March 12, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Books at the Top of My Spring 2013 TBR List

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about books that we'd like to read this spring. Some days ago I finished Tom Jones by Henry Fielding at last. Even though it's one of my favourite classics, it's a chunkster and a rather difficult read, especially if you're a non-native English speaker. Thus, it took me a long time to finish it. But now I'm done reading it and can devote myself to reading other books.

This year, I finished five classics from my Classics Club list and am going to read five or six more. But, I also want to read some contemporary fictions—adult and young adult. The Top Ten Books at the Top of My Spring 2013 TBR Pile reflect these plans:

March 11, 2013

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Pauline, Petrova and Posy are orphans determined to help out their new family by joining the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training. But when they vow to make a name for themselves, they have no idea it's going to be such hard work! They launch themselves into the world of show business, complete with working papers, the glare of the spotlight, and practice, practice, practice! Pauline is destined for the movies. Posy is a born dancer. But practical Petrova finds she'd rather pilot a plane than perform a pirouette. Each girl must find the courage to follow her dream. (Source: Goodreads)

My Thoughts
To be honest, even though I spent my childhood and young adulthood with reading children’s classics, I had never heard of Noel Streatfield until I saw the movie You’ve Got Mail (1998), by which time I had attained full age already. Nevertheless, Meg Ryan’s enthusing about Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes made me want to read it, but somehow life prevented me from reading it. Several years later, a good friend of mine presented me with this book, but I still wasn’t able to read it, because I was writing on my doctoral thesis at that time. But last year, upon joining the Classics Club, I decided that this novel will be among the first classics, which had been sitting on my shelf unread, that I will read for the Classics Club challenge. I had been looking forward to reading it for so long, and was so sure that I will love it. But I didn't. I am very sorry to admit that this book was really disappointing.

March 05, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Series I'd Like To Start But Haven't Yet

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about series that we'd like to start but haven’t yet. I love good series and there are many I’ve read, but there also are many I haven’t read yet. Some series I haven’t and didn’t want to read because everybody else wanted to read them. I used to be afraid of reading books that are too popular. I am a non-conformist at heart, which also entails that I like to discover and read books that most people never heard of. But this year, I decided to become more open minded, which is why I am going to read some series that I abandoned before. There are also some series that I’ve been looking forward to read for ages but simply haven’t had the time yet. I hope that in the next two years I will be able to start and finish those too.

So, here are the Top Ten Series I’d Like To Start But Haven’t Yet:

March 03, 2013

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

The popular story of orphaned Pollyanna and the 'glad game'. As soon as Pollyanna arrives in Beldingsville to live with her strict and dutiful maiden aunt, she begins to brighten up everybody's life. The 'glad game' she plays, of finding a silver lining in every cloud, transforms the sick, the lonely and the plain miserable - until one day something so terrible happens that even Pollyanna doesn't know how to feel glad about it. (Source: Goodreads)

My Thoughts
This was the second time that I'd read this book and I enjoyed it. I re-read it for my Classics Club challenge but also because this is the book that the Kindred Spirits book club on Goodreads, which I am member of, was reading in February. The Kindred Spirits decided to read this book, because there seem to be many similarities between the plot of L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and that of Eleanor H. Porter's Pollyanna.

As Pollyanna wasn't an undiscovered terrain for me, I knew what to expect. But this time, I wanted to read it also for the sake of drawing a comparison between the two above-mentioned novels. This is why I'm laying the emphasis of my review on the differences and similarities between Anne of Green Gables and Pollyanna.

The next part of the review may contain spoilers; so, proceed with caution!

Review: Rebecca

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