The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays

The five plays contained in the book are:

  2. Lady Windermere's Fan
  4. Salome
  2. A Woman of No Importance
  1. An Ideal Husband
  3. The Importance of Being Earnest

In order of appearance, and indexed according to my preference. I was mildly disillusioned with some of the plays. Particularly with The Importance of Being Earnest, because I thought it was absurd without being charming. Whereas my favourite of the plays, An Ideal Husband, was witty, funny, and entertaining.

  However, in general, the plays pale in comparison to the genius of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Mainly because Oscar Wilde takes his supercilious characters to the extreme, forcing wit into some lines which only results in hollow banality. And, in the case of Salome, the play was plain boring.

  This collection of plays definitely leaves me with mixed feelings.

the sun and her flowers

It feels unfair even to say that I did not like the sun and her flowers as much as milk and honey because evidently Rupi Kaur put so much effort and shared many experiences that show how much hardship she has endured, but it also feels true.

  It feels as if the Rupi Kaur that wrote the sun and her flowers is a much younger Rupi Kaur, in her first attempts at writing poetry, unlike the more experienced Rupi Kaur that wrote milk and honey. Which is somehow counter-intuitive as this is her second published book.

  However, this should not undermine the therapeutic properties of writing. Regardless of the quality of the outcome, writing can help alleviate the weight of your thoughts. The courage that it takes to share your experiences with others is to be celebrated.

milk and honey

The first two comments of praise for this book on its cover are a little misleading. At least I thought they were. Not only is this book "the poetry collection every woman needs on her nightstand" as The Huffington Post said, it is also a collection of poetry that every person would benefit from reading, regardless of their gender.

  Rupi Kaur's poetry is powerful and her words adequate and strongly describe rich human emotions. In sharing her experiences she teaches us by letting us know where we might have made a mistake. Her poetry has certainly made me aware of situations where my behaviour has not been appropiate. That is why I believe we could all benefit from it, because we can all learn more about respect, love, and life.

  I am grateful for having bought this book of poetry. I do recommend it, and am looking forward to reading the sun and her flowers.

Norse Mythology

I have quite mixed feelings about this book. It was very funny and easy to read, which I think are great qualities. Neil Gaiman retells Nordic myths with contemporary humour, and it was very enjoyable. However, at some point it did occur to me that the way the book was written made me feel that the names of the characters were less important than the comedy. What I mean is, the book felt more like a collection of jokes than a selection of ancient myths.

  What was worse, there was too much expectation built upon Ragnarok only for it to be disappointingly mundane. The story of Ragnarok did not add much to what was previously mentioned about it in the other stories, and it was written in the most trivial of proses.

  Given that the only thing I knew about Odin, Thor and Loki before reading the book was what I had seen in Marvel movies, I greatly enjoyed learning more about these characters. Perhaps this was a good introduction, and if you are genuinely interested in Norse mythology then look for a more serious anthology.

Tales from Watership Down

I simply did not like this book. Some of the short stories were mildly interesting, some others were vacuous. Some of them seemed more like an adaptation of human moral stories to a rabbit society meant to educate children on the concepts of right and wrong, as opposed to being stories about ways of understanding the universe in which rabbits might possibly believe and tell if they had that ability.

  I have read the opinion of some people who say that this book tries to correct the lack of female characters doing interesting things in Watership Down. Fair enough, Hyzenthlay is made co-Chief Rabbit of Watership Down, but that was briefly mentioned once in a short story and is not an important aspect of the book. Yes, Flyairth is an adventurous doe that has the courage to leave Watership Down and form her own warren. Still, female rabbits are offered as prizes to male rabbits who perform heoric acts, and female rabbits are usually the first, and often only, casualty. Not cool.

The Eye of the Reindeer

It is my understanding that this book was written to increase awareness about the Sami people and the challenges that they have faced and continue facing to this day. In that respect, the author succeeded, because I was not aware of their existence, and now I am. So well done in that regard.

  However, as a novel, I thought it tried to cover many more topics than it could successfully handle. At times devoting too much time to develop a certain aspect of the book, like the mental health of Ritva, only to abandon it later in the book as if were not that important. And in the later parts it felt like it was rushing and introduced many more characters, and it felt a bit overwhelming.

  I thought it was nice to learn about the traditions and beliefs of the Sami people, but as with Watership Down, at times it felt like the mythology was somewhat forced. I thought the book was trying too hard to distance the beliefs of the Sami people from the Christian beliefs, and I felt that maybe these comparisons were at times unnecessary. What I found particularly interesting was that the Sami people seemed to be as homophobic as the Christians. I suppose I am more or less used to the Christians' justification of their homophobia by saying that God deemed those relations "unnatural". I am curious to know, what is the Samis' excuse for their homophobia?

  I also thought that Ritva's behaviour was immature when it came to her relationship with Martta. Even after she became an adult she continued being childish in that regard. Which I found quite annoying. Though perhaps not as annoying as the sense that I got that the author wanted you to believe what the Sami people believe.

Leave It to Psmith

This is definitely the best comedy I have read in English. The only other author that I know that might rival Wodehouse's wit is Jorge Ibargüengoitia. I am really pleased that I read this book, and for that I thank Michael Torpey very much indeed.

  Of course, I also thought of The Man in the Brown Suit, and I am convinced that Agatha Christie wanted, primarily, to write a comedy. But Leave It to Psmith is on a different level. It is clear that Wodehouse had elegantly designed each character and each situation and the way in which they would fit into them. All around an extremely simple story, never losing sight of the goal of entertaining the reader.

  And I love this type of humour. I have decided that the British people are my favourite people in the whole world. I highly recommend this book. It is a very fine read.