Incestuous ballerinas, here I come!

I just received notice that the library is holding "Flowers in the Attic" for me.

Oh dear, I've had this problem before.

I am committed to the respectability and reputation of Madame Bovary...but I am now going to be tempted by the salacious indulgence of Flowers.

I'm not very good at avoiding salacious indulgences.

Favourite Books

At one of our book club meetings, we discussed posting our favourite books. Here are a few of mine. I noticed that some of the books I chose ended up as movies. Thank god I read the book first.

1. White Oleander - Janet Fitch
2. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
3. Eleven Minutes - Paulo Coelho
4. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
5. The Hours - Michael Cunningham
6. She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
7. Amy and Isabelle - Elizabeth Strout
8. Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
9. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
10. Hotel Honolulu - Paul Theroux
11. The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
12. Girl with the Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier

Absurd Fancies

Argh. Madame Bovary. I hate this book. Not because it's bad. Not because it's terribly written. Because it isn't — it's one of the best.

But because it's one draggingly long story about a repressed woman who is negotiating an opressed life and a supressed orgasm. It's depressing — at least, that was my opinion ten years ago. Maybe this childish opinion will change upon reading it a second time.

My understanding of choice has changed. Unlike in my younger, more earnest days, I no longer determined my choice by "right over wrong". Choice now — sometimes right, sometimes wrong — is a decision that I make based on the paths open to me. It's nebulous. It's tinged with a hint of wrong, though it feels right for me.

Madame Bovary is the story of the ruin of a woman consumed in her own absurd fancies.

What are yours?