Treasure Island

Treasure Island 

by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a page-turner of an adventure story. I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde back in 2014 and was impressed by what a great book it was. This story, which I think was written for a young audience, was much less interesting. Out hero, Jim, is a charming and mischievous lad who always tries to do the right thing. Given that he has fallen in with pirates this can be a challenge for him. I did find it weird to be reading a book where the dastardly villian has the name of a fast food restaurant. (I know, it's the other way round but it was still weird).

This title is from my Classics Club list and it counts toward the TBR pile challenge.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 
by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is on my classics club list because I felt like I should read it even though I thought I knew what it was. I was totally wrong. It was a much better and more interesting book than I expected it to be. This particular edition has an introduction by Vladimir Nabokov and and afterword by Dan Chaon, both of whom talk about the issue of expectations of this famous story. Because it is the subject of many movies, and cartoons, and other stories we think we know what the book is about, but those other works have taken the kernel of the story and made it into something else. The novel itself is a complex and interesting look into the nature of a man as he struggles with his own internal demons. In many ways it is a story of addiction. 

The style of the book reminded me of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. The structure of it kept a lot of information from the reader until well into the story, and some details (like what horrible things Hyde does when he is out and about) are never revealed. This was a very effective way to make the horror aspect of the story really scary because the reader's imagination provides the darkness so it will be what each reader finds horrible. 

“Strange as my circumstances were, the terms of this debate are as old and commonplace as man; much the same inducements and alarms cast the die for any tempted and trembling sinner; and it fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of my fellows, that I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep to it.” 

This famous work by Robert Louis Stevenson (arguably his most famous) was my title for the latest Classics Club Spin and I highly recommend it.

Review: Hyde

Hyde by Daniel Levine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I generally like retellings of stories we all know (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead and Wicked are both favorites) and there were many good points to this retelling. Hyde is a complex and interesting person in this story, and when he describes his own internal conflicts and his struggle with Jekyll's choices he is compelling. However, it was ultimately too sordid a tale to suit me as Levine goes into a fair amount of detail of the devilish actions of his characters. I think Stevenson was right to leave these aspects of the tale to the imaginations of his readers as it makes for a more powerful story. Levine does provide a very plausible motive for the murder of Carew--which is missing from Stevenson's tale.  The structure of this novel is well matched to the original tale and the way that language from the Stevenson work is woven into the narrative is very well done.

BoB Update: Friday

http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com

Progress today:

• I didn't listen to my audio book today (I keep having days where I don't drive anywhere)
• I finished reading Gaudy Night (293 pages) 
• I finished reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (45 pages) 
• I checked out the challenges, but didn't complete them.

Books I'm Looking Forward To

One of today's Bout of Books challenges comes from River City Reading and asks for a list of books we are looking forward to reading. I decided to put together a list of a dozen novels published in 2014 that I want to read. I need to get going on reading books for the next round of Dublin Award nominations so this seemed like a good way to start (blurbs are quoted from Goodreads)

1. Still Life with Breadcrumbs by Anna Quindlin
   "Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendant, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life."
2. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
   "In the spirit of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Gabrielle Zevin's enchanting novel is a love letter to the world of books-and booksellers-that changes our lives by giving us the stories that open our hearts and enlighten our minds."
3. Hyde by Daniel Levine
   "A reimagining of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the monster's perspective, Hyde makes a hero of a villain." Since I got Jekyll and Hyde for my spin book I want to read this soon.
4. Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
   A "witty, updated take on Austen’s classic novel about a young woman whose visit to the stately home of a well-to-do acquaintance stirs her most macabre imaginings, with an extra frisson of suspense that only McDermid could provide."
5. And the Dark Sacred Night by Julia Glass
   "The award-winning author on her best subject—family secrets—in the story of a middle-aged man who searches for his father, upending relationships beyond his own and changing forever the way he fits into the world he thought he knew so well."
6. Alena by Rachel Pastan
   "In an inspired restaging of Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca, a young curator finds herself haunted by the legacy of her predecessor."
7. Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen
   A "novel about a Vietnamese American family’s ties to The Little House on the Prairie."
8. The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
   " the story of an electric and impassioned love between two vastly different souls in New York during the volatile first decades of the twentieth century."
9. The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert
   "A lush and thrilling romantic fable about two lovers set against the scandalous burlesques, midnight séances, and aerial ballets of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair."
10. Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
    "The passionate and turbulent story of Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny." Another one connected to Jekyll and Hyde!
11. Delicious! by Ruth Reichl
    A "dazzling fiction debut about sisters, family ties, and a young woman who must finally let go of guilt and grief to embrace her own true gifts."
12. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
    "At once laugh-out-loud funny about the absurdities of the modern world, and indelibly profound about the eternal questions of the meaning of life, love and truth."