'Notes On A Scandal'

Hi Geeksters :)

This has been a long week. I have to admit that it's been a while since I've posted (I feel so bloody guilty about it, sorry) but I will make up for it with other posts in store for you guys. Thus, today I will be writing a book review about a book that I finished reading about 6 weeks ago. I have to confess that this post was a bit hard for me to write, and you'll know why in a second. This book is called 'Notes On A Scandal' and it's written by Zoe Heller.

I came across this book in a fair and my dad pointed it out to me. He reminded me that it was made into a film starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench and that it was nominated for the Academy Awards. With that notice I remembered its brief synopsis, so I bought it.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would. This is strange for me because I rarely don't like a book. To be honest I was eager to end the book (in a negative way).

Firstly, a reason for my indisposition towards this book, is that I came to find that it didn't contain a plot and a link of events. I don't know if it makes sense, but I found it to be slightly boring and I felt that the plot was kept at the same level, there was no climax.

Like what the title suggests it's about a scandal, involving Sheba a 40 year old wife, mother and art teacher who starts to befriend and get SUPER CLOSE with one of the students, Steven. She also befriends the lonely, unsociable History teacher Barbara, who's the only one who knows of this fling. Barbara's the one who supported her from the very start till the newspapers started to attack Sheba. Although, she didn't agree with this scandalous action. We readers knew about the affair from the very start. We've been fed with personal thoughts and information from Barbara's POV, which I didn't find quite exciting. I slightly liked the scene, in particular, when Barbara went out to a "date" with Bangs, which was a change of pace.

The theme of loneliness stands out impeccably in this book. It's found in both characters. Sheba acts out on her solitude by going out with a much younger boy who's at least 25 years her junior. Meanwhile, Barbara tries to stand by Sheba's expectations of a friend by supporting her, continuously listening to her problems and trying to help. Out of the two characters, Barbara's loneliness stands out. Barbara believes that Sheba is unconscious of her loneliness, but in reality, Sheba is just as lonely as her. That may be the reason, after all, of her thinking and feeling loved by Steven. There's also the theme of jealousy. Barbara wanted attention, but she didn't wish any pity. Another theme is betrayal, when Barbara spilled the beans about her affair to Bangs.

Sheba's situation is a bit understandable. Her behaviour is unnaturally realistic. We also find this reflection of an Anna Karenina storyline. You understand that Sheba married this older guy at a young age and probably forgot what "being loved " meant. Still, she doesn't feel as if she's mistaking the laws of nature while she's going out with Steven. Her affair was her weakness.

Overall, I would give it a 4 out of 10. I hope that the film is better, due to the fact that it gained Oscar nominations. Did any of you read this book? Did you like it, unlike me? What were your thoughts about it?

Thanks and love,
Rakela

Credit : Google Images

Short Story No. 1

The dentist who loved chocolate

This is the story of Mr Milligan and his wonderful world of chocolate.

Sharing is Writing Short Stories : Rachel and Rakela Write :)

Hello fellow geeksters,

Rachel here. How are you ? So, today I am writing a blog post about other future blog posts. As some of you may know, I really love writing  and  so what  is a better way to spice up this small corner of the blog with some short stories? Come on, Let's face it : This thing is almost empty. So that's why, every now and then I will  post some short stories with only a small plot in mind :  A name and occupation. I think Rakela will also be writing a few of her stories down here.

'Where'd You Go Bernadette'

Hello fellow Geeksters,

So here goes our first article/post for books. The first book which we'll cover is 'Where'd You Go Bernadette' by Maria Semple.

I really liked this book, and as it being my first book that I got to read this summer, it definitely shows that it's a pretty good start for my following summer adventures. Basically having my nose in a book pretending I'm the protagonist, who's either fighting against the Dark Lord Sauron or falling in love with an attractive British gardener. (Please tell me it's not just me?) Overall, it's got all the right ingredients for a great book, including the 2 Ws found in the Geekster Dictionary when it came to Semple's creativity, which are : Wittiness and Wackiness. It's also heart-warming and quite relatable. Let's face it Geeksters, this book is written by the woman who wrote for 'Saturday Night Live'.

First off, this book is an epistolary novel which makes the novel even more interesting. Hence the slight presence of dramatic irony. Though it's not just some typical teenager's emails, but a whole series of genius emails between different characters in the story. Bee aka Balakrishna is a fifteen year old who loves her extraordinary and unique mother Bernadette so dearly, who one day disappears. It contains such themes as those of escape, anxiety, marriage, motherhood, religion and parenting issues. Three fifths of the book describes the lives of Bee, Bernadette and Elgie, Bernadette's history, and Bernadette's thoughts which she openly discusses about to Manjula  ... SPOILER ALERT ... who's secretly the Russian Mafia ... Come on! It can't get any better than that! The other two fifths show the great efforts of Bee trying to find her mother.

My favourite character has to be Bernadette who I truly love and admire, mostly because of her weirdness. It was great to experience the character and achievements of this talented and free-spirited woman. I usually gravitate towards strong female protagonists in books. In this case Bernadette is strong and at the same time isn't, creating a contradiction. She is strong because of her experience in difficult and, some may say, devastating past issues. On the other hand, she hates everyone who lives in Seattle and doesn't feel the need to interact with anyone.

My least favourite character is obviously Soo-Lin. She's that kind of character who you despise from day one and if something bad happened to her, a joyous feeling would be unsurprisingly present amongst the reader.

One of the quotes which really attracted my attention was : "The brain is a discounting mechanism" said by Elgie, which, for me, was the only intelligent thing he had said throughout the book. Here he explains to Bee the situation in which you receive a certain bad result. At first you're constantly worrying about it, but you still can't do anything about it and so after some amount of time if somebody pointed it out to you, you regard it as being unworthy of consideration of thought. He adds that this is important for our survival. Without it we cannot be prepared for the worst. The relationship between Elgie and Bernadette is not an 'always happy with no problems' type of relationship. It is crystal clear that they both love each other very much, but what's also visible is that there's a lack of communication between the parents which prevents them from being honest to one another and to express their feelings, which is clearly shown in this novel. Although, I still deeply believe and think that, in the end, they will both fix each others problems and help their relationship by getting it back on track.

'Where'd You Go Bernadette' mainly impressed me greatly because of one specific reason. Have you ever had that feeling, when you're in the middle of a book, as if you know, or at least have this prediction of what's going to happen, and you're 100 percent sure of yourself? Well, that's what happened to me with this book and it turned out that what I though would happen was completely the opposite in what really happened. I was stunned. I think that the plot is totally unexpected but also thrilling. I love this technique very deeply and appreciate it a lot. This shows how much of an excellent author and exquisite writer Semple is.

With that being said (and we will all agree that I said A LOT), I conclude that : 1) This book made me want to go to Antarctica (the Geeksters who already read it know what I mean) and 2) I will definitely blabber and annoy each one of my friends about this AMAZING book until they admit defeat and read it. I kid you not when I tell you that no Geekster could resist this book.

Let us know what you think about this book and your opinion in the comments below, if you please and thank you. ;)

P.S. WEIRD QUESTION  : Did any of you Geeksters imagine Lee Pace acting the part of Elgie??

Love,
Rakela
xx

Credit : Pinterest