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Book a Week in 2015 - BW3


Robin M
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Sorry to be MIA but I just got back from Flufferton Abbey where I disappeared for the weekend.   :seeya:  I read two Joan Smith books - Talk of the Town (highly recommend - it was fun) and The Hermit's Daughter (just okay).

 

 

Re: A book recommendation for DD and myself

 

Stacia - Thank you so much for recommending Marguerite Makes a Book.  I DD and I both loved it.  (Um.  If I've already posted a review on an earlier thread then everyone be very polite and don't mention it to me or I'll start to worry I'm losing my mind.)

 

 

Those who enjoy mysteries with a historical setting might enjoy this column:

Historical Mysteries: ElyseĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s Recommendations.

 

Do read the comments as there are many suggestions located there.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Now my afternoon is wasted because I'm going to spend a solid hour reading through this list and all the comments.  Thank you!  Looks like a lot of great suggestions on there.  

 

 

Re: Cedar Waxwings - Jane and Kareni

 

What a weird coincidence ... just this afternoon DH called me to look at a Cedar Waxwing outside our front window.  I have never heard of that species before and now we're all talking about them.  

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Thank you whoever left the Historical Mysteries link! I'm going through a light binge of them right now. 

 

Someone mentioned Robert van Gulik here at some point. He's a Dutch Orientalist who translated and also wrote Chinese mysteries in the Judge Dee cycle. Judge Dee is a fictional official in 7th century China who solves crimes. I guess there are quite a few Chinese stories about him, and some also by van Gulik. Interesting so far. I'm reading a book with his The Haunted Monastery (Taoist monastery) and The Chinese Maze Murders. 

 

And I've thrown in Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors. It's in my Finally Finish pile. 

 

I threw back Galatea 2.0. Couldn't get into it. Finished Beauty by Robin McKinley. She did a great job with description. Not too much. Good sense of wonder. I enjoyed it very much. 

 

I like to read fairy tales in the darkest part of winter. I have Folktales of the Amur and Russian Fairy Tales waiting for me. 

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mellifera:  I would call zentangling a good art activity.  A few months ago, my daughter did it in her art class.  Something about the structured whimsy is extremely appealing. 

 

Jane:  I love the picture of the kingfisher in all his majesty.

 

Ali:  I have the same experience with books.  I read WH in high school and didn't like it, but read it as a young adult and did.  Isn't it fascinating how life experiences and maturity help fashion our opinion of things?!  

 

mum:  Thanks for the youtube video.  I've never heard the that particular song before, although I certainly know Pat Benatar.

 

Stacia:  "Since there's a Mortdecai movie coming out soon, I thought I'd read one or some of the books it is based on. I keep reading reviews that say the Mortdecai books are a mix of Jeeves & Wooster mixed with 007."     I saw a preview and thought it could be a good laugh, making it interesting to watch.

 

Chrysalis:  I remember your WH thread--good read!

 

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Thank you whoever left the Historical Mysteries link! I'm going through a light binge of them right now. 

 

Someone mentioned Robert van Gulik here at some point. He's a Dutch Orientalist who translated and also wrote Chinese mysteries in the Judge Dee cycle. Judge Dee is a fictional official in 7th century China who solves crimes. I guess there are quite a few Chinese stories about him, and some also by van Gulik. Interesting so far. I'm reading a book with his The Haunted Monastery (Taoist monastery) and The Chinese Maze Murders. 

 

And I've thrown in Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors. It's in my Finally Finish pile. 

 

I threw back Galatea 2.0. Couldn't get into it. Finished Beauty by Robin McKinley. She did a great job with description. Not too much. Good sense of wonder. I enjoyed it very much. 

 

I like to read fairy tales in the darkest part of winter. I have Folktales of the Amur and Russian Fairy Tales waiting for me. 

 

I adore the van Gulik books which I discovered about the time I found van de Wetering.  Both are authors I should reread more often.

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Slipping in for a few minutes before I get back to my lab report and exam prep...

 

My script reading has continued into the new year:

 

Death and Maiden by Ariel Dorfman:  Powerful and disturbing (and, yes, the title comes from the Schubert piece).  The author is Chilean and the content deals with issues I touched on the other year in my Latin American reading and is a reminder to me that I want to continue to include that part of the world in my regular reading...

 

Narrrow Road to the Deep North by Edward Bond - NOT connected to the recent novel (which I have not read), YES drawn from Basho (who is a character in the play).  Also very disturbing, but not a play I appreciated.  Perhaps a fabulous production would win me over?  I *loved* Bond's Restoration - also very disturbing, but incredibly powerful and moving. 

 

Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance: Not sure why most the plays I picked last week were so sad... I've never seen a production of this and I didn't click with it as a teen when I first encountered it, but appreciated it much more this time around.

 

The Dyskolos by Meander: A silly play, not as rich of deep as a Shakespearean comedy, but a little in that register... the depressing part was thinking about how many words are not longer extant... though how exciting that this one was found.

 

Other works:

 

After Nature by WG Sebald: This is a collection of prose poems that I found facinating.  Not something that resonated deeply, but something I think I'll want to digest and come back to again.  From the book description: "...explores the lives of three men connected by their restless questioning of humankindĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s place in the natural world. From the efforts of each, Ă¢â‚¬Å“an order arises, in places beautiful and comforting, though more cruel, too, than the previous state of ignorance.Ă¢â‚¬

 

At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches by Susan Sontag: Some of these I loved, some were okay, others made me wish she were in the room with me so I could argue with her.  (and she has an essay on Victor Serge author of The Case of Comrade Tulayev, which Jane might like to look at and which I plan to tackle when I feel brave enough... but what I most want to read now are his memoirs. Here's one line: "I think that if anyone had asked me at the age of twelve, 'what is life?' (and I often asked it of myself), I would have replied, 'I do not know, but I can see that it means Thou shalt think, thou shalt struggle, and thou shalt be hungry"   )

 

I think my favorite selection was the speech Sontag gave at the St Jerome Lecture on Literary Translation: "Literary translation, I think, is preeminently an ethical task, and one that mirrors and duplicates the role of literature itself, which is to extend our sympathies; to educate the heart and mind; to create inwarness; to secure and deepen the awreness (with all its consequences) that other people, people different from us, really do exist"

 

And, marvelously: The Just City by Jo Walton: I beta read the sequel to this and then got to read a rough draft of this one and loved them then (the sequel even more than this one), but it is even better now.  The premise is intriguing: a groups of people from aross a range of places and times, gathered by Athena to try to establish Plato's just city (with robots from the future for the grunt work), and that is fascinating (and now I need to reread Plato's Republic), but plots and ideas never make a book for me, it is the people in the story that keep me there and connected.  And the three viewpoint characters here (one of the founders, one of the orphans the founders gathered to make the next generation, and Apollo (incarnate)) are distinctive and compelling.  ...but some of the material is really painful - especially everything connected to the marriage for a day and not knowing/keeping one's own baby.  I appreciate the integrity of the depiction, and that the hard, uncomfortable bits are not only not swept under a rug, they are foregrounded, but is not always easy to experience.  ...it does, however, fit with the core theme... for which one has only to read the sample and see why Apollo has chosen to live a mortal life cycle... 

 

 

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crstarlette - I love your tangle!  And the bit about the manicles.  Very cool!  I've seen them but didn't realize they were like textbook boxes or bolding lol.  They usually were pointing at Latin, which I can't really read.

 

I just read Los Tres Cerditos, dictionary in hand.  Earlier, I read La Bella y la Bestia.  After I finish my fairy tales, I plan to tackle a Magic Treehouse.  Onward and Upward!  I took a year of Spanish at the community college a few years ago (while I was waiting for youngest) but it has almost completely evaporated by now.  Sigh.

 

loesje, I will try to find an Austen quote for you later, when I have time.  Northanger Abbey has a biggish one where someone says she and her sisters didn't go to school and someone else comments that her mother must have been a slave to their education.  The one I happened to be thinking of was the description in Sense and Sensibility of the family settling down to their "work", which was studying music or art.

 

Nan

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In my own book travels I'm about 2/3 of the way through 'The Steerswoman'. It's a good story, the writing is polished and interesting and the characters have enough texture to hold my lens. I'm particularly enjoying the relationship between the Steerswoman and her companion, two admirable and solid female characters. With its descriptions of dragon attacks, magical gems and wizards this is a genre that is very far out of my normal range but I'm finding it enjoyable so far. Nan, perhaps you'd like this with all its descriptions of boating, ships, nautical weather and the like as well as the fantasy element. I plan to finish this today.

 

 

How differently we experience books!  I perceived the writing as dull and sloppy, the characterization shallow and inconsistent, and the plot absurd... I kept going hoping for more, but when I saw where all that 'adventure' led to what I considered abhorent actions by the main characters that were shown as positive in the text, I went from 'meh' to 'hate'.   If I had loved the book up until that point, I would hated it even more afterwards, but I hadn't liked it up until then, I was continuing hoping for something more, something deeper, something that matched the raving reviews I'd seen...

 

My visceral reaction is still flamingly intense, so there must have been something to the book that made me feel such distress, betrayal even.  ...though I had very strong feelings about young teens encountering what I perceived as a hideous message about "romance" and relationships in Twilight... not this intense, but still stronger than my usual non-positive reaction to books that aren't a good fit for me. 

 

..some days I think I must somehow randomly receive entirely different editions of some books... when it is ready my own interface with the material that produces such different results...

 

 

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Among the provocative questions he raises are those on the fate of authors' diaries and letters.  Kafka, for instance, asked Max Brod to destroy his papers which included his unpublished masterpieces.  Obviously Brod did not.  But other requests have been honored which leads Gekoski to ask questions on privacy or whether these ancillary materials belong to a greater audience and perhaps could be made public decades after an artist's death. Or will we really care to read an author's shopping lists a century later?  Probably not. There are some quirky and convoluted tales within as well. A worthwhile read.

 

I struggle with this question.  Virginia Woolf left instructions that her papers be destroyed... but I am reading her diaries now.  Granted, she was in a state of major depression when she wrote that, but shouldn't her wishes have been honored? 

 

I feel differently about letter/memories/diaries/etc that are published with the author's consent, but am uncomfortable about cases where publication violates the express instructions of the author... but I am not uncomfortable enough to not read some of them... which is where the struggle comes in.

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 And I think when you're in 11th grade everyone is drawn to the drama and "love" story of Catherine and Heathcliff; I've enjoyed re-reading classics from my high school years and seeing the books completely differently. I'm actually thinking of trying Faulkner again to see if I can handle stream of consciousness any better now that I'm a little more mature!

 

 

This has always baffled me.  I have never seen their story as a love story (which is, I know, why you have the quotation marks around the word!).  Not even when I was a teen... well, especially not when I was a teen.  I could not imagine such a disfunctional obsession as 'love'... that it was mutual didn't make it any more romantic to me than any sickening newspaper story about a man who was obsessed with a woman to the point of insane actions.

 

What I admire and appreciate in the book is the insightful depiction of the dysfunction and its impact... and the absolutely brilliant nested story telling with its wildly unreliable narrators.  It is a masterpiece of a book, but not one I enjoy reading...

 

...but, as we've demonstrated in this thread before, I sometimes seem to be reading a completely different book from other readers...

 

...romance??!!?? 

 

Bad-boy romantic heros have never resonated for me (I'm a boy next door, friendship blossoming into romance gal), but I can see the romance there... it isn't *my* flavor, but I recognize it and can enjoy it for someone else (real or fictional), but this... I can't see.  And I keep hearing that teens see this as a love story... and I can't see what I'm missing.

 

 

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How differently we experience books!  I perceived the writing as dull and sloppy, the characterization shallow and inconsistent, and the plot absurd... I kept going hoping for more, but when I saw where all that 'adventure' led to what I considered abhorent actions by the main characters that were shown as positive in the text, I went from 'meh' to 'hate'.   If I had loved the book up until that point, I would hated it even more afterwards, but I hadn't liked it up until then, I was continuing hoping for something more, something deeper, something that matched the raving reviews I'd seen...

 

My visceral reaction is still flamingly intense, so there must have been something to the book that made me feel such distress, betrayal even.  ...though I had very strong feelings about young teens encountering what I perceived as a hideous message about "romance" and relationships in Twilight... not this intense, but still stronger than my usual non-positive reaction to books that aren't a good fit for me. 

 

..some days I think I must somehow randomly receive entirely different editions of some books... when it is ready my own interface with the material that produces such different results...

 

See, that's fascinating to me because my experience was the polar opposite. I felt the writing was well done, poetic with enough rigor in it and the characters had just the right mix of complexity and ambiguity to keep me interested and engaged. The narrative kept me guessing. This as opposed to 'Deerskin' which I know you loved and I experienced it similarily to how you experienced 'The Steerswoman'--shallow, one dimensional characters, a plot whose trajectory I could foresee almost from the start and sloppy writing. Wow! We need to have coffee/tea together sometime!

 

'The Steerswoman', which I did just finish just last night, followed what I would call a labyrinthine narrative, one had the sense of circling around a central nexus, getting closer and closer as the narrative unfolded and yet within the labyrinth there were many rabbit trails to follow. The result was a textured read full of layers and intelligence, rather like a literary zentangle is how it felt. The ending, though it tied up the immediate conflict, left enough mystery to expect a second installment. I will likely read book two.

I've started 'Ahab's Wife' today.

 

 

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Um, yeah. Kind of in a spin right now. Busy birthday weekend and today is Monday. Mondays are the hardest day of the week. Mondays are not my favorite. Why do my kids act surprised when they have to do lessons come Mondays? Why do they even try to escape it?

 

Oh, Mom-ninja, I ask the same questions every week.  Even out loud to the kids, and they just shrug their shoulders.  Sigh...

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Ok, I finished The House of The Seven Gables.  I use the term "finished" loosely - I did the audiobook, and I played every word into my ears, some sections several times . . . but I can't promise that I actually listened to them all.  Last week when we were talking about audiobooks I may have claimed that my attention doesn't wander.  Well, it did with this one!  So. Many. Words.  I was out in the field today and hiking about a mile up a vineyard road and the whole way, he was dancing around admitting that Jaffrey's dead body was sitting in the parlor.  I felt like screaming, "We GET IT!!! HE"S DEAD!!!! MOVE ON WITH THE STORY!!!!  But I would have disturbed the owls and the raptors, so I controlled myself.  With difficulty.

 

I have now completed 10 books this year.  I am thinking I need to up my challenge:  I think my goal should be to read 52 substantive books, and then another 20+, or however many, that count as light reading - things my 12 year old suggests I read, or that I read aloud to the girls, or beach reads.  It's not that those aren't important and meaningful, it's just that I want to challenge myself to read at least 52 books that will stretch me, while allowing myself as much mind candy as I need.  Does that make sense?

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VC:  I love family stories--intriguing! 

 

Mum & 

 

HAHA!  Now I HAVE to read it! ;)

 

I feel the same way.  Just put a hold on it!

 

felicity:  Another hold just placed, All the Light We Can Not See.  Thanks!

 

crstarlette:  nicely done!

 

Today I showed my other children zentangles in Google images, and then one of my other daughters spent an hour drawing one.  She loves to draw, but was amazed how long it took to complete it.  She's currently working on a fish zentangle. 

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LostSurprise - My sister and I met Folktales of the Amur when we were in college and drooled over the illustrations.  Is it the same one?

 

Nan

 

Yes, isn't it gorgeous? Pavlishin is a wonder. Someone used the bear illustration as an avatar last year and I had to seek it out. I got the last $20 used copy on Amazon with my birthday money. So worth it. 

 

 

Thanks for the van der Wetering suggestion, Jane! 

 

 

Wuthering Heights: Perhaps part of the problem is that so many people consider it a romance. It's like Romeo and Juliet...it's not a romance (or it's a terrible romance). If everyone insists it is, the harder it is for the rest of us to swallow it as a work of literature.  

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Yes, isn't it gorgeous? Pavlishin is a wonder. Someone used the bear illustration as an avatar last year and I had to seek it out. I got the last $20 used copy on Amazon with my birthday money. So worth it. 

 

 

Zentangle

 

 

Wuthering Heights: Perhaps part of the problem is that so many people consider it a romance. It's like Romeo and Juliet...it's not a romance (or it's a terrible romance). If everyone insists it is the harder it is for the rest of us to swallow as a work of literature.  

 

 

I don't think I ever thought of WH as a romance, even as a teen. Perhaps that's why I liked it?

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Zentanglers,you should follow LostSurprise,s link. You will love these illustrations, I think!

 

Yes, isn't it gorgeous? Pavlishin is a wonder. Someone used the bear illustration as an avatar last year and I had to seek it out. I got the last $20 used copy on Amazon with my birthday money. So worth it...

The copy we saw belonged to my sister,s roommate. We borrowed it over and over. Years later, we went through the laborious process of ordering an out of print book and obtained our own copy. Yes, worth it! My sister has it now. You have inspired me to look at it again. I haven,t seen it since I started painting. I used to imitate (poorly) the style.

 

Nan

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That is so funny, I loved Perfume! Sure it was creepy and really weird, but fascinating nevertheless.

 

I enjoyed the first half or so of Perfume. The writing was well-done, the descriptions luscious (from what I remember). But, once it got more into the killings, it got into the 'ick' factor for me. And then, THEN, *that* ending?!?!?!

 

HATED, hated the ending. Worst ending ever, imo.

 

:cursing:

 

:lol:

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I'm finally getting into Unbroken. I wasn't disliking it but it wasn't grabbing me. I think I'm just in a reading funk because nothing I'm reading seems to grab me right now. Anyway, I already decided my next non-fiction will be The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. I heard about it on NPR last Friday. Apparently the book has been out since 2009, but there's a movie adaptation coming soon, so the book is getting new publicity. It sounds fascinating to me.

 

As for fiction I'm still plugging along in The Brothers Karamazov and Ulysses. I'm also listening to The Phantom of the Opera.

 

I missed your memo that you've taken this on!  I haven't read it since college and have been thinking it's high time to get back to it.  How far in are you?

 

(I too am plowing through Ulysses... Episode 7... it's like waves crashing on granite boulders...  I absolutely do.not.have.the.heart to take the two on simultaneously!  You're a brave soul...)

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I struggle with this question.  Virginia Woolf left instructions that her papers be destroyed... but I am reading her diaries now.  Granted, she was in a state of major depression when she wrote that, but shouldn't her wishes have been honored? 

 

I feel differently about letter/memories/diaries/etc that are published with the author's consent, but am uncomfortable about cases where publication violates the express instructions of the author... but I am not uncomfortable enough to not read some of them... which is where the struggle comes in.

 

In Lost, Stolen or Shredded Gekoski muses over these questions as a book dealer and art lover.  He also mourns the theft of art not just in terms of a piece walking out of a museum but cultural theft (Benin).  There is a great deal for the reader to consider while being entertained by Gekoski's anecdotes.  I think that you might like this one, Eliana.  It is a good distraction; an easy read, yet a provocative one. 

 

Wrapping up this non-fictional work means that I can start another.  A Short Walk, A Preposterous Adventure by Eric Newby is in my library bag.  This book sends me back to Afghanistan which I visited just a few months ago with intrepid traveler Freya Stark.

 

Still reading exquisite short stories by Turkish writer Sait Faik Abasiyanik.

 

 

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Lady Florida:Anyway, I already decided my next non-fiction will beThe Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. I heard about it on NPR last Friday. Apparently the book has been out since 2009, but there's a movie adaptation coming soon, so the book is getting new publicity. It sounds fascinating to me.

 

I have had this book on my TBR Amazon list for a while.  I just haven't got around to it.  I'll be looking forward to your review.

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I've had a magical hike around the mist-drenched lake with adorable pup. It restored my mood which had been previously soured by Sontag's assertions on the nature of interpretation. She posits that a thing or event only has meaning when it's been interpreted. I chewed on this a bit while hiking and absorbing the stunning, eerie beauty of the forest I was walking in. The redwood is its own prayer, it has its own intangibles and ways of breathing that don't depend on us. Perhaps this is too poetic a view to counter Ms. Sontag's with but that's the point, she leaves no necessary expanse of space in her argument, it's all assertion and conviction, no vistas to breathe into.

 

Dh said she's a middle of the road philosopher. I haven't read enough of her to form an opinion beyond my initial dislike of her tone. They're rather an argumentative bunch, philosophers :lol: I'll continue with this first essay and reassess after that.

 

As VC said, Sunk cost fallacy, baby...

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Zentanglers,you should follow LostSurprise,s link. You will love these illustrations, I think!

 

Yes, isn't it gorgeous? Pavlishin is a wonder. Someone used the bear illustration as an avatar last year and I had to seek it out. I got the last $20 used copy on Amazon with my birthday money. So worth it...

The copy we saw belonged to my sister,s roommate. We borrowed it over and over. Years later, we went through the laborious process of ordering an out of print book and obtained our own copy. Yes, worth it! My sister has it now. You have inspired me to look at it again. I haven,t seen it since I started painting. I used to imitate (poorly) the style.

 

Nan

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Oooh...wait...I think I can connect a few thoughts here in the last few posts. Not literally connect, alas, without multiquote, but just a few related ideas. 

 

Lost Surprise: "Wuthering Heights: Perhaps part of the problem is that so many people consider it a romance. It's like Romeo and Juliet...it's not a romance (or it's a terrible romance). If everyone insists it is the harder it is for the rest of us to swallow as a work of literature."

 

I spent much of last year reading Possession-A Romance, and this reminded me of the beginning quote. I can't pretend to fully understand it (no lit major here), but a Romance in literature doesn't necessarily mean "love story". Here's the quote, and, next connection, it's actually from Nathaniel Hawthorne's Preface to The House of the Seven Gables (Chrysalis Academy), which I think I read the summer of 2013.

 

"When a writer calls his work a Romance, it need hardly be observed that he wishes to claim a certain latitude, both as to its fashion and material, which he would not have felt himself entitled to assume, had he professed to be writing a Novel. The latter form of composition is presumed to aim at a very minute fidelity, not merely to the possible, but to the probable and ordinary course of a man's experience. The former--while as a work of art, it must rigidly subject itself to laws, and while it sins unpardonably so far as it may swerve aside from the truth of the human heart--has fairly a right to present that truth under circumstances, to a great extent, of the writer's own choosing or creation....The point of view in which this tale comes under the Romantic definition lies in the attempt to connect a bygone time with the very present that is flitting away from us."

 

This would be a great paper topic--in what ways are The House of the Seven Gables, Wuthering Heights, and Possession Romances? How do they fit Hawthorne's definition? Does his distinction between Romance and Novels still exist today?

 

So while not claiming to fully understand the Romance catagory, I don't equate it with "love story", and I think all of these books bring in fantastical elements to allow the author to explore what s/he wishes to explore.

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crstarlette, you too are a zentangle wonder.  You inspired me to get some black paper and white gel pens, and Stella and I have been playing around with them as well, but to nowhere near your effect.  Once I find my camera (sigh) I'll put up some pictures.

 

 

 

Sadie -- your posts on the other thread got my wheels churning re: satire, but I my thoughts -- big shocker, here -- wandered so off topic that I thought they might go better on this thread   :lol: since, you know, it's already riddled with rabbit trails here... and it is, more or less, reading related...

 

As a Mel Brooks, Monty Python, Jon Stewart loving girl, I got to wondering about the distinction between works of satire that I personally find funny (a large and varied list that includes a good amount of video and certainly cartoons, particularly those in the New Yorker) vs. works of satire that have affected me -- have in some way transformed or altered how I think about something (a much shorter list, and mostly comprised of works of fiction).  

 

Huck Finn.  Animal Farm.  (Maybe) Modest Proposal.  (Maybe) Master and Margarita (thanks Jane!).  Book of Mormon (the musical -- and the topic about which I changed my thinking, somewhat, was not about LDS specifically, but about evangelism generally, about which I took and still take a fairly dim view, but the musical made me think about it in a more nuanced and less wholly negative way).

 

I'm not sure where such swirling thoughts are taking me, though...

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Here is another book about women of this period that I really enjoyed:

 

She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth - Helen Castor

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8474660-she-wolves?from_search=true

 

Alison Weir has a good biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine and also of Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II

 

I want to second the She Wolves recommendation, but disagree about Weir (whose biographies I do not like at all)

 

For Eleanor of Acquitaine my favorite biography (though there are a number of others I've read that are also good) is Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings

 

Chibnall has a nice biography of Empress Matilda (daughter of Henry I of England)

O'Brien's Queen Emma and the Vikings is interesting, though not spectacular

Letters of the Queens of England (1100-1574) is a nice resource

Another wonderful resource: Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook,

 

Women in Medievel Society is a collection of scholarly essays that traces a shift in women's roles in society

 

Women in the Middle Ages Frances and Joseph Gies wrote a number of excellent books. They're a little dry at times, but fascinating and well researched.

 

The Alexiad

 

The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France is fascinating, though not specifically about women.

 

Queen of the Conqueror is shallow (there isn't enough material here for a full book on Matilda, so it gives us information on other women of the time and hypothesizes... which annoyed me greatly), but perhaps that background information might be interesting to someone?

 

On my TBR lists:

 

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe

Women in the Medieval Town

Upon My Husband's Death: Widows in the Literature and Histories of Medieval Europe

Old Norse Women's Poetry

Daughters of the Reconquest

Wu Zhao: China's Only Female Emperor

The letters of Margherita Datini (1360-1423) to her husband Francesco

Women and Power in the Middle Ages

 

 

...but the suplementation I think HOTMW needs isn't gender based, it is class based.  History isn't, imnsho, the story of the powerful, it is more complicated than that, and to really understand a period, the wars and leaders (male or female) aren't enough... though it can be either a starting place to get one's bearings or (for me) a tool for seeing the interconnections of various stories I've encountered mostly on their own.

 

 

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I want to second the She Wolves recommendation, but disagree about Weir (whose biographies I do not like at all)

 

For Eleanor of Acquitaine my favorite biography (though there are a number of others I've read that are also good) is Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings

 

Chibnall has a nice biography of Empress Matilda (daughter of Henry I of England)

O'Brien's Queen Emma and the Vikings is interesting, though not spectacular

Letters of the Queens of England (1100-1574) is a nice resource

Another wonderful resource: Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook,

 

Women in Medievel Society is a collection of scholarly essays that traces a shift in women's roles in society

 

Women in the Middle Ages Frances and Joseph Gies wrote a number of excellent books. They're a little dry at times, but fascinating and well researched.

 

The Alexiad

 

The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France is fascinating, though not specifically about women.

 

Queen of the Conqueror is shallow (there isn't enough material here for a full book on Matilda, so it gives us information on other women of the time and hypothesizes... which annoyed me greatly), but perhaps that background information might be interesting to someone?

 

On my TBR lists:

 

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe

Women in the Medieval Town

Upon My Husband's Death: Widows in the Literature and Histories of Medieval Europe

Old Norse Women's Poetry

Daughters of the Reconquest

Wu Zhao: China's Only Female Emperor

The letters of Margherita Datini (1360-1423) to her husband Francesco

Women and Power in the Middle Ages

 

 

...but the suplementation I think HOTMW needs isn't gender based, it is class based.  History isn't, imnsho, the story of the powerful, it is more complicated than that, and to really understand a period, the wars and leaders (male or female) aren't enough... though it can be either a starting place to get one's bearings or (for me) a tool for seeing the interconnections of various stories I've encountered mostly on their own.

Wow, thanks for all the resources. Will be lost for a while following links. 

 

shukriyya, on 18 Jan 2015 - 09:42 AM, said:snapback.png

 

 

In my own book travels I'm about 2/3 of the way through 'The Steerswoman'. It's a good story, the writing is polished and interesting and the characters have enough texture to hold my lens. I'm particularly enjoying the relationship between the Steerswoman and her companion, two admirable and solid female characters. With its descriptions of dragon attacks, magical gems and wizards this is a genre that is very far out of my normal range but I'm finding it enjoyable so far. Nan, perhaps you'd like this with all its descriptions of boating, ships, nautical weather and the like as well as the fantasy element. I plan to finish this today.

 

 

Eliana:  How differently we experience books!  I perceived the writing as dull and sloppy, the characterization shallow and inconsistent, and the plot absurd... I kept going hoping for more, but when I saw where all that 'adventure' led to what I considered abhorent actions by the main characters that were shown as positive in the text, I went from 'meh' to 'hate'.   If I had loved the book up until that point, I would hated it even more afterwards, but I hadn't liked it up until then, I was continuing hoping for something more, something deeper, something that matched the raving reviews I'd seen...

 

My visceral reaction is still flamingly intense, so there must have been something to the book that made me feel such distress, betrayal even.  ...though I had very strong feelings about young teens encountering what I perceived as a hideous message about "romance" and relationships in Twilight... not this intense, but still stronger than my usual non-positive reaction to books that aren't a good fit for me. 

 

..some days I think I must somehow randomly receive entirely different editions of some books... when it is ready my own interface with the material that produces such different results...

 

 

Now you both have me curious. Since I have it on the shelves and in between books at the moment, think I'll dip into The Steerswoman when I get home and see what I think.

 

 

Lady Florida and Angel:  I have Lost City of Z  (dusty book) as well and since I'm coming up on a C book for my a to z non fiction read, probably time to pull it out and read. 

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I want to second the She Wolves recommendation, but disagree about Weir (whose biographies I do not like at all)

 

For Eleanor of Acquitaine my favorite biography (though there are a number of others I've read that are also good) is Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings

 

Chibnall has a nice biography of Empress Matilda (daughter of Henry I of England)

O'Brien's Queen Emma and the Vikings is interesting, though not spectacular

Letters of the Queens of England (1100-1574) is a nice resource

Another wonderful resource: Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook,

 

Women in Medievel Society is a collection of scholarly essays that traces a shift in women's roles in society

 

Women in the Middle Ages Frances and Joseph Gies wrote a number of excellent books. They're a little dry at times, but fascinating and well researched.

 

The Alexiad

 

The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France is fascinating, though not specifically about women.

 

Queen of the Conqueror is shallow (there isn't enough material here for a full book on Matilda, so it gives us information on other women of the time and hypothesizes... which annoyed me greatly), but perhaps that background information might be interesting to someone?

 

On my TBR lists:

 

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe

Women in the Medieval Town

Upon My Husband's Death: Widows in the Literature and Histories of Medieval Europe

Old Norse Women's Poetry

Daughters of the Reconquest

Wu Zhao: China's Only Female Emperor

The letters of Margherita Datini (1360-1423) to her husband Francesco

Women and Power in the Middle Ages

 

 

...but the suplementation I think HOTMW needs isn't gender based, it is class based.  History isn't, imnsho, the story of the powerful, it is more complicated than that, and to really understand a period, the wars and leaders (male or female) aren't enough... though it can be either a starting place to get one's bearings or (for me) a tool for seeing the interconnections of various stories I've encountered mostly on their own.

 

Great supplement list! And I agree with your last statement - besides the jumping around, the "history of great men as history" is another aspect of HotMW (and lots of other history books)  that leaves me unsatisfied.

 

I'm curious what you don't like about Alison Weir as a biographer?  I don't feel particularly well read or experienced in this genre - I tend to latch on to an author I find readable and interesting.  I've been delving more into Tudor history recently (I have a weird novel idea I'm exploring) and I put a bunch of different biographies on hold, and realized that I don't have a very firm basis for judging historians/biographers.  Science books?  I can discriminate.  Historians/biographers? Not so much, though I know what appeals and what doesn't.

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loesje, I will try to find an Austen quote for you later, when I have time.  Northanger Abbey has a biggish one where someone says she and her sisters didn't go to school and someone else comments that her mother must have been a slave to their education.  The one I happened to be thinking of was the description in Sense and Sensibility of the family settling down to their "work", which was studying music or art.

 

Nan

 

 

I remember this one from Pride & Prejudice:

 

Lady Catherine deBourgh - "Has your governess left you?... No governess! How was that possible? Five daughters brought up at home without a governess! I never heard of such a thing. Your mother must have been quite a slave to your education."

 

(my quote thing isn't working...sorry)

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See, that's fascinating to me because my experience was the polar opposite. I felt the writing was well done, poetic with enough rigor in it and the characters had just the right mix of complexity and ambiguity to keep me interested and engaged. The narrative kept me guessing. This as opposed to 'Deerskin' which I know you loved and I experienced it similarily to how you experienced 'The Steerswoman'--shallow, one dimensional characters, a plot whose trajectory I could foresee almost from the start and sloppy writing. Wow! We need to have coffee/tea together sometime!

 

'The Steerswoman', which I did just finish just last night, followed what I would call a labyrinthine narrative, one had the sense of circling around a central nexus, getting closer and closer as the narrative unfolded and yet within the labyrinth there were many rabbit trails to follow. The result was a textured read full of layers and intelligence, rather like a literary zentangle is how it felt. The ending, though it tied up the immediate conflict, left enough mystery to expect a second installment. I will likely read book two.

I've started 'Ahab's Wife' today.

 

I haven't reread Deerskin in a long time, but in general I love McKinley's prose (I've used the opening of Spindle's End as part of a short story unit) and her characterizations.

 

Steerswoman's plot, for me, wasn't even predictible, it felt pointless.  The 'discovery' wasn't forwarded by the plot devices and the plot all felt contrived and unbelievable - except, oddly enough, the part I hated.  That felt as if there was the potential for something real - an unmasking of the sidekick, a chance to face the repurcussions of *evil* choices.  ...but it was treated as one more 'adventure'.  I am still not over the murder of a innocent whom they had met and known and the massacre of an entire castle full of people, or... anyway.   Without the evil, it would have been another random, bland potboiler that provided an hour or so's divertisment... I don't mind reading shallow books, though I prefer characters I can care about and believe in even there, but this...

 

Layers?  Intelligence?  A central nexus?   I wish I could have it read it with your eyes.  That is the book I wanted to read! 

 

I keep wondering where we can interesect, which books could we read and feel we both read the same book?  ...we both like Virgina Woolf, but I am beginning to suspect we're experiencing something complerely different.  This is fascinating.

 

Bujold (another author I love) talks about books as incomplete without a reader, and says that it isn't really possible for two people to really read the same book, because the 'book' is the printed material but also the interaction of reader and text.  I disagreed with her when I first read that, but am starting to think she might be right.

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I'm in episode 7 of Ulysses now, but I cannot access goodreads to read the discussion. Is anyone else having a problem with goodreads?

 

I've reached about 1/3 of the way through 1Q84. I am really enjoying this book but it's long. The copy I have is 1157 pages and I think I'm only going to end up with a tally of 3 books in January. 

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I missed your memo that you've taken this on!  I haven't read it since college and have been thinking it's high time to get back to it.  How far in are you?

 

(I too am plowing through Ulysses... Episode 7... it's like waves crashing on granite boulders...  I absolutely do.not.have.the.heart to take the two on simultaneously!  You're a brave soul...)

 

I'm not very far - they're still at the elder's philosophizing about religion and its place in the state. I'm reading it with a goodreads group called The Roundtable.

 

I'm pretty far behind in Ulysses, and that bothers me. I really want to give this a try, but most of my reading time so far this year has been at night. Night time is when I read something that doesn't need to be analyzed, so I haven't had much time for Ulysses. I should have some quiet reading time coming up in the next few days.

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I'm in episode 7 of Ulysses now, but I cannot access goodreads to read the discussion. Is anyone else having a problem with goodreads?

 

 

 

Not right now, but earlier today. Several times in the past few weeks, I got a message saying the website is not private and might have been hacked (or something like that). It's a weird message I've never seen when trying to access any other website. I'm not sure what that's all about. If I just stop trying and wait a few hours, all seems fine. I've googled, but can't find anything about this issue.

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Whew! That was a lot to catch up on.  I'm out of likes and can't multiquote, so here goes.

 

Amazing zentangles!  I think I'll give that a go soon with my new Microns.

 

I'm in a funk.  But I finished Firefight by Sanderson.  I loved it and can't wait for the next.  I picked up Time's Echo by Rysa Walker

 

and realized it's been a few months and I forgot some of the main plot points. :p

 

My 14 yo is really into Tale of Two Cities and it's heartwarming. She keeps sending me links to literary t-shirts and other Tale of Two Cities themed gifts.  :lol:

 

 

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We're already on page 3 of the third week?!  Aahh, I'm so behind!  

 

Today is Monday night, which means I feel like I have all the time in the world to study for my next session with my Spanish tutor next Monday afternoon.   :coolgleamA:   So I can read my books in English all I want!  

 

I'll be finishing Essentialism (book #3 this year) tonight.  I would not have finished it if it weren't for this BAW challenge.  I'm glad I did because it has some good ideas for making my life a bit more efficient and meaningful. 

 

Next up, I'll be reading If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways by Daniel Quinn (one of my favorite authors).  And, of course, I'll be continuing on through La Casa de los EspĂƒÂ­ritus by Isabel Allende.

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Re: my post above with just idnib's name in it. 

 

It was a double post. When I tried to erase it, I couldn't erase the name in the quote. When I switch to html to try and do it that way, the post goes blank. Everything disappears. This is why I can't use Eliana's method of getting around the broken multiquote. I can't copy the quote, and I can't do anything in html mode.  :cursing:  :banghead:  :angry:

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My book 3 for the year is AD 30 by Ted Dekker. It's okay so far. Nt spectacular, though. A horrible thing happened to an infant right at the beginning, and infant that is really close in age to my own. I was so upset I couldn't sleep. I'll try to post more of a synopsis when I finish reading it.

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I haven't reread Deerskin in a long time, but in general I love McKinley's prose (I've used the opening of Spindle's End as part of a short story unit) and her characterizations.

 

Steerswoman's plot, for me, wasn't even predictible, it felt pointless.  The 'discovery' wasn't forwarded by the plot devices and the plot all felt contrived and unbelievable - except, oddly enough, the part I hated.  That felt as if there was the potential for something real - an unmasking of the sidekick, a chance to face the repurcussions of *evil* choices.  ...but it was treated as one more 'adventure'.  I am still not over the murder of a innocent whom they had met and known and the massacre of an entire castle full of people, or... anyway.   Without the evil, it would have been another random, bland potboiler that provided an hour or so's divertisment... I don't mind reading shallow books, though I prefer characters I can care about and believe in even there, but this...

 

Layers?  Intelligence?  A central nexus?   I wish I could have it read it with your eyes.  That is the book I wanted to read! 

 

I keep wondering where we can interesect, which books could we read and feel we both read the same book?  ...we both like Virgina Woolf, but I am beginning to suspect we're experiencing something complerely different.  This is fascinating.

 

 

 

Delightfully gobsmacked. Honestly, thoroughly amazed. I had McKinley's 'Beauty' in my tbr stack but after 'Deerskin's' flat prose I didn't have any interest in reading it. I did feel that Deerskin got high marks for vision but the delivery fell into a mess of mundane, uninspiring prose. I won't say 'The Steerswoman' was a great book, but it was good enough for me to want to read the second one in the series.

 

 

I keep wondering where we can interesect, which books could we read and feel we both read the same book?  ...we both like Virgina Woolf, but I am beginning to suspect we're experiencing something complerely different.  This is fascinating.

 

 

Perhaps our intersection is the willingness to hold the tension of opposites with regard each others' experience of a book?

 

 

Bujold (another author I love) talks about books as incomplete without a reader, and says that it isn't really possible for two people to really read the same book, because the 'book' is the printed material but also the interaction of reader and text.  I disagreed with her when I first read that, but am starting to think she might be right.

 

 

I have a pot of tea waiting just for you, Eliana, and a place at the table for some chat. What an intriguing conversation that would be ;)

 

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Read last week:

These Old Shades ( yuck! -I kept going and it just got worse!)

Belly Fat Breakthrough

The End of Pain

The Witches of Karres

The Strange Library (um, well, ok - thank goodness it was short)

 

Reading:

Three Men in a Boat (been reading a bit here and there, quite different from my normal method - and laughing out loud at many parts)

Blackout (didn't get very far in this - I always seem to have trouble getting 'sucked in' to Willis' books at the beginning)

 

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Everyone's comments about WH are further convincing me that the book is not for me.

 

 

 

I really disliked WH too but I do think it's interesting if you view it as a study.  It's quiet and sheltered Emily BrontĂƒÂ«'s inner self speaking and while the plot is gag-worthy, the writing can be quite lovely.  I think it shows an immature talent that would have improved with practice and worldly experience.  So one read is slightly informative, but I wouldn't want to do another.

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Hello, I'd like to join you all and give it my best shot.

 

I am still on my first book of the year, but it is David Copperfield. Oh my goodness, I just keep reading and reading and reading and the book goes on and on and on. :lol:  Good thing I just love it. But I am hoping to be done soon. It's just so hard to find nice long chunks of quiet reading time these days. I've been telling myself that it all evens out in the end..a long book for a few weeks, then shorter books in less time.

 

I always like to start the year with a classic, but maybe next time I think I'll pick a shorter classic?

 

I have my reading tentatively planned out for a bit so my next book might be 'Half a Yellow Sun" Or "Bring up the Bodies" or "The Story of a New Name", depending on what I can get from the library. But sooner or later they will all get read, right? 

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[quote name="Nan in Mass" post="6142052" timestamp="

 

loesje, I will try to find an Austen quote for you later, when I have time. Northanger Abbey has a biggish one where someone says she and her sisters didn't go to school and someone else comments that her mother must have been a slave to their education. The one I happened to be thinking of was the description in Sense and Sensibility of the family settling down to their "work", which was studying music or art.

 

Nan

 

I've never read Northanger Abbey I think, I am familiair with the BBC version though.

I think needlework, french music and art was considered to be 'study' for women.

I got that impression from Agnes Grey, from the Brontes.

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I have been busy reading the first in a new to me series which I am loving so far. It is a very clever paranormal with a huge book twist called Libriomancerhttp://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/libriomancer-a-guest-review-by-carries/by Jim Hines. I keep thinking of it as a paranormal version of Inkheart with a twist. The magic is that upon reading a scene he can reach in and grab an object and use it in the real world so Lucy's bottle (Narnia) heals, Alice's (as in Wonderland) shrinks, and every weird vampire weapon ever created in Sci Fi can appear. All need to be used and returned quickly. So far loving it for what appears almost more than the story. Possibly too entertaining to read on a night when sleep is elusive......

 

The review I linked is from the same blog Kareni linked to yesterday. Click the romance covers link for a good laugh. After looking at those I really like this author.....hilarious!

 

Also at the bottom of the review the author has a short list of other fantasy books she has enjoyed recently. These all looked great and I was able to put holds on two! :)

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