The Sunday Salon: Finishing out the Month

January Reads

Books Read:
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Flies by Jean-Paul Sartre
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Fabulous Beast by Jayne Ann Krentz
Mystic by Lisa Jackson
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Paper Towns by John Green
Sweet Wind, Wild Wind by Elizabeth Lowell
britten and brulightly by Hannah Berry
A Perfect Day for Banana Fish by J.D. Salinger

A few of the non-book-review posts I made:
Seasons 1-3 of Torchwood , an absolutely fantastic television show
Some thoughts on Ancient Egypt and an observation about the world's first strip club...maybe
Some thoughts on Ancient Mesopotamia: Who doesn't like Ancient Sumerian goddesses?
Woohoo for the BEA and BloggerCon!
Bringing Literature back to English Studies is an important and confusing topic for me

Currently Reading
Reading is rather random right now.  I'm still reading the anthology portion of Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance for my upcoming Classics Circuit post.  My posts on the Ancient World are in conjunction with my reading of Ancient World in Your Pocket.

Really all I'm doing is waiting for my vacation.  I'm spending 10 days in Ft. Myers Beach, and my big plan is reading.  I'm bringing hush, hush, Uglies, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Skeleton Key, Eragon, and Fingersmith. I can not wait.

Challenge Update: Link takes you to my challenge post with links to reviews

Sookie Stackhouse: 6/9
Graphic Novels Challenge: 2/10
TBR Challenge: 0/12
Books to Read Before I Die: 0/10
Flashback Challenge: 0/6
Read the Book, See the Movie: 1/4
Women UnBound: 4/8
Take Another Chance: 5/?
GLBT Challenge: 1/4
Young Adult Reading: 3/25
18/19th c. Women Writers: 0/2
World Religions: 3/?
42 Challenge: 5/42
101 Fantasy Challenge: 0/12
Sci-Fi Reading: 4/8
Rory Gilmore Project: 38/244 read; only 5 reviewed
100+ Challenge: 12/100
Unlock Worlds: Perpetual...

Can anyone tell me why I can never see my name on the Sunday Salon Pipes????

Torchwood: Seasons 1-3

 

Torchwood

Seasons 1 - 3

When I wrote my first post about Torchwood, I had only watched about three episodes, and I was fascinated with the sexuality portrayed in the show.  There are two main relationships in the show, one hetero- and one homo-sexual, and the characters displayed bisexual tendencies quite often.  After watching all three seasons, I'm still impressed.  But it's not the only reason I adored the show.

Torchwood, a spin off of Doctor Who, is a BBC program about Captain Jack Harkness (and team) fighting irregularities in time, aliens, and other out of the ordinary events and people.  I suppose the show is most similar to the X-files: Harkness is the true believer Mulder and Gwen his skeptical Scully counterpart; the two have that unresolved smoldering attraction issue, although not to the extent of Mulder and Scully and it's not as frustrating as Mulder and Scully either.  For me, Torchwood is the "right kind" of science-fiction; the stories are sci-fi in nature, but character development is not sacrificed for the sci-fi gadgets and creatures.

The themes addressed in the program are intriguing and mature: sex and death being the most prominent.  I've already talked about the sex, but what about the death theme you might ask?  Well, it's not really pretty.  Death is rather existentialist in the world of the show.  Those who have died and come back (gotta love it) report a great absence, darkness, and something moving in the abyss.  No pretty white lights, heavenly gates, or vast libraries (personal hope).  Death is some scary stuff on the show.

The first two seasons of Torchwood were set up like your typical series, individual shows for the most part self-contained.  Season 3, on the other hand, was a five part miniseries that views like a five hour movie.  And it's bloody fantastic I might add.  My mother and cousin watched Season 3, Children of Earth, without knowing that it was an actual television series.  They just thought it was a stand alone, and even without the background knowledge of the show, they had no problem watching it and loving it.  Even if you don't want to watch all three seasons, you should watch Children of Earth.
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This counts for the 42 Challenge, but I'm very unsure of how to count it.  I believe the challenge allows for individual episodes rather than seasons, but I'm not reviewing individual episodes so....

Ancient World : Egypt

"Over 3000 essential facts" about the entire ancient world in just 140 pages. Quick and dirty history baby. Instead of reading without true processing, I'm going to read in sections and comment on what I find interesting.  I love the ancient world, and I even teach Ancient and Medieval World Literature, but still I feel ignorant.
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Chapter 2: Egypt
5000-30 BCE

Egypt is, of course, the most widely known ancient culture.  Or at least it's the culture people think they know about.  Romanticized in the media and in our hearts, the ancient Egyptian culture appears as a combination of mysterious religious rites, scantily clad kohl-eyed beauties, and seductive power.  Oh, and then there's Cleopatra.  But here are some things about Egypt you may not know.

Interesting facts:

One of the longest periods of peace and prosperity in Egyptian history was under the reign of Hatshepsut (1473-1458 BCE).  She is Egypts most successful queen - eat that Cleopatra.  Unfortunately her name and image was erased from the land after her death, meaning her reign was quickly forgotten.  Poor girl.

"New Kingdom tomb scenes show semi-naked female dancers performing gymnastic routines to entertain the elite as they dine.  These may be interpreted as scenes of sexual potency and rebirth."  Or they could be interpreted as the world's first strip clubs...come on people. Stop trying to attach meaningful significance to what is obviously a lust-driven event.  Deal with it.

Pyramids are, as we know, the tombs of Egyptian kings.  Sort of a "mine is bigger than yours" contest on a massive scale.  Egyptologists are unclear on the actual purpose though: why that particular shape, why the gradiose tombs, etc.  But some believe the idea was this:  the pyramids were "gigantic ramps that would allow the soul of the dead king to travel up to the sky".  Of course any true SFF fan knows they are actually platforms for alien spacecraft.

From my brain and not the book:

Literature of the Time

The Pyramid Texts - As the name states, these were hymns and myths and autobiographies (possibly exaggerated) carved on the walls of pyramids.  Later these would be put on coffins instead.  I keep reading that these are the oldest known religious texts, but Descent of Inanna is the oldest story written and as it's religious, I'm thinking that's another example of Egyptuation (infatuation with Egypt).

Book of the Dead - The Book of the Dead contained vignettes regarding the afterlife, sort of a dead-guy's instruction manual.  How great is that?

Cinderella - In the first century CE - I know we are a bit outside our time frame, but come on it's Cinderella - the Egyptians had the story of Rhodopis.  Rhodopis was born in Greece but was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Egypt.  Her owner was a bit of an idiot who spent most of his time sleeping under a tree, which meant he never saw the abuse Rhodopis had to put up with from the other girls.  She was white while they were dark; her hair too light, her eyes too light, her skin too easily burnt in the sun.  They worked her hard, not doing their own chores, but instead forcing Rhodopis to do them.  Because she had no friends, Rhodopis spent a lot of time with animals, in a sense befriending them.  If she had the energy, she would sing and dance for her beasties after work.

One day, her owner woke from his nap under the tree to see her dancing.  He was so taken with her he had special shoes made for her.  The bitchies didn't like this one little bit.  When the Pharoah threw a party in Memphis, everyone got to go except Rhodopis.  She spent her time washing at the river and singing a working song.  Hippopotamus got weary of her song and splashed into the river, wetting her slippers.  Rhodopis took them off, but much to her dismay a falcon swept down and stole one.

This enterprising little cupid of a falcon dropped the slipper right in the Pharoah's lap.  Knowing the falcon was really the god Horus, the Pharoah decreed that whoever the slipper belonged to would be his queen.  A lot of foot-smushing ensues until lo and behold Rhodopis becomes wife to the king.

Sweetness, Cinderella is like 2000 years old.

Ancient World: Mesopotamia

"Over 3000 essential facts" about the entire ancient world in just 140 pages. Quick and dirty history baby. Instead of reading without true processing, I'm going to read in sections and comment on what I find interesting.  I love the ancient world, and I even teach Ancient and Medieval World Literature, but still I feel ignorant.
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Chapter 1: Mesopotamia
6000-330 BCE

I have to admit that this section, the first in the book, reminded me of how much I hate dates.  I'm terrible at remembering them, situating events in relation to each other, and the such not.  The chapter also reminded me how much I adore learning about the ancient world.  5000+ years ago people were so amazingly similar to how we are now, and so very different.

Interesting facts:

Around 2100 BCE, silver coins had monetary value in Mesopotamia, one of the first appearances of "real money".  These coins had a standard weight and 'change' could be made by snipping off segments of a coil.  These silver coins could not compete with barley, however, which remained the highest form of payment.

In Assyria, King Assurnasirpal II built himself a seriously awesome capital.  In true party fashion, he held a sort of house-warming party, a banquet, and he claimed 70,000 people attended.  Well, I'm pretty sure he didn't take a true count, but if he claimed that many people were there, a seriously large amount had to show up right?

Literature of the Time (from my brain, not the book)

Descent of Inanna: Inanna is the Sumerian goddess of love and fertility and war (Sumer was in Mesopotamia).  In Akkadia, Inanna's counterpart was Ishtar, and it's posited that the Egyptian goddess Isis is also derived from Inanna.  The Descent of Inanna is considered the oldest text available to us today.  In the story, Inanna travels to the underworld to visit her sister, Ereshkigal, the queen.  Her reasons for the visitation are suspect, so Ereshkigal has Inanna stripped of her clothing, jewelry, everything as she enters each gate to the underworld. And so begins the adventure.  The story is truly interesting, and I recommend reading it.  To make it a bit more appealing to you, I might add that it would be a wonderful read for the Women UnBound challenge as it portrays strong female characters.


Enuma Elish - Enuma Elish, or The Epic of Creation, is the Babylonian story of how the world began.  According to the legend, Apsu and Tiamat had some unruly children and Apsu, pissed at how loud they were, decided to do away with them.  Tiamat, being a mother, is rather upset at this idea.  The children aren't too thrilled either, and the result is Apsu's death.  Tiamat, being a wife, is rather upset at this.  Chaos ensues.  But in the meantime the sky, the land, and humanity is created from various body parts and blood.  Now tell me that doesn't sound like fun?

Code of Hammurabi - Widely considered the first set of written laws, the Code comes to us from Hammurabi, a king of Babylon, who unequivocally states that these laws were sent to him by none other than Marduk, the big dog of gods.  The code includes such wonderful laws as:  if a son slaps his father, his hand shall be cut off and if a man take a woman to wife but doesn't have sex with her, she is not then his wife. There are hands being cut off, exceptions and rules for free men versus women versus slaves, costs for ferries and oxen.  It's good stuff people.

Epic of Gilgamesh - I'm betting you've heard of this one.  Gilgamesh is a spoiled brat until the gods create Enkidu, his physical equal who promptly kicks his self-entitled but.  From there the two go on an epic journey.  There's violence, tears, sex, love, loss, and immortality.  The original hero, Gilgamesh, is the literary precursor to Odysseus, King Arthur, Batman, and Harry Potter. Go out and honor He Who Came First by reading this awesome story.

And those are my top-of-the-head thoughts about Mesopotamia.

Book Review: Romantic Mysteries

Okay, this post is not at all about romantic mysteries despite the title; it's actually two mini-reviews for a graphic novel and a romance novel.  Completely unrelated books, except that I don't have much to say about either one, and hence the mini-review.

Elizabeth Lowell is one of my fall-back romance authors.  Whenever I get in a reading rut, where nothing appeals to me, I read a romance novel by Lowell, Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, or Jayne Ann Krentz.  I was having quite a bit of difficulty picking up a book, so when I stumbled across this unread Lowell book, I decided to give it a try.

Sweet Wind, Wild Wind is the story of Lara Chandler and Carson Blackridge.  Lara loved Carson in her innocence and he betrayed her.  Now she has come back to chronicle the history of the Rocking B Ranch, the land both she and Carson called home in their youth.  Carson is determined to win Lara back, but as Lara begins to trust him, she finds herself wondering if she's about to make the same mistake again.  All in all the plot is pretty basic and the sex is pretty good, so it's an above average romance novel in my opinion.  If you are looking for a quick, brainless, steamy read, go for it.

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

Sweet Wind, Wild Wind counts for the 100+ Reading Challenge

Fern Britten is a private researcher (investigator has too many negative connotations) who has been dubbed the Heartbreaker.  In his line of work, jealous lovers prevail, and it is his unfortunate duty to reveal the truth...which often is less than pleasant.  Britten is determined to stop dealing with paranoid lovers (even if they are rightly paranoid), but when he gets involved in a case of suicide, blackmail, and of course jealous lovers, he may be in way over his head.

I adored the artwork in this graphic novel.  It was dark, noirish, and creative, with beautiful perspective shots.  I was a bit less taken with the story itself which seemed a bit...contrived.  The case Britten receives is, lo and behold, tied to a case he worked on in the past, and the path of clues and connections seem a bit too easy for me.  And I have absolutely no idea what's going on with Britten's partner, Brulightly, who is....hmmm...I'm not sure I should say what he is.  But I have no clue why he is what he is, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to think Britten is crazy or what.

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

britten and brulightly counts for the Graphic Novels Challenge, 100+ Reading Challenge, Reading Resolutions

One Lucky Girl...

That's right ladies and gentlemen.  I'm going to the BookExpo!!!!  I am so freaking excited.  And to top it off, I'm also registered for....

I'm in some sort of book lovers wet dream right now.  I'm one lucky girl.

Now, who else is going and when are we meeting for dinner and drinks?!?!?!

Empty My Shelves Please!!!

I have an insane amount of books I want to eliminate from my shelves.  Seriously insane.  The complete list can be seen here.  The cost of shipping these books as freebies would be astronomical, and I am unfortunately one broke beeatch.  So what to do?

Yes, yes there's always BookMooch, but I already have about 135 points there which means 135 books I can order.  So that's a no-go.  I've heard some people donate to libraries, but most of the books I want to get rid of are used copies of books totally not published in the last 5 years.  Another no-go.  I don't really want to set up on Amazon and sell them as I'd like to get rid of the entire stack as soon as possible.

So seriously, what do I do?  Do you guys have any advice on how I can get rid of this stack?

If you guys see some you'd like to have, I'd be very very willing to send them to you for the cost of shipping.

Book Review: Paper Towns

Title:  Paper Towns
Author:  John Green
Published:  2008  Pages: 305
Genre:  Er...Fiction

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

Plot Synopsis
Quentin Jacobsen's infatuation with the infamous Margo Roth Spiegelman causes him to have one night, one daring adventure with her.  Then she is gone, and he embarks on an even more daring adventure, starting with a poster of Woody Guthrie.

My Thoughts
"Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one."  Margo is tragically beautiful.  That is my first thought about this book.  She is an oddly non-stereotypical stereotype.  The popular girl who is putting on a show for the world, more a mirror than a real person, and she knows it, even encourages it.  Hers is a world of secrets, a world where her best friends don't know about her obsessive love of music, where Walt Whitman and Sylvia Plath speak to her.  She bemoans the love affair the world has with the future, diminishing the importance of now, and yet her time is spent planning for the future, and the planning is more to her than the doing.  A woman-child of contradictions who is at once frustrating and admirable.  I simultaneously want to be her and am glad I am not her.

The enigma that is Margo is the heart of this novel, and Q's infatuation with an idea of her is the central conflict.  He realizes at one point that he had made a 'fundamental mistake' because "Margo was not a miracle.  She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl", and when Margo was not being Margo, "she felt empty."

The plot of this book reminded me of I Love You Beth Cooper and the perks of being a wallflower, and yet I find this book infinitely more satisfying.  The three books are all at their core coming-of-age novels about a last high school hurrah, and yet with Paper Towns the last hurrah is only the precursor to a much more meaningful and tragic adventure.  I wish I could say more, and I think I do have more to say, but to do so would require spoilers, and I am highly recommending that you read this for yourself.

I read this in one day, one sitting, to the displeasure of my home-from-work-and-bored husband.  Thank you so much to my Secret Santa Briana from The Book Pixie, for giving me this for Christmas.

Memorable Scene:  At one point, Q and friends have to make a bathroom, gas, and food pit stop in under 6 minutes. As the group runs back to the van, groceries in hand, I could feel the beauty of being young. The quickness, the pleasure in this seemingly inconsequential feat, was beautiful.  As Q thinks, at this moment, they are "Young. Goofy. Infinite."

Memorable Quote: "Tonight darling we are going to right a lot of wrongs. And we are going to wrong some rights. The first shall be the last; the last shall be the first; the meek shall do some earth-inheriting.  But before we can radically reshape the world, we need to shop."

Other Reviews
If I've missed yours, let me know!

things mean a lot; Becky's Book Reviews; Books and Movies; Fyrefly's Book Blog;

FTC Disclosure:  As I received this for Christmas, it is quite possible that the book is totally and completely illegally obtained.  Perhaps my Secret Santa received this book from a publisher in exchange for a glowing review and for passing it along to another blogger. Perhaps she received the book in exchange for illicit activities in the back of a mini-van.  But I doubt it. 
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Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, YA Reading Challenge, Reading Resolutions,

Sunday Salon: Get 'em readin'

The Necessity of Literature Courses for College Freshmen and Sophomores

The current trend in English is to divide the program into composition and literature, a practice I am in support of as each deserves its own place in the curriculum.  For too long, English courses centered on literature, focusing its efforts on the creation of cultural background - shared experiences in reading - and neglected the skill of writing as differentiated from reading.  This focus left students ill-prepared to deal with the academic rigor of writing in non-English courses; apparently skill in book reports (the focus of many high school English programs) does not help one analyze the effects of eminent domain or critically discuss the ideological differentiation between The War of Northern Aggression and the Civil War.

I am not saying that literature does not help one think; obviously I am a proponent of reading.  I do, however, believe that the backseat composition took to literature in English programs for decades was detrimental to overall critical thinking abilities. Reading, of course, can be essential to critical thinking abilities, but writing (something other than a book report) forces those abilities to the forefront.  It is entirely possible to read a book without any serious effort of thinking.Unfortunate, but true. So, bravo for the major philosophical and pedagogical shift that gave composition its proper place in English programs.

Unfortunately, the pendulum swung too far in the other direction.  We have gone from the extreme of literature only to composition only with freshman and sophomore undergraduate English courses focused almost solely on composition: informative, analytic, and persuasive essays.  And now our students are learning how to write but forgetting how to read.  The removal of literary works from the first two years of English means that students rarely have to read anything other than their textbooks, meaning of course that only a very, very small percentage are reading at all for school.  And reading for pleasure?  Don't get me started.

I believe the most recent statistic is that roughly 50% of Americans never read for pleasure, only one in four Americans even read a book in the last year, and the average is only four books a year for those who do read.  Statistics like this make me even more adamant about the necessity for including literature in the undergraduate curriculum.

The problem as I see it is that the differentiation between literature and composition can be a false barrier.  If we think of Writing with Literature rather than Writing About Literature, we can easily fuse reading with composition studies.  Students can read Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, but instead of then assigning a paper about the book, instructors can assign a paper about the role of African-American female writers during the Harlem Renaissance.  Or a paper on the difficulty of maintaining the individual self while in a romantic relationship. The eventual paper may never even mention the book that was read.  Books are about ideas, and ideas spark writing.

By separating Book Reports, Book Reviews, and Literary Criticism from the act of reading, we can re-merge reading and writing, and in my opinion, our students will be better for it. Not to mention the fact that including literature in the curriculum exposes students to cultures other than their own, to new ideas and experiences, and to one of the most wonderful hobbies a person can have.

I could go into all the reasons reading is important, but I think I would preaching to the choir here.  So instead, I'd like to hear from you.  Do you think it is important to include literature in freshman/sophomore undergraduate writing (er...English) courses?  If so, why?  If not, why not?

Book Review: The Complete Maus

Title: The Complete Maus
Author:  Art Spiegelman
Published:  1997  Pages: 296
Genre: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

Plot Synopsis
In Maus, Art Spiegelman graphically reveals the story of his father's time during World War II as well as the time his father spent telling him this story.

My Thoughts

Maus is a powerful book.  Spiegelman simultaneously discusses the art and pain of surviving the Holocaust, the difficult relationships between fathers and sons, and the confusion of a situation not experienced but still vital to a person's life.

On the one hand, I love this book.  I find the story moving, the artwork imaginative, and the themes intriguing.  On the other hand, I do not love this book as much as it seems others do.  This is not the quintessential Holocaust story for me.  Elie Wiesel's Night, David Faber's Because of Romek, Wesley Adamcyk's When God Looked the Other Way, these stories are just as, if not more, powerful for me.

I think what does set this apart is - obviously - the form the story took.  A holocaust story that is a graphic novel, complete with humans depicted as animals, is an entirely unique and daring concept.  And it worked.  Jews are portrayed as mice, Polish are pigs, Nazis are cats, Americans are dogs, Frenchmen are frogs, Swedes are reindeer, and so on, and yet I never felt that these portrayals were diminishing the ethnicity of the individual or the similarities between all humans.

Another major difference between Spiegelman's book and the other Holocaust stories I've read is the focus.  Maus is not focused solely on One Man's Story of the Holocaust.  The real focus seems to be the relationship between Art and his father, Vladek.  I would hazard a guess that at least a third of the book deals with the present instead of the past (WWII).  We see Vladek as an old man, narrating his story to his son, bickering with his wife; we see the tension between Art and Vladek, the flaws of a man who survived so much; we see the struggle Art had emotionally with writing this story.

These separate focuses..foci..are what I was not completely in love with.  I appreciate the honesty with which Art portrayed his father, showing his frugality, racism, and bitterness. I enjoyed the inclusion of an entire separate comic devoted to his mother's suicide.  I even found the section on  Art's success with the original Maus interesting.  But it was all this extra that makes me feel like this is not as powerful of a Holocaust story as the others I mentioned.  Maus is something different.

So my final thoughts...read it.

Memorable Scene: Vladek and Anja sent their son Richieu to live with his aunt Tosha in order to protect him.  When it seemed like Tosha and the children were to be sent to Auschwitz, Tosha poisoned herself, her daughter Bibi and her niece and nephew, Lonia and Richieu, to save them from a worse death. I have heard many stories like this, of an adult killing children to save them from the Nazis, and I can never decide if this is horrible cowardice or amazing mercy.

Memorable Quote: But here God didn't come.  We were all on our own.

Other Reviews
If I've missed yours, let me know!

things mean a lot; In Spring it is the Dawn; Rebecca Reads; books i done read; Books of Mee; Trish's Reading Nook; The Zen Leaf;  Bibliofreakblog;

Question:  Do you think the popularity of this book is due in large part to the originality of form?


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Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Reading Resolutions, World Religions, Take Another Chance, Graphic Novels Challenge,

Strange Credit Card Conversations

When I heard the message on the answering machine, I could feel the sweat begin beading under my skin. "Bank of America's fraud detection department has detected some unusual charges on your card. Please call us at blah blah blah." Images of scraggly haired hoodlums lounging on hammocks in Hawaii run through my mind. Thoughts of thousand dollar purchases cause the tension in my neck to rise.

I call the number, heavy hearted and tense. Two minutes later, I hang up having found out I can do this online. Much easier. At myfraudprotection.com, I find four charges which shouldn't be there: $2.56, $1, $2.27, and $1.06 respectively. Huh? I indicate that these are all unapproved charges and then I am kindly told...

To call Bank of America's fraud detection program. Lovely. I'm so glad I went online first. Now, I hear the following -

"Thank you for your patience. We are currently experiencing extended wait times. Your wait time could exceed 6 minutes. Please hold for the next representative."

- for the next twenty minutes. Yep, my wait time certainly did exceed 6 minutes.

And that is where I am at now: listening to the message over and over, while typing in my facebook, and wondering how many people just let the less than 7 dollars go so that they don't have to deal with it?

Things I think about While Waiting:

Deisy and her big day today...
The cut-short conversation between Deb and myself...
The new teacher's visit to the office on a day I'm about as dressed down as you can get...
The very cool pants Ashley wears to work...
Seven jeans and whether the cost makes them "dress pants"...
Whether or not the name Seven is good for a person (a la Seinfeld)...
Whether Carter is really a boy's or a girl's name...
If it's weird to name children you may never even have your maiden name...
Is Carter Dandurand too conservative sounding? Case Dandurand?...
Why do certain names remind me of porn, like Dakota and Brock...
Who would name their kid Brock...
How much influence does a kid's name have on their life...
If I had been named Dakota, would I be a stripper...

Hey, I'm talking to someone. He asked my name, my address, and then said he had to verify something and now I'm back to listening to the most horrid music in the world. *Pause for Facebook typing* He came back. Four crummy charges, and he about died laughing when he asked if "Batch Publications" was an authorized charge and I asked if the word was Bitch (I subscribe to Bitch Magazine).

Now, I will be getting a new account number - damn it I have this one memorized - which means I will have to change my card number everywhere online (which my husband says is why I have this problem in the first place). Then in a few weeks, I'll have to fill out paperwork for the fraud investigation. Sounds sexy doesn't it? Fraud investigation? Eh, maybe it's just me. Did I mention that I'm on hold yet again?

Okay, he came back said I wouldn't be liable for the $8.78 - Yay - and that I should have a wonderful day.

And the same to all of you who struggled with me through this painful process of bored waiting. It would be much more exciting if it really was scraggly haired hoodlums on hammocks in Hawaii, wouldn't it?

And I just realized that the amounts I saw online do not add up to $8.78....oh well.

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This happened a while ago, and honestly I totally forgot I had typed this up as a note on Facebook.  Just thought I would share. :)

Sunday Salon: A Bookishly Non-Bookish Week

This past week was the start of the new semester, so I didn't have much time for reading or blogging.  Instead I was finalizing syllabi, creating lesson plans, cleaning out last semester's junk from my files, and wondering why I didn't marry someone obscenely rich who would neither have me work inside nor outside the home.  I did manage to get a few bookish things in during the week.


Bloggiesta inspired my Adaptations and Giveaway post.  After completing my listish post for bloggiesta, I was hoping to inspire some other bloggers to think about book to film adaptations.  I've extended the deadline, so if you are interested, head on over and participate!

I also participated in a new challenge this week, the first task of which was to come up with 3 book titles that made you laugh!

This week's "You Can Quote Me on This" featured a quote from Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and asked whether anyone had ever felt like one book was speaking to another.

I wrote up some mini-reviews of three books I've read this year that for one reason or another didn't warrant full review.

I finally read and reviewed The Adoration of Jenna Fox.  Better late than never right?

And to top it off, I watched the first season of Torchwood.  May I just say wow!

 

Book Review: The Fabulous and Mystic Egypt

I have never written mini-reviews before.  Books either receive full reviews or none at all, but I'd like to at least partially review every book I read this year, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon and starting to write mini-reviews for those books I either don't have much to say about or don't have time to write about.  Here is the first batch:

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

I received this book from Rebecca at Lost in Books when she held her Big Birthday Giveaway, and I am so happy I got this book. A children's story, The Egypt Game is a tale of imagination.  When April is sent to live with her grandmother, she meets Melanie, a girl who, like April, enjoys playing make believe.  Together with Melanie's brother, the new girl in the building, and two boys from school, the girls create Egypt complete with temple, statues, rituals, and costumes. This was a wonderfully imaginative, quick read that made me remember the joy and the fine line between reality and imagination that comes with being a kid.

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

Fabulous Beast by Jayne Ann Krentz and Mystic by Lisa Jackson

Romance novels are almost impossible for me to review.  I'm never quite sure what to say about them.  These two stories were extremely fast reads that I enjoyed while reading, but quickly forgot the details of when they were finished.  In Fabulous Beast, our main lady rescues a shy, sensitive man but he turns out to be a bit more than she expected.  In Mystic, our lovers are reunited years after their one passionate night, and their (re)burgeoning romance takes place during our dashing hero's investigation of crime and corruption within the family.  In both stories, the two meet, bicker, have great sex, bicker some more, think they'll never be together, have more great sex, and well, you know the ending.

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

Book Review: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Title:  The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Author:  Mary E. Pearson
Published:  2009  Pages:  265
Genre:  YAL

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

Plot Synopsis
Whew, not even going to attempt to summarize the plot.  I really think it's best if you go into this book with absolutely no clue what's going on.  As Amy over at My Friend Amy says "this book is best left unspoiled."

My Thoughts
What can I say about a book that has been reviewed so many times?  Not a whole heck of a lot. Carrie K over at Books and Movies said she didn't want to put the book down once she started it, and I was the same way.  I finished the book in one two and a half hour sitting. Then again, this is not unusual for me as I am very much a one-sitting type of reader.  I prefer to finish a book the same day I pick it up, drawing it out over days or weeks is almost painful for me.

Becky from Becky's Book Reviews thinks the book is "one of the most original and amazing coming-of-age stories that I've read in quite a while".  Raych over at Books I Done Read seems to agree when she says the story "ate her face". My thoughts on the story?  Eh.  I know, I know, I'm terrible.  But nothing in this book surprised me.  Nothing.  I had an idea of the "issue" by page 6, and I flat out knew the issue the moment Bio Gel was mentioned.  I knew what was coming with the things in the closet, with Dane, with Allys, with the thing at the very very end that ties together the whole Lily-Claire-Jenna thingamabobber.  Hmm...hard to talk about what you knew when you don't want others who haven't read the book to know about these things. :)  Anyway, the point is that while I found the story interesting, it held almost no surprises, so I wasn't as thrilled with it as others seem to be.

Over at Hey Lady! Whatcha Reading?, Trish comments that what is great about this book is that it makes you think.  The book does raise some serious issues like the lengths parents will go to protect their children, the lengths children will go to please their parents, self-control, what it means to be alive, etc.  I have to say though that I don't feel the book actually explored any of these themes in depth; they were just sort of there.  This was not, to me, a very philosophical sort of text.  Those issues were entirely secondary to the plot; the plot was not created to explore them like I feel it was in books like American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

One thing I did really enjoy about the book that I haven't seen anyone else mention is the inclusion of short "chapters" written like poetry from a journal entry.  These one page sections are printed on a darker background than the rest of the book, and they, for me, were the most thematically charged portions of the book.  One example:

Choice

I needed it like I needed air.
But no one could hear me.
No one could listen.
No words. No sound.
No voice.
I couldn't even dream myself away.
Choices were made.
None of them mine.
At first I wondered if it was hell.
And then I knew it was.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, but I'm not exactly in thrall with it.  I did, however, feel it was a new sort of YAL for me as it felt older, more mature than a lot of the YAL I've read in the past.

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Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, YA Reading Challenge, 42 Challenge,

42: Torchwood Season 1

Torchwood
Season 1

"Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, arming the human race against the future. The twenty-first century is when everything changes. And you've got to be ready."

One of the first things that struck me while watching Season 1 was its representation of sexuality.  Early on, multiple episodes feature positive homosexual references and activity.  In Episode 2: Day 1, the lead female character Gwen, makes out with (er...snogs - I just love the differences in language and accent) a woman who has been possessed by a being addicted to orgasmic energy.  In Cyberwoman, the lead male character, all bow before Captain Jack Harkness, passionately kisses Ianto in an effort to revive him (apparently kissing Harkness transfers life force or something of that nature). As the show goes on, Captain (Please Kiss Me) Jack snogs a few more men and the occasional kiss for a girl as well. Other characters also engage in same-sex fun.  The characters appear to be sexually fluid.  I have to say I started watching because I'm a geek for science fiction and fantasy television shows.  Now, I think I'm more interested in seeing where all this leads.  It's wonderful to see a tv series so progressive about sexuality without sex being the primary focus of the plot-lines. 

Outside of the hot guy-on-guy action taking place in the show (er..and girl-on-girl and guy-on-girl, and well you get the picture), this show is for me what SFF should be.  The stories are character driven with the aliens and technology taking a back seat to the emotions and desires of the people involved.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I am fascinated with more than just the characters' sex lives; they have to deal with love and loss, to maintain a balance between life and work, to rationalize a sense of self separate from and still part of the rest of humanity.  The entire thing is just ridiculously intriguing to me.

That being said, I do have a few issues:
-At times things are a bit over dramatic, both in the acting and in the plots.
-Sexual fluidity is one thing, but these people seem to just all want everyone, and the sexual tension can be a bit suffocating.
-There is a fine line between mystery and frustration, and the secrets about Captain Jack are tenuously straddling that line.

An Admission I Hope Doesn't Get Me Lynched and a Question I'd Like Answered:
-I've never seen Doctor Who.  Yep, I know. Terrible.  Then again I'm an American in her late 20s so Doctor Who was not exactly my prime time.  The show went off the air before I was nine, and the new version started up again during my "OMG only geeks watch scifi" stage.  I have, of course, accepted my geek status since that time. Anyone have the lowdown on Doctor Who.  Should I watch the original?  Should I watch the remake that I hear is currently airing? How much am I missing out on in Torchwood by not watching Doctor Who?

Okay, enough with the questions.  Now get yourself over to Netflix or your local video store and watch this - if you haven't already.

Challenges: 42 Challenge

Books Speak of Books

Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treasure of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors.

~Umberto Eco
The Name of the Rose

Can you think of a time when a book you were reading "spoke to" another book, whether directly or indirectly? Let's hear about it.

The Book List

Rebecca at Lost in Books is hosting a new meme.  The way you do the meme is simple:

• There is a different topic each week, which will be posted at Lost in Books.
• You write a post on your own blog about the topic.
• The post will be a list of 3 books pertaining to the topic. So, for example, if the topic were, say, 3 Books That Make You Want to Go Shopping, you would write a list of 3 books that when you read them made you want to max out your credit card. I have no idea what those books would be, but you get the picture.
• You may include photos with your lists, especially if that helps illustrate your point.
  
• You link back to the week's post on Lost in Books in your post so if someone else wants to play, they can find their way here.
• Then you go to Lost in Books and leave your link in the Mr. Linky so other people can find your post and your list! 
  

This weeks topic is 3 Book Titles That Made Me Laugh Out Loud When I First Read Them and the meme post and Mr. Linky can be found at Lost in Books.

My List:

1.  The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God by John Powers:  The concluding novel in John R. Powers's memorable trilogy set in mid-twentieth century South Side Chicago is the poignant tale of an ambitious and gifted young man from a blue-collar neighborhood who struggles to find his place in a world that seems riddled with insincerity. He narrates his bittersweet battles with God, sex, career, and family in a voice that evokes an Irish-Catholic Holden Caufield. ~Amazon

2.  Blues for Cannibals by Charles Bowden: Bowden profiles rapists, drunks, outlaws, a suicidal artist, ne'er-do-wells, and do-gooders; suffers grievously over tortured and murdered children; brilliantly links the story of an institutionalized self-taught artist and convicted killer who obsessively paints pictures of presidents with a blazing reassessment of Lyndon Johnson; chronicles an execution; mourns the death of four friends; and vividly portrays the mighty nineteenth-century Yaqui war leader Cajeme. As furious, wounded, lustful, and compelling as Algren and Miller, Bowden confesses his depthless hunger for women, good food, red wine, sunlight, gardening, and freedom, and warns, presciently, of an inevitable wave of violent change.  ~Amazon

3.  Throw Like a Girl by Jean Thompson: The women protagonists of Thompson's hard-hitting latest collection of stories have secret plans to wrest control of their life from husbands, boyfriends and mothers. Kelly Ann Pardee, a high school dropout stuck at home with a child while her army grunt husband is sent to the Middle East, wants to be a warrior, too. The teenage Jessie in "The Five Senses" has run off to Florida with an older man she is beginning to realize is violent and scary, and yet she is disappointed that her new fugitive existence isn't more exciting than her upper-middle-class life. ~Amazon


Any titles make you laugh out loud?  If not, how about this one:

Adaptations Lists and Giveaway

I love books and movies.  An entire wall in my family room is dedicated to them, with 6 bookshelves, a 46" flat screen television, surround sound, decorations like turtles reading books and monkeys with digital cameras, and the such not.  I teach Introduction to Literature and Introduction to Film, and either lit or film make it into my composition courses as well.  I have books about movies and movies about reading.  And of course, I have adaptations: books which were turned in to movies.  Currently, I do not have any of the reverse.  For me, if the book didn't come first, it almost doesn't count....

5 Books I Wish Were Movies

5. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman: What a wonderful setting for a film!
4. Naked by David Sedaris: How funny would this book be on the big screen?
3. Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins:  The characters and setting are great for YA films.
2. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde: A great chance to be creative as a director.
1. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman: Just one of the best books ever.

5 Books I Wish Had Not Been Made into Movies

5. Christopher Paolini's Eragon
4. Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass
3. The Entire Harry Potter Series

Wow, I'm really feeling a young adult literature theme here.  I think it's partially because kids can rarely act and partially because you need to really kick ass on special effects for a lot of these to work. Anyway, back to the list.

2. Watchmen by Allan Moore - Not because I didn't like the movie, but because so many others didn't and it turned them off to an amazing graphic novel.
1.  Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

So what about all of you?  Do you have any books you wish were movies?  Any books you wish had not been made into movies?

Giveaway:

If you make a post about this topic and leave a link in the comments section, I will 1) add you to the list below and 2) enter you into a giveaway for one of the following books:

1.  It's Easy Being Green by Crissy Trask
2.  No Touch Monkey by Ayun Halliday
3.  Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
4.  The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

The contest closes at midnight January 27.

Other Opinions
In the Shadow of Mt. TBR's Hit or Miss List
My Fluttering Heart discusses The Lovely Bones
Michelle at su[shu]

Sunday Salon: Bloggiesta!

Maw Books hosted this year's Bloggiesta, three days of blogging fun, challenging participants to work on their blog.  I didn't think I was going to participate, so I didn't actually sign up to join in the fun; but then as I was sitting on my couch, notebook on my lap, I got the bug.  You know what I'm talking about, that strangely productive but towards something other than what you should be actually doing way.  I should be working on my syllabi and lesson plans for the coming semester.  Instead, I started working on my blog.

Then, as if Fate was extending a hand, the Weekly Geeks for Saturday involved the Bloggiesta, and I realized that this post was also perfect for a Sunday Salon.  So we have sort of a three for one deal going on today!

Notes so far:

- I created pages for Reviews by Title and Reviews by Author. I also put links to those pages/posts in my header.  This was very time consuming, but I'm ecstatic that I've got it done now.

Update:  I now have a page listing all of the books I have available for giveaways.

- I 2010'ed my Reading Spreadsheet, pushing the '09 sheets back and creating new spreadsheets for this year. This is where I track my reading: pages, male v. female, dead v. alive, genres, etc. Everything is nicely set up with formulas and ready to go.

- My bookshelves are loaded with more than 1,000 books, probably closer to 1,500, so I went through and eliminated about 50.  I know, I know that's a pretty small number but I have a very very hard time getting rid of books.  Look for giveaways in the coming months as I'm not sure what to do with all my "extra" books.  I was going to put them on BookMooch, but I already have 140 points over there.

- I plan on completing the mini-challenge over at Beth Fish Reads asking participants to write either a list or opinion post.  I want at least one of each for my rainy day posts when I run out of ideas or steam.  Possible topics for My List Post:  5 Books I Wish Were Movies and 5 Movies I Wish Were Books, 5 Books I Wish Had Sequels, ....    And for My Opinion Post: Why Intro to Lit should be required of all college freshman, Reading and Book Choice in High Schools, It takes a reader to make a writer, .....

Update:  I've completed the Books/Movies list.  Look for the post and the giveway tomorrow!

- I learned a neat trick about linking over at Galley Smith.

- Following some advice I read on Bookish Ruth, I ran my blog through Website Grader and got some very neat advice on how to improve my site.  Since I was over there, I also ran my blog through Blog Grader, which oddly enough I did not find as helpful.

-A mini-challenge over at There's a Book inspired me to create a cheat sheet for my book reviews, which will come in handy as I've joined a ridiculous number of challenges.  Now I don't have to type in and search for the appropriate challenge URL every time I write a review!

- Beth Fish Reads has a mini-challenge about cleaning up the labels you put on posts, and this is something I have really got to buckle down and do.  But I don't wanna!  I know I need to figure out my labels, and then go through each and every post, fixing them.  But I don't wanna.  I hope to get to this today or tomorrow at the latest.

- I have a confession.  I have never backed up my blog.  But thanks to Farm Lane Books, my blog is now safely stored just in case Blogger freaks out on me.

There are still quite a few mini-challenges and other tips and tricks that I want to try out on my blog, but it's going to take some time.

Update:  I now have a Favicon and a Gravatar based on the image I used for my Google Doc spreadsheet!  Thank you Trish from Hey Lady!

Time Total (so far): 3 hours 21 minutes
Update:  6 hours 53 minutes

Book Review: Tao Te Ching

Title: Tao Te Ching
Author: Lao Tzu, trans. John C.H. Wu
Published:  1997  Pages: 165
Genre: Nonfiction, Spiritual Text

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

The Tao Te Ching originated in the 6th century BCE during the Zhou Dynasty.  Written by Laozi, the document has 81 short chapters, the majority of which are written more like poetry than prose (at least in my English translation).  Here's where I have to admit that poetry is not my best subject.  Most of the time I can get a feeling, a wispy idea of the essence of the poem, but when it comes to fully understanding the specifics of this beautiful, but metaphoric language, well I'm more idiot than savant.  Then combine the poetic form with religious concepts, which tend to be metaphoric themselves, and you can have a confusing jumble of "huh".

That being said the Tao Te Ching was relatively specific in its language, and yet still manages to be open to varied interpretations and contradictory at multiple points. Each chapter has a basic theme - rules for behavior, advice to rulers, tenets of Tao - but the specific practical applications are ambiguous...which may be part of the point.  One of the principles of Taoism seems to be a sort of humbleness of knowledge, an acceptance of your own ignorance and a comfort in ignorance; well that equates well with a religious text that can be interpreted in different ways by different people.

The text includes many discussions of emptiness, voids, absence, etc. For example, I particularly enjoyed the following:

Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub; It is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges.  We make a vessel from a clump of clay; It is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.  We make doors and windows for rooms; But it is these empty spaces that make the room livable.

I think this is a good example of what I mean by the Tao Te Ching's specific ambiguity.  The language above is simple, the metaphor easily recognizable, but the practical application vague.  Am I to be an empty vessel? And what exactly does that mean?  I choose to interpret it that I should always be ready to add something new to myself.  Others may believe something entirely different.

Another interesting part of the Tao Te Ching for me was its promotion of the Feminine.  I had to read the chapters including this word multiple times just to assure myself of the meaning being used.  This particular philosophy is advocating "feminine" qualities: passivity, inaction, nature, etc.  While I applaud any religion/spirituality/philosophy that promotes women - there are so few - it still is distressing to see the terms passivity and inaction described as feminine qualities.  And yet I can not deny that they are more closely tied to the female than to the male.  But I believe this to be ideological, not biological.

Finally, I just have to say I'm an idiot.  I did not realize that The Beatles' Inner Light was based off of Chapter 47 in the Tao Te Ching.  There I am, reading, and suddenly I come across Beatles' lyrics.  Awesome.

Other Reviews
If I've missed yours, let me know

Lost in Books;  The Bookworm; 

Question: Do you think someone raised in the Western tradition can ever truly understand an Eastern philosophy?

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Challenges: Women UnBound, 100+ Reading Challenge, Reading Resolutions, World Religions, Take Another Chance,

Book Review: The Flies

Title:  The Flies
Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
Published:  1943  Pages: 76
Genre:  Play

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

Plot Synopsis
Orestes returns to Argos, the land of his birth, under the persona of Philebus. Taken from his home by his tutor, Orestes did not witness the sinking into despair of his home after his father Agamemnon was murdered by Aegisthus in concert with Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, Orestes' mother.  Originally just passing through, Orestes changes his mind because of a meeting with his sister Electra who has longed for the day her brother would return and kill the usurper and his "whore".  A lovely Greek tragedy follows...

My Thoughts
Right from the beginning, I was hooked.  I love the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the entire muddled mess that is Greekdom. Even looking at the cast of characters which includes Zeus, the Furies, and the above mentioned family, just got my juices flowing (in an entirely non-sexual way, I assure you).  When Telemachus is mentioned - by none other than Zeus, mind you - I almost went faint.  This is a lovely addition to an already dramatic storyline.

Outside of said passion, the play also touched on some very serious and intriguing subjects.  When Agamemnon was killed by Aegisthus, in his bath, the citizens of Argos did nothing, despite their foreknowledge.  This guilt now weighs on them to a highly disturbing effect.  People are dirty, plagued by flies, do not leave their homes, and participate in this morose ritual every year - on the anniversary of Agamemnon's death.  For 24 hours, the citizens of Argos are plagued by their guilt, tortured by the dead who leave their tomb to emotionally barage the living who have wronged them.  This ritual is perpetuated by Aegisthus and  Clytemnestra and so is the air of constant repentance and guilt which disastrously permeates the entire community of Argos.

I feel I can not say much  more without spoiling the play for the rest of you.  Suffice it to say, thematically, I felt the discussion of freedom versus religion fascinating.  No easy answers are given but the paradox of freedom being almost more burdensome than even the most dastardly of gods really got me thinking.  And to top it all off, the strange similarity between Orestes final act and the final act of religious "saviors" confounds the whole issue.

I highly recommend reading this play which is a mere 76  pages in length.

Memorable Scene:  Electra attempts to defy her mother and Aegisthus, and in fact her entire world, during the opening of the tomb.  She is magnificent as she dances, daring the dead to stop her, in an attempt to show her people that the ritual is a lie.  Then Zeus has to butt in....

Memorable Quote:  Only yesterday I walked teh earth haphazard; thousands of roads I tramped that brought me nowhere, for they were other men's roads.  Yes, I tried them all; the haulers' tracks along the riverside, the mule-paths in the mountains, and the broad, flagged highways of the charioteers.  But none of these was mine.  Today I have one path only, and heaven knows where it leads.  But it is my path.


Other Reviews
If I've missed yours, let me know!

Hmmm....anyone?

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Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Reading Resolutions, World Religions,  Take Another Chance,

Book Review: The Three Big Whartons

Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and Age of Innocence

When The Classics Circuit first announced Edith Wharton was coming on a tour, I was thrilled.  I've had Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, and The House of Mirth on my shelves for years...years people.  Originally I signed up to read all three of my books, but unfortunately, I ended up reading only two.

Ethan Frome

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

An unnamed narrator becomes intrigued by Ethan and the story of his tragic life after seeing him in a Massachusetts town.  When Ethan becomes the narrator's ride, said narrator begins to piece together the sordid tale of Ethan, his wife, and his love interest.

Other stops on the tour for Ethan Frome: A Striped Armchair; Reviews by Lola; Reading, Writing, Working, Playing; It's All About Books; 

Other Reviews:  Trish's Reading Nook; Caribousmom; Educating Petunia; Tammy's Book Nook;

Age of Innocence

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

Newland Archer, a proper dilettante and aficionado of protocol, finds his socially perfect life thrown into turmoil when the Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after fleeing her husband. Engaged to Ellen's cousin May, Newland quickly becomes enamored of the Countess and entertains thoughts of defying convention and running off with her. Ellen and May are opposites.  Where May is the product of her environment, demure and thoughtless, Ellen is outrageous in her individuality, a deviant in New York's upper class society.

Other stops on the tour for Age of Innocence:  Farm Lane Books; Kay's Bookshelf; Just Add Books; Pining for the West;

Other Reviews: book-a-rama; Educating Petunia; Books and Movies; Rebecca Reads; Trish's Reading Nook;

My Thoughts

Hands down, no question about it, Ethan Frome kicks Newland Archer's patootie. I really can't fully explain how much more I enjoyed EF over AoE.  EF contains relatable and sympathetic characters, interesting plot twists, and an unusual point of view; AoE, on the other hand, well, does not.

Both books are about husbands, unhappy in their marriage, falling in love with another woman. I felt, however, entirely different about the two situations - and with reason. Reason number 1:  When Ethan falls in love, he is already married; Newland, however, is single when his infatuation begins, but instead of calling off his engagement and pursuing his love, he marries and laments his position, to the point of actually wishing his wife dead at one point.  Reason number 2:  Ethan's wife is a hypochondriac, a too-much-money-spending nag, and all around bitchy; Newland's wife May is innocent and pathetic.  Reason number 3:  There is actually forward movement in Ethan Frome, which is sadly lacking in Age of Innocence.

Our two main characters, Ethan and Newland, may share a commonality in their complex love lives, but the similarities ended there for me.  Ethan is poignantly heartbreaking, truly tortured.  Already married and dedicated to caring for those he has responsibility, Ethan's dilemma seemed more sincere than Newland's, whose entire problem is his own inability to act. The culmination of events for each of our main characters is also wildly different with Ethan's final life a shocking result of passion and Newland's a meager display of his continuous inaction.

So now I've read two Wharton novels, one I loved and one I'm entirely lukewarm about.  I guess I will have to read House of Mirth to break the tie.

Getting Old

...when I ask questions, they clam right up. Mustn't upset Grandpa, you know.

Why? That's what I want to know. I hate this bizarre policy of protective exclusion, because it effectively writes me off the page...

I've decided it's not about me at all. It's a protective mechanism for them, a way of buffering themselves against my future death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My platitudes don't hold their interest and I can hardly blame them for that. My real stories are all out of date. So what if I can speak firsthand about the Spanish flu, the advent of the automobile, world wars, cold wars, guerrilla wars, and Sputnik - that's all ancient history now. That's the reality of getting old, and I guess that's really the crux of the matter. I'm not ready to be old yet.

~Sara Gruen
Water for Elephants

What's the best thing about growing old?

GLBTQ Mini Challenge

The first mini-challenge for Amanda's GLBTQ challenge asks participants to write a paragraph or two on why the challenge is personally important.  I thought I would make a list (hey, I like lists!):

1. My cousin
2. My friend and his partner
3. A blogging buddy
4. The boy who lived across the street from me growing up
5. Three college friends
   
6. My students (8 who have come out to me to date)
   
7. The Ugandan government making homosexuality punishable by death
   
8. Matthew Shepard, Lawrence King, Carl Walker-Hoover, and many others
   
9. The inability of loving adults to marry because of sexual orientation
10. The imposition of specific, religious, and antiquated morality on free peoples
    
11. The importance of love

I could go on and on with this list but the real reason I joined this challenge is to support a community of individuals who are unjustly and irrationally delegated to a second-class role.  The ignorance and hate expressed by anti-gay groups and individuals should be abhorrent to all.

Books To Give Away

Fiction

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (audio)
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore
Strangers in the Land of Egypt by Stephen March
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Monkey Bible by Mark Laxer
The Inferno of Dante by (trans.) Robert Pinsky
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

YA Fiction

Matched by Ally Condie
Nomansland by Lesley Hauge
Extraordinary Renditions by Andrew Ervin
The City of Ember and the People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
The Artemis Fowl Files by Eoin Colfer

Nonfiction

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey (well, fiction/nonfiction)
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions by John Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes
The Rice Room by Ben Fong-Torres
The Name of War by Jill Lepore
Denial: A Memoir of Terror by Jessica Stern
It's Easy Being Green by Crissy Trask

Short Stories

Nocturnes by John Connolly

Graphic Novels

Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen
Fables: Legends in Exile by Bill Wellingham

Drama and Plays

No Exit and Three Other Plays by Jean-Paul Sartre
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare