Book a Week in 2015 - BW3

[Kareni]

umsami posted this in a different thread; I thought some here might be interested.

 

"Earliest Known Arabic Short Stories Translated Into English

 

http://www.independe...me-9859833.html

 

"The stories are very old, more than 1,000 years old, yet most of them are quite new to us. Some years later, I suggested to Malcolm Lyons, the translator of a recent edition of the Nights, that having completed that mighty task, he might consider translating Tales of the Marvellous. He sounded unenthusiastic and I thought no more about it. Then, last summer, he emailed to let me know that he had completed the translation. Now it has been published, meaning these stories can be read in English for the first time. ""

 

Here's an Amazon link to the book which is being released in the US in mid-February:

Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange (Hardcover Classics)

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

[aggieamy]

Last night I finished a reread (audiobook) of Arabella by Georgette Heyer.  I think I enjoyed it more this time than the first time I read it.  Parts were silly and hard to believe but overall a fun story.  

[Chrysalis Academy]

Last night I finished a reread (audiobook) of Arabella by Georgette Heyer.  I think I enjoyed it more this time than the first time I read it.  Parts were silly and hard to believe but overall a fun story.  

 

 

I recently re-read this one, too.   You have to understand that I read all these books for the first time as a teenager.  I'm finding as I re-read them now in my 40s that I enjoy the ones with the slightly more mature and less silly heroines now, whereas it was the reverse in my youth.  So the first time around I like Arabella and Friday's Child more than Venetia.  Now I like Venetia much more.

 

Still love The Grand Sophy, though.  It was the first one I ever read, and still the best.

[SunnyDays]

Hello, dear friends!!  :)

 

I haven't been on the forums in months, just popped back in this week.  DS is in private school this year, and I was having some conflicting feelings about it ("was" she says, as if it's all over, LOL), so I needed to take a break from the boards to fully engage in the new situation, if that makes sense?  It's going well for him, and was the right move for this year... time will tell if it's a permanent situation!!

 

As of right now, I skimmed the first page of this thread, and just decided to skip to the end, LOL!  I'm sure I missed a lot of good discussion but I might never catch up otherwise.  I do know that I love Jane's bird pictures, and Shukriyya's zentangle... I need to find out more about those!!

 

So far this year, I have completed five books... the bulk of that was the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness... titles include "A Discovery of Witches," "Shadow of Night," and "Book of Life."  Very good stories, rich in history as well as supernatural lore, although the ending of the last book left something to be desired in some of the storylines. 

 

Moving into some non fiction now... just started "The Evolution of Adam" by Peter Enns.

 

Will try to skim more and see what you've all been up to!   :grouphug:

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Cris, I'm glad you are back!  I have missed you on the boards and wondered how your son was liking school.  I'm happy to see you here!   :seeya:

[Angel]

:grouphug: prairiegirl!  I hope they find out what the problem is and your back to normal soon!

[Runningmom80]

I just finished The Tao of Pooh, and I'm almost done with The Conscious Parent. 

 

I'm going to start my Jane Austen trifecta next, I have a big book with Emma, Pride & Prejudice & Sense & Sensibility.

 

 

Any opinion on which I should read first?

[Chrysalis Academy]

Pride and Prejudice!  Or Sense & Sensibility.  :lol:   Mostly I say that because Emma is my least favorite Austen.  P&P is probably the most well-known and loved.  It probably is a more polished version of one of the first stories she wrote, too, although S&S was published first.  I'd read P&P first if I were you!

[Loesje22000]

Sense and sensibility differs a lot from the Emma Thompson movie IMO, I prefer the movie :blush:

We are fond of the dialogues in Pride and Prejudice,

Still I like Emma also...

 

Sigh,

I'm no help in suggesting Austens I suppose.

 

I hope to improve my English that much I can read Austen and Bronte in English...

[Jane in NC]

I just finished The Tao of Pooh, and I'm almost done with The Conscious Parent. 

 

I'm going to start my Jane Austen trifecta next, I have a big book with Emma, Pride & Prejudice & Sense & Sensibility.

 

 

Any opinion on which I should read first?

 

Another vote for not-Emma.  That is my least favorite Austen as well!

[Nan in Mass]

Hello, dear friends!!  :)

 

I haven't been on the forums in months, just popped back in this week.  DS is in private school this year, and I was having some conflicting feelings about it ("was" she says, as if it's all over, LOL), so I needed to take a break from the boards to fully engage in the new situation, if that makes sense?  It's going well for him, and was the right move for this year... time will tell if it's a permanent situation!!

 

As of right now, I skimmed the first page of this thread, and just decided to skip to the end, LOL!  I'm sure I missed a lot of good discussion but I might never catch up otherwise.  I do know that I love Jane's bird pictures, and Shukriyya's zentangle... I need to find out more about those!!

 

So far this year, I have completed five books... the bulk of that was the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness... titles include "A Discovery of Witches," "Shadow of Night," and "Book of Life."  Very good stories, rich in history as well as supernatural lore, although the ending of the last book left something to be desired in some of the storylines. 

 

Moving into some non fiction now... just started "The Evolution of Adam" by Peter Enns.

 

Will try to skim more and see what you've all been up to!   :grouphug:

 

About the zentangles - Several people have bought one of the zentangle books and are working their way through them.  The one I gave my son for Christmas is called Pattern Play: A Zentangle Creativity Booster.  Some people are doing their book more as an art project and some people are doing their book more as a meditative activity.  If you search for zentangle on youtube, you can find examples of zentangle patterns to copy.  People generally use micron pens with pencil for shading, although some people here have posted white gel pen on black paper ones.  The basic idea is that you divide a piece of paper into sections and make a pattern in each section.  Some people are also working their way through the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in order to improve their drawing.  People's children have been doing them also.  There are several books out there to help you learn how to do them.

 

Nan

[Robin M]

The Edgar Nominees have been released.

 

NPR - for a deeper night's sleep, forgo the e-reader.    What do you think? What has been your experience getting to sleep after reading a regular book vs e-reader. I don't know about getting to sleep faster but my hands are freezing by the time stop reading ereader versus a regular book. 

[swimmermom3]

Every year I have the best intentions when we start the 52 book challenge and every year, I fade away. I used to be able to read up to four novels a week. Now I am lucky to finish one every two weeks. I don't know what's happened to me, except maybe homeschooling a high school student. I seem more inclined to read an econ or stats text than literature. :tongue_smilie:

 

That said, ds had to read Mansfield Park for AP English Literature. He asked me to read it so we could discuss it. I like Austen fine. I.did.not.like.Mansfield Park. No way.  I know that it is considered one of Austen's most complex novels and that ds's very fine teacher will have a strong reason for doing it, but oh did I dislike that book. It felt like one really long exercise in character development - for the author, Fanny Price, and myself, as the reader.

 

Nothing happens. Yes, I know the "heroine," and boy, do I use that term loosely, goes from poverty and gets to marry the landowner's son, but there are lots of novels out there with that story line and the good ones at least manage to provoke some kind of emotional response from the reader besides irritation.

 

I get that for a poor young woman of that time frame the only thing she has is her virtue and Fanny Price is certainly virtuous. She never makes a misstep. She's never wrong. She never does anything except meekly accept her place in life and she does it without complaining. Gads, is she boring and she can keep that big priggish dolt, Edmund. Thank you very much.

 

I didn't like the characters or the plot. I do like some of Austen's more pithy comments on human nature and her use of irony is masterful. I came close to liking the perpetually nasty Mrs. Norris because she had some of the best line.

 

If someone can help me move beyond my rather juvenile reaction to this book, I'd be grateful.

 

Oh, and another thing! What's with this dues ex machina c--- at the end where the unwelcome lover runs off with a sister, etc., allowing "hero" (blech!) to suddenly find Fanny worthy of his notice beyond friendship? Too neat.

 

ETA:  i had no idea you all were talking about Austen upstream. Forget Mansfield Park, I say. Just forget it. I'll never get that time back.

[Rosie_0801]

I used to hate Mansfield Park too. Then I did a thought experiment to see what would happen if I decided to like Fanny.

 

What happened was I stopped thinking Edmund was merely deathly dull and started thinking he was a scumbag and she deserved better. :lol:

[swimmermom3]

I used to hate Mansfield Park too. Then I did a thought experiment to see what would happen if I decided to like Fanny.

 

What happened was I stopped thinking Edmund was merely deathly dull and started thinking he was a scumbag and she deserved better. :lol:

 

What! You don't think Mr. Inconsistent is a real catch?  "You know there is something that's not right about that Mary Crawford, but man does she have great gams!" Pant. Pant. "Oh, Fanny, you are still here. Well they say the girls all get prettier at closing time." Or if they are the only girl on the horizon.

 

Rosie, I am so embarrassed to admit this, but there was a point about a third of the way through where I thought, "I get this! It's a parody of this genre. Austen is so brilliant."  Alas, I think I am wrong.

 

Years ago, ds and I listened to a TC lecture series by Dorsey Armstrong and her lecture on writers honoring their readers stuck with us both.  I feel dishonored as a reader in Mansfield Park. It's not just the rapid tying up of all the loose ends at the end of the book that bother me, it's how Fanny acquired her oh-so-perfect- virtue.  The description of her home and family in Portsmouth was highly unflattering and the family at Mansfield Park was outwardly respectable, but certainly full of self-absorption and often cluelessly unkind. So how did Fanny become this paragon of virtue (her slight battles with jealousy making her a bit more human) given her environment?

 

I am a most dissatisfied customer the more I think about it.

 

[Stacia]

I tried Mansfield Park for my book club years ago & found it too boring to finish. So I didn't.

 

Speaking of 'required' reading.... My dd is currently reading Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms". I've never read it, so I don't know about the story, but she was complaining yesterday that she doesn't like the book. Her rant was along the lines of 'All it talks about is an ambulance driver in WWI eating a lot of pasta & cheese while in Italy. And he's an alcoholic. And the priest keeps telling him he should be a better person. That's it. Really -- how much can you say about pasta & cheese in Italy?!'

 

:lol:  (Obviously she's not my gourmand child, nor it she one much to enjoy literary analysis. But her comments about what the book is about made me laugh. I may have to read it myself. I know it's about more that that, but I think she's fed up with the many [?] mentions of what he is eating.... :leaving: )

[Forget-Me-Not]

I just finished The Tao of Pooh, and I'm almost done with The Conscious Parent.

 

I'm going to start my Jane Austen trifecta next, I have a big book with Emma, Pride & Prejudice & Sense & Sensibility.

 

 

Any opinion on which I should read first?

Persuasion :D

[Mom-ninja.]

Finished The Cursing Mommy Book of Days on audio. Listened to this while doing chores or going to sleep. It's satire and if you do not like/understand satire or if you are offended by cursing then don't read this book. Otherwise if you do enjoy satire and you fall into the category of one who lets a naughty word (or string of them) slip out on occasion then you might find yourself laughing out loud. 

[SunnyDays]

Stacia, I read one by Hemingway in high school.  I looked at both "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Sun Also Rises."  And to this day, I can't remember with certainty which one I ended up reading...  :leaving:

 

I *think* it was TSAR.  To be fair, they're both set in WWI and I'm sure they were written in much the same style.  :lol:  But, if that tells you anything about the incredibly memorable storylines....

 

Your daughter's take is quite amusing!!

 

 

Nan, thanks for the Zentangle info.  I will take a look at some of the books!

 

[Stacia]

Mom-ninja, thanks for the recommendation. It sounds right up my alley.

 

Cris, :lol: . I've actually had The Sun Also Rises on my to-read list for awhile now because the main character (Jake) is a main character in a book I read a few years ago that puts Jake & Nick (Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby) together in a mash-up along with a host of other literary characters & real people in the 1950s. It was a fun book & Jake's character was a hoot, so it made me want to read Hemingway's original to see where the authors got their idea of using Jake as their main character. (The book I'm talking about is Nick & Jake: An Epistolary Novel by Jonathan Richards & Tad Richards.)

[SunnyDays]

Oh, the Nick and Jake book sounds  hilarious!  I will have to look for that. 

[Stacia]

Oh, the Nick and Jake book sounds  hilarious!  I will have to look for that. 

 

I definitely recommend it. It's a fun & funny book.

 

[Lady Florida.]

Why oh why does Northanger Abbey always get overlooked when talking about Austen? It's my favorite, and so full of humor. Persuasion would be my next choice. 

 

It's easy to dislike Austen if you start with Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, or Emma. As an Austen fan, I like all three but I don't think they're the best place to start.

 

Mansfield Park - blech

[Nan in Mass]

What! You don't think Mr. Inconsistent is a real catch? "You know there is something that's not right about that Mary Crawford, but man does she have great gams!" Pant. Pant. "Oh, Fanny, you are still here. Well they say the girls all get prettier at closing time." Or if they are the only girl on the horizon.

 

Rosie, I am so embarrassed to admit this, but there was a point about a third of the way through where I thought, "I get this! It's a parody of this genre. Austen is so brilliant." Alas, I think I am wrong.

 

Years ago, ds and I listened to a TC lecture series by Dorsey Armstrong and her lecture on writers honoring their readers stuck with us both. I feel dishonored as a reader in Mansfield Park. It's not just the rapid tying up of all the loose ends at the end of the book that bother me, it's how Fanny acquired her oh-so-perfect- virtue. The description of her home and family in Portsmouth was highly unflattering and the family at Mansfield Park was outwardly respectable, but certainly full of self-absorption and often cluelessly unkind. So how did Fanny become this paragon of virtue (her slight battles with jealousy making her a bit more human) given her environment?

 

I am a most dissatisfied customer the more I think about it.

 

I love Mansfield Park, but for fairly personal reasons that are unlikely to apply to you so although I will try to explain why, I doubt if it will make you like the book any better. I am timid and strongly sympathize with Fanny,s shyness. I dislike people that everyone else seems to think are just lovely, sometimes. I try to be good and usually don,t even want to be bad. I get talked into doing uncomfortable things against my better judgement because everyone else seems so sure of themselves. I get attached to things and places and dislike change. Fanny struggles with all these things, too. And yet, despite being compliant and timid and in an extremely powerless position within the family, she manages to stay true to herself. The mouse wins without resorting to lionlike behavior, through passive resistance. The worser bit of me loves hating the people who are nasty to her and takes mean pleasure in the bad things that happen to Aunt Norris. I dislike Edmund but he is young and not any blinder than most men his age. (I have three boys about his age.) He learns to value Fanny in the end. As for how she alone wound up like that, I think it is because she was the only one raised to be humble and unselfish and self-disciplined. The others were indulged and made vain and selfish.

 

Nan

[shukriyya]

Just finished Briar Rose by Robert Coover...a strangely compelling book, an allegory within an allegory, an intimate and whispered conversation between desire and beauty as they incarnate archetypally in the being of Sleeping Beauty and the Prince, as they roam through what felt like an ever expanding palace of mirrors searching for each other and themselves.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Stacia, I read one by Hemingway in high school.  I looked at both "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Sun Also Rises."  And to this day, I can't remember with certainty which one I ended up reading...  :leaving:

 

I *think* it was TSAR.  To be fair, they're both set in WWI and I'm sure they were written in much the same style.  :lol:  But, if that tells you anything about the incredibly memorable storylines....

 

Your daughter's take is quite amusing!!

 

 

Nan, thanks for the Zentangle info.  I will take a look at some of the books!

 

 

Ah, Hemingway bashing!  Now that's a train I can jump onto.  I was forced to read The Old Man in the Sea in my (parochial) high school, and hated it.  Seriously, hated it, even before we were bashed over the head with all the Christ-symbolism.  I did not pick up another Hemingway book for 25 years, and then only because my book group was reading it.  I got through A Moveable Feast ok, but then I read the one about the bullfights in Spain - and I remembered that I really don't like Hemingway.  Still.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Mom-ninja, thanks for the recommendation. It sounds right up my alley.

 

Cris, :lol: . I've actually had The Sun Also Rises on my to-read list for awhile now because the main character (Jake) is a main character in a book I read a few years ago that puts Jake & Nick (Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby) together in a mash-up along with a host of other literary characters & real people in the 1950s. It was a fun book & Jake's character was a hoot, so it made me want to read Hemingway's original to see where the authors got their idea of using Jake as their main character. (The book I'm talking about is Nick & Jake: An Epistolary Novel by Jonathan Richards & Tad Richards.)

 

Oh, I will have to check out that one for sure! I've had a crush on Nick since high school.

[aggieamy]

Ah, Hemingway bashing!  Now that's a train I can jump onto.  I was forced to read The Old Man in the Sea in my (parochial) high school, and hated it.  Seriously, hated it, even before we were bashed over the head with all the Christ-symbolism.  I did not pick up another Hemingway book for 25 years, and then only because my book group was reading it.  I got through A Moveable Feast ok, but then I read the one about the bullfights in Spain - and I remembered that I really don't like Hemingway.  Still.

 

I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.  I read my first Hemingway (The Old Man in the Sea) a few years ago thinking I should read it so I can be well read.  Gag.  I hated it.  It was horrible.  Words fail me in describing how much I hated his story, his language, his style.  HATED. IT.

[shukriyya]

And I, oddly, *loved* 'The Old Man in the Sea'. I read it in high school and while the symbolism was lost on me I loved his spareness of language, his imagery and the vast silence that permeated the book. I tried and failed to engage with other of his books but TOMatS has remained in my heart.

[swimmermom3]

I love Mansfield Park, but for fairly personal reasons that are unlikely to apply to you so although I will try to explain why, I doubt if it will make you like the book any better. I am timid and strongly sympathize with Fanny,s shyness. I dislike people that everyone else seems to think are just lovely, sometimes. I try to be good and usually don,t even want to be bad. I get talked into doing uncomfortable things against my better judgement because everyone else seems so sure of themselves. I get attached to things and places and dislike change. Fanny struggles with all these things, too. And yet, despite being compliant and timid and in an extremely powerless position within the family, she manages to stay true to herself. The mouse wins without resorting to lionlike behavior, through passive resistance. The worser bit of me loves hating the people who are nasty to her and takes mean pleasure in the bad things that happen to Aunt Norris. I dislike Edmund but he is young and not any blinder than most men his age. (I have three boys about his age.) He learns to value Fanny in the end. As for how she alone wound up like that, I think it is because she was the only one raised to be humble and unselfish and self-disciplined. The others were indulged and made vain and selfish.

 

Nan

 

Nan, this is lovely and it does make sense and I think part of my response to the book is the age-old frustration that books about women for most of literary history can only go two ways: the woman must be a self-sacrificing paragon of virtue and she wins, if she is anything less, she has to die an ignoble death.  It's a written rule - well except for maybe Moll Flanders.

 

I also suspect that you have a far more interesting character than Fanny.

 

For some reason your point that Fanny manages to stay true to herself, reminds me of Johnny Cash's video of the Nine Inch Nails' song, "Hurt." It isn't Cash's song, but the producer did a remarkable job in making it his.  The last part of the lyrics are,

 

"If I could start again

A million miles away

I would keep myself

I would find a way"

 

Writer(s): Trent Reznor

Copyright: Penny Farthing Music O.B.O. Arlovol Music

 

This idea of "keeping" one's  self is such a powerful one and certainly not a bad one for a good novel to have as a central theme, but I had to work so hard at caring while reading this book.

 

[Tress]

And I, oddly, *loved* 'The Old Man in the Sea'. I read it in high school and while the symbolism was lost on me I loved his spareness of language, his imagery and the vast silence that permeated the book. I tried and failed to engage with other of his books but TOMatS has remained in my heart.

I agree. I haven't read any other books of his, but I really liked the Old Man and the Sea.

[Tress]

The Edgar Nominees have been released.

 

NPR - for a deeper night's sleep, forgo the e-reader. What do you think? What has been your experience getting to sleep after reading a regular book vs e-reader. I don't know about getting to sleep faster but my hands are freezing by the time stop reading ereader versus a regular book.

I saw that in the Dutch newspapers too and it got me concerned. I almost exclusively read on my ereader in bed, but I absolutely do not want to mess with my sleep. I wonder though if they are talking about e-ink readers or ipad-like readers? I always thought that e-ink readers weren't using blue lights, but maybe the ones with build-in lights do? (That's the one I have.) In the Dutch newspapers they specifically mentioned e-ink readers, but they didn't say anything about the lights. If you were to read an e-reader without using the build-in light, you would use the same light as the people who read regular books, right? Why would that be a problem? Doesn't make sense to me.

 

ETA, I know see that this article mentions reading on an ipad. That makes sense! Weird, the difference in newspaper articles.

[Rosie_0801]

Nan said it far better than I was going to!

 

It is probably a good thing to be unable to relate to Fanny Price.

[mumto2]

The Edgar Nominees have been released.

 

NPR - for a deeper night's sleep, forgo the e-reader. What do you think? What has been your experience getting to sleep after reading a regular book vs e-reader. I don't know about getting to sleep faster but my hands are freezing by the time stop reading ereader versus a regular book.

I seem to be making the transition to reading mainly on ereaders but did actually read a hardcover book last week. I haven't been sleeping well lately but that is due to some upsetting events in my life not ereaders. Ereaders are the distraction that might allow my brain to turn off and sleep. So now for my "scientific observations". :lol:

 

The basic kindle ereader is very easy (perhaps too easy) to fall asleep with. My cover makes it very similar in feel to a book and dh takes it out of my sleeping hands frequently. I prefer to read on it during the day saving the Fires for the dark but yesterday afternoon I had a couple hours in which I had nothing (yeah!!!!) To do so I wanted to read and I kept drifting off with my basic kindle. I swapped over to a fire and was able to stay awake so the light issue may be valid. I do fall asleep with fires so obviously not impossible, just easier to force myself to stay awake with a fire.

 

Hardcovers are books I don't like to sleep with. Too cumbersome to hold in my sleep. Always afraid I will damage them so don't let myself drift off with them often. I generally set them aside when I start to feel tired which is not always in my best interest because then I start thinking about other things before I drift off.

 

Sorry for the ramblings.....basic ereader no difference to sleep in my opinion, actully prefer it for me. I do think the light up screens may hinder sleep slightly but not enough for me to give them up!

[Jane in NC]

Sigh. Here come the Hemingway bashers again, picking on me as they always do.  ;)

 

My favorite Hemingway is For Whom the Bell Tolls which I really need to reread. Despite being a fan of Papa Hem, I think it is a mistake to assign A Farewell to Arms to high school students.  The Nick Adams stories are a far, far better choice. 

 

It saddened me to finish the story collection A Useless Man, simply because I did not want the exquisiteness to end.  The translators chose selections from across the wide body of work written by Sait Faik Abasıyanık.  Perhaps if this book is well received, Archipelago can commission another volume. 

 

From the translators' note at the end of the book:

 

Born in 1906, Sait Faik witness the First World War, the demise of the Ottoman Empire, and the founding of a zealously westernizing Republic.  These radical political changes were keenly felt and dramatically reflected in Istanbul's literary circles, with alliances forever changing, and fine wars of words at each turn, but Sait Faik seemed to float above the fray, honing his own approach to writing, drawing on influences both in Turkey and abroad, always fixed on artistic integrity.  At the height of the Language Revolution, instigated by Ataturk to cleanse Turkish of Persian and Arabic influence, writers were  under relentless pressure to conform.  But in the late 1940s , a new literary movement, the Garip or First New Movement, called for a language that was lighter, brighter and less reverent.  Sait Faik was a devotee.  And so his prose is an odd (and to us, bewitching) blend of the lyrical and a rough vernacular.  To do it justice in translation, we often favored mood over meaning, searching for the melody or rhythm to capture an elusive phrase. -- Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe

 

Sait Faik Abasıyanık resided on an island served by ferry from Istanbul.  His stories often focus on a small corner of this small world, interactions in a coffee shop or observations along a stroll.  One of the things that tickled me so much when reading was encountering six different Turkish words for the wind based on its direction and type.  How sensible!  Of course, we know of the French Mistral or the Chinook winds of the Northwest, but how useful it would be to have a vocabulary to describe the humid southerlies off the Atlantic vs. the chilly winds from the North, let alone the swirling winds of tropical storms. Perhaps it is only those of us subject to these winds who would appreciate such a vocabulary, but I think it would enrich my life.

 

Same for the rain.  The word "shower" does not do justice to a pelting of two or three inches received in an hour. 

 

I suspect that Nan could create several words for frost while other BaWers could create a vocabulary for levels of cold or windchill.  All of these words would be more interesting than a dry rendering of weather statistics.

 

I have started reading a book that Stacia passed my way, Twenty Thousand Saints by Fflur Dafydd, a Welsh writer.  Interestingly, she had previously published novels in Welsh; this is her first in English.

[Mom-ninja.]

And I, oddly, *loved* 'The Old Man in the Sea'. I read it in high school and while the symbolism was lost on me I loved his spareness of language, his imagery and the vast silence that permeated the book. I tried and failed to engage with other of his books but TOMatS has remained in my heart.

This is me. I read it in high school and really liked it. I've read a few other books but can't tell you for sure which ones because they seem all one book and the same story. 

[Nan in Mass]

 ...One of the things that tickled me so much when reading was encountering six different Turkish words for the wind based on its direction and type.  How sensible!  Of course, we know of the French Mistral or the Chinook winds of the Northwest, but how useful it would be to have a vocabulary to describe the humid southerlies off the Atlantic vs. the chilly winds from the North, let alone the swirling winds of tropical storms. Perhaps it is only those of us subject to these winds who would appreciate such a vocabulary, but I think it would enrich my life.

 

Same for the rain.  The word "shower" does not do justice to a pelting of two or three inches received in an hour. 

 

I suspect that Nan could create several words for frost while other BaWers could create a vocabulary for levels of cold or windchill.  All of these words would be more interesting than a dry rendering of weather statistics.

...

 

But, but, but...

Don't you talk about the weather with people, Jane?  Here, it is what begins almost every conversation when you decide you want to talk to someone, and I'd say a good solid portion of the family conversations involve weather.

We have LOTS of words for different sorts of winds.  If you ask me what it is doing outside and I tell you that it's a southerly, that conveys something VASTLY different than if I say there's a nor'easter.  Or a westerly (a fine, steady wind that will die with the sun).  Or a smoky sou'wester.  Or a northly.  Or an easterly (which brings fog and damp, here).  Or it's whiffling up.  Or there are cat's paws.  Or there's just a breath.  Or it's calm.  Or there's a gale.  Or it's making up.  Or it's dieing.  Or there's a lull.  Or it's blasting.  Or it's still a land breeze.  Or the seabreeze is coming up.  Or...  Don't all places have names for their winds?

And rain... What about it's a downpour?  Or it's a sprinkle?  Or it's steady?  Or it's mizzling?  Or it's misting?  Or it's heavy?  Or it's lightening?  Or it's driving?  Or it's sideways?

I know some of these are verbs, not nouns, but does it matter?  They are all ways of describing what it is doing outside.  LOL  I guess you can tell it doesn't just rain or be windy where I live.  I could make you some lovely words for frost. : )  We mostly just say a light frost or a heavy frost.  We have more words for snow or ice in lakes or the ocean.

 

Nan

[Jane in NC]

But, but, but...

Don't you talk about the weather with people, Jane?  Here, it is what begins almost every conversation when you decide you want to talk to someone, and I'd say a good solid portion of the family conversations involve weather.

We have LOTS of words for different sorts of winds.  If you ask me what it is doing outside and I tell you that it's a southerly, that conveys something VASTLY different than if I say there's a nor'easter.  Or a westerly (a fine, steady wind that will die with the sun).  Or a smoky sou'wester.  Or a northly.  Or an easterly (which brings fog and damp, here).  Or it's whiffling up.  Or there are cat's paws.  Or there's just a breath.  Or it's calm.  Or there's a gale.  Or it's making up.  Or it's dieing.  Or there's a lull.  Or it's blasting.  Or it's still a land breeze.  Or the seabreeze is coming up.  Or...  Don't all places have names for their winds?

And rain... What about it's a downpour?  Or it's a sprinkle?  Or it's steady?  Or it's mizzling?  Or it's misting?  Or it's heavy?  Or it's lightening?  Or it's driving?  Or it's sideways?

I know some of these are verbs, not nouns, but does it matter?  They are all ways of describing what it is doing outside.  LOL  I guess you can tell it doesn't just rain or be windy where I live.  I could make you some lovely words for frost. : )  We mostly just say a light frost or a heavy frost.  We have more words for snow or ice in lakes or the ocean.

 

Nan

 

Ah, but you are a sailor, Nan, i.e. wind dependent. While a "nor'easter" is in the vocabulary of people I know on Cape Cod, it was not part of my Midwestern childhood vocabulary--while "lake effect snow" was. 

 

"Sea breeze" has meaning for we coastal people.  My husband will talk about "southerlies" or "westerlies" before going out in his kayak, but I just don't hear these words in the common vernacular. 

 

And maybe that is just it.  There is a common vocabulary for people who share common interests.  I suspect that the fishermen have terms for both winds and currents.  Otherwise words for weather here seem to be "hot", "cold", "beautiful" or "yuck".

 

[Onceuponatime]

The Age of Reason is much more fascinating than I expected. Moriarty is Sherlock fan fiction, not great, but not bad.

 

I also liked the Old Man in the Sea and have read it a few times.  It is the encapsulation of a lifetime in one event. Man against nature and time are themes I have enjoyed many times, in small doses.

 

Weather words: Every time I open my oven I am reminded of the Scirroco winds from Africa that blow across Sicily every summer. My favorite from my childhood is "pea soup fog." Then there are the lovely sun showers that happen in Puerto Rico and Florida, a spritzing of rain from out of nowhere on a beautiful day.

 

For those of you familiar with Marcus Borg's books, he passed away the 21st.

[Nan in Mass]

Ah, but you are a sailor, Nan, i.e. wind dependent. While a "nor'easter" is in the vocabulary of people I know on Cape Cod, it was not part of my Midwestern childhood vocabulary--while "lake effect snow" was. 

 

"Sea breeze" has meaning for we coastal people.  My husband will talk about "southerlies" or "westerlies" before going out in his kayak, but I just don't hear these words in the common vernacular. 

 

And maybe that is just it.  There is a common vocabulary for people who share common interests.  I suspect that the fishermen have terms for both winds and currents.  Otherwise words for weather here seem to be "hot", "cold", "beautiful" or "yuck".

 

Southerly and westerly and nor'easter are common here.  People use them when talking to their neighbors when they get the mail or meet someone they know in the grocery store.

 

I had forgotten that you grew up in the midwest.  But isn't wind and sky one of the big features there?  And you live on the coast now, right?  Do people really just talk about hot or cold or beautiful down south?

 

Nan, who is having trouble comprehending a world where weather is not something to be reconned with.

[Lady Florida.]

The Age of Reason is much more fascinating than I expected. 

 

I loved Common Sense when I read it in school. I've always meant to read The Age of Reason, but never seem to get around to it. 

 

As for Hemingway - I suppose I can blame my school's English department for forcing The Old Man and the Sea upon us. Over the years I've tried to read something else but just can't get through it. My last attempt at Hemingway was The Sun Also Rises, but I've also tried A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Just. Can't. Finish. 

 

I'm not done though, until I read one all the way through. Then I'll make my final decision.

[prairiegirl]

Thank you for the hugs and the well wishes.  I had my ultrasound yesterday so now we wait.

 

I am a Pride & Prejudice girl through and through.  I have read it a number of times and each time I grow to love it a bit more.  Sense & Sensibility comes in second with Persuasion at a distant third.  My dd is reading Mansfield Park this month and my plan was to read it along with her  but a few pages in and I gave it up.  I keep hoping that I will pick it back up but it hasn't  happened.

 

I am hoping to get on the zentangles bandwagon as well  but I only allow myself one Amazon order a month and I already had a January order earlier this month so I have to wait until Feb to get started.  So it is micron pens that I use?  Can I get them from Amazon as well?

 

I put aside Marilynne Robinson for now.  Her writing and style and my nausea just didn't go well together.  So now I am reading  'The Anatomy of a Disappearance  by Hisham Matar.  I am loving the story and his writing.  I was a bit disappointed with a turn in the story.  I knew that it was going to happen because this is a contemporary book but I was hoping against hope that the author would surprise me.  He didn't.  I am wondering how this turn will affect the rest of the story.  But it is still a wonderful book.

 

[NoseInABook]

Stacia, this has been my 7 year old since Where The Sidewalk Ends magically landed in our mailbox. She's in LOVE! 

 

[4ofus]

We traveled this past weekend & I stuck a couple of short Steinbecks in my bag for the flights. I *love* Steinbeck. At the last minute, I popped into the bookstore & bought Murakami's Norwegian Wood. I am already glad I joined this thread b/c I would have never read this book on my own. 

 

 

I don't think I'll read anymore Murakami this month, although I am open to reading more of his work at a later time. I'm looking very forward to Feb.'s Jane Austin. :)

[Nan in Mass]

Nan, this is lovely and it does make sense and I think part of my response to the book is the age-old frustration that books about women for most of literary history can only go two ways: the woman must be a self-sacrificing paragon of virtue and she wins, if she is anything less, she has to die an ignoble death.  It's a written rule - well except for maybe Moll Flanders.

 

I also suspect that you have a far more interesting character than Fanny.

 

For some reason your point that Fanny manages to stay true to herself, reminds me of Johnny Cash's video of the Nine Inch Nails' song, "Hurt." It isn't Cash's song, but the producer did a remarkable job in making it his.  The last part of the lyrics are,

 

"If I could start again

A million miles away

I would keep myself

I would find a way"

 

Writer(s): Trent Reznor

Copyright: Penny Farthing Music O.B.O. Arlovol Music

 

This idea of "keeping" one's  self is such a powerful one and certainly not a bad one for a good novel to have as a central theme, but I had to work so hard at caring while reading this book.

 

 

Grr... I just wrote a big long thing and it vanished...  trying again...

 

I'm way out of my comfort zone discussing Jane Austen.  I don't know anything about her books other than that I love them and have read most of them every year or two as long as I've been grown up.  I like them in the following order, from best to least: MP, Lady Susan (main character is bad lol), S+S, P+P, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Emma.  (The two that are last are last because they are the least perfect main characters, one being young and silly and the other being young and headstrong, and I don't like being those heroines as I read.)  And you are going to have to forgive my spelling.  (I have a five year old begging me to crack nuts for him and don't want to take the time to do all the looking up that I usually have to do.)   But it seems to me that Fanny Price is portrayed as far from being a paragon of virtues.  There are books with women main characters that are strong and lively.  The reason I love the books so much is that Jane Austen has all sorts of women in her books - strong, weak, quiet, controling, passive, meek, lively, small-minded, very young and silly, selfish...  Most of them don't come to a bad end.  Most of them are just managing as best they can in the times they live in.  I think the characters that she portrays as the most desirable to imitate are Elizabeth in P+P and Eleanor in S+S.  She has a few paragons-of-virtue-according-to-popular-opinion-of-her-times, like Jane in P+P, who is portrayed as fairly sensible, and then lots who are silly but admired in her times, like Marianne in S+S or the best friend in P+P.  She points out clearly and at length the disadvantages of being like those two and portrays them as having chosen to be like they are.  Many of her women are really girls and portrayed as silly because most girls just are, being young and all.  She manages to portray women as real, with strengths and weaknesses, not idealized, despite living in a time where men expected women to be a certain ideal.  I think she objected strongly to that ideal and shows, via her books, that women could be something else, even women who were closer to the passive ideal.  Some of her main characters are lively and strong and good (P+P, S+S).  Some are passive and strong (Mansfield Park).  Some were passive and weak at the beginning of the book and then become stronger as they grow older (Persuasion).  Some are silly and young but goodhearted and not as silly as their friends at the beginning and only become a little wiser by the end (Northanger Abbey).  Some are lively, strong, and misguided but goodhearted at the beginning and become only a little wiser at the end (Emma).  Some are strong and lively and selfish and remain so throughout (Lady Susan).  There are a plethera of more minor characters who have all sorts of characteristics who just wind up leading mediocre, typical lives in the end.  Most of the bad women get away with being bad (Mary Crawford, Lady Susan).  They are just temporarily thwarted.  You know they will go on to ruin someone else's life.  Many succeed in their unwise marriages and go on to lead fairly typical, struggling lives, like P+P's Lydia or MP's Julia Bertram or Emma's Jane Fairfax.  Only a few really come to a bad end, like Aunt Norris and Maria Bertram, and some of the satisfaction of the book is that high-brought-low-ness at the end.  (And as I said earlier, most of the satisfaction of Mansfield Park is that I identify with Fanny so much and delight in her passive resistence.)  Most of Jane Austen's main characters resist, against the wishes of strong family members, some sort of marriage that they don't think is wise.  That is really hard to do, especially when you are young.

 

I seriously doubt I was more interesting than Fanny when I was that age.  Yes, I am more interesting now, but I wasn't then, or at least, not much.  I had more opportunities than her so I had more hobbies, but I was a lot like her.  I was 16 when I started following my husband around.  I spent a lot of time saying I didn't think this was a good idea but following him anyway.  9 times out of 10 he'd be right, it was ok, but the tenth was always a doozy of a disaster.  And I still followed him.  Fortunately, he was the same age as me, so we grew together rather than him making me be the person he wanted.  Although, I was pretty good at passive resistence.  There were things I could not be talked into doing and I avoided people who ran me over and didn't let me be who I am.  My husband, even at 16, sort of made a comfortable place for me in the world where I could be me without bracing myself for a possible fight.  I could be talked into and out of things by my parents.  Thank heavens they didn't try to talk me out of my husband because I'm pretty sure they could have, and I would have been just like the main character in Persuasion.

 

I have to say that both Persuasion and Mansfield Park have people at sea in them, which is another bit of the story I identify with.  I find the references to things like the scramble to get the brother's kit together because his ship is leaving fun.  So much hasn't changed.  Taken all in all, I feel like the women in the Jane Austen novels span a range very like the ones I know now do.

 

Sorry - I seem to have written a book... Now I have to go read a story to 5yo.  He stepped outside and cracked all his nuts with a rock.  I read him Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings yesterday (LeGuin).  I love the catwings books.  I don't think he breathed the whole time.  I can't find the rest of the series and think probably they are packed away with the childhood books by mistake.

 

Nan

[TeacherZee]

Jane: "For me Dickens is not "hard" but, as VC notes in a post I quote below, he fails to get to the point.  Which is why I prefer my Dickens as multi-episodic Masterpiece Theater productions."

 

Oh. Dear. God. Yes. I couldn't get through Hard Times until I had seen the BBC series.

 

But I am going to partially disagree with you on Hemingway. I HATED For Whom The Bell Tolls (although it did make me a fan of John Donne's poem so not a complete disaster) but I really like "Hills Like White Elephants" although I wish I could read it for the first time many times.

 

Northanger Abbey is my favourite Austen, actually it is one of my all time favourite books. It is so deliciously snarky. I usually cop out and have my students watch the movie but the book is fantastic. My least favourite is Emma but I really like the mini-series with Romola Garai. I do remember liking Mansfield Park but now you all are making me wonder if I miss-remember :confused1:

 

This has been a loooooooong week so I haven't read much. Hoping to remedy that over the weekend.

[guilfordlake]

On the topic of Austen, I was going to have dd (7th) read Pride & Prejudice next, but do y'all think we should do a different Austen?  (I remember reading Austen in school but have no recollection of which book we read.)  At this point in her life, she dislikes every book I pick out but maybe if I tell her The Hive suggested the book... :)

[redsquirrel]

Lol, I live in the Finger Lake region. I am very familiar with both nor'easters AND lake effect snow.  And rain and fog.  And humidity. But wine!

 

I read all of Jane Austen one cold winter and it all sort of mushed together in my head.  Or my head has gotten mushy?  I didn't notice it had happened until someone asked me which one to start with and I realized that with the exception of P&P and S&S it had all melded into one. So, I punted and said either one of those would be fine.

 

So, this isn't a book, but last night I watched the first episode of the BBC's Wolf Hall mini-series. I use TunnelBear so that I can indulge my BBC love.  It was fantastic. The actor playing Cromwell was perfect. I am sure it will be showing up on PBS this summer. If you are so inclined you should check it out.  It is covering both "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies" in 4 episodes. Plenty cut out, but what is there is very good.

 

and I apologize if I broke a book thread rule. I just thought this is a group of people who might be interested.

 

Still reading David Copperfield. OMG, this book is going to kill me. I am no slouch at big books. I've read The Luminaries and Wolf Hall just this past year. But this one is taking for.ev.er.

[Lady Florida.]

 

Northanger Abbey is my favourite Austen, actually it is one of my all time favourite books. It is so deliciously snarky.

 

 

 

It's my favorite too.

 

Love and Freindship (her spelling) is pretty funny. It shows that even at a young age and as an immature writer, she had quite a wicked sense of humor. People always focus on the romance (thank you, BBC), and almost always miss the humor/parody/sarcasm that is in so much of her work. 

[Jane in NC]

It's my favorite too.

 

Love and Freindship (her spelling) is pretty funny. It shows that even at a young age and as an immature writer, she had quite a wicked sense of humor. People always focus on the romance (thank you, BBC), and almost always miss the humor/parody/sarcasm that is in so much of her work. 

 

Which is perhaps why I did not warm to Austen in my youth?