Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain

Somehow, in this book, Mark Twain effortlessly places the reader into the early 1800's in Dawson's Landing, Missouri. Immediately the many characters and personalities of this small mid-western town come to life and you find yourself in the middle of it, simply experiencing daily life among them. After a while, though, you begin to wonder what this story is actually about or if there is even a story here at all. At this very moment, Twain begins to weave together the seemingly unimportant events into an intriguing plot that includes theft, murder, and mystery and concludes with Pudd'nhead's eventual triumph.

Despite the (seemingly) slow start, I found this book enjoyable. Although I wouldn't say that I "couldn't put it down", Twain, in his own unique way, creates in the reader an acute desire to find out how it all works out. His writing oftentimes describes antiquities such as steamboats and duals which affords the reader a chance to enter a world and time that we don't often visit, but generally enjoy when we do.

Appearance: 4/5 - The cover is intriguing as it makes you wonder who the men are and what they may be discussing, but after reading the story I am no closer to answering those questions.

Readability: 4/5 - As I said before, the story seems to get off to a slow start, but makes up for it in the end. Also, when Twain writes from the slaves' perspective, he sometimes goes too far in impersonating their speech, making it difficult to decipher.

My Points: 10/10 - I enjoyed this book. Not to mention I think its the first Mark Twain book I've ever actually read. I'll have to read more.

Total: 18/20

The All of It

Gosh, this book was a dud, and a weird dud at that. Generally I am a bit hesitant to give a low review due to the fact that I am not actually qualified to do so - but I really have no problem doing just that to this book. Although the way in which the story was related was somewhat unique (throughout most of the book, the main character told the priest a story about her life living with her brother and letting everybody assume they were husband and wife), it could hardly be described as intriguing. There was also this side story about the priest going fishing that I didn't really get. Lastly, I don't want to give Mr. Prescott (the person who gave this story a positive review) a pat on the back, I am just interested in knowing how much he was paid...

Appearance: 1.5/5 - I'm not sure how the picture on the cover relates at all to the story. That said, somehow this book drew me in enough to buy it, maybe it was the mystery behind this vague cover?

Readability: 1.5/5 - It was easy to read the words themselves, but not the story.

My Points: 3/10 - I just cannot find it within me to add many points here - I simply did not enjoy this book. The points I assign here are due to the fact that at least the story was original. I have never and probably will never read another story quite like this one.

Total: 6/20

The All of It by Jeannette Haien

I'm going to say a few things about this book. My brother started this exchange on my birthday, I read the recommendation from Peter Prescott of Newsweek on the cover that said "One of the year's finest novels, a moral story of the most complex sort." and I thought to myself; interesting! I took this 145 page book along with me on a flight to Connecticut and it didn't take me long to gasp out loud of what this 'complex moral story' was all about: a brother and sister who looooove each other, sort of. Even that was not as interesting as you'd think. And then a priest starts to fall in love too. That's pretty much it. I feel like there was not much drive through the book and the story times were not terribly drawing. Not to say that I would have just given up on it but I also would most likely not recommend it. I can't really say much else. I want to give Mr. Prescott a pat on the back for fooling people into thinking this would be a great read-he got my penny.

Appearance: 1/5 - At least it had a picture. The picture isn't even great but it was there so that's something.

Readability: 2.5/5 - It's not that it is difficult to read, it's just difficult to have interest to read.

My Points: 4/10 - I give it two points for having such great recommendations, and two points to me for finishing it which I donate towards the book. I mean it is December and I read it in August, I didn't exactly feel an excited need to write my review. At the same time I don't want people to think it is strictly awful, I was able to just read it through. For me it just was not potent enough to be interesting enough to really enjoy it.

Total: 7.5/20