My lucky spin number is... 17!

This is far overdue, but I have been on vacation and only just had the chance to report that for the next classics spin I will be reading Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I am looking forward to it -- it's a book I know very little about but have always held in my head as one of the pinnacles of great literature. I read a Henry James for my first spin (The Wings of the Dove) and had a great experience despite the challenge. It's a chunker -- I am reading it on my Kindle but Wikipedia informs me it is 520 pages. I plan on reporting back to you October 7th about my experience.

Are you participating in the spin? What did you get?

Classics Spin #7

It is time for the Classics Club Spin again! I love this challenge and the way it inspires me to read more challenging books from my TBR list. To play, make a list of 20 books before next Monday, August 11. On that day, a number will be chosen, and your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to read the selected book by October 6. No matter what, you win! :) (For more details, visit the Classics Club blog).

The event hosts suggest making a list with 5 books you can't wait to read, 5 books you dread, and so on, but I've just been recycling my lists from each spin and filling in the blanks of ones I have managed to read with the next books on my 50 classics list. So...

1. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
2. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
3. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
4. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
5. A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
6. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
7. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
8. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
9. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
10. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
11. Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
12. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
13. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
14. Summer by Edith Wharton
15. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
16. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
17. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
18. Silas Marner by George Eliot
19. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
20. Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth van Arnim

Recent Reads

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

This classic of minimalism and simplicity was our book club choice this month -- and only two of us made it to the meeting. I think I know why. Despite the many amazing insights of Walden, it is a pretty dense book, and it takes some motivation to get through some of the detailed descriptions of the depth of the lake, the idiosyncrasies of the animals in the surrounding woods, etc. Still, I'm glad I finally read it, and it did cause me to think and learn some things.

3.5 stars

Warnings: None


Abigail Adams by Woody Holton

I love Abigail Adams. I discovered her as a role model when reading John Adams by David McCullough, which is infinitely more readable than this tome that focuses on Abigail. I enjoyed all the details of her life, but at times the style was rather dry. I also listened to it on Audible, and I don't think an audiobook was the right format for a biography of this style. In addition, at times the author chose to view Abigail's actions exclusively through the lens of feminism. While I do think Abigail was ahead of her time in women's rights and did many amazing things for women, I don't think her every action was performed with that sole intention, as the author sometimes implied. Still, an interesting look into an interesting life.

3.5 stars

Warnings: None

How She Does It by Anne Bogel

I love Ms. Bogel's blog, Modern Mrs. Darcy, and when I saw a post referencing this book and explaining Bogel's philosophy on women being able to manipulate the traditional work experience into something that works for motherhood, too, I was fascinated -- that is what I try to do everyday! I did find it encouraging, and found some good ideas; however, much of what was written wasn't relevant to me, because I can't work from home at this time. It also left me with the feeling that one can't be fulfilled if one is not working. This may very well be true for me, but I don't think it is true for everyone -- and I am planning on eventually seeing if I can be satisfied with stay-at-home-motherhood, once my working is not a necessity for my family. Still, an interesting read with a good perspective on working mothers.

3.5 stars

Warnings: None

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

I am an Edith Wharton fangirl. The other two works that I have read by this author, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, captivated me and made me feel all the feelings. I had heard that The Custom of the Country was her masterpiece, and I had very high expectations for it. I won't say that those expectations were dashed, necessarily, but I did have a very different experience with Custom of the Country than I did with the other two Wharton books I have read. While neither of them could be classified as "happy endings," they left me satisfied, albeit sad. However, The Custom of the Country left me feeling somewhat dirty and weary. I think part of it is the fact that the main character, Undine, is so unlikable. I am not the type to discount a story because the heroine (or anti-heroine, as it were) is flawed. I love Gone With the Wind, the book I hear mentioned the most often for having an unlikable heroine. However, Undine is selfish, foolish, a home wrecker, a life-ruiner... I was so angry at her for most of the book, and so sad for the people whose lives she affected. I do think that Wharton's writing was incredible -- it certainly still made me feel the way her other books have -- but the things I was feeling were so miserable and frustrated that I couldn't enjoy her genius. I can't rate this book, because it is a masterpiece -- but I didn't enjoy it.

Warnings: Off the page adultery, dark thematic material (such as suicide)

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Classics

Wow, it has been forever since I have done one of these Top Ten Tuesday posts (hosted by the great blog The Broke and the Bookish, as usual). Today's prompt is on favorite classics. I think the challenge for me will be narrowing it down to ten this week -- I love the classics.

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck -- I think this one goes without saying -- my son is named after a character in this book. I love it because of John Steinbeck's amazing writing, the fascinating characters, and the powerful message that our lives are what we choose, not what destiny chooses for us.

2. Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery -- I love the simplicity and goodness of these eight books. I have read them so many times, at so many different phases of my life, and they never fail to touch and enlighten me.

3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott -- I feel similarly about Little Women as I do about Anne of Green Gables -- there is so much purity, simplicity, and wholesomeness in these books. I know they are not popular values, but I love them anyway.

4. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton -- Not a happy book, but the emotional gut-punch this left me with was so powerful even though it was so bittersweet.

5. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo -- When a book is so much work to read, I always appreciate some kind of payback. Les Miserables definitely delivers that for me -- there is so much to think about, so much beauty (and ugliness) of the human spirit.

6. Emma by Jane Austen -- I love all of Austen's books, but I had to highlight this one because I never liked it growing up. However, when I reread it a few months ago, I fell in love with it, I think because I learned to see the humor in the title character. While she isn't perfect and is at times annoying, she really does have everyone's best interests at heart, and I loved seeing her grow (and laughing at her, good-naturedly of course).

7. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- And really all of his books (except The Beautiful and the Damned, which I haven't read yet). I think I like this for the same reasons I like The Age of Innocence -- I just feel so much when I read it (and the writing is beautiful in the most satisfying way).

8. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham -- I related to Philip so much it was ridiculous, down to having a club foot at birth. His constant career changes, going to Paris, eventually settling on a medical career -- I felt like I had a kindred spirit in this book.

9. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy -- Such a good adventure story and romance.

10. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas -- Again, all the adventure and romance.

What are your favorite classics?

Classics Club Spin and a New Project

First of all, it's time for another Classics Club Spin! I love this challenge because it gets me reading a book that I want to read and also does it in a short enough period of time that I feel the drive to start early and get finished. The pick for the Classics Club spin will be drawn on Monday, May 12, and the book will need to be finished by July 7.

The admins challenge you to put 5 books you're dreading, 5 books you're excited about and so on, but I just go through my list and keep it consistent with the list I had before, adding new books into the gaps where the old ones fell. Here is my list for this go-round:

1. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
2. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
3. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
4. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
5. A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
6. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
7. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
8. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
9. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
10. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
11. Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
12. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
13. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
14. Summer by Edith Wharton
15. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
16. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
17. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
18. Silas Marner by George Eliot
19. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
20. Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth van Arnim

I am also really excited about a new project that sprang into my mind. I have always loved Madeleine L'Engle. I loved her science fiction that I read as a child, and even more than that I loved discovering her adult fiction. Lately I've been hankering to read her memoirs. I've always loved her interwoven ideas on science and religion, as well as the musical characters she frequently writes. She basically combines every subject I'm interested in -- science, religion, music, and of course, reading and writing. I've decided that I'm actually going to just make a project of it and read her complete works, including a reread of those pieces I've already read. I haven't decided exactly how I will go through everything -- I'm thinking of reading the different series together with smatterings of the standalones in between. My goal is to finish reading them all by September 6, 2017 -- ten years after her death. You can find my list and my progress on the tab above. 

Night by Elie Wiesel

Night by Elie Wiesel was my classics spin book, and I am happy to report I finished it in time! Hooray.

Many of you probably read Night in high school, but for those who didn't (like me)... it is the Nobel Peace Prize winning account of Wiesel's experience in the concentration camps.

There isn't much I can say about a book that takes place in a concentration camp that hasn't already been said. Harrowing. Dehumanizing. I couldn't read more than a few pages of this book at a time or I would get depressed and anxious. Night is a symbol of the darkness and loss of hope Wiesel experienced in the camp, and it is palpable and penetrating throughout the book.

I think the way that Night differs from many of the Holocaust books I've read (and I've read a few -- I had an Anne Frank obsession in high school) is the starkness of the detail. When Wiesel is running ceaselessly in the night, I felt the burning in my own lungs. He spares no details. The last lines he writes, when he has been rescued and sees himself in the mirror for the first time and says a corpse looks back at him, will probably shudder in my memory forever. His writing is simple and powerful.

I also was impacted by the theme of father and son trying to stay together but constantly being dehumanized and betraying each other. We see pair after pair of father and son being torn apart, or the son abandoning the father in his desire to survive. We see Wiesel struggle to be faithful to his father and keep him alive, but we also see, in his blatant honesty, the way the desire to survive starts to fray at his love and faith.

Night was by no means an enjoyable book to read. It sits heavy in your mind and heart and I have a feeling that heaviness will continue even though I've now read through it. However, it is worthwhile -- worthwhile to remember those that suffered in the Holocaust, worthwhile to see what the human soul can survive. It is definitely a book I will remember.

4 stars

Warnings: Violence and disturbing images

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Moment of silence for having completed my last Jane Austen novel. *Sigh*. I read Northanger Abbey for the Classics Club Spin and RIP VIII. I finished a day late, but still have been grateful for the added impetus to read it. I was expecting to be underwhelmed -- many people told it me it was their least favorite Austen, or, even worse, that they hadn't enjoyed it at all. I was expecting a boring read, but was instead completely delighted.

Northanger Abbey begins with Catherine Morland's visit to Bath. Catherine is the daughter of a very large family in a rural area who has seen very little of the world, and Bath brings many new opportunities. She meets a best friend, Isabella, and relishes the pleasure it brings her to have a confidante. She also finds herself in the attentions of two very different men -- Isabella's pushy, talkative brother, John, and a clergyman named Henry Tilney. Catherine's ideas of romance are very much influenced by the book Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, and they color some of her experiences throughout the book.

One of my favorite things about Northanger Abbey was Jane Austen's unmitigated sarcasm. She constantly describes how Catherine is not a proper heroine, whether through being merely conventionally pretty (when she is having a good day) or through not jumping to the most dramatic of conclusions when her lover is late to call. Austen is clearly making fun of herself throughout the book. I also really loved the way Catherine's imagination runs away with her as she reads Udolpho -- and the way Henry eggs her on, planting ideas in her imagination that lead her to pass a few very freaked out nights in Northanger Abbey.

I also loved the relationship dynamic of the book. I don't know how many of my readers are familiar with Brigham Young University, where I received my first college degree, but it is known to those who have attended as a bit of a bizarre dating sphere. Everyone is looking for a spouse, deny it as they might  (and, I'll confess, I found mine there), and people wind up dating a variety of people, some of whom are dreamy, some of whom are, well, interesting. John Thorpe reminded me so much of a few people that I went on first dates with there -- refusing to take no for an answer, talking up his own accomplishments so incessantly that they cease to impress, leading others to think that you are in a serious relationship, etc. It brought back all the awkwardness and emphasized the humor.

I also liked that Northanger Abbey was short and light to read. It was just what I needed. While it lacks the sweeping romance of Pride and Prejudice, it is enjoyable and will bring a laugh. It also has just enough Gothic charm to fit well with the Halloween season. I recommend picking it up this October!

4 stars

Warnings: None

Classics Club Spin #3

Hooray, it is time for another Classics Club Spin. I love this extra challenge to work on my classics list!

Here's how to play (from the website):

At your blog, by next Monday, Aug 19, list your choice of any twenty books you’ve left to read from your Classics Club list – in a separate post.This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books in August & September. (Details follow.) So, try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, rereads, ancients — whatever you choose.)
Next Monday, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List, by October 1. We’ll have a check in when October arrives, to see who made it the whole way and finished the spin book.

 In the past I have come up with categories and listed them. This time, I am just going straight through the unfinished and un-started books on my list. So without further ado, here is mine:

1. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
2. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
3. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
4. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
5. A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
6. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
7. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
8. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
9. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
10. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
11. Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
12. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
13. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
14. Summer by Edith Wharton
15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
16. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
17. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
18. Silas Marner by George Eliot
19. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
20. Night by Elie Wiesel

  

Book to Movie: Emma Movie Marathon

A few weeks ago, I finished reading Emma for the second time and decided to watch ALL THE MOVIES on Netflix based on this book. Here they are, in a nutshell.

Can you DNF a movie? I watched the first fifteen minutes of Aisha, a Bollywood musical based on Emma, but it wasn't working for me. I think I just wasn't in the mood for the zaniness of Bollywood, and there were other things I wanted to watch more. I might return to this one sometime, but I'm not sure.

Recently crowned champion of the "Teen Movie Madness" competition on Forever Young Adult, Clueless is definitely one of the most fun and quotable movies of the nineties. I'd actually only seen it in its entirety once before, and when I had watched it I was young enough to not know that it was based on Emma. Watching it with the new perspective made it much more entertaining, and I was impressed with how good an adaptation it actually was. Clueless is the perfect example of a spinoff -- it stays reasonably true to the original, while being entertaining in its own right. (And I love that Christian was Frank -- due to the "going to London for a haircut" incident, I'm sure). 

I had also seen this adaptation once before, but I hadn't enjoyed it very much. It was before I had ever read Emma, and my parents had picked it up at random to entertain my siblings and me when they went out for the night. This time around, I absolutely loved it -- I'm not sure if it is being out of elementary school or having read the book, but I thought the movie was beautiful and well done. I am a huge fan of Gwyneth Paltrow, so that was an automatic point in its favor, but I really thought all the actors did an amazing job. I'll probably watch this again.

In writing this post, I realized that I didn't really like any of these adaptations when I was younger, but love them now (with the exception of Aisha). I had the same feelings toward the book Emma when I first read it -- maybe there is a reason for all of this. I think when I was younger I couldn't appreciate the humor in Emma and felt that it wasn't especially romantic, just annoying. Now I can appreciate the subtle humor, and through that, enjoy the romance. 

Classics Club Spin #2

I am so excited that The Classics Club is doing another spin.  It is a perfect way to force myself to get through those classics that I want to read, but that often fall by the wayside in favor of those tantalizing YA and fantasy epics (nerd alert, nerd alert). The last time I had to read Wings of the Dove, which was my most dreaded, and I finished it in only a few days and felt an enormous sense of accomplishment, so, woot for that. (It's Saturday and I don't have to be articulate).

If you missed the last post, the spin goes like this: You pick 20 books off your reading list. It is encouraged though not required to vary it -- 5 books you can't wait to read, 5 books you dread, etc. Then, on Monday they will announce a number, and you are supposed to read that book by July 1.

So, without further ado...

Books I'm Dreading:
1. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
3. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
4. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
5. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Books I'm stoked for:
6. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
7. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
8. A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
9. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
10. Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth Von Arnim

Re-reads:
11. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
12. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
13. The Hounds of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Books I Know Essentially Nothing About:
14. Evelina by Fanny Burney
15. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
16. Silas Marner by George Eliot
17. The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather

Brontes
18. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
19. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
20. Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Classics Club Meme May 2013

Tell us about the classic book(s) you’re reading this month. You can post about what you’re looking forward to reading in May, or post thoughts-in-progress on your current read(s).

I am currently reading a couple of classics slowly. I've been rereading a few books a few chapters at a time, and right now it is Pride and Prejudice. I haven't read it since I was eighteen, so it has been very fun to revisit. I am also reading Anna Karenina slowly -- I've found with the chunksters like that, if I divide it up into sections and take breaks in between I tend to enjoy them much more. 

I'm planning on re-reading The Scarlet Letter when I finish re-reading Pride and Prejudice -- I've really enjoyed revisiting classics from high school. Other than that, I am looking forward to reading a classic for the Classics Spin. I'm hoping it is one of those that I've been looking forward to -- The Handmaid's Tale or A Moveable Feast are probably the ones I'd most like to read right now. However, I really enjoyed the last spin book, even though it was one of my "most dreaded," so I'm sure regardless it will be a good experience. :)

Unbound Series by Eve Marie Mont

I was very intrigued by the idea of the Unbound series -- a girl finds herself in the midst of a classic tale. However, this series surprised me by bringing a much more satisfying story to the second book.

In the first book, A Breath of Eyre, Emma, an aspiring writer, finds herself transported multiple times into the world of Jane Eyre while facing her own issues with her mother's death, a classic "mean girls" scenario at her boarding school, and a complicated boy situation. 

Sound like a lot? It is, but Eve Marie Mont almost pulls it off. I really enjoyed the critical analysis of Jane Eyre embedded in the text, and the constant drama of Emma's life kept me intrigued. However, the fact that she had to be in a coma to enter the literary world led to several Bella Swan-esque situations of constant injuries and rescues. A Breath of Eyre was colorful and interesting, but could have done with a bit of tight editing.

3 stars

Warnings: Language, thematic material

However, while I felt a little iffy about A Breath of Eyre, A Touch of Scarlet really impressed me. In this case Emma is back at school after a summer of romance, but her dreams have gone away with the warm weather (cheeeeeese) and she finds herself in a compromising situation that results in a cold freeze from her friends. Meanwhile, she is studying The Scarlet Letter in school and finds herself transported into the novel when she runs.

First of all, Emma's literary travels seem more believable to me in A Touch of Scarlet. She isn't getting struck by lightning and landing in comas. Instead, she is running and entering a trance-like state. It's all fantastical, but in a more believable way. Also, the drama in this book is addictive. There is a lot going on, and I was completely absorbed, dying to find out what happened next. Finally, while Emma did learn lessons in A Breath of Eyre, I found the lessons in A Touch of Scarlet to be much more resonant. 

All in all, the series so far is unique and enjoyable, blending classics, contemporary, historical fiction, and fantasy. I am excited to see what A Phantom Enchantment will bring.

4 stars

Warnings: Same as above

Mini-Reviews: Classics

Wings of the Dove by Henry James

This was my Classics Spin novel and it. was. tough. Clocking in at well over 700 pages, it was chock-full of words I had never seen before and vague sentences that required rereading in order to understand what was so faintly implied. The Wings of the Dove was my first Henry James, and it was definitely a challenge.

However, with that said, at the end of it, I felt very satisifed. I think part of that was the exhilaration of having finished my goal within about five days of making it, especially because it proved to be every bit the challenge I expected it to be. The other part of it was, I think, the fact that within that maddening subtlety of James' words lie perfect non-descriptions of the confusing, in-between non-feelings that every crazy human being experiences (except most of us are not heiresses with terminal illnesses or conniving fortune-stealers, but experience these feelings on a lower level). Savvy? 

So, in a word, not for the faint of heart, but is its own reward if you are willing to put up with re-reading sentences a few times. 

3.5 stars

Warnings: Conniving-ness

My Antonia by Willa Cather

My Antonia is a re-read for me. In eighth grade, my English teacher suggested I read it, as it was her favorite book. I remember being completely unimpressed and thinking the book was bland. However, in the last couple of years I have wondered if maybe I missed something the first time through. I am all for young people reading the classics, but I know in my case that has often resulted in my not understanding or appreciating the book the first time through. Anyway... this time I loved it. I loved the sparse prose and the simple life described in the novel, and most of all I loved that sense of first love and the power a memory has to remind you of why life is beautiful. My Antonia doesn't have the thrills and blatant romance that I would have appreciated in the eighth grade, but as an adult I can understand the graceful subtlety between its pages.

4 stars

Warnings: None

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas pere

The Count of Monte Cristo is also a re-read for me -- but not because I under-appreciated it. It is actually one of my favorite books, and I was feeling a craving for a little adventure and romance, which this book amply supplied. I've always loved the plot, with its main focus on Edmond Dantes' meticulous revenge on the men who landed him in prison on the evening before he was married, but I am also fascinated with the subplots, particularly that of Maximilian and Valentine. I remember when I read this in high school, I thought their story was the very height of romance.

This time around, I noticed how amazingly well-written this novel is. Granted, it is a translation, but still, the power of Dumas' words shines through. Despite knowing the ending, I was just as invested on my second reading. In fact, with a few more years behind me, I think I understood the messages and themes on a deeper level. I think there is something for everyone in The Count of Monte Cristo, so go read it. Now. 

4.5 stars

Warnings: Some violence, talk of affairs

Limberlost books by Gene Stratton-Porter

Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost, by Gene Stratton-Porter, both take place in the swamp of the Limberlost, where beautiful plants, moths, and birds abound. Set into this landscape are two charming, sweet characters. You don't need to read both books to get a complete story -- in fact, I read them in the wrong order. However, they are lovely companion novels and a few of the characters do pop up again.

Freckles is about a young, orphaned boy with only one hand who begins working in the swamp. He has no home, no family, not even a name -- but he is hard-working, positive, and has a knack for finding rare creatures. This talent leads him to meeting the Swamp Angel, whom he falls for completely and unabashedly. What follows is an adorable love story that is at times a little stickily sweet, but is nonetheless completely heartwarming.

A Girl of the Limberlost is about Elnora, a young woman in a loveless home who is determined to get an education at any cost. Faced with an unavailability of funds, she begins gathering moths to sell to collectors in order to pay for her schooling. Along the way, she discovers talents, friends, and love, both romantic and familial. Elnora's story was also engaging, although I loved Freckles a bit more. Elnora is a likable character akin to the heroines of L.M. Montgomery, who goes through plenty of "scrapes" and hard times but manages to overcome the odds at any cost. 

4 stars to both of them. :)

Warnings: none

Classics Club Meme: March 2013 (8)

This month's Classics Club question is:

Do you love Jane Austen or want to “dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone”? (Phrase borrowed from Mark Twain).

1. Why? (for either answer)?
2. Favorite and/or least favorite Austen novel?

The answer for me is a decided LOVE! I adore Jane Austen and have read all of her full novels except Northanger Abbey. I want to read it in the fall, but every year I resist, I think because I don't want to be done. I know there are plenty of spin-offs and juvenile unfinished writings, but being done with the core six novels will be saddening. 

The first Jane Austen I ever read was not Pride and Prejudice like most people, but Sense and Sensibility, and it remains my favorite. I always related to Marianne (it seems many people do, from what I see in the blogosphere) -- emotional, passionate, and a pianist. :) And as a teenager I was drawn to those stories that had a hint of tragedy in them (I was too young to see the romance of Colonel Brandon -- I get it now) (somewhat). 

My least favorite that I have read is Emma, and I think the only real reason for that is that I read it when I was pretty young and never went back to it. The other day I needed a mindless distraction and decided to watch Clueless while I fed my baby, and now I am thinking I need to reread Emma. 

Somewhat unrelated but also sparking a desire to reread another Jane Austen: Has anyone been watching The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? MOST EXCELLENT. 

The Classics Club Spin

The Classics Club has a fun idea for this spring -- take 20 books off our lists, number them, and they will give a random number. Then we have to read that book before April 1. We are challenged to have different categories of five books each. I don't have quite five rereads on my list so I shifted the numbers a bit, but here are my choices:

Rereads:
1. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
3. My Antonia by Willa Cather

"Whatever" classics: (Want to read, but not excited or dreading)
4. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
5. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by ... can't remember and too lazy to look up
6. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (same case with the author)
7. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
8. The Book of Tea by Kazuo Ishigaro

Beastly Classics:
9. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
10. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
11. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
12. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (beastly due to the dark subject matter, or so I've heard)
13. Paradise Lost by John Milton
14. Wings of the Dove by Henry James

Classics I Can't Wait to Read:
15. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
16. A Room With A View by E.M. Forster
17. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
18. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
19. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
20. If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

Classics Club Meme: November 2012

This month's question for The Classics Club meme (for more information visit their website) is: 

What classic piece of literature most intimidates you, and why? (Or, are you intimidated by the classics, and why? And has your view changed at all since you joined our club?)

Some classics intimidate me, and some do not. Some of the mighty chunksters, like Anna Karenina, War and Peace, and Moby Dick, definitely intimidate me because of their length and extensive historical detail. I don't think language alone intimidates me, although I have found that classics tend to be more challenging and take me longer to read than contemporary books. However, the classic that most intimidates me is Ulysses by James Joyce. It is supposed to be this massive masterpiece, and I feel like to be "well-read" I should read it in its entirety at some point. However, I've heard it is extremely difficult. Same goes for Finnegan's Wake. What about you? Any suggestions for managing those beasts? 

Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters by John Steinbeck

Title: Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters
Author: John Steinbeck
Genre: Nonfiction, memoir
Publisher: Penguin Books, 1990 (obviously written before that)
Source: Library
Read for: Fun

It is a well-known fact on this blog that I love John Steinbeck's East of Eden. When my friend Allison told me about this book, which consists of letters Steinbeck wrote on alternating pages with his manuscript for the novel, I knew I needed to get my hands on it. I wasn't sorry that I did -- Journal of a Novel gave me great insights into both East of Eden and John Steinbeck himself.

One of the first things I noticed was that, despite the fact that the letters Steinbeck wrote were just warm-ups for his daily novel writing, he still writes so well. His writing style has always been incredibly poignant and powerful for me, and that didn't change in the unpolished East of Eden letters.

I also loved having Steinbeck's thoughts about his own characters. For example, the Hamilton family, who are juxtaposed against the main characters the Trasks throughout the novel. I assumed the Hamiltons were at least partially inspired by people from Steinbeck's life, as he referenced his own mother a few times, but I assumed that they were mostly fictional. From Journal of a Novel, I learned that almost everything about them in the novel (aside from their interactions with fictional characters) was true. I also enjoyed reading Steinbeck's reasons for including the Hamiltons in the novel, as well as his reasons for many other of the decisions he made with the novel.

I think my favorite part, however, was getting to know Steinbeck better as an individual. I loved some of his little observations on life, his obsession with having the perfect pencil (and thus needing his electric pencil sharpener to always be in perfect working order), his desire to constantly be inventing and carving things. In many ways I felt that Steinbeck was a kindred spirit for me, such as his descriptions of the way things of the heart are unknowable to other people (something he explored quite a bit in The Winter of Our Discontent) and his complete and utter inability to relax (me too, Steinbeck! me too!). Having that added insight into his personality will, I think, help me to appreciate his work even more.

Anyone who has read East of Eden and wants to explore it further will benefit from Journal of a Novel. It will also bring great insight into (in my opinion) America's great author. Journal of a Novel was a fascinating journey into Steinbeck's mind and the background of East of Eden.

4 stars

Warnings: Mild language, spoilers for East of Eden (obvs)

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Title: The Woman in White
Author: Wilkie Collins
Genre: Mystery, suspense, classic
Published: 1859
Source: Personal Copy
Read for: R.I.P. VII, A Classics Challenge, Back to the Classics Challenge, Chunkster Challenge, The Classics Club

On his way to a new job as a drawing master, Walter Hartright comes across a mysterious woman dressed only in white, in desperate need of his help. Little does he know that the mysterious woman is connected with his new situation for work, or how the circumstances will reveal to him a new life of love, conspiracy, and mystery.

I knew nothing about The Woman in White going into it except that it was some kind of thriller, and that most people who had read it thoroughly enjoyed it. After reading it, I think it is best to know very little about it because there are several plot twists and surprising revelations, so I am going to keep this review somewhat short and vague to avoid spoiling this book for anyone else.

The first thing I noticed was that Wilkie Collins is exceptionally good at painting the quirks and foibles of his characters. There is an air of sarcasm and wit in his writing, especially about his most ridiculous characters. The three I most enjoyed were Mr. Fairlie, a hypochondriac who can't bear to have his convenience disturbed, Count Fosco, a simpering, excessively sentimental man with many secrets, and Marian Halcombe, who is an extremely capable woman for literature of that time. I had to laugh at the first description of Marian, who is apparently the original "but-her-face" -- the narrator (at that point in the story -- it switches several times) describes her elegant, beautiful figure as he first meets her, and his shock when she turns around -- "the lady was ugly!" Despite her apparent lack of attractiveness, in her face at least, she is one of the strongest characters, and my only irritation was that her beautiful and weak-willed younger sister is more admired and loved than she is (although I detected an element of sarcasm in this from Collins as well). I also loved Mr. Fairlie's narrative voice -- he is so obnoxious and selfish, but in print it becomes hilarious. Here are his observations on tears, which made me laugh out loud (although I read it to my husband and he didn't find it nearly as humorous, so we'll see what you all think of it) --

Except when the refining process of Art judiciously removes from them all resemblance to Nature, I distinctly object to tears. Tears are scientifically described as a Secretion. I can understand that a secretion may be healthy or unhealthy, but I cannot see the interest of a secretion from a sentimental point of view. Perhaps my own secretions being all wrong together, I am a little prejudiced on the subject.

Priceless.

One thing I also appreciated about the novel was that every thing was spelled out in the end. We are led through several twists and turns of plot, but in the end, every question is satisfied. I am always so annoyed by loose ends being left at the end of a novel, and I loved that I could depend on Collins to answer all my questions.

There are several interesting plot turns in the novel. Because of the amount of detail, at times they can be guessed, simply because we are given so much evidence about everything, but for the most part I still found myself being surprised and enjoyed trying to put together the information on my own before the veil was lifted and everything was revealed.

The Woman in White was definitely a fun read. While it was certainly dated as far as women's rights are concerned, I loved the development of the characters and will be reading more of Collins' work.

4 stars

Warnings: Mild violence