A Character with Character

Sometimes I find eccentric characters quirky and fun, other times I find them too unbelievable and annoying. What are some of the more outrageous characters you’ve read, and how do you feel about them?

The best examples I can think of for quirky characters are those found in Charles Dickens' novels. There is no denying that Mr. Guppy (Bleak House) is a fantastic character. Or "the Riverside Character" from Our Mutual Friend.

Another author with great quirkies is Jane Austen. Her characters have so much quirk they spill all over the pages. These example are the kinds that I love encountering.

Over 30

My baby sister turns 30 today but she insists that it does not mean that she has to grow up. =) And being only a couple of hours into her 30s, she sent me this:

If you are 30 or older, you will think this is hilarious!!!! If not, send it to your parents! They'll think it's funny!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning .... Uphill BOTH ways .. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in heck I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that...

I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and noticing the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a dang Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1. When I was a kid, we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the dang library and look it up ourselves... In the card catalog!! (Do you even know what a card catalog is? Didn't think so!)

2. There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter... With a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

3. There were no MP3's or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the dang record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!

4. We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

5. And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

6. We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like "Space Invaders" and "asteroids" and the graphics were horrible! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

7. When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just out of luck!

8. Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! And there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons!

9. And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove or go build a fire ... Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing or a pan with HOT oil and Real popcorn kernels and shake it all over the stove forever like an idiot.

10. When we were on the phone with our friends and our parents walked-in, we were stuck to the wall with a cord, a 7 foot cord that ran to the phone - not the phone base, the actual phone. We barely had enough length to sit on the floor and still be able to twirl the phone cord in our fingers. If you suddenly had to go to the bathroom - guess what we had to do..... Hang up and talk to them later.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled!! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,The over 30 Crowd

The Sunday Salon

Ah, to have a pleasantly peaceful Sunday with which to read. That has been my desire for the past several weeks; and at last I can say I have had one. Having figured out how to load a book-on-CD onto my Zune, I became the enchanted listener to The Tale of Despereaux as I sat working on a quilt. I have been in an irritable slump for the past few days but this was enough to break me out of it and set me back on a path of calm. And not just calm but also enthusiasm. I can hardly wait to write my review of this tale. Needless to say I adored it. My children are now listening to it and I will be looking for new adventures to listen to for next Sunday.

Have a great week y'all!

19th Century Women Writers Challenge

I am so glad I visited over at Framed and Booked today, otherwise I wouldn't have known about this reading challenge. I know, I said I was going to do less challenges this year but this one suits some of my reading plans for this year anyway so why not join the crowd and get a little encouragement along the way?

You can read all about it over at Becky's Book Reviews but the main idea is to read female authors published in the 19th century. Six is the recommended number of books but Becky is being very flexible with the details. The challenge runs through all of 2008 so it's more than doable. Here are my selections:

• Persuasion by Jane Austen (1818) (reread)
• Villette by Charlotte Bronte (1852)
• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (1853)
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) (reread)
• Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (1877)
• The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson (1886)
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899)

Eva's Bookish Meme

Eva created this reading meme and Jeane tagged me. So here we go:

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
I know that the whole world will hate me for this but I have to say it: Harry Potter. Go ahead. Stone me now. It doesn't sound like a bad book at all; I just have no desire what-so-ever to read it. Maybe someday I will but not anytime soon.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event, who would they be and what would the event be?
I think I'd want some kind of tea party with talent show with each character performing her passion. Jo March from Little Women could write a play to be performed by Anne of Green Gables, and Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility would read Shakespeare Sonnets. I would be the adoring audience of course.

You are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realize it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
I'm going to say The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables. I started that 253 page book 3 years ago and it is still not finished despite my pulling it out to read every couple of months.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
Like Jeane, I am extremely honest. I have never claimed to read something I haven't. But I have seen a great many movies made from British classics so I may discuss a story; but I usually point out that I haven't actually read the book.

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realize when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?
I'm sure this has happened to me before but I can't think of what book it was.

You’ve been appointed Book Advisor to a VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why?
Well, he doesn't have a lot of time so it would have to be on the shorter side; and he's not a big reader so it would have to grab his attention from the beginning; and being a VIP he appreciates determination and a drive to overcome obstacle in order to succeed. How about Fahrenheit 451? And it has the added benefit of promoting books as a way of thinking for oneself.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
I'm reading Dante's Inferno right now so I suppose Italian would be my choice at the moment. I love French but I don't know many books in that language so I don't know what I would read.

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
Now that's a difficult choice. I'll go with Atonement because it is so beautifully written and I really like the way it's laid out with the three different sections.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging?
There are many. Keeping track of my reading each year, setting specific goals, exposure to new genres (like fantasy) or new authors (Neil Gaiman), literary awards, and an appreciation for modern novels. And simply sharing my opinions and experiences with like-minded others.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
Oh goody! It would look like an old English Gentleman's library with floor to ceiling, dark wood shelves covered with beautifully embossed spines. I'd want complete works of all my favorite authors, the ones with the most beautiful covers. I like the uniformity and artwork on the covers of the Penguin Classics so I'd have to have the complete set. I need a warm fireplace and a comfy wing back chair with a cozy blanket and a bottomless mug of tea or cocoa. And don't forget the dark stormy night out the velvet curtained windows. Reading is always better on a dark stormy night. And I'd need a cat nearby and probably my husband and children too, as long as they were reading quietly to themselves and not interrupting my reading. I can picture it all now. Lovely.

If you like this meme, consider yourself tagged. =)

Review: The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew
by William Shakespeare

After first viewing a Biography Channel video of Shakespeare, I chose to read The Taming of the Shrew as recommended to me by Trish. First I cracked open Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children by E. Nesbitt for a brief glimpse of the story. I followed this with the real thing.

The beginning of the play is about a Lord who is playing a trick on a drunk beggar napping at his fireplace. The Lord has the sleeping drunk cleaned and sent to his own room. As the drunk awakens, the servants are to behave as if the drunk is actually the Lord of the Manor. As the Drunk is convinced that he is Lord, a group of actors come to entertain him with their play "The Taming of the Shrew." I checked a couple of times initially to make sure I was reading the correct play as none of this part sounded anything like the Nesbitt rendering of the tale. Once I was sure I was reading the right one I realized how familiar this beginning was. It is borrowed from one of the stories in the Arabian Nights known as Abou Hassan or The Sleeper Awakened.

But soon the real story begins with Baptista, the father of two daughters, the eldest is known as Katharine the Shrew and the younger is the much sought after Bianca. But Baptista has sworn that Bianca is not to be courted until Katharine is first married. So all the suitors (and there are several) work together to find a husband for Katherine.

Petruchio is just such a man. He cares nothing at all about her temperament as long as she is rich and beautiful. Petruchio, being a clever man, begins wooing Katherine using a bit of reverse psychology; he plays a game of wits that cause Kate to think him a mad man, including this humorous part:

Pet. Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry.
Kath. If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
Pet. My remedy is then, to pluck it out.
Kath. Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.
Pet. Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.
Kath. In his tongue.
Pet. Whose tongue?
Kath. Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell.
Pet. What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, Good Kate; I am a gentleman.

I laughed out loud. What an image!

Petruchio manages to set a wedding date and the taming begins from the very first. He is late for the wedding, then he shows up dressed to beat all. He cusses during the ceremony and drinks in the church before rushing off his new bride before she gets a chance to eat. For the next couple of days he is as nice as can be to Kate but is the cruelest cur to everyone else. Kate is not allowed to eat for the food is not perfect, the bed is torn apart so she cannot sleep, and the most fashionable clothes are turned away for imaginary imperfections. In short, Kate is taught what a truly disagreeable temperament looks like, how unpleasant it is.

But he is not done yet. As Petruchio is driving Kate to her father's for the wedding of her sister, he tests her once more. He calls the sun the moon. When Kate contradicts him he is all fired up and threatens to return her home without seeing her family. This is when she finally relents. Katherine sees that the only way to have peace is to affirm whatever her husband says, even if it is wrong.

The last part of the play is a wager between Petruchio, Bianca's new husband, and a friend about who has the most compliant wife. At this point Katherine has been trained well and Petruchio wins the bet. Kate then gives an address to her sister about the importance of an agreeable wife.

While there are certainly parts to this taming process that rankle me, I must say that I found the ending very moving and inspirational; it is something to think upon.

This was my first reading for the Shakespeare Challenge and a very satisfying one it was. I tried reading the biography of Shakespeare by Peter Ackroyd but I found it tiresome. When I had read about 6 pages into it I realized that there was no way I could read the more than 500 pages of this writing style. I'll just have to find a more down-to-earth biographer to enlighten me on the Bard's life.

Review: In the Heart of the Sea

In the Heart of the Sea
by Nathaniel Philbrick
278 pages

Like the Donner Party, the men of the Essex could have avoided disaster, but this does not diminish the extent of the men's sufferings, or their bravery and
extraordinary discipline.

I'm not a fan of non-fiction generally. It takes me twice as long to read it than fiction and it is usually boring to boot. At least that is what I used to say. I am slowly being drawn to it as I come across well written, interesting books, like this one. It still took me twice as long to read it but it was certainly not boring.

In the Heart of the Sea is the story of the whaleship Essex, the tale that was the inspiration for Moby Dick. The Essex was a Nantucket whaleship that was attacked by a whale. After it sank, the crew of 20 men lived in three small whaleboats, slowly starving to death, then sustaining themselves on the bodies of their dying shipmates. They were 93 days at sea before the 8 surviving crew members were rescued.

Philbrick's writing is very well done. And his knowledge of Nantucket history and its booming whaling industry in the early 1800s are immense. This is clearly his field of expertise. His passion for it shines through the text. But I do have one complaint about the writing. At some point someone must have advised Philbrick to interrupt his quotes, like in this example: "The ship rode over them as buoyantly as a seagull," Nickerson claimed, "without taking onboard one bucket of water." In a book full of original source quotes, every single quote is written in this manner. It's not bad English but it does become a distraction about halfway through. I found myself looking for an uninterrupted quote. It is like the familiar quark of a friend or family member. Like the way I play with my hair when I get nervous. He may not be aware that he does it to such a degree. Or he may do it on purpose to add action to the writing. All I know is that it is so abundant that I couldn't help but to notice it and it took something away from the story to be so aware of this tendency.

The story is very well researched. There are 40 pages of Notes and 12 pages of Select Bibliography. Philbrick compares the Essex crew's experience to many many similar experiences at each point. He doesn't just tell what happened but why it may have happened that way and what was likely the motivation of all involved. He interprets the situations from different angles allowing the reader to sympathise with each person. He really did a fabulous job of laying it all bare without becoming a harsh judge.

The topics of starvation and cannibalism is dealt with in the second half of the book. Again, Philbrick was well researched and matter-of-fact about them but ultimately didn't lay out any moral judgments. Whatever the reader's position on the topic of cannibalism, you are free to have your view and yet to understand what and why the crew did what they did. If you are sensitive to this type of thing then you might think twice about reading this book. Especially the description of the states of starvation can be a bit grueling. I found the whole book to be very interesting but this was the one area I struggled the most with anxiety. It wasn't completely gross but it was handled with the same honesty as the section in the first half of the book describing the dissection of a whale.

A couple of connections were made for me from my recent reading. Ernest Shackleton is held up as a comparison of leadership styles in disastrous adventures. And Nathaniel Bowditch's American Practical Navigation is referred to throughout. Also, the references to Melville's Moby Dick actually made me think, ever so briefly, that I may want to look through it again. Of course I quickly corrected my thinking on that point and simply enjoyed that I did in fact know of what the book was talking about. But it sparked in me an interest to learn more about some of the other references. I will likely read The Mutiny on the Bounty soon because it is so heavily referenced.

So there it is. If you have a somewhat stronger constitution and an interest in the paths men will take to overcome danger and disaster then you will very likely find this book extremely interesting.

BTW, In the Heart of the Sea won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 2000, making this the 11th award winner read for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. And this concludes my commitment to the Seafaring Challenge. Of the 4 titles I read (Carry On, Mr. Bowditch; Endurance; The Old Man and the Sea; and In the Heart of the Sea) it's hard to say which has been my favorite. They have all been good and so very different but with the common theme of the sea bringing them all together. I can think of about 10 more books on my shelves that would fit into this theme as well that I may have to seek out when I'm in need of an adventure. One thing I've learned is that the ocean is an unpredictable entity making for very interesting adventures.

No, I Don't Color My Hair

A friend of mine bought a house recently. It's in need of a bit of work so I offered to help with painting. I spent most of yesterday priming kitchen cabinets with help from another friend. At one point I realized that my head was too close to a cabinet door that was still wet. I commented to my friend that I thought I had just painted my hair. She confirmed that I had indeed brushed against the wet primer. I laughed it off and didn't give it another thought. After all, when one is painting, one must expect to show signs of it.

But later in the day I happened by a mirror and took a look to see how bad it was. I was laughing when I pointed out to my friend that that was not paint she saw but gray hair. =)

Fresh Paper

A visit to the used book store yielded some treasures in surprisingly great shape. They are:

• The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton-a title I am unfamiliar with but that sounds like another winner.
• Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen-I've been wanting to read something of hers lately. Now I have the chance.
• The Aeneid by Virgil-after reading The Iliad and The Odyssey last summer, this one seems like a logical next step.
• The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories by Mark Twain-you gotta love Twain.
• A Passage to India by E.M. Forster-I've read all his other well known novels but not this one. I've heard it is his best one. I all ready had a copy but it was old and written in. This one looks like it was never even opened.

The Sunday Salon

Another Sunday without much reading done. I spent most of my day cleaning and reorganising. But I did manage to read one very small book. Medea by Euripides is only 47 pages long but it packs a powerful punch. If you have kids, you might not want to read this play. Yuck! And that will conclude my review. And now I have to decide if I'm going to read another challenge book(In the Heart of the Sea for the Seafaring Challenge) or if I'm going to read for pleasure(Edith Wharton's Buccaneers). It's a tough choice.

Shakespeare is Challenging

Time has simply slipped away from me lately. While I feel that I've been on the computer a lot I never seem to get to all the things I want to get to. Like sharing this new challenge:

This challenge is about William Shakespeare. Your challenge (if you choose to accept it) is to read 4 (four) books about Shakespeare. Not just the plays but anything about him.

You can read fiction, non-fiction, anything that supports his being the author, anything that does not support him being the author. If you want to read the plays and/or the sonnets, that's fine too.

This challenge will run for 6 months, from January 1st to June 30th, 2008.
Crossovers are acceptable.

After my raptures over A Midsummer Night's Dream, I knew I had to do this. I'm not sure yet what exactly I want to read. Perhaps some sonnets, maybe Romeo and Juliet, possibly a biography. If you have any recommendations I am all ears.

If you are interested in joining this challenge check us out at BiblioShakespeare. First, go make a potty trip and grab a cuppa tea. With all the resources on this site you will be there for a while.

Review: The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea

by Ernest Hemingway

127 pages

First Sentence:

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone
eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

This is the fairly mellow tale of an old fisherman who is trying to do what he was born to do: fish. Without a catch in 84 days, he is now being called "salao, which is the worst form of unlucky." But as he sets off on his 85th day, he is determined that it will be a lucky day. He is sure he will be catching a large fish this time.

This book moves at a leisurely pace in a stream-of-conscienceness way. The old man, being alone, thinks to himself and occasionally talks to himself too. The reader witnesses the old man's mental struggles with loving his fish while he also knows he must kill it. The agonies he goes through to catch the fish and then to protect it for the long trip home feel real.

It is about dreams fulfilled but at a cost. It is about a man's struggle with adversity. I am afraid that the simplicity of the story is hiding a much larger picture than I was able to grasp. It didn't win the Pulitzer Prise in 1953 because of its plot alone. It has a genuine quality about it. You believe this is the story of a real fisherman in the Gulf Stream. Largely uneducated, simple, loves fishing and the sea, content with his lot in life. I think the best description for it is pleasantly simple.

Reading The Old Man and the Sea counts toward the Book Awards Challenge and the Seafaring Challenge.

A Noisy Mystery

You may remember (or maybe not) that back in September my husband surprised me with a new refrigerator.

Now it's a great fridge and we are very happy with it but like all things that reside under our roof, it has quirks. We noticed the strange banging noises the first night. At set times each day and night there was this tapping coming from the fridge. We have listened and searched but we can't figure out where exactly the noises are coming from. We joke about the little man we keep trapped in the fridge. After a while we didn't notice it anymore.

But lately the little man has discovered a new rhythm. Our fridge plays the bongos. Seriously, the noise coming from our fridge every 2-3 hours is a bongo melody along the lines of Jack Johnson(think Curious George here). Now the joke is that somehow I figured out how to plug the Zune into the fridge so I can dance while I cook.

So what could be making this odd sound? Being the imaginative type, I have pictures of pressure building in some heating coils in the undercarriage. The higher the pressure the more urgent the message the little man taps out on his drums, to warn us of the danger. When the fridge finally explores, what do you suppose the little man will play then? Taps of course!

Goody Goody Goody

Looky what the mailman brought. Jealous?

Review: Atonement

Atonement
by Ian McEwan
351 pages
First Sentence:

The play-- for which Briony had designed the posters, programs and tickets,constructed the sales booth out of a folding screen tipped on its side, and lined the collection box in red crepe paper--was written by her in a two-day
tempest of composition, causing her to miss a breakfast and a lunch.

The line on the bottom of the front cover says "A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama." And it's true. This may be one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. Which is not to say pleasant. The subject matter, adult themes and the violence of war, are certainly difficult to get through at times. But they are all a necessary part of the journey.

As I neared the last 100 pages of the book, I was suddenly seized with a terrible fear: that no matter what happened at the end, there would be nothing more to read. I have never experienced this sensation before. I had to put the book down that night because I was paralysed with the thought of it being over. Even now I am considering picking it back up to reread it right away. Unfortunately I have promised the book to a friend and I have a few books to read to complete one more reading challenge. It will just have to wait.

*WARNING* possible spoilers
Briony is the fanciful 13 year old who witnesses a scene that she doesn't understand. She misinterprets what is happening and falsely accuses an innocent young man of a heinous crime. The man is given the option to be freed from prison in order to serve as a soldier in WWII, where his only goal and comfort is to survive to get back to the woman who loves him. In the meantime, Briony has grown up and realises the full extent of her deed.

I found the settings to be very telling as to the states of mind of each the characters. The near ruin of the family estate in the first half of the book mirrors the breakdown of the inner state of each character in their turn. Briony is outgrowing the childish world she has always existed in. Cecilia and Robbie both are outgrowing the carefree friendship of a lifetime as playmates for the more complicated position of lovers. The family is breaking down as the father is away from home nearly continually and the mother is menaced by migraines and disappointment in her children.

The second half of the book is set in the throws of war. Robbie, Cecilia and Briony all lose the last threads of innocence as they witness the terrors of gruesome death all around, Robbie as a soldier and Cee and Briony as nurses. And believe me, the words paint a grueling picture. I won't say anything more about the story as I don't want to ruin it for anyone else.



That would be the poster for the movie that was finally widely released over the weekend. And I watched it last night. Now the book is predominately introspective so I wasn't sure how that would translate onto film but, being nominated for 7 Golden Globes, I figured that they must have done a pretty good job of it. They did. The movie was just as much a "beautiful and majestic fictional panorama" as the book was. My husband pointed out how heavily imaged it was. More story is told through pictures than through dialogue. It was beautiful and uncomfortable in exactly the same way as reading it had been. If you have the chance to see this in the theater, smuggle in some tissues and forgo the buttered popcorn. It's hard to wipe away tears with salt and oil on your fingers.

College Level? Really?

Hey, I'm happy with that.

Something a Little Different

On Christmas Eve day, Nana and Grampa took some of the grandkids and myself to a friend's house to see the Monarch Butterfly cocoons they had around their front door. The first two pictures are my own.

To learn more about the Monarch Butterfly go here.

53 Books in 2007

Last year I listed all my books read in the sidebar, then erased them at the end of the year, making no other record for myself. This year I want to keep a copy to glance through whenever.

53.Adam of the Road
52.Endurance
51.No Plot? No Problem!
50.Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree
49.Ethan Frome
48.Mommie Dearest
47.Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
46.The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
45.The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
44.The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
43.Vinegar Hill
42.The Bronze Bow
41.Age of Innocence
40.The Phantom of the Opera
39.Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
38.Inkheart
37.To Kill a Mockingbird
36.Stuart Little
35.Shen of the Sea
34.A Prayer for Owen Meany
33.Beowulf
32.The Importance of Being Ernest
31.Madame de Treymes
30.Alice in Wonderland
29.The Cricket in Times Square
28.A Midsummer Night's Dream
27.Lady Susan
26.Five People You Meet in Heaven
25.Fairy Tale
24.The Penelopiad
23.Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye
22.The Odyssey
21.Coraline
20.Medieval Love Poetry
19.Little Black Book of Stories
18.The Whipping Boy
17.The Cat Who Went to Heaven
16.Ordering Your Private World
15.The Tale of Emily Windsnap
14.Mary Poppins
13.Rise and Shine
12.Stardust
11.The Iliad
10.The Last Unicorn
9.No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency
8.Being Perfect
7.A Room with a View
6.Moll Flanders
5.The Epic of Gilgamesh
4.The Thirteenth Tale
3.Pinocchio
2.Agnes Grey
1.Silas Marner

Best Books of 2007

If what you are really interested in are the best books published in 2007 then you must take a leisurely stroll through the following links:

Amazon's Top 100 Best Books of 2007: Editor's Picks

Barnes & Noble Best Books of 2007

NYT 100 Notable Books of 2007

Publishers Weekly Top 150 of 2007

American Library Associations Notable Books for Adults

National Book Awards- 2007

My Top Ten Books of 2007

I did it again. I kept track of my reading for the whole year and passed the 50 book mark. Here is the break down:

books read-53
fiction-41
nonfiction-3
poetry-5
drama-2
biography-2

Here are my 10 favorites for the year 2007:

1. Silas Marner
2. The Thirteenth Tale
3. The Last Unicorn
4. Stardust
5. Coraline
6. A Midsummer Night's Dream
7. Madame de Treymes
8. The Importance of Being Earnest
9. To Kill a Mockingbird
10. Ethan Frome

And the one I shouldn't have:

1. Vinegar Hill

For the new year I'd like to rely less on challenges and more on my own natural leanings. I need to add more nonfiction, poetry, biography, and drama. I'm still thinking on my goals so stay tuned for that.

Another One Down

I love that picture! Yes, another challenge completed. Yay! The Reading the Author Challenge was a fun one. But it's not quite done yet. First there are a few questions:

Why this particular challenge? After reading some of the biography of Wharton by Hermione Lee, I was planning to read several of her novels anyway. It was just good timing. Having the public challenge kept me focused on the goal that I might have otherwise let slip.

Which author and why? Edith Wharton because I fell in love with her book House of Mirth a few years ago. In a three year run of reading the classics it was my favorite. I am glad to have read more by her. All of her works move me in the same way.

Which books did you read? The Age of Innocence, The Ghost Stories of, and Ethan Frome.

Which would you recommend for someone trying this author for the first time? Of these three I'd say Ethan Frome, though I think Madame de Treymes would be a better starting place, but it's much harder to find.

How would you characterise this author or the books? A critical and accurate view of elite New York life in the early 1900s from a woman who knew first hand. Wharton plays out the struggle between desire and duty and it's not always pretty but it's always moving.

Thanks Verbivore for hosting and congrats to all the other participants.

Year's End

It is time for the all important assessment of the past year. You can check out my lofty goals from way back in January of 2007 here to see what I wanted my year to look like. How well did I do?

• Poetry-I did start the Poetry list from The Well-Educated Mind by Bauer but I got hung up on The Odes of Horace. After getting just over halfway through it I've decided I can put it aside for now so I can move on. I am proud to have gotten through some of those Homeric epics.
• History-I was able to get through several historical books, enough to be at the same level as my 9th grader up to this point.
• Classics-I don't think I will ever have to set this as a goal since I can't imagine being without my classics. There is a good reason these have endured throughout time and I am glad I didn't miss out on them.
• Music-I bought a couple of CDs but I didn't listen to them much. The closest I got was all that Jim Brickman Christmas music.
• Religion-Another one I wish I had been more diligent about. There was a little but not exactly what I wanted.
• Routine-The is nothing like classical education to form routine in one's life. It could have been better but I wasn't trying to move mountains, just improve the flow of the household.
• Family-Some yes and some no. I have spent a lot more time with my kiddos because of school and we did go on a real family vacation in the summer but I had more in mind for a daily or weekly togetherness.

All in all, I think I did fairly well but there are definitely areas that need improving. I need make a priority of prioritizing, if you know what I mean. I need to give the new year a bit more thought now.