USA vs. Mexico

People wonder why soccer struggles to gain popularity in the U.S. Maybe the fact that the biggest World Cup qualifying match is not on national tv has something to do with it. Seriously, the intense rivalry match was broadcasted in English by mun2 (mun dos). Espn couldn’t pony up the few extra dollars to purchase the English tv rights?  No, instead they get beat out by a biligual specialty station.

Now, NBC Universal made mun2 free for the day, but I didn’t get to tune in until the 25th minute. The station was not unlocked, and I had to call Comcast and add the Selecto package for the day, and call back to cancel it after the game. Thankfully Comcast ate the 60 cents for the day and the $1.99 cancellation fee, but I had to spend 20 minutes on the phone (15 on hold) in order to watch the game. This is just unacceptable. Something has to change. The US national team, trying to qualify for the world’s greatest sporting event, was not on national TV.

The worst part about the whole thing: it was an exciting, intense, physical match. The pushing and the shoving, the suspect officiating; this rivalry game lived up to its billing. These games must be televised by a major US network, or soccer in the U.S. will never catch on.

Do Men Read Jane Austen?

Like millions of other readers around the world, I enjoy reading Jane Austen. The only problem? I’m a guy. Now I cannot be the only male fan of Austen’s work, but it certainly feels that way.  I’m 19 year old, college sophomore, who enjoys playing sports, watching movies, and hanging out with friends. I’m not supposed to read Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. As a student in college, I know that men don’t read chick lit, or if you’re like me, you do and don’t tell anyone. The stereotypical Pride and Prejudice enthusiast is a woman. And like most stereotypes, I think this is a little off-base. Sure, the majority of Austen addicts are female, but there has to be quite a few male readers as well. I feel that sometimes perceptions take the place of reality. But then I received a message from a facebook stalker (whom I had never met), who saw that some of my favorite books were Jane Austen novels. She could not believe her eyes, and she wanted to verify that Pride and Prejudice really was one of my favorites. This message really started to make me wonder. How many men do read Jane Austen? I’m I really such an anomaly? So now I ask, how many men (if any) do you know who enjoy reading Jane Austen?

Q and A (Slumdog Millionaire)

The Oscar winning film, Slumdog Millionaire is based on Vikas Swarup’s novel Q and A. I picked up the book after seeing the movie, and I was expecting it to be fairly similar. I was pleasantly surprised. The plot differs greatly from the PG rated movie. The Latika character is not present from the beginning. In fact Jamal has multiple crushes, and doesn’t find his true love until later in the novel. Most of the same scenes and characters are present, but a lawyer representing Jamal is included in the book. If you thought the movie was a little too childish, the novel is definitely more graphic.  It is a fantastic story, and relatively quick, easy read.

Wish You Well

David Baldacci takes a departure from his bestselling thrillers, in the semi-biographical Wish You Well. Baldacci’s mother is the basis for the main character Louisa Mae Cardinal. This young, twelve year old girl, is forced to grow up quickly after a tragic car crash kills her father and leaves her mother unresponsive. Louisa and her brother Oz, are sent to live with their grandmother in the Virginia mountains. The ensuing events elicite a range of emotions from hilarity and anger, to empathy and hope. The plot moves along at a nice pace, and you quickly lose yourself in the storyline. It is a wonderful coming of age novel, and a definite triumph for Baldacci. It reminded me strongly of To Kill a Mockingbird, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Harper Lee’s famous novel. It is also a great book for grandma.

Wuthering Heights

Prior to reading Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, I had many expectations. I was expecting a love story, along the same line as Pride and Prejudice. I envisioned Heathcliff as a rough and tumble version of Mr. Darcy. If you have read the tragic story of Heathcliff and Catherine, you know I was quite mistaken. I suppose you could call it a love story, but it is a dark depressing one at that. Heathcliff is no Mr. Darcy, and Wuthering Heights is certainly no Pride and Prejudice. I have always viewed Emily Bronte’s most famous novel, as femine and more enjoyable to the opposite sex. Having finished the novel, I find that I was completely off base. I discovered a great, (albeit tragic)  story about love, loss, revenge, and human nature. It is an undeniable classic, and a must read for any bibliophile.

My Sister’s Keeper

***Contains Spoilers***

I had previously read Nineteen Minutes for my high school book club, and I wasn’t overly impressed with it. The ending really ruined the book for me. Not so much the fact that Josie killed her boyfriend, more the fact that she had to go to jail for ten years, and her mom remarried and got pregnant again. To me, this looked like her attempt to replace her incarcerated daughter, and recitfy the mistakes she made as a parent the first time around. I just hated the ending.

Now, a good friend of mine convinced me to give Picoult another shot, and read My Sister’s Keeper. It started out perfectly. The story was touching. The situation was original, and I really thought I was going to come away pleased with the experience. Unfortunately, Picoult ruined it again in the last ten pages. She sacrificed the integrity of the whole story to create a surprising ‘Hollywood’ ending. I was angry. As a literary character, Anna deserved better. Everything that she went through, everything that she put her family through, it didn’t matter. By creating her shocking plot twist, Picoult managed to make the entire buildup irrelevant. It was one of the worst endings to a book that I have ever read.

Maybe, I just don’t get it. So many people love her work, and love this book in particular, but it just didn’t do it for me. I’m my opinion, Kate wanted to die. That was the direction everything was going in. I feel that as a writer sometimes your characters decide how their story will end. The novel would have been great if Kate dies a peaceful death, and Anna and the rest of her family finally get to move on with their lives. Anna and her family had given Kate life. Kate would have relished the opportunity to repay her family, and give them all a chance for a full life. A death, a funeral, and a reflection from each family member. That would have been the perfect way to end this novel.

The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, was my favorite read of the summer. I had previously read Ethan Frome  which I also enjoyed, but Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel was definitely a cut above. The character of Newland Archer is truly a work of art. His internal struggle between fulfilling his societal duty (and staying with his wife May), or running off with his true love (Ellen), is filled with suspense and passion. The emotions of these three main characters seem to emanate from the pages of the novel. Edith Wharton brings the novel to a marvelous (albeit stunning) close, and wonderfully completes the novel.  The Age of Innocence is an emotional powerhouse, and a must read for any fan of Wuthering Heights or Middlemarch.

Transfer Update

A few months ago, I posted about my indecision about transferring from Worcester Polytechnic Institute to the University of Notre Dame or the College of William and Mary. A couple months went by and I recieved   acceptance letters from both schools, but I was still undecided. Notre Dame had been my first choice, and when I was accepted I basically took William and Mary off the list. I was either going to stay at WPI   and continue with my Management Engineering major or I was headed to  South Bend to major in English.

     I was afraid to go off to school somewhere 12 hours away, and leave a place where I had so much going for me. I knew that I could never transfer to ND without actually going there and seeing it for myself. So my parents and I made the 12 hour drive  from Massachusetts. We started walking the campus and went into the Main Building, and the Basilica. At some point during those first few minutes on campus, I had made my decision. I was going to be a Golden Domer.

      There is something intangible about Notre Dame. There is just a feeling you get while on the campus. It’s indescribable, but if you talk to anyone who has been there, I think they’ll tell you the same thing. This so-called ‘Spirit of Notre Dame’ replaced all of my fears about leaving WPI, with a profound sense of faith and trust, and a belief that everything would work itself out. As I prepare to leave for Notre Dame in 10 days, I am filled with an excitement and an extreme sense of pride. There truly is “Nowhere else but Notre Dame”

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

It has been many a day since I last posted, but I have kept up with my reading, and I have quite a few reviews  that I will be posting in the next few days.

One of my first reads of  the summer was David Sedaris’s When You Are Engulfed in Flames. It was my second time reading a Sedaris book, the first being Me Talk Pretty One Day. His latest novel provides a few laughs and chuckles, but it failed to match the hilarity found in MTPOD.  If you are a fan of Sedaris’s work, then this is a must read. If you are thinking about perusing his work for the first time, it might be a better idea to try one of his earlier works.  I’d give it 3/5 stars and 3.5 if you are/were a smoker.

The Shack

I recently finished reading The Shack by William P. Young. It was given to me with high praise, and guarantees that it would change me in some way. My expectations were high and unfortunately the book did not live up to its billing.

Looking at the novel in a religious context, I was satisfied.  I didn’t encounter the transforming nature that others had found in their perusal of Mack’s  story, but I took a lot out of Mack’s conversations with ‘God’. Reading The Shack didn’t change my faith in any way shape or form, nor do I think it was meant to. The book certainly made me question some aspects of my faith, but in the end I was left with the same answers that I had had all along. My faith remained the same. 

Looking at The Shack as a novel, as a work of fiction, I was disappointed. As a reader I have always been sort of preoccupied by the endings of books. I need a really good conclusion in order to be satisfied. I didn’t find this in reading The Shack. The ending, was short and utterly unfulfilling. It was predictable and terse. There is no other way to describe it. The build up was solid, but it was all wasted by the ending. I did not feel a sense of closure when I turned that last page.

The magic that has captivated so many others, just wasn’t present for me, especially at the end. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations. Maybe I was over-analyzing. I don’t know. Whatever the case, The Shack just didn’t do it for me.