100 Books Every Woman Should Read - 1984**

The next book on the list was actually Brave New World by Aldous Huxley but as I had already read that and had not read Orwell's classic 1984 I decided to substitute in the later. 

To be honest, I was somewhat disappointed with 1984.  The power of post-apocalyptic and dystopian novels lies in the fact that they are believable, that it is possible that this kind of society could come to exist.  I found that Orwell's novel went rather outside this realm of believability.  I must say that I have never encountered a better description of hell and if that were what Orwell had set out to describe in this novel I would say that he had done a masterful job.  However, what he set out to do was describe the ultimate end of socialism.  I felt that the novel lost much of its power because it was unrealistic, because it is very hard to imagine society ever coming to the point described in 1984. 

Much of the reason that 1984 was a good description of hell, but also utterly unbelievable as an earthly society, was the complete hopelessness of the situation.  Hopelessness or despair is antithetical to Christianity and to true humanity.  An earthly situation could never be entirely without hope as the situation in 1984 is.  There is also a disturbing absence of forgiveness, not in that it is rejected but in that it does not even exist, there is not one mention of it throughout the book.  If one were to mention the term to a citizen of the country of Oceania it is presumed that the word would be alien to them.  Furthermore, there is frequent reference to human beings behaving like animals or beasts.  The more one sins the less human one becomes and so what has been revealed in private revelation is logical, that persons in hell no longer appear to be persons but horrible beasts, creatures that C.S. Lewis said we could not imagine in the darkest nightmare.  The masses in Orwell's novel often give the appearance of being such creatures.

That being said, Orwell is a fantastic writer.  Despite the book's overall lack of believability it is chock full of nuggets of truth.  Here are a few:

• "He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic.  Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.  At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; today, to believe that the past is unalterable.  He might be alone in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic.  But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong."
• "The heresy of heresies was common sense."
• "His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer.  And yet he was in the right!  They were wrong and he was right.  The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended.  Truisms are true, hold on to that!  The solid world exists, its laws do not change.  Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth's center."
• "Anything old, and for that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect."
• "A curious emotion stirred in Winston's heart.  In front of him was an enemy who was trying to kill him; in front of him, also, was a human creature, in pain and perhaps with a broken bone.  Already he had instinctively started forward to help her.  In the moment when he had seen her fall on the bandaged arm, it had been as though he felt the pain in his own body."
• "In a way the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it.  They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening."
• "Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad.  There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad . . . He fell asleep murmuring 'Sanity is not statistical,' with the feeling that this remark contained in it a profound wisdom."
• "What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?"

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - Fahrenheit 451***

"Wonder why we're recommending so many books? Read this and feel the urgency, the necessity of literacy and education. Also it is just a great read!"

This book is incredibly well-written. I can not even adequately describe the way Ray Bradbury strings together words into a beautiful masterpiece of a literary work. It absolutely must be read, if only to appreciate the verbal jewel which Bradbury has constructed. Indeed, Bradbury's writing is so superb that I was not satisfied just to read the book but also eagerly devoured the Afterword and Coda. As a sidenote, I highly recommend reading the Coda at the end of the book.

In addition, this book's message is spot-on. It forces one to see the importance of the written word and the dangers of technology. In some ways this book reminded me of the Disney/Pixar movie Wall-E, except that it was better and made more sense. It is a particularly fascinating read at the present time, as our society steadily transitions to a technological society, a "culture of the image," if you will, with increasing dependence on electronic devices.

I especially appreciated how Montag was totally lost until Clarisse's simple love came into his life. All it took was for someone to pay attention to him, to look "straight at me as if I counted." Our simple acts of love can do so much, they can prove to others that they do matter, that they are worth something, and they can change hearts.

Oh and I love that the book ends with a quote from the Bible!

This book is an absolute must-read!

Some quotes:

• "Well, after all, this is the age of the disposable tissue. Blow your nose on a person, wad them, flush them away, reach for another, blow, wad, flush. Everyone using everyone else's coattails."


• "I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look at them and listen to them. I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they're going."


• "We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?"


• "The home environment can undo a lot you try to do at school. That's why we've lowered the kindergarten age year after year until now we're almost snatching them from the cradle."


• "But Clarisse's favorite subject wasn't herself. It was everyone else, and me. She was the first person in a good many years I've really liked. She was the first person I can remember who looked straight at me as if I counted."


• "I often wonder if God recognizes His own Son the way we've dressed Him up, or is it dressed Him down? He's a regular peppermint stick now, all sugar-crystal and saccharine when He isn't making veiled references to certain commercial products that every worshipper absolutely needs."


• "The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies."


• "In the silence our stage whisper might carry."


• "Mistakes can be profited by."


• "remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh the terrible tyranny of the majority."


• "you can't make people listen. They have to come 'round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up under them. It can't last."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Divine Comedy**

This work is toweringly beautiful and surprisingly deep. The punishments meted out in the inferno are shocking to modern ears but truly fascinating.

Well, first of all, since the library doesn't seem to understand this, I just want to clarify for everyone that this book is FICTION. Which, somewhat surprisingly, is actually something that I frequently had to remind myself of as I read it. This epic poem depicts Dante's symbolic representations of hell, purgatory, and heaven. The real things are probably nothing like what Dante describes.

If you are going to read this book I would suggest that you get a copy which includes an introduction to each Canto, so you know what's going on, and copious footnotes. I also suggest thtat you read these introductions and footnotes. For myself, I usually skip over such things and get right into the story. The problem with The Divine Comedy, however, is that you really can't understand it without these helpful additions.

T.S. Eliot once said "Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them, there is no third." In other words, these are the greatest writers of all time. After reading both Shakespeare and Dante I have come to the conclusion that they are so, not because their stories are particularly good (though Shakespeare does have an occasional gem), but because their poetry is superb. Undoubtedly, Dante's writing is exquisite. However, his story is a chore to get through. Frankly, I don't think it's very good. Which is a little ridiculous since he is writing about the afterlife, I mean who would've thought that could be boring? The one thing I can say for his story is that the symbolism is superb. However, you'll never even know it's there if you don't read the footnotes. And interrupting the story every two lines to see what he's talking about makes the experience quite tedious. So if you're about to pick up this book be prepared for a long journey through the labyrinth of Dante's poetry.

In addition, I take theological issue with Dante on several points. Now, as I said before, this is fiction, so I have to give Dante a certain amount of artistic license. But there are certain points in which I think he went too far. For starters, I'm really not a fan of Dante putting actual people in hell. When it comes down to it, it really seems like his entire purpose in writing The Inferno was so that he could put people he didn't like there. Furthermore, I was very annoyed with a particular scenario in which Dante puts the soul of a still living person in hell. This completely contradicts God's mercy and reinforces the theory that Dante is simply writing this poem as revenge.

A few good quotes:

• Speaking of Purgatory - "Next you shall see upon a burning mountain souls in fire and yet content in fire, knowing that whensoever it may be they yet will mount into the blessed choir."
  


• "O Christians be more careful as ye move! And be not like a feather to the wind, Nor think that every water will absolve you! Ye have the Testament, both New and Old, The Shepherd of the Church to guide your steps: Let these suffice to lead you to salvation!"
  


• "Christ did not say to His first company: 'Go forth, to preach vain stories to the world,' But for sure foundation gave them truth. So mighty did this truth sound from their mouths That in their battle to enkindle faith They made their shields and lances of the Gospel."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Art of War***

This slender volume is a must despite it's seeming incongruity with modern female life. We have to be on our toes all the time and Sun Tzu fully understands and explains how to think about this.

This book had me humming "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan all afternoon.

This book is called The Art of War for a reason. It's all about strategy. Because of this much of it is applicable to everyday life.

Also, I think every Commander in Chief of the United States should be required to read this book. America's being involved in war also gives an interesting perspective to The Art of War.

Good Quotes:

• "The Way means virtue. It is first necessary to compare the political leadership of nations at war."


• "Therefore it is said that victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."


• "If you use the enemy to defeat the enemy, you will be strong wherever you go."


• "Using order to deal with the disorderly, using calm to deal with the clamorous, is mastering the heart."


• "So the rule of military operations is not to count on opponents not coming, but to rely on having ways of dealing with them; not to count on opponents not attacking, but to rely on having what cannot be attacked."


• "A government should not mobilize an army out of anger, military leaders should not provoke war out of wrath. Act when it is beneficial, desist if it is not. Anger can revert to joy, wroth can revert to delight, but a nation destroyed cannot be restored to existence, and the dead cannot be restored to life."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - This Side of Paradise***

Another coming of age novel that will keep you at the edge of your seat. This one is all about discovering what one really thinks and why. An astonishing first novel from one of the 20th century's greatest.

I like this book. I wasn't sure if I would because the only other Fitzgerald book I've ever read just confused me. Fitzgerald doesn't always make his point blatantly obvious and so the last novel of his that I read went right over my head and I wasn't able to appreciate it. However, being aware of this problem, I paid attention this time, figured out what he was talking about, and more-or-less agreed with it.

What I got out of this book is that life without God is empty. The main character tries to fill this spiritual vacuum with all different things: ambition, love, etc. but nothing satisfies. The point is made that these idols are "a poor substitute at best."

The ending is well done. It lacks finality, allowing, rather, for the character to exit the stage and walk out into the unknown future; leaving the reader to wonder what path Amory Blaine chose for his life.

Good Quotes:

"I act as an escape from the weariness of agnosticism, and I think I'm the only man who knows his staid old mind is really at sea and longs for a sturdy spar like the Church to cling to."

"Whatever your meter proves to be - religion, architecture, literature - I'm sure you would be much safer anchored to the Church."

"If we could only learn to look on evil as evil, whether it's clothed in filth or mediocrity or magnificence."

"You make a great mistake if you think you can be romantic without religion."

"He wondered that graves ever made people consider life in vain. Somehow he could find nothing hopeless in having lived."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Prisoner of Zenda****

Dashing adventure, fictional kingdoms and mistaken identity make Anthony Hope's novel sheer delight.

This book seems at first to be just a good story; well-written, clever, and all that, but the last two chapters make it a book that every woman should read. It is indeed a "sheer delight," a thoroughly enjoyable read. It is very well-written with beautiful description. The chapter "A New Use for a Tea-Table" is particularly enjoyable and every woman should aspire to fall in love with a man like Rudolph. I highly recommend this book!

Quotes:

• "I can thank God that I love the noblest lady in the world, the most gracious and beautiful, and that there was nothing in my love that made her fall short in her high duty.


• "if I can never hold sweet converse again with her, or look upon her face, or know from her her love; why, then, this side of the grave, I will live as becomes the man whom she loves."


• "It was a maxim of my Uncle William's that no man should pass through Paris without spending four-and-twenty hours there."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - Paradise Lost**

This is an all-time world classic and well worth the extra effort. The language may be somewhat unfamiliar to most but will be readily understood with a bit of patience.

Well the first thing to remember is that Milton (the author) was a Protestant. Therefore, he necessarily makes doctrinal errors when discussing theology. Now, I do understand that this is meant to be a novel so there is some poetic license. However, Milton, speaking as a Protestant, does contradict some fundamental points of doctrine and that could be very confusing for someone who is not steeped in Catholic theology.

Paradise Lost is actually an epic poem which was kind of cool at first but gets kind of annoying after a while. The language is difficult to understand and the poetic rhythm gets a bit repetitive. And the book just seems to drag on. By the end I was just sick of it.

Honestly, if I want to read about the fall of man, I'll pick up the Bible.

Quotes:

"But their spite still serves His glory to augment."

"Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the earth, each other to destroy - As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enough besides, That day and night for his destruction wait"

"in mercy and justice both, Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel, But mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine"

"How few sometimes may know when thousands err"