The Castle of Otranto

The Castle of Otranto was a very interesting read. It was billed as the first Gothic story which made me interested in reading it. It had it's "gothic" moments but overall was not as much as I have gotten used to reading gothic novels of today. This book was an interesting read and the characters were all well written and you cared what was going to happen. The pages of this book moved quickly and even though it was longer than some of the other stories that I have read lately it was a quicker read. I do not think I would ever read this story again but it was an interesting book and I can definitely see why it would be on the list!

Score: 7

The Return of the Soldier

The Return of the Soldier was another quick read. I was very excited to read this story after reading the summary on the back of the book. This story is about a WWI soldier that comes back from war and does not remember his wife and family bur rather a woman he was in love with fifteen years earlier. This sounded exactly like a modern day soap opera and a storyline in it that I would be interested in! This was a very good read. I enjoyed every bit of it and was sad that the story did not go on longer.

Score: 8

The Nose

The Nose was a short little book, it actually was so short I read the entire thing at my husband's graduation. (He was the 6th person to graduate out of over 600) This book was an interesting read and was truly unexpected. The entire premise of this story is about a nose, someone finds one, someone loses one, the nose takes on human characteristics, etc. While I can honestly say this is nothing I would ever think to write about, it was a humorous unique read.

Score: 5

The Scarlet Letter

I just finished reading the Scarlet Letter. This book I was supposed to read in high school and I only read the Cliff Notes to pass the quizzes and tests. I did not remember anything about the book except that the woman in it wore an A on her chest for adultery. While reading this book I realized how much more there was to the story than what I remembered. This was a very enjoyable story with really interesting, deep characters. The main character Hester Prynne was such a strong woman. I love stories like this where the woman are stronger than the men! This story was very easy to read and was quick. I would recommend it to any of my friends but probably only after they were out of high school. I really feel as though a lot of the themes in this story just are not relate able to a 16 year old.

Score: 8

Sense and Sensibility

I have always heard mixed reviews on Jane Austen. This being said I was very nervous to read the books by her on my list. I decided to start with Sense and Sensibility mainly because I bought an anthology of Jane Austen books and it was the first in the book. I ended up really loving this story! I felt as though it started a little slow which I have felt reading all of her stories but it picked up quickly and had a really sweet love story. I feel as though the longer I read her stories that not only do I enjoy them but I really feel as though I am a part of that time period. Austen really does a great job setting the scene for the reader to fully understand the time period.

Score: 8

The Watchmen

This was such an interesting book for me because it is really nothing I would have read by choice if it had not been on the list. This is also one of the few books my husband owned that I didn't have to find to read. He promised me a good read and I got one in this book. This is a graphic novel that follows several superheros. It is a fast paced interesting book. The pictures really are a nice touch, especially since none of the other books I have read thus far have had any pictures.

Score: 7

Also I would recommend the movie if you like to read books and then watch the movies, it follows closely and is really interesting!

The Woman in White

I was blogging about books that I finished previously but I just finished this one and it is one of my favorites I have read thus far! This book had so many twists and turns and unexpected events that it was a true joy to read! I read in the introduction that this was considered one of the first mystery novels and was published in Charles Dickens weekly magazine which is why the chapters are all short and end so you can't wait to read the next one. I would really recommend this book to anyone as an easy, interesting, intriguing book.

Score: 9.5