Alejandro Mata Mata itibaren Sincha Bacari, Guinea-Bissau itibaren Sincha Bacari, Guinea-Bissau

Pledged is extremely fascinating. It is amazing how far sorority girls will go solely for acceptance from a pseudo community. It is honestly scary to read about these girls that strive to have no character/personality or educated opinions (actually any opinion at all).

“The Lair of the White Worm” is undoubtedly one of the most repulsive books I’ve ever read. I should have read the other Goodreads patrons reviews of this novel before I picked it up. They mostly agree with my assessment. The very worst part of the book is the prominent role of Oolonga, an African slave brought to England in the service of the villain of the novel, Casewell. I’ve read other books where unfortunate, outdated prejudices leak into the narrative, but Bram Stoker harps on the evil, savage nature of Oolonga in a maniacal fashion. The rest of the story is only slightly better. The narrative is nearly incoherent. There are long-winded histories and dull, one-dimensional characters. The motivations of the nefarious Casewell and Lady Arabella are incomprehensible and ever-shifting. There is an evil kite! It flies over the English countryside, spreading negative emotions. The interactions of the characters don’t make any sense. Take, for example, Lilla and Mimi. If you’re a nice British girl, and a man keeps showing up at your house and makes you feel ill and faint by practicing mind control on you without your consent, wouldn’t you stop answering the door when he stopped by? But no, they keep politely inviting him and his evil cronies in to tea. Also, when Adam decides that action must be taken against the white worm he starts to plan his method of attack. What is the first order of business? Marrying Mimi, of course. How could you possibly destroy a primordial evil creature without first marrying the women whom it is terrorizing? If they weren’t married, it would be very unseemly for Mimi to throw herself into Adam’s arms after he saves her. There would be only one way to salvage this story, and that would be to turn it into some kind of over-the-top, D-level horror movie a la “Troll 2”. Stoker does everything he can to inspire such a movie. When Mimi is invited over for tea by the White Worm, the room begins inexplicably filling with smoke. Mimi reacts by running into a curtain, wrapping it around her head in her confusion and then blindly stumbling over to a bottomless pit. Luckily she is saved at the last moment by her hubby Adam. It’s like a scene from the Three Stooges. Unfortunately, I don’t think Stoker was in on the joke. I finished this book because it was short and I was a little interested to see how the train wreck would end. It kept surpassing itself in awfulness. I think Stoker’s editor should have done him a favor and accidentally dropped the manuscript in a meat grinder. After this, I’ll never think of Bram Stoker in the same way.

A funny book good for read alouds with older children. Think of a more tolerable and adorable June B. Jones or Clementine.

This book does not have to be construed as a means to cruel and heartless power any more than Sun Tzu's The Art of War should be viewed as such. Are some power tactics manipulative? Yes. Does getting to the top sometimes involve taking an opportunity away from someone else? Yes. Is power necessarily a bad thing? No. Often, yes. Though this is not necessarily the case. Greene outlines a number of the aspects of power, giving concrete and interesting examples from history. For those that say they cannot stomach this book I say they have dich0tomous view of the world, for there is nothing on this earth that is purely good or purely evil. Even the taking of a human life, murder, has circumstances under which it is not viewed as an evil act. Altruism is not always done with the intent of doing good selflessly; though it may sound like an oxymoron there is such a thing as selfish altruism. To read this book is to gain knowledge, specifically knowledge of power, and unless you intend to use that knowledge for evil reasons, it is nothing more than information as one can find in another book. Dale Carnegie's famous How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the most popular and best-selling psychology/self-help books of all time - and yet I doubt the same critics whose stomachs turn in the reading of this book would say the same of the former. The information in that book involved power tactics and social manipulation to more an extent than does this book. Some power tactics that are employed or described herein may be viewed as immoral or unethical, but the author does not sanction nor encourage them. And they are not all unethical - this would mean every person that has gained power is in some way immoral, and while this may be true on many counts, I believe certainly there are many exceptions. He simply has simply done his homework and can speak knowledgeably on the subject of power. Whether the reader intends to use this knowledge for good or bad is up to them. I might also add that, for one to have such a visceral, negative reaction to this book - perhaps there is something unacknowledged within yourself that caused such a reaction? It is that which we do not acknowledge about ourselves that rules us all.