Traveling Through Books

Title: Far from the Madding Crowd Author: Thomas Hardy Genre: Victorian Classic- Pastoral Read in: Trade Paperback (Movie Edition) Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group My feelings are varied on this novel. There were moments I was enthralled. There were moments when I was bored. And there were moments I was angry. I generally enjoy Hardy's work because it differs from most Victorian classics as his books are generally set in the country, with every-day working characters, instead of the elite high society of England. Most of my mixed feelings arise from the characters. I loved Gabriel Oak. He is steady, complex, and overall a good person. The main female of the novel, Bathesheba Everdene, I can't stand. She made me so angry. I tried, very hard, repeatedly, to like her; I never managed to succeed. My biggest problem with her is that she could have been the perfect embodiment of the reality of female strength in an era that greatly needed more of that in liter...

Books 42 and 43: "The Mirror of Her Dreams" and "A Man Rides Through" by Stephen R. Donaldson Verdict: READ NOW "The Mirror of Her Dreams" and "A Man  Rides Through" by Stephen R. Donaldson are the two books that comprise the fantasy series Mordant's Need. These books were unlike any fantasy I have read and immediately jumped into my favorite fantasy books. In these books, magic is carried out through the use of mirrors. You create an image in a curved or flat glass and then anything in that image can be translated from or to that image. This land is called Mordant. Mordant, however, is in need of a hero. Enter Terisa Morgan, a modern day girl of our world. An apprentice imager mistakenly finds her and brings her back to Mordant believing her to be an Arch Imager- the most talented with mirrors. She, being from our world, is then thrown into a political struggle full of intrigue and political powers that she knows nothing about...