not, but I really love that SMALL fact because I LOVE THE NAME and I HATE LEX LUTHOR (unless he is played by a certain Michael Rosenbaum, because he's still a buddy!)