Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge for 2015

I've decided to join Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge for 2015. I think I'll be able to complete most of it from books I already own (excluding the one published in 2015 for obvs. reasons) so I'm expanding the challenge to include the goal to read from my shelf.  Hopefully this challenge will be a good bridge to reconnect me with the world of book blogging once my house project reaches completion in the next few months.  Here are the 24 categories with my potential picks:

A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25

     : The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers

A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65
     : All That Is, James Salter

A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people)
     : Bark, Lorrie Moore

A book published by an indie press
     : The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure, C.D. Rose (Melville House)

      

A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ
     : The Hours, Michael Cunningham

A book by a person whose gender is different from your own
     : We Are Not Ourselves, Matthew Thomas

A book that takes place in Asia
     : Please Look After Mom, Kyung-sook Shin

A book by an author from Africa
     : We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo

      

A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)
     : Caleb's Crossing, Geraldine Brooks

A microhistory
     : The Big Burn, Timothy Egan

A YA novel
     : Looking for Alaska, John Green

A sci-fi novel
     : The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (from a Book Riot Quarterly Box)

      

A romance novel
     : The Girl You Left Behind, Jojo Moyes

A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade
     : The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)
     : Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi

An audiobook
     : Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe

      

A collection of poetry
     : The Portable Dorothy Parker

A book that someone else has recommended to you
     : The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

A book that was originally published in another language
     : Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak

A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind
     : Les Miserables, Stacy King (Manga Classics)

      

A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over)
     : Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple

A book published before 1850
     : Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen (annotated version by Belknap)

A book published this year

     : ???

A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvement”)

     : Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver

    

Revising My Goals

At the first of the new year, being full of grand hopes and resolutions, I was tempted to join challenges, publicly declare lofty goals, and was quick to renew my aim for reading 100 books in 2014.  I know myself well enough by now, however, to do myself the favor of forcing myself to let some time pass before jumping into too many things.  I'm glad I did!  I was able to really think through what I want this year to look like. Here's how I've decided to focus my reading life this year:

• Since I've spent the last couple of years feeling like I haven't read enough nonfiction or classics, I decided to set myself a personal goal of reading 15 of each this year.  That's a few more than last year, but not a super crazy number. 
• Related to the above, in order to ease off the pressure and encourage myself to read deeper, longer books, I've adjusted my GoodReads 2014 goal to 80 books instead of 100.  I hate seeing "You're 2 books behind" every time I finish a book...I get all anxious, which is pure silliness.  Who cares if I break 100?  Quality above quantity is the idea this year.
• In keeping with my hope to get back into blogging, my goal is to post once a week.  So far, so good!  By going more informal, the pressure is off.  This is my time.
• Since I've got a goal to read fifteen classics this year anyhow, I've decided to join in the Back to the Classics Challenge.  Go to Books and Chocolate to sign up before March 1st. At this point, I'm not planning on anything for the optional categories, but should have no problem with the others. Here's the scoop:
• A 20th Century Classic -Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather
• A 19th Century Classic -Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
• A Classic by a Woman Author -Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• A Classic in Translation -Les Miserables by Victory Hugo
• A Classic About War -undecided
• A Classic by an Author Who is New to You -Oil by Upton Sinclair
• An American Classic [optional]
• A Classic Mystery, Suspense, or Thriller [optional]
• A Classic that has been adapted into a TV series or movie [optional]
• A review of the above movie or TV series [optional]

A Classic About War...any suggestions?  Nothing is tickling my fancy for that one.  Maybe I'll re-read War and Peace. ;)

The Beautiful and Damned: Classics Club Spin List Selection

I finished my selection - The Beautiful and Damned by F.Scott Fitzgerald - just after midnight on the 31st...squeaking in a final March read and barely accomplishing this goal.  Sometimes I forget how much more I accomplish when I have deadlines.  I should probably give myself more of them.  I'm definitely glad that The Classics Club gave me this one!

First published in 1922 and said to be a largely autobiographical look at the author's own marriage, The Beautiful and Damned was an intriguing mix of the expected and the unexpected.  It seemed to drag a bit in the middle, but was otherwise a captivating read.

I expected (and received):

1. New York, alcohol, and parties
2. All the fashion, glitz, and glam that goes along with the Gilded Age
3. Poetic Prose
4. A somewhat depressing, hopeless outlook

I didn't expect (but enjoyed):

1. A different writing style than Gatsby - a bit more straightforward
2. Many film and literature references
3. The intricately complex and precise portrayal of mental/emotional dysfunctions
4. The shocking number of similarities between that age & the current age.

F.Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald
(did you see them portrayed in Midnight in Paris?)

One of the things I loved most about this book was how the era was portrayed.  Reading about the first quarter of the century through the eyes of the authors who lived it just can't be beat.  It's a better learning experience than any history lesson.  There is a similarity to the experiences, (a flavor, a vibe, a sort of stunned observance of the massive changes happening in America,) that seems to place me directly into the time period as if a movie is happening around me.  From Willa Cather's O Pioneers! to Edna Ferber's So Big, and then to F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned - the stories stick with me, the characters are as real as life, and they make me hungry for more.

If you have a passing fancy for the era, or any interest at all in Zelda's life, I recommend this book.  It wasn't a very happy book, but it was a fascinating character study and peek into the culture of the times.    It kept me reading and interested, and I have a feeling that it will stick with me for a while.  Between Prohibition, the entrepreneurial spirit, the contrast between rural and urban areas, and the cocky American pride in the face of the First World War, I can't seem to get enough of the literature of the day.  Do you have any suggestions of other authors/titles I should try?

One of Ours by Willa Cather

Life was so short that it meant nothing at all unless it were continually reinforced by something that endured; unless the shadows of individual existence came and went against a background that held together.

Willa Cather's novels are my definition of literary comfort food.  Having been a while since I'd read one of her novels for the first time, (the last few have been rereads,) I'd forgotten what a wonderful experience it is.  True to form, the characters and setting were vivid and the writing easy to appreciate.  In each book of Cather's that I've read, she uses character sketches as a tool to help the reader get a wonderful sense of the nuances in each personality.  She's so adept at this that it never gets old.  In just a few sentences, we learn an incredible amount about four different people.

Claude knew, and everybody else knew, seemingly, that there was something wrong with him.  He had been unable to conceal his discontent.  Mr. Wheeler was afraid he was one of those visionary fellows who make unnecessary difficulties for themselves and other people.  Mrs. Wheeler thought the trouble with her son was that he had not yet found his Saviour.  Bayliss was convinced that his brother was a moral rebel, that behind his reticence and his guarded manner he concealed the most dangerous opinions.

If there is such a thing as a peaceful book about war, One of Ours is it exactly.  Published in 1922, only a few years after the Great War ended, this book seems to put the senseless loss into perspective in some ways.  The story follows the life of Claude, an idealistic young man, and shows how he found purpose in his life.  In a time when so many things were changing, (the book also addresses Prohibition, woman's role in society, transportation, and the Spanish Influenza to name a few,) such a massive loss of youth must have been impossible to understand.  Claude's story seeks to bring healing and soothe the heart.  It isn't a perfect novel—it's a bit too sentimental for that—but it's easy for me to see why it won the Pulitzer when it did.

She told off on her fingers the many ingredients, but he believed there were things she did not name: the fragrance of old friendships, the glow of early memories, belief in wonder-working rhymes and songs.  Surely these were fine things to put into little cakes!

Coincidentally, I picked this book up with perfect timing.  I'd just finished reading about Prohibition, and was longing for some prose about WWI, so it was a perfect tie-in.  This was the 5th book of Willa Cather's that I've read this year—marking completion of my 2012 goal in that regard—but I certainly haven't tired of her yet.  I've now read the first 8 of her 19 published works, and I'm greatly looking forward to the stories to come.

More Stories by Willa Cather

Youth and the Bright Medusa was published in 1920 and contained a collection of eight short stories that revolve around themes of fame and fortune, and the great price they extract.

Four of the stories had been previously published in The Troll Garden (Paul's Case, A Wagner Matinee, The Sculptor's Funeral, and A Death in the Desert) so I won't rehash them here (you can see my post about them if you like.)  Of these four, Paul's Case seems to be the most popular, although I infinitely preferred A Wagner Matinee, as it contains that real warmth of spirit and nostalgic reflection that I loved about Cather.

The four other stories had been published in various magazines before appearing in this collection, and are very much opera star/famous girl centered, a little too concentrated a topic for me.  While Cather's writing here is polished, I didn't connect with the characters or the theme as I thought I would, based on how much I loved Song of the Lark - ostensibly about the same topic.

Coming, Aphrodite!
The first story in the collection was my favorite of the four I hadn't yet read.  It was full of vivid scenes, and the characters were unique and interesting, with personality quirks and distinct motivations.  Don Hedger, and unknown painter, finds himself with a new neighbor, Eden Bower, who quickly disrupts the peace and patterns Hedger and his dog had previously enjoyed.  They get to know each other in a rather jolting, awkward manner, trying to get past their differences of temperament.

I enjoyed the trip to Coney Island, and liked Hedger's devotion to his dog...not that I'm a huge dog person, but it added nice dimension to the story.  I didn't much like the whatever happened to so-and-so? way the story ended, simply because Cather seems to like to fall back on that format (similar to how Flannery O'Connor likes to make something terrible happen to her characters at the end of her stories) and I was hoping for something different.  However, that's a minor complaint for a story that was so full and interesting.

The Diamond Mine
Okay, I liked this story too.  It's a rather sad story of a girl who worked her patootie off, finally succeeding at becoming a famous singer, only to be unappreciated and taken advantage of by all of her family, husbands and child included.  When Cressida Garnet happens to be on the same ship as a cousin of her first husband, we are allowed a picture of her her trials as well as a brief spot of happiness she looks back on fondly.

It is sad, but easily conceivable, to see how hard it might be for a hugely famous person to find true, loyal friendship.  Even when Cressida found someone who didn't seem to care so much about her money for once, things didn't turn out well in the end.  And yet she somehow retained hope, through all her family's selfishness and the absence of love or friendship, she may have been tired and hurt, but she didn't become jaded.  Could she have acted differently and still protected her tender heart?  It's nice to think she could have, but I'm not so sure.

A Gold Slipper and Scandal
Both of these stories involve Kitty Ayrshire, an opera singer.  The first relates the story of a disgruntled husband that is coerced in to hearing Kitty perform despite his general dislike for people such as he imagines Kitty to be.  He has to come to terms with his stereotypes and prejudices later when he ends up inadvertently escorting Kitty on her train ride after the show.  In the second story, we get to reflect with Kitty and her friend about a scandal of sorts that had happened years earlier in New York.

I didn't fall in love with either of these stories, but did enjoy the brief discussion in the first story about Leo Tolstoy's "What is Art?" and I discovered that "Scandal" was a favorite story of F. Scott Fitzgerald...a tidbit I found interesting.  I suppose that ties into his interest in the shenanigans of the upper crust?


Youth and the Bright Medusa was the 7th of 19 books in my Chronological Willa Cather Challenge, and 3 of the 4 I wanted to get read this year.  Next up in this challenge is her Pulitzer Prize Winner: One of Ours.

It's in the Air: Read-Along Time!

It's finally that time I've been working up to all year: On the Road (Kerouac) readalong at Unputdownables.  There's still time to join if you're up to it!  The book will be read throughout June and July, and the first chunk is open for discussion TODAY (the 8th).  Like always, I'm not sure how much of the progress I'll be posting on, but you've been warned. :)

Earlier this year I read (listened to, actually) One and Only: The Untold Story of On the Road, as a sort of introduction to the era and characters.  Soon I'll find out if that was a good choice or not!


In other read-along news, Emily at As the Crowe Flies and Reads is hosting a reading of Telegraph Avenue: the yet-to-be-released Michael Chabon book.  I believe that the sign-ups are closed, and I've decided not to join in...so why on earth am I talking about it?  It's an idea I love - publishers, booksellers, and bloggers getting together for a little pre-pub-experiment.

The only book I've read by Chabon is Gentlemen of the Road, and I was really not impressed.  However, everybody [and their brother] loves him, the Pulitzer Board loves him, and the synopsis of Telegraph Avenue is intriguing, especially as NorCal is a place close to my heart.  But.  I'm afraid I won't love it so I'm going to follow their discussion and do some cheerleading on the side.  That will all be happening in the month of July, so stay tuned!


Also happening in the JU** months is Allie's (at A Literary Odyssey) Victorian Celebration.  Have you decided to join in on this one?  Last year I focused on keeping up with regular adult fiction, and found myself missing nonfiction and classics, so I've swung back over to those this year.  I love how this works together with the Classics Club and the Back to the Classics Challenge.  It's motivation!

I couldn't wait for June to arrive and got a jumpstart on this challenge in May by reading The Warden by Anthony Trollope, but I'm not stopping there!  I'm currently reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and am hoping to get through at least one more before I jump into my classic novellas in August.  And after that?  Well, after that I'll need a break. :)

Spring Into Junior Fiction

I'm planning on using April to plow through some of the Junior Fiction I've had on my shelves for ages. My kiddos are growing up, I need to know which books to recommend to them, and which to clear from my shelves.  It's crazy though, I pulled these 15 titles off my shelf and it doesn't even seem to have made a dent.  Perhaps by the time I've read them I'll feel differently...or maybe I just need to reorganize my shelves. :)

Instead of reviewing each title, I'm thinking of posting a weekly recap - adding JF titles I've read in the last 6 months into the mix - to give me some time (and mental space) to talk about some Adult Fiction I haven't had the chance to chat about yet.  Anyhow, I'm wondering...have you heard of these titles? Read them?  Most importantly, which should I read first??

5 Newbery Award Winners:

• Jacob Have I Loved, Katherine Paterson
• Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien 
• Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George
• Lincoln: A Photobiography, Russell Freedman (nonfiction)

5 Historical, School-Oriented Books:

• Patty Reed's Doll, Rachel K. Laurgeard 
• The Shakespeare Stealer, Gary Blackwood 
• Mary, Bloody Mary, Carolyn Meyer
• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken 
• Catherine, Called Birdy, Karen Cushman

5 For Fun:

• Rascal, Sterling North
• Princess Academy, Shannon Hale
• Homer Price, Robert McCloskey
• Cosmic, Frank Cottrell Boyce 
• Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo

The Classics Club

Chances are, if you like to read and blog classics, you've heard of Jillian's Classics Club.  I read a lot of not-exactly-classics books, so I'm trying to keep my list modest--these are all classics that I want to read now.  5 years sound more realistic.  (Actually, I've whittled down the list, knowing my propensity to set lofty goals.)

I'm viewing it more as a way to be organized in my Classics Wish List rather than as a Challenge To Conquer, even though 2 of my challenges (Willa Cather and Classic Novellas) feature heavily here.  The list will be linked on the tab: Book Lists.

1. Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes
2. Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe
3. The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
4. The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe
5. Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell
6. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
7. The Warden, Anthony Trollope
8. Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope
9. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
10. Daniel Deronda, George Eliot
11. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
12. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
13. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
14. The Devil's Pool, George Sand
15. Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
16. Oblomov, Ivan Goncharov
17. Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev
18. My Antonia, Willa Cather
19. One of Ours, Willa Cather
20. A Lost Lady, Willa Cather
21. The Professor’s House, Willa Cather
22. My Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather
23. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
24. Shadows on the Rock, Willa Cather
25. Lucy Gayheart, Willa Cather
26. Sapphira and the Slave Girl, Willa Cather
27. The Razor's Edge, W.Somerset Maugham
28. Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
29. The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis
30. Watership Down, Richard Adams
31. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
32. Native Son, Richard Wright
33. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
34. A Room With a View, E.M Forster
35. The Beautiful and the Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald
36. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
37. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
38. How Green Was My Valley, Richard Llewellyn
39. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
40. The Bell, Iris Murdoch

Stories, Novellas, Plays, Etc (cumulatively worth apprx. 10 classics)

1. Youth and the Bright Medusa (stories) Willa Cather
2. Obscure Destinies (stories), Willa Cather
3. Not Under Forty (essays), Willa Cather
4. The Old Beauty (stories), Willa Cather
5. Willa Cather: On Writing (essays), Willa Cather
6. The Kruetzer Sonata and Other Stories, Leo Tolstoy
7. Eugene Onegin and Other Poems, Alexander Pushkin
8. The Collected Stories, Alexander Pushkin
9. Lady Windmere's Fan, Oscar Wilde
10. Living/Loving/Party Going, Henry Green
11. Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw
12. Freya of the Seven Isles, Joseph Conrad
13. Stempenyu: A Jewish Romace, Sholem Aleichem
14. The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
15. The Duel, Anton Chekov
16. My Life, Anton Chekov
17. The Nice Old Man and the Pretty Girl, Italo Svevo
18. The Touchstone, Edith Wharton
19. The Man Who Would be King, Rudyard Kipling
20. The Duel, Alexander Kuprin
21. The Lemoine Affair, Marcel Proust
22. Jacob's Room, Virginia Woolf
23. Parnassus on Wheels, Christopher Marley
24. May Day, F.Scott Fitzgerald
25. La Fanfarlo, Charles Baudelaire
26. The Alienist, Machado de Assis
27. The Distracted Preacher, Thomas Hardy
28. The Enchanted Wander, Nikolai Leskov

On Reading Goals

I'm not planning on going Challenge crazy this year.

Well, I wasn't planning on it at least.  Turns out, I'm simply not going crazy on signing up for challenges.  I've still got plenty of personal goals.  I've updated my Current Challenges page to reflect my hopes and dreams, (go there to look at specific title lists,) but here's the overview:

Willa Cather Chronologically:
I hope to read 4 more books in 2012, which will put me at a total of 8 out of 19.

Newbery Medal Books:
I'm currently at 33/90, and I want to read at least another 5 in 2012.

Pulitzer Prize Winners:
I've read 14 of the 85 Pulitzers in the Fiction category, and I want to up by another 5 this year.  This may be a stretch.

Reading from my To Be Read Shelf:
Meaning books that I've owned for over a year and still haven't read...I want to read 10 books, excluding those that qualify for other challenges.  That certainly ought to be doable, right?

Reading Short Stories and Poetry:
Since this is something I want to put a conscious effort towards, I may as well keep track of it.  My goal is to complete 3 collections of each type.

Reading From my Wishlist:
Since I've been whining about not getting to read books on my wishlist, what better way to make sure I do it than to challenge myself to do it?  Lucky for me, then, that just such a challenge is being hosted over at Leeswammes' Blog!  This challenge is for 12 books, 1 each month (the list is on my current challenges page.)

The Back to the Classics Challenge:
I wasn't going to do this for 2012, but there are some books that I want to read that seem to fit into the categories, (plus, I love how Sarah has set up the Linky posts for this year!) so I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. (again, categories and tentative choices are on my current challenges page.)

Spring into Junior Fiction Challenge:
I have a lot of Junior Fiction that I'd like to get read, and since The Art of the Novella Challenge worked so well for me last year, I thought I'd do a month-long Junior Fiction challenge this year.  It'll likely be in March or April, I'll keep you updated.

Art of the Novella Challenge:
In August I'm going to attempt to complete the remaining 14 titles in the collection, and perhaps the 5 new titles as well.  This was a great experience last year, let's hope it's great again!

New Features:
It's become obvious to me this year that I need to find a way to streamline how I write reviews.  There are SO many books (brilliant ones, even!) that I read in 2011 and never talked about. (pout*)  Here's the plan:

• It's Not You, It's Me will be a new monthly feature where I get to chat about all those books that I can't bring myself to write a complete review of for reasons of ambivalence or general ennui.  They may be perfectly lovely books, but for one reason or another a complete review is beyond me.
• Reading Roundup will be a place for me to collect mini-reviews...mostly of Junior/Teen Fiction or Nonfiction, although it is perfectly possible that other genres will need to be contained here as well.  This may happen at irregular intervals, just depending on how my reading goes.

Now, FINALLY, let the New Year begin!  Happy Resolutions, everyone!

Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov

For a book that started with a paragraph so amazing that it immediately became one of the most brilliant things I'd ever read, Lolita ended up being a very disappointing experience for me.

I knew the basic storyline, (even saw the movie...I think?) Indeed, how could one not know the premise?  It is the prime example of Books Which Are Unceasingly Banned.  The synopsis didn't put me off.  I've been reading long enough to know that it takes more than an unpleasant topic to make a book unenjoyable.  In fact, there have been plenty of books that I've loved despite the topic not being a natural favorite.  Examples: 
 - The Art of Fielding (baseball)
- Revolutionary Road (extreme marital discord)
- Star of the Sea (boats, ocean)
- Slaughterhouse Five (space/science)
- The Good Earth (ancient China)

I was ready for Lolita to fall into a growing line of books in which the writing overcame the topic, but it didn't happen.  Not only that, but it took a great amount of effort for me to finish it.  It was sucking the reading-passion out of me.  Perhaps that sounds drastic and extreme, but, believe me, the going was rough.

By page 70 or so (just after the first incident) I was tempted to quit.  The topic, from Humbert's point of view, was too much for me.  In my mid-book-procrastination, I did what I often do: read reviews of the book online, and read the author's note at the end of the book.  This often helps me refresh my frame of mind and jump back into the book, and it worked this time as well.  The scenes didn't progress as I feared they would, something else happened instead.  I got depressed.

I didn't see any loveliness in this book.  There wasn't any hope, any humor, any levity.  It was all imbalanced minds, selfish passion, and destruction.  Nabokov is a master of language, but he shows H.H. in such a rigidly realistic manner that it didn't do anything for me at all.  The perspective didn't engage me or compel me to contemplate the characters.  It was just sad, depressing, and I wanted it to be over.

I chased Lolita with a cleansing shot of Flannery O'Connor, which seemed to do the trick.  I read the short story "Greenleaf" (part of the collection Everything That Rises Must Converge) last night and enjoyed it greatly--my interest in reading is restored.  Where Nabokov shows unsavory characters in a moderated tone, O'Connor illuminates the ridiculous in us all.  Perhaps it's just a matter of taste, but I'm happy to put this one behind me.  All but the first paragraph, which I still love.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.  My sin, my soul.  Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.  Lo. Lee. Ta.

Title: Lolita
Author: Vladamir Nabokov
Published: 1993 Everyman's Library (orig. 1955)
Read For: Back to the Classics Challenge, Banned Books Week
My Rating: great writing, depressing topic, averages out to 3 stars 

Giving a Hated High School Read a Second Chance

Creepy eyes.  I get it--I think--but I
don't like it.

The Great Gatsby.  In high school we had to read this book, and while I didn't actually hate it, I was highly irritated that my teacher was swooning over something that, to me, was depressing and didn't have a point.  And I really dislike the traditional cover, which means more to me than I often care to admit.  I prefer something that gives a better sense of the time...which is why, when I saw the audio-book version had a much more pleasant illustration, I was much more willing to give the book another go (also, being read by Tim Robbins was a great selling point).

And so I bought it.  And so it sat on my shelf for years.  Despite my grand intentions of developing my audio-book skills, the reality is that I'm very rarely alone for any substantial amount of time.  I've homeschooled at least some of my kiddos for the past four years--and those little people can talk.  But a small miracle occurred this week: I was in the car by myself for a whole 7 hours or so while we drove from Southern California to Northern California.  Understand that this is a good thing: an island of bliss amid an ever-present sea of conversation.

Now that's a cover I can love.
Can't you hear the jazz?

It was brilliant.  This book that I always thought had no point said so much.  This book that I was convinced lacked hope had wisdom mixed in with the heartbreak.  The writing was beautiful (though not so sure about that chapter-length list of names) and Robbins was a great narrator (for the most part--the girls' voices were a little odd, but the men's voices had so much character that overall it was wonderful).  There were parts that I wished I could stop and re-read and ponder, but it's hard to do that when you're driving and listening.  :)

I hadn't planned on getting to this book this year, but am glad the opportunity arose.  (I'm totally using it as one of my Back to the Classics Challenge books too!)  Have you read (or reread) Gatsby?  Did you like it?  And what about those covers?  I'm on the hunt now for a nice print copy of this book.  Nice cover is a must.  When I get back to SoCal I'm heading over to my local bookshop: Gatsby Books.  They're bound to have a copy or two, right?

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, Gone With the Wind is a well known epic of love and war.  My copy weighs in at a hefty 959 pages, which is rather remarkable when I look back at how quickly I turned the pages.

I have to say upfront that the story is too sweeping and dramatic for my taste.  It was sort of like a soap opera, Civil War style.  The characters, except for Mammy perhaps, were tiring.  Scarlett is super annoying, Rhett is grating, Ashley is weak, Melanie is naive.  Yet for all of that, I found it all surprisingly enjoyable.

What makes Gone With the Wind so striking is how quickly and [seemingly] easily it pulls you into the world of the Confederacy.  The only other time that stands out in my mind that I experienced that was with The Good Earth.  Interestingly enough, The Good Earth won the Pulitzer only a few years before Gone With the Wind.  Being very readable and yet deep and layered is a quality that I find quite impressive.

Some of my favorite quotes:

I tell you they're born queer. Look at the way they go tearing up to New York and Boston to hear operas and see oil paintings.  And ordering French and German books by the crate from the Yankees!  And there they sit reading and dreaming the dear God knows what, when they'd be better spending their time hunting and playing poker as proper men should.

Throughout the South for fifty years there would be bitter-eyed women who looked backward, to dead times, to dead men, evoking memories that hurt and were futile, bearing poverty with bitter pride because they had those memories.

He felt there was something unbecoming about a woman understanding fractions and business matters and he believed that, should a woman be so unfortunate as to have such unladylike comprehension, she should pretend not to.

A woman had no business even knowing what a mortgage was.

She was twenty-five and looked it, and so there was no longer any need for her to try to be attractive.

Live's under no obligation to give us what we expect.  We take what we get and are thankful it's no worse than it is. 

I read this for the Back to the Classics Challenge: my book with a wartime setting.  It was a great experience--I'm glad to have read it--and puts me in the mood to read more about the Civil War.  What a great way to experience some history!

Title: Gone With the Wind
Author: Margaret Mitchell
Pages: 959
Published: 1996 Scribner (orig. 1936)
Read For: Back to the Classics Challenge
My Rating: 4.5 stars

Too Much of a Good Thing: a Giveaway!

Sometimes too much of a good thing is still just that: too much.  Other times, too much of a good thing is wonderful.  Today, two examples:

1. Too Much:  Interviews.  In the past I've thought that I dislike reading interviews, but somewhere along my adventure in book-blogging I've realized that it isn't the interviews I dislike--finding out details about authors and fellow bloggers can be quite fun--it's the length of the answers.  5 Paragraph Essay Answers to each simple question leave me feeling like it is all too much.  I like getting Bill Bryson-esque bite-sized factoids...they satisfy my curiosity and leave me wanting to know more.  

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed for The Book Base (my interview appeared yesterday--check it out!) which does a good job of keeping interviews interesting.  One of the things I really like about how the interviews are structured on this site is that the questions are the same, and the answers are all fairly brief.  It makes it easy to digest and discover new bloggers.

2.  Wonderful: Classic Novellas.  In gearing up for the Art of the Novella Challenge starting August 1st, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how I want to approach these wonderful little tidbits of classic literature.  I ended up (under the influence of my husband, no less) buying the entire 42 volume series.  For me, they're classic literature.  For him, they're modern decor. Win/Win.  Even with a licence to buy, this splurge means that I feel obligated to put maximum effort into reading every single one of them in August.  Still, they're gorgeous and exciting...even if there are too many to get through next month, I can't help but feel that they are only wonderful.

One of the things that I love about the novellas that Melville House Publishing has chosen (apart from the general idea of classic novellas) is that most of the titles sport a reputation or a history.  From Mary Shelley's Mathilda with its shocking themes, to Cervantes' The Dialogue of the Dogs (the first talking dog story in Western Literature) these selections go beyond the typical canon of classics.

On that note, I've decided to host a giveaway!  Whether you are interested in joining the challenge in August or not, you have to admit that these novellas are enticing.  Who wouldn't want to own a couple? or four??  Fill out the form below before July 31st, selecting which 4 classic novellas you would most love to own, and stay tuned for my Challenge Kick-Off post on July 31st when I announce the winner.  The winner will be chosen randomly, and the giveaway is open internationally.  Good luck!

Head over to Melville House to see the 42 classic novellas you can choose from and to read the descriptions.  Happy reading!