Anna Dumoulin Dumoulin itibaren 62860 Baralle, Fransa itibaren 62860 Baralle, Fransa

Sheesh, I really don't know what to say about these books. I read them a few times, but I don't know if I ever stopped hating them. They're not badly written, I just never seemed to like them, try as I might.

According to one of Constantine Cavafy’s friends—a claim twice cited in this noticeably slim volume—Cavafy “abjured three activities: giving lectures, granting interviews, and writing prose.” Though he does indeed seem to have kept scrupulously clear of the first two, his archived papers, plus pieces rescued from various newspapers and periodicals, show that he intermittently—and, it must be said, unwisely—broke his own third rule. Read more...

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster is a sweet coming of age love story. It features fascinating characters and brilliant language. Forster writes a beautiful tale of a young woman who goes through the foibles involved with finding and realizing true love. It is a short story that is quite reminiscent of a Jane Austen novel. It is a young woman's journey beyond childhood, set first in the streets of Florence and later in countryside of England. Miss Honeychurch, the protagonist, travels to Italy under the supervision of her elder cousin Miss Bartlett and there adventures ensue that bring her together with a host of fascinating characters. Forster creates very full and amusing characters, from the overbearing Miss Bartlett to the rebellious elder Mr. Emerson. Each character is unique and has their own set of beliefs and are well developed in this short novel. The imagery in this book was written masterfully and the scenes of the city of Florence and the English countryside come alive as the book is read. Forster's descriptions are vivid and detailed. Sometimes the most simplistic actions are described in beautiful detail. The most important aspects of this book were Forster's remarks on love. Some of the best quotes within A Room with A View come from discussion on love and though not always positive in the moment are beautifully put. Overall, A Room with a View is a charming story of youth, travel, and love. It is a short novel and worth the read, as the language is beautiful and the characters witty.

Nimira wanted to be famous, and instead, she's a trouser girl, one of many young girls who wear trousers and sing and dance to entertain the masses in the big city. One night, a man comes to see the show, and hearing her voice, asks her to go away with him. Since he's a nice man and her boss is decidedly not, she takes the risk. The man is Mr. Hollin Parry, a sorcerer, and he wants Nimira to sing while accompanied by an automaton so well-crafted that he seems almost alive ... too alive. The mechanical man's oddness has scared off many other singers, but Nimira is determined to stay. While practicing, Nimira discovers that the automaton is really a fairy prince named Erris, trapped in this form by a sorcerer, and that he's much more than what he seems. She is also dealing with confusing feelings about Mr. Parry, who seems to be interested in her as well. The plot was fairly simple, for all the various details it contains. At a mere 225 pages, Magic Under Glass didn't have a lot of room for exposition or delving too deeply into the plots and feelings of its characters, and that above all else is my chief complaint. With another 150 pages, this could have been a much more fleshed out young adult novel. It felt half-done to me the whole time I was reading it. A lot of the time, I wished the author would enrich the world building or explain the politics she obviously spent time thinking about, but it was like those things existed underneath the story and she'd had to ruthlessly cut all those facts. Who knows, maybe she did. But 225 pages was not long enough to do this story justice, in my opinion. The plot is rushed, and major discoveries are made and then moved away from before the characters have really dealt with them. The characters don't do very much developing. Sure, things are happening to them and they deal with those things, but they don't leave their situations having learned very much or changed very much (apart from Erris, whose transformation was physical and not emotional, and I'm not giving anything away unless you are just not very good at plot guessing, in which case, I feel very little guilt). All in all, it was a three star book. I liked it, but it's doubtful I'd ever want to reread it and I'm definitely glad it was a library book. The length of the book was so disappointing, because I really felt like it had great potential and just didn't have enough room to live up to it.