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)

And the winner is...

The Classics Spin number was 1, meaning I will be reading The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. I love me some Edith, so hooray and onward!

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

Classics Club Spin #5!!

Guys, I love the Classics Club Spin. I missed the last one or two but am excited to participate in this next one. I am lazy and worked 48 hours last week so I'm not going to explain all the rules to you, but go here if you're curious and want to learn more. 

Here's my list (Basically the same list from last time with new books to fill in the gaps left... because I do want to read these books!)

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. 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

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

And the lucky number is...

#4! I will be reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen before October 1st. This is my last Austen and I might have to sniffle a bit, but I'm looking forward to it. What are you going to be reading?