1984 - George Orwell

Imagine waking up in twenty years time to find that the history of the world has been changed. Truths you knew to be true, erased and replaced with a new, more convenient 'truth' - a false truth. 

Imagine not being able to imagine. To imagine is illegal. To discuss thoughts is to identify yourself to the ThoughtPolice as a commiter of thoughtcrime. Those that are punished are erased from historical records. Their birth records gone, all photographs deleted, newspaper articles revised to eliminate - so they never existed... Right?

Your every movement and word is spied on by Big Brother on the telescreens. Your every minute, public or private, is accounted for. Deviation from your schedule will have consequences. 

The world is divided into three: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Oceania is in perpetual war with one and perpetual peace with the other. The only problem is it keeps changing. History is re-written on a regular basis. Those in the ministry are brainwashed. 

Proles are the normal people on the street, who are generally left alone to continue their lives, unwatched by Big Brother.

Oceania has three ministries: The Ministry of Plenty (rations food and necessities), The Ministry of Truth (re-writes history) and the Ministry of Love (tortures those who dissent).

The story follows Winston Smith as he enrols on a journey of quiet, secret discovery of the truth. He almost escapes, but is sent to the infamous Room 101 after being caught... His history, his beliefs, his truths get re-written as he succumbs to the all seeing Big Brother.

George Orwell wrote this view of the future '1984' in 1949. He foresaw FaceTime 'telescreens' in a world when the technology of today didn't even exist. He spawned the term Big Brother and Room 101. Let's hope he was wrong about the rest...

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Dorian is a beautiful, but impressionable, young man. Society adores him - men and women alike. They envy his youth, his innocence, his beauty.

His portrait is painted by the artist, Dorian's friend, Basil Hallward. It captures Dorian at his best. Full in naïvety and purity. It is a snapshot in time, because Dorian is about to change. 

He is introduced to Lord Henry Wotton who is captivated by Dorian and jealously steals Dorian's friendship away from Basil Hallward. Time, Lord Henry and Dorian's increasingly dark desires corrupt his soul, but his face and body remains free of the marks of wrongdoing, of evil. 

Fresh faced and misleading, Dorian doesn't grow old or ugly. His morals desert him. His handle on right and wrong is lost. 

The portrait of Dorian is hidden away in the attic room, distorting and disfiguring bound to bare the worldly consequences of Dorian's dark deeds of deceit, lies, even murder.

Dorian the man is forever beautiful, his soul, trapped in the portrait, becomes devilish, horrifying and unbearable to the beholder. 

Oscar Wilde's poetry is woven throughout this dark tale of the consequences of living a bad life.

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

Jane is an outcast in her own home. Family cast her out, so she learns to survive relying on no one. 

Fate brings her to be governess for the little Adèle at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the dark brooding Mr Rochester. Souls entwine and secrets and misunderstandings threaten to pull apart those that were intended.

Fires, madness, untold histories, society expectations, loyalties and a certain inevitability rounds this classic up into its quiet, dark and final conclusion.

Heroines in literature will rise and fade. Jane Eyre will survive them all.

The Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Jungle. Whites mistreating the natives. Nothing uncommon there! What is wrong with the white man?! 

Feeling of smothering from the jungle, growing hatred for the company of the narrator, the captain of the steamer.

Kurtz - the mysterious voice of Kurtz.

Highlighted almost the whole of the last chapter - humanity, love, darkness.

Emma - Jane Austen

Emma is sweet, Emma is well meaning, Emma is kind. Emma is also emotionally blind, a meddler and generally wrong.

Emma's heart is in the right place. In her unwanted match-making she misunderstands intentions, hearts and glances. She makes and breaks the expectations of friends and un-does all that Cupid has set in motion. 

She is the anti-Cupid. 

Emma should not be allowed to matchmake. She is trying too hard to listen to the desires of the hearts of others to hear her own heart screaming out his name.

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

The Boy, a shepherd, learns to speak the language of the world, to listen to his heart and in doing so meets a king, a caravan leader, an alchemist, talks to the desert, the wind, the sun and to the soul of god. In doing so he learns that he travelled the world to discover that his treasure lay beneath his feet all along, but without following the omens to fulfil his destiny he would never have found it, his heart would never have been heard, and he would never have found Fatima, his love, a desert woman whose scent he catches of the distant winds, and whom looks to the desert each day for his return.

Dracula - Bram Stoker

Ok, so it's beautifully written, and clever in form... A collection of diary entries and letters narrating from several different characters tell the story of Count Dracula.

But I think moowees have ruined what I wanted in this book and in it's time, with its uniqueness when written, it must have been super scary. However, truth be told - I was expecting ol Dracule to have built an empire in his hundreds of years, to have thousands of vampire armies at his disposal, many vamp wives. 

I think he might have been a little bit lazy, perhaps wasteful of his years as he had made just three... Yes, three vampires. It took six humans to bring down the whole vampire empire in one final night.

I loved it, loved my unique bed book, just thought moowees talked him up a little too much.. Think we need to talk about managing expectations...

The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

The great Gatsby - the great known unknown. Everybody knows Gatsby, but no-one does. 

Lavish parties held night after night at his (no expense spared) house. 

He is mysterious. He is powerful. He is rich. Everyone has a grand Gatsby story. Everybody loves him. He loves but one... Daisy. His love for years. All this is for Daisy.

Trouble is Daisy has all but forgotten about Gatsby and has married Tom.

The green light across the water torments Gatsby as he feels her closeness compounded by her absolute distance.

Impossibility becomes close to reality and Gatsby almost gets his girl back... If he had only controlled his tongue... and his yellow car.

Gatsby is buried watched only by one friend. All those who professed a love for him blindly ignore his passing, or that he ever was.. Noone really knew Gatsby... Except all us fine readers!!

Fantastic book - an even more amazing movie... Especially if you see it in Jakarta! 

The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

One handbag. One pram. One baby. One moment of madness. Wilde's play of lost identity, silliness, engagements, mistaken (or rather mis-represented) identities... Earnest? Lies! Funny tale of friends up to mischief which winds up into the tightest tales then settles into a most satisfactory conclusion. V funny.

Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind

Wizards. Good. Evil. Barriers between magical worlds. Impending doom. Truths. Lies. Friendships. Disloyalties. Bravery. Foolishness. Endurance. Responsibility. Love. Love. Love. Courage. Belief. Destiny.