Out of Hibernation

  


 Greetings!  I am incredibly glad to be back in the universe of blogging.  I see my last post was in JULY?! Well, I did say there would not be much quiet time for a bit.  Between then and now I have moved across town, started and withdrawn from college courses, shafurred and helped the little one with his homework, played with the baby kept house and aquired a 10 month old fox hound.  I have begun reading NW by Zadie Smith and Cleopatra's Nose by Judith Truman.  Sadly, I have finished neither and so my running list of open books continues to grow.  I have thought possibly, I have a problem...I never want the story to end :) 

    I hope you have all been well and look forward to catching up on your reading endeavors-more complete than mine :)

Great Book-Important Subject...

While at the library the other day-always fun for the kids, especially when the heat index is in the 100's-I took a gander at writings by Joyce Carol Oates.  While I have seen many movies based on her novels--Foxfire, We Were the Mulvaney's-- I had yet to read one.  Rape:A Love Story caught my eye.  I am drawn to stories of mental and physical abuse-sexual violence in particular.  So I grabbed it, this small, 154 page novella.  I finished it in 3 days- a major feat for me :)  Without going into it to much, it is about a mother who is gang-raped and her daughter who is beaten-narrowly escaping only to listen to the rape and beating of her mother.  Horrendous.  The story is told in multiple points of view.  From the daughter, to the officer first on the scene to some of the suspects.  I could not read it fast enough.  I cannot say whether or not I will read another of her books- I am uneasy with reading alot of swearing and this book is full of it.  However, I do not hold that against the book- it has its place and this story was one of those places.  Favorite line: "You spared the adults in your household.  You learned how if a thing is not spoken of, even those closest to you , who love you, will assume that it doesn't exist."

Visit RAINN for info on sexual violence

No Quiet Time Till Fall?!

Source: slices-of-life.com

Life had to catch up some time now didn't it?  School is out for the summer and, well, it is 2:30 in the morning and  you get the idea.  After finishing Loitering with Intent and while impatiently waiting for our library to aquire, A Far Cry From Kensington,  I was able to finish Rosanna of the Amish by Joseph Yoder.  A beautiful story, which is now on it's way to the Dakotas where my mother awaits it patiently. Joesph Yoder was Rosanna's son and being raised in the Amish church, is very qualified to write a loving  biography not just on his mother but on the Amish culture.  I love simple living stories and books of faith and this was a great encouragement to me. I would find myself more eager to do dishes after reading- LOL  :)  I will certainly read it again and its companion, Rosannas Boys.

Source: slices-of-life.com

I am happy to announce the 2 books replacing the ones I have sadly finished-The Handmaid's Tale  by Margaret Atwood and Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery- a favorite author of mine.  I can not wait to visit Prince Edward Island one day as I have always wanted to live there.  But, being closer to Ecuador than Canada I do not see the idea of moving so far north to be a feasible act.  Oh well.  A visit then!

Bookgirl went a thrifting...

Recent steal:  Loose Girl, a memoir of promiscuity by Kerry Cohen
 The Island of Lost Maps, A true Story of Cartographic Crime by Miles Harvey
Stolen Innocence, Triumphing Over a Childhood by Abuse: a memoir by Erin Merryn
More Classics to Read Aloud to Your Children Edited by William F. Russell
Early Christian Fathers Edited by Cyril C. Richardson
The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli

And my favorite, John Ransom's Andersonville Diary.  I have a soft spot for anything "Andersonville".  A few years ago while traveling through Georgia, our family visited the military prison in which Union soldiers were held.  The stockades have been rebuilt and one can stand where these prisoners stood and walk where they walked.  Watching the movie is haunting after having been to Andersonville. I am excited to begin this book but in such a way as I know what went on and feel an odd sort of connection to the prisoners.

Source: University of Pennsylvania

"I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress."
                                      -Jane Austen  letter, 11 December 1815

Finally, A Finished Book

With the children finally asleep and hubby preoccupied with basketball play-offs, I set about to finish the last 40 pages of Loitering With Intent.  I decided that the dishes could wait and that the laundry still had a good day left before it started sprouting legs-I had a book to finish and by golly, I was going to finish it!......About 5 pages in and Baby is up and, shockingly hungry.  So, like any other respectable mother I must put baby before self and s-l-o-w-l-y put the book down.   By now the need for  sleep is hitting hard. 

Next morning, one child off to school, Hubby off to work, Baby awake....I am smart- I feed and read.  and after 2 feedings I have finally finished the book!  I was so happy and still saddened.  I had grown so close to Fleur,  her book-laden apartment and her Warrender Chase-a title which I must admit was a little awkward on the tongue at first but grew on me over time. I loved how Fleur always seemed to get off track when trying to explain a situation-very conversational.  This was a letter she had written and I just happened to eavesdrop.  And haven't we all felt the, "...my Warrender Chase, mine.  I hugged it.  I kissed it...and went on my way rejoicing." 

It was completely fantastic.  My favorite line?  "It was a frightening thought but at the same time external to me, as if I were watching a play I had no power to stop.  It then came to me again, there in the taxi, what a wonderful thing it was to be a woman and an artist in the twentieth century".  And isn't that so true?

 

Persephone Books

Source: The Captive Reader

Persephone came to visit for the first time today and I must thank stuck-in-a-book for introducing us.  I have been enriched and my day made more pleasant.  I've also become rather covetous in wishing the bank account would just "happen" to gain a few more extra bucks, and if it did, I think I might buy the whole lot.  But because I am wishful I will remain content to purchase slowly in order of want and read aloud the reviews and descriptions that are almost literary in themselves to Baby-I think she will like that.

My link....

    Wednesday, May 23, 2012, we  put to sleep our 10 year old rotti, Runner,  because of congestive heart failure.  We love him sooo much and Little Boy was all tears-but so were we.  Runner was a protective, happy, big baby and he will be missed---
      "Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace".--Milan Kundera

Oh, This Was Fun!

    I have a difficult time reading Jane Austen but I enjoy reading about her and I have seen a few of the movies based on her books-I own all the books.  This is why when I stumbled on a Jane Austen Character Quiz
I thought I would humor myself and join in the fun of finding out which Austen character I am......Pleasantly, I am most like Elizabeth Bennet.  Now, if only I looked like Ms. Knightly....

Essay, Anyone?

    I am an essayist at heart.  I love to read them and yes, I love to write them.  To me, the essay projects the idea in the most clear and astute way possible.  It is  discernment in the most profound way.
Like a great piece of fiction it can be long and laborious as Les Miserables, or brief and to the point as Kate Chopins, Story of an Hour.  Books that read as long essays excite me and stir up the inspiration needed to write.  Books such as, Reading Lolita in Tehran, or The Bookseller of Kabul suck me in because they seem to be, between those cover of theirs, one long, lovely and inviting essay. 
    I was excited, when, at the librarys bookstore I found, The Best American Essays, 2007.  I can not wait to pick through this emerald.

More Books?!

I used yesterday to venture to the local Goodwill shop - by myself :) - where I bought some too small pants and, to my husband's dismay, books.  But how could I resist when they screamed from the shelves to "buy me-love me!".  They were desperate....or wait, was that me?

The damage:

  1776 by David McGullough.  Being a history buff I have favorite historians and he is one.  I can not wait to read this great find!

  Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose  Everything in this hunk of a book seems to be nicely indexed.  This is one I will probably never read, rather, I will savor the morsals, individually, when needed or desired.

The Confessions of Saint Augustine  Translation by Rex Warner   Being a spiritual person I am encouraged and uplifted by his works and so did not hesitate to purchase this. 

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas   I loved the movie and have been wanting to own/read this book ever since.  HOWEVER....I think I was so taken by the cover portrait that I became inadvertently biased into buying this.  The version is abridged and I am the type of person who would just assume NOT read the book as read a version with the authors sweat words ripped out without the slightest bit of compassion-this is really a feisty button for me :) - The Great Illustrated Series is a different thing, though as Little Boy and I read them together.  They are an introduction to the real thing.

But there we are :)

Loving it....

One of my favorite movies, An Education, has a home I have wanted to take over since I first saw the movie.

Source: www.unspeakablevisions.com

I love it because it is cozy and inviting and, with the exception of some updated appliances and counter space (where else would I make the meals my family loves to cringe at?) completely perfect.

Source: www.unspeakablevisions.com

I imagine large bookshelves in the places unseen.  My goodness, even the clothes are perfect-there's your glimpse into my closet :)  It is quintessential me and I suppose now, I must add the book to my treasured list reading.  I can't wait!

Remembering...

Maurice Sendak and Where the Wild Things Are certainly left an impression on the world, did they not?  I think tonight, instead of our current book, Little Boy and I will read some Little Bear :)

Browsing.....

No copyright infringement intended. Source: http://www.horizonbook.com/

What a great shop I just happened stumble upon-rare and old travel, history, and gardening among others,  and a bargain area with books for $10 and under!

Today's Loot

 Wednesday's book shopping trip was one store short and so I ventured there today with the little one-here is the stash we walked away with

"Meet Abraham Lincoln" by Barbra Cary      A little something for my little boy :)

"The Cycle of American Literature"  by Robert E. Spiller
          "Major American writers and their writings viewed in historical context...in their relationship in time,
   place, and specific act of creation" says the cover.  I bought it because some of my favorite authors    are discussed in here-Dickinson, Poe, Irving-and I love nothing more than a good reference work!

"Writing and Researching Term-Papers and Reports"  by Eugene Ehrilch and Daniel Murphy
          A great source of reference works in a convenient paperback edition.

"The New York Times Guide to Reference Materials"  by Mona McCormick
          Chock full of bibliographies, dictionaries and handbooks-and The New York Times anything is valuable to me and worthy of having on the shelf.

"Great Essays"  edited by Houston Peterson
          I did not even have to open this one to know it would have a new home-the names Woolf, Conrad, Huxley and Samuel Johnson sent the book sailing into the shopping basket :)

"Interpretations of American Literature" Edited by Charles Feidelson, Jr. and Paul Brodtkorb, Jr.
         Anything discussing literature I am usually a sucker for but especially when it is an Oxford Press book.  This one in particular discusses Emily Dickinson, Melville and has a piece written by Roy Harvey Pearce, "The Poet as Person" which caught my eye.

"A Name of Her Own" by Jane Kirkpatrick
         I had never heard of this author but the fact that this is book 1 of "The Tender Ties Historical Series" and is based on a true story get me reading the back cover of a woman in the early 1800's left to raise her 2 sons alone and all that she endures.  Strong women encourage me.

"The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald"  Edited by Andrew Turnbull
          Do I need to explain?

"Essays of Four Decades"  by Allen Tate
      This will be interesting.  I love essays and this hefty book looks exciting!