The List Of My Desires

Title: The List Of My Desires
Author: Grégoire Delacourt
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
First Published: 2012

Review: The story of your average Joe, conveniently called Jo, who lives her ordinary workaday life until she wins big on the lottery. What will she do, what shall she buy?

Not much apparently. Her greatest pleasures in life are seeing her children and going on weekend trips with her husband. The fact that she is happy with the status quo is, of course, lovely, but, contentment does not a great story make. There must be some discord, and there is, but it just didn’t make me care about plump little Jo and her haberdashery shop.

This is sweet. A little tableau of life with its ups and downs. But that’s all it is. It never really develops into anything meaningful. At the end I had to ask myself, what was the point? It’s very pleasant and the writing is fun, so it will mean a nice hour curled up with a cup of tea on a rainy day. It won’t, however, make you think about anything at all.

Rating:3 and a half stars

Quote: “Being rich means seeing all that’s ugly and having the arrogance to think you can change things. All you have to do is pay for it.”

The Trial

Title: The Trial
Author: Franz Kafka
Genre: Classic
First Published: 1925

Review: Perplexing, disturbing and bizarre in the extreme. This book buzzed around my brain like a demented bee.

Josef K wakes up on his thirtieth birthday to discover that he is under arrest. For what, he does not know. So begins an increasingly frantic mission to prove his innocence and above all, remain logical, even when nothing makes sense.

A word of warning: The Trial is deliberately frustrating and misleading. It twists and turns so quickly you risk whiplash. When I look back at my first notes, I have written across the top: “What is this??”. Even a few months later I have no idea what it is. All I can say is that it is an experience.

Rating: 7 stars

Quote: “The court asks nothing of you. It receives you when you come and it releases you when you go.”

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

Title: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Genre:Young Adult Fiction
Year Released: 1999

Review: Book covers have a tendency to over-hype a book so far that the actual story is a disappointment in comparison. And that’s the main issue I have with The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.

I went into this book with a faint idea of what it might be about from the trailers I had seen of the film. It’s safe to say I had an entirely wrong impression. There’s a lot more anger and pain than what I had foreseen.

Charlie is a young boy struggling with a potent combination of sexual abuse, drugs and his own fragile mental state. The story is told through a long series of letters he sends anonymously to a stranger.

The writing style bugged me a lot at the beginning. He seemed far too juvenile for his age, but as the story progresses he grows into himself. There’s still some irritating reactions, and it can be a tad repetitive. Even so, it’s an interesting read with a few twists along the way.

Rating: 6 stars

Quote: ” I just hope I remember to tell my kids that they are as happy as I look in my old photographs. And I hope that they believe me.”