Book Forty-Two - The Woman In White - Part Three

I'll tell you one thing about Mr Willkie Collins: he sure can write a female voice. More to come. Also, I finally learned how to highlight on my Kindle!

Book Forty-Two - The Woman In White - Part Two

Okay, so I got sidetracked a bit but it was through no fault of The Woman In White. I'm back to it now and still enjoying it. It turns out that this book, published in serial form in 1859-60, was one of the first mystery novels! I was surprised because I knew the Gothic novels were popular in Jane Austen's time and she died in 1817. So I'm not entirely sure about the genre distinctions. Didn't Gothic novels contain mystery of a sort?

I don't consider it a spoiler to say that the novel contains a woman who dresses in white. That's all I'm saying other than the fact that I love Mr Hartright.

Book Forty-Two - The Woman In White - Part One

I'm loving it so far! I'm highlighting like crazy which is not terribly easy on a Kindle, at least for me. I've Googled but somehow I'm not doing it right and suspect I need a first grader to explain. Anyway, what I've read so far contains lots of those lovely sentences that make me stop and read them again because they're just so true or beautiful or genuine. There is also much foreshadowing which I enjoy because I try, even at the earliest stages, to figure out what the future holds. (My methodology primarily consists of imagining the absolute worst that can possibly happen in these characters' lives.)

The Woman In White was published in 1859 so we're talking Victorians, people! Watch your back.

Book Forty-One - The Princess Diaries - Part Two

Meg Cabot

I saw The Princess Diaries years ago and after reading the book, I'm a little surprised how different they are. I shouldn't be surprised since this often happens. I know the book is always better than the movie so I read the book first, but in this case I didn't plan to read the book until I saw it on the list. The basics are the same: girl discovers she is actually a princess. A princess! OMG! Various things happen which of course I won't go into in case there is someone who hasn't read the book or seen the movie and may want to some day, but I enjoyed both the movie and the book. The adults in this weren't quite as clueless as adults can sometimes be in YA books. Or maybe the adults in YA books aren't as clueless now as they used to be back when, say, the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas came out and the adults never talked but only made annoying sounds. Charlie Brown was made for kids and the adults just got in the way. But I digress.


The Princess Diaries is a precious, quick read perfect for a light little pick-me-up between books with a high emotional factor. You know, the ones where you're so invested in the characters that you just know something terrible is going to happen to them or you're so absorbed in the mystery that you dream about it at night. Though now that I think about it, the night I finished this book I did dream about a tiara...

Book Forty-One - The Princess Diaries - Part One

Cute, sweet, fun read! The movie is so different! More to come.

Oh My

Poor little neglected blog.
 
I tried to read Ulysses four times but didn't get very far. I've been reading some wonderful books and some okay ones, none of which are on the Big Read list. I believe I'll give Joyce a pass for now and move on to something from the list which sounds like a bit more fun. More to come!

Book Forty - Far From The Madding Crowd - Part Four

Biography.com

 

 

 

 

In this book:


Bathsheba Everdene, a woman who is beautiful and desired by men. (Seriously, who would name a child Bathsheba? Parents who want her to become a physicist?) Bathsheba was the original Everdene even though she spelled it differently. She was also stubborn, but I don’t reckon she did much hunting.


Gabriel Oak. He is like his namesakes and is a strong and sturdy angel. I adore Gabriel. He’s also a farmer.


The local pub has a huge two-handled mug called a “God-forgive-me.”


Desperate housewives and a stalker who was a fine upstanding man for most of his life but then went wrong and guess what caused it?


Hardy seems to be a feminist one moment and critical of women the next.


One woman “… could toss a pancake or twirl a mop with the accuracy of pure mathematics…” Now that’s talent, ladies and gentlemen. That’s talent.

The disturbance was as the first floating weed to Columbus — the contemptibly little suggesting possibilities of the infinitely great.

You write a lovely sentence, Mr. Hardy.


A character about whom not one good word is spoken. Ever.


Quick, embroider a pillow with this platitude:

But a resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible.

I believe this to be true.


But this -

It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession; with totally differing aims the method is the same on both sides.

I do not understand.

___'s was an impulsive nature under a deliberative aspect. An Elizabeth in brain and a Mary Stuart in spirit, she often performed actions of the greatest temerity with a manner of extreme discretion. Many of her thoughts were perfect syllogisms; unluckily they always remained thoughts. Only a few were irrational assumptions; but, unfortunately, they were the ones which most frequently grew into deeds.

I like the description of women as Elizabeths or Mary Stuarts, though I prefer Elinors or Mariannes. Hardy used royalty and I use fictional characters. Those characters are Jane Austen’s, so they’re sorta like royalty. Plus, in my version there is no imprisonment and no murder. Win-win!

____ loved ____ in the way that only self-reliant women love when they abandon their self-reliance. When a strong woman recklessly throws away her strength she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away.

Okay so one of my beefs with this time period and our own is that we do a poor job of teaching young women to make wise choices. As soon  as some woman somewhere throws a man back because he’s no damn good, another woman on the opposite bank fishes him back out of the pond. Why do we do this?

In the worst attacks of trouble there appears to be always a superficial film of consciousness which is left disengaged and open to the notice of trifles…

Yes. It’s a self-preservation thing and a mind over situation thing. You must be able to notice small things and/or to laugh so that you don’t lose your mind in a tragedy. You have work to do so you have to keep it together.


Why is the strong silent type considered more honorable than the gregarious? Frequently in literature the outgoing man is evocative of evil; this is a man with a well-practiced sneer and/or leer. Only the strong silent type is a man with much (good) to reveal. What about the strong silent jerk? Or the outgoing good guy?