wuthering heights by emily bronte

it's been several years since i read wuthering heights. honestly, i don't know why i like this book, but i do.

the level of dysfunction and ruthlessness are startling. it seems as if no one in the story is capable of making a wise or correct decision. and i always wonder why someone doesn't just shoot heathcliff and save everyone in the story?

also, cathy is maddening. so narcissistic. you wonder how anyone could love her, or heathcliff, for that matter? but i guess that's why they love each other so much.

like i said, i don't know why i like this book, but i do. it's very easy to get swept up in.

(man, i would have liked to have spent some time at the bronte house!)

the forgotten garden by kate morton

the forgotten garden follows three story lines, all which eventually reveal the story of a young girl found on a dock in australia in 1913. she does not know her name and no one is there to claim her. the dock master takes her home, names her nell, and raises her as his own. he eventually reveals to her the truth about how she came into their family.

the three story lines follow nell as she sets out to discover who and where she came from; her granddaughter, cassandra, who takes up the search upon nells death; and eliza makepeace, an english authoress whose book is one of the only possession found on nell when she arrives in australia.

the book was alright. it had the capacity to wrap you up in it, which is nice while you're reading, but in the end it doesn't really deliver. it's good enough, and if i wasn't such a prolific reader i probably would have found it more fulfilling. the overall tone of the novel is very gothic and haunting; and there is an underlying suggestion of malice and danger throughout that is really anti-climactic when the reason for it is revealed.

but it did make me wish i owned a cottage in cornwall.