BOOKS: The Clan of the Big Friendly Giant Cave Bear

I just found out about the 50 Book Challenge over at Bookslut. Usually I hear about stuff like this two months after it's started and I end up cursing myself for being too late to jump on the bandwagon (and if you knew how much I love bandwagons, you'd realize how much it hurts me to miss one), so I took the fact that I learned about this so early as a holy sign that I should actually get off my sorry ass and do it.

If you managed to read the boring and pointless first paragraph of this entry, congratulations! This is paragraph two, which already promises to be much better. Onward and upward! Don't look back! Never surrender! Surgite!

Ahem. So my first official post for 2005 is actually for two books:

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel (#1)
I'm not saying this by way of bragging (okay, yes, I am), but my house is so stupidly full of books that when a recent houseguest brought this to me and asked me if it was any good, I had to ask, "Did you find that here?" She had. I had never read this book. My husband, Rusty Iron, had never read this book. Our housemate, The Don, had never read this book. What I'm trying to say here is that I have no idea how this book got in my house, but I was between books and took it as a sign that I should read it. So I did. And it was okay.

I'm not a huge fan of the genre (okay, I don't exactly know what genre this novel falls into -- so sue me), and I'm the first to admit that, snob that I am, a book that comes from a series entitled "Earth's Children" makes me more than a bit trepidatious, but as a quick (and free!) read, it was okey-dokey. I may even go rent the movie, just to see what kind of job Daryl Hannah did playing a character who's pretty much non-verbal. Maybe it's her best role ever. Play to your strengths, that's what I say.

The BFG by Roald Dahl (#2)
This book rocks, and I'm glad I finally read it. "BFG" stands for "Big Friendly Giant", but if you're anything like me, you'll keep wanting to call him "Big Fucking Giant". He's not even that big: 24 feet, as opposed to the nine other (much less friendly) giants in the book, who each top 50 feet.

If you loved Willy Wonka's wordplay in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you'll see even more of the same by the BFG. And if you rooted for the underdog Charlie, Dahl has created his female counterpart, a brave, bespectacled orphan named Sophie. As in his other novels, Dahl shows his dark side: dozens of children die horrible deaths at the hands of the other giants, who hunt for "human beans" every night. And Dahl tops the burping in Chocolate Factory with some explosive farting in The BFG. There's even an appearance by the Queen of England. Truly, this book has something for everyone.