After All These Years, by Susan Isaacs

Just finished reading After All These Years by Susan Isaacs.

Lost Reference:
The book can be seen in the Swan station by Sawyer's bed as he is recovering from the injuries caused as a result of the raft incident.

After All These Years was a fun, easy read - finished it in a day. It was mostly a chic-lit mystery novel. Rosie Meyers is on the run, tracking down her soon-to-be ex-husband's murderer. Of course, Rosie is the number one suspect, ergo she goes underground to investigate the secret life of the man she had been married to for 25 years. Witty, yet somewhat predictable - she has brief sex with a college kid twenty years younger than she (Stella getting her groove on) and she also meets her "soul-mate" in the process of the investigation - an old high school sweetheart she encounters during her investigation. After reading Our Mutual Friend, this was a light, breezy read.

Similarities and shared themes with Lost:
In Kate's backstory, she, like Rosie, is on the run after being accused of murder (though in her case, accurately, of Wayne).

Kate also, like Rosie, reunites with her childhood boyfriend - who is named Tom in each case - while on the run.

Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens

Our Mutual Friend is the second novel I've read by Dickens. The first was Bleak House about three years ago, which I was inspired to read because of the BBC mini-series of Bleak House on Masterpiece Theater. I love Dickens a lot: His complex characterisations; his biting social commentary; his command of the English language in all dialects and manners of speech; his ability to poke fun at people in all social classes; his generally love of his heroes and heroines; his amazing scoundrels; etc...(I could continue on and on). Neither novel is an easy read, but the payoff at the end is worth every hour spent plodding along...
Our Mutual Friend was 800 pages. The first fourth of the book was setting up the characters, their position in society, and the tragedies that shape and inform each character.
There were many great characters to love in this novel: The Boffins, Bella, John Harmon, Lizzie Hexam (especially Lizzie) and her companion Jenny, and of course Eugene Wrayburn.
I really recommend this book - only if you have the time to sit with it. The ending of the book came as a great surprise and was wonderful fun.

Finished Lancelot by Walter Percy

I didn't much care for this book - the prose was sorta the ramblings of a "mad" man, locked up in a mental institution. The reason Lancelot was locked up: he accidentally discovered that his daughter was not really his daughter, began to spy on his wife to film her infidelity. He ended up killing her and setting fire to their home and lands in the mental institution.

I didn't really care for the writing style much. I guess it's just not my idea of a fun read. I prefer fantasy, adventure, and mystery.

I'm still plugging away on Dicken's Our Mutual Friend. It's very good, but not an easy, quick read.

On a side note: I'm really enjoying this season of Lost and am happy that they are slowly answering the questions that have built up over the years.

Lancelot and Our Mutual Friend

I'm currently reading two books from the Lost book list
Lancelot, by Walter Percy and Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens.

From the Lostepedia website:
Lancelot is about Lancelot Lamar, a lawyer who, when he discovers that he is not the father of his youngest daughter, kills his wife by blowing up their house. He ends up being confined in a mental institution, where he then dwells on the memories of his frightful past. There is a surrealistic element, where reality blends with delirium.
Lost reference: Sawyer was seen reading Lancelot on the Island. ("Maternity Leave")

Our Mutual Friend is about the son of a tycoon who must marry a specific woman to inherit his father's fortune. He shuns this, leaves, and is presumed drowned which is untrue. He returns under a new identity, gets hired at a company related to his father, marries the same woman on his own merit, not on his father's riches, and only afterwards, assumes his original identity and inherits his fortune.
Lost reference: Desmond carries with him a hardback edition of Our Mutual Friend bound closed with rubber bands, intended only to be opened and read at last before he dies. Presumably knowing the significance of the book to him, Penelope placed a letter of her love and undying devotion in the book, intending Desmond to read it in his deepest moments of despair while incarcerated in military prison. However, he never found the letter there, as he had checked the book into prison storage with the rest of his personal inventory, and it was therefore not returned until his release. In The Swan, he finally found and read her letter when he opened the book to read it because he was contemplating suicide after three years "trapped" in the hatch. ("Live Together, Die Alone")

This occurs at the same time John Locke is also in despair and pounding on the hatch door. The combination of the letter's discovery and Locke's appearance apparently saved Desmond's life as he decided against suicide. ("Deus Ex Machina")

Desmond also hid the key to activate the fail-safe in this book. When the Computer was damaged, he inexplicably was not shown searching for the book/key, and neither were mentioned. He also neglected to take the book with him when he fled although this may be because he believed he had little time left to live and would not be able to read the book. ("Orientation")

Valhalla Rising, by Clive Clusser

Lost References:
A copy of this 2001 book by Clive Cussler is seen on Ben’s bookshelf, on the 2nd tier in the episode Through the Looking Glass.

Valhalla Rising was a sea adventure mystery novel - a new "Titanic"-like passenger ship catches fire and begins to sink into the ocean. A passing science excursion ship passes by and begins one of the best rescue scenes I've ever read in a novel. The passenger liner sinks after 2000 people are successfully rescued and the mystery as to the cause of the tragedy begins to unravel - a tale tying together the ancient legends of Vikings, Captain Nemo, and the greed of modern day oil barons. It was a fun read, very adventurous.

Two things I liked about the book:
1) The author of the book wrote himself into a scene - and saved the day. It was very funny.
2) The rescue scenes - througout the book - were pretty amazing. I think the main character led a total of six major rescues in the book. They were all a bit over the top - but fun and cool at the same time.

What I didn't like: the next book from the Lost list I wanted to read was "Mysterious Island" by Jules Vern. But Valhalla Rising talked about this book and spilled the entire plot of "Mysterious Island."

So, I went to the library and checked out "Heart of Darkness," by Joseph Conrad and "Lancelot" by Walter Percy. I'm not sure I will make it through "Heart of Darkness" - I'm not jiving with Conrad's writing style, even though the book's been referenced many times on Lost.

Anyway, peace for now!
R.R.O.

Galactica vs. Lost - I'm not so sure

My sister says that Battlestar Galactica is her 2nd favorite tv show (Lost is her first). I concur that as far as tv shows go that they are better than most. I'm not sure I can compare the two shows and declare a favorite.
I simply love the dramatic storytelling of BSG - it's grittiness and drama. There's so much as stake in BSG - the space refugees attempting to save the entire human race from extinction. It's a show about pain and sacrifice, suffering and redemption.
Lost is great too and has all those things - yet in someways - it's just a little more campy than BSG. I love it and I'm slowly continuing to read books from the Lost book list. I really enjoy the adventure and the music makes my heart beat fastier sometimes.
BSG finishes up in nine more episodes. Lost has two more years to go. I will continue to enjoy both and decide for sure once the complete stories have been told. I still have a slight feeling that the writers/producers of one or the other may let us all down in the end.

A Prayer for my Fellow Americans

It's exciting to see the country re-invigorated politically and the trust that we've put in President Obama. I'm not sure I've seen anything like this kind of political energy in my life time. I do hope, however, that Americans will be inspired to make changes to their lifestyles in big ways. I feel sometimes that we are a spoiled nation and resist change, even when we long for it in big ways. We do as a nation need to live simplier, recycle everything, and volunteer more in order to get the kind of change we need. We really cannot place all our hope in one person to make the changes we want - we need to live the changes for them to have any long, lasting affect.