Teaching keeps me very busy, so I'm doubling up with this post. It is serving for The Sunday Salon and the Classics Bookclub.
I was excited to read Jane Eyre for the Classics Bookclub at 5 Minutes for Books. I've read the book and few times, and much of my honors thesis in college was on this book. I have thought about this book a lot in a lot of different ways. My thesis was on the influence of the Johannine texts in the Bible (the Gospel, epistles, and Revelation) on the works of the three Bronte sisters.
In her Jane Eyre Preview, Jennifer asked us evaluate how feminist Charlotte Bronte is by the standards of her day as well as today. My post is going to kind of be related to this prompt.
When she leaves Rochester after she finds out about Bertha in the attic, I think we can definitely see Jane as an independent woman who stands up for herself. She leaves Rochester when they are about to be married because no matter how much she loves him, she knows she can't be his second living wife. She tells him quite powerfully:
"I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man" (408).
Her belief in following the law enables her to hold her own self-worth higher than her love for Rochester. She does the right thing for herself and Rochester, even though it is impossibly painful for her to have to leave the one man who has made her happy.
Although this action is, for any time period, a heroic and feminist action, Jane's most truely feminist decision happens towards the end of the book, when she refuses St. John's offer of marriage.
A lot is going on in this situation, but here is my general stance. I believe that Jane is feminist in this moment because she holds true to her interpretation of God and God's love, rather than succumbing to St. John's attempt to interpret God's will for her. He dares to assume that he knows what is best for her, but she has her own ideas of what is right for her. She cannot believe that a marriage without love would be something God with command. The following is an excerpt from my thesis directly related to this idea.
"[St. John] assumes that [Jane's] plain outward appearance has marked her for a path different than the one in her heart. He tells her: “It is not personal, but mental endowments [God and nature] have given you: you are formed for labour, not for love” (Bronte 501). St. John does not see, as Rochester does, that Jane’s loving heart is all that she needs to be “formed for love.” Outward externals such as beauty don’t matter at all when it comes to a love derived from God. St. John’s other terrible mistake is assuming that God would condone Jane giving her body to St. John without a pure love between them. Jane sees that to “give [her] heart to God” (Bronte 505) she cannot betray her own feelings in that way. Jane’s refusal of St. John is her refusal to betray her “natural unenslaved feelings” (Bronte 507), but it is above all her refusal to defile her belief in God’s gift of love."
Some people see Jane's choice as selfish. How can it be selfish to follow what you believe is God's will? In my thesis I talk about how the Gospels and epistles written by John are all about love, and how love is the most important aspect of spirituality. Take a quotation from the 1st epistle: “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:8) and you can see that love is at the center of what God wants for us in our spiritual and human relations. Therefore, love is not some selfish thing that humans make up to meet our own desires; love is straight from God. God's will is for us to love. Jane is simply following God's will when she chooses to refuse a loveless marriage. Her bravery in the face of St. John's guilt trips is both feminist and spiritual.
Here's another excerpt from my thesis:
"Unlike Lerner’s suggestion that Jane chooses love rather than duty, Jane actually does not have to make a choice between the two. Jane is in fact choosing the duty that the author of John’s Gospel and epistles lays out, a duty that has love at its center. Barry Qualls suggests that “where [St. John] aligns duty with working towards heaven, Jane aligns it with love of one’s fellowman” (Qualls 64). Jane’s concern with human affection does not change throughout the novel because living and loving on earth is Jane’s spiritual duty, as evidenced by the path of love with Rochester to which Heaven directs her in her deepest moment of need. As long as she keeps God at the center of her moral compass, the choices she makes to live a life full of love are just as noble as Helen Burns’ calm resignation to death. Jane is supremely concerned with making the morally right choice. Some contemporary readers of Jane Eyre found her decision to be a shirking of duty, because it eschewed St. John’s overtly Christian path of martyrdom and mission-work. However, within the context of the Johannine books, Jane’s path is undoubtedly taking the moral and spiritual high road."
When Jane returns and marries Rochester, one might think she has lost her feminist strength. However, the circumstances are different now. Rochester's first wife is dead, so Jane is not committing adultery. Also, Rochester is blind, and his state gives Jane a position of power in their relationship. Jane’s choice to experience earthly love is very Johannine and religious in an important way; she follows Jesus’ instructions to “love one another” and lives in the joy of an earthly union. Yet Jane’s choice to love remains revolutionary in that her duty is empowering rather than limiting.
Many people point out how ironic it is that St. John, who is unable to really love anyone, bears the name of the gospel writer who wrote most about the importance of love: John. If we are to see Jane's story as spiritually feminist, should we be disturbed that St. John gets the last word in the entire book? Does she let him get the last word because she believes her marriage choice was wrong? I don't think so. These are St. John's dying words, and they echo the peniultimate verse in Revelation, the last book in the Bible. I think Charlotte ends with this because she wants to parallel St. John's coming union with Jesus, the bridegroom, and the union that Jane and Rochester have on earth. She wants to show us the different choices we can make to live a life for God.
St. John made a choice, and for him the choice was the right thing. He had his own vision of God and what He wanted for St. John in his own life. But St. John made the mistake of trying to force his own beliefs on Jane. He tried to interpret God's will for Jane, but Jane was able to hear God's will for herself through the supernatural call she hears from Rochester. She doesn't need a man to mediate between her and God. She can interpret God's will for herself.
Bronte's decision to end with St. John's words can actually be seen as feminist and a little shocking. It takes some confidence to end a novel with the almost last words of the Bible, an authoritative religious text! I believe Bronte does this on purpose. Here's the last excerpt from my thesis:
"The ending of the novel is Jane’s contradiction of authorities other than herself and God. St. John Rivers in the final lines speaks from the authoritative text of his namesake, invoking patriarchal Christianity and its imagined demands on humanity. Jane ends with these words, but we can see that she has refused to join St. John in his vision of God’s will and created her own vision of God’s will, one that importantly centers on her truth: the centrality of love to the religious and spiritual experience."
Jane Eyre is not my favorite book. I don't really like how Jane talks like Yoda a lot ("Sure I was") I don't like how Jane, and actually quite a few of the characters in Charlotte's other novels call their men "Master." However, I do love the way Charlotte creates a woman who stands up for herself, stands up for her ability to interpret and follow God's will, and stands up for what I believe is God's strongest call to all of us: to love one another.
Showing posts with label The Sunday Salon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Sunday Salon. Show all posts
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The Sunday Salon: Lord of the Flies
I'm going through Lord of the Flies with my class right now, so I thought I'd write about it a little for this post.
Whenever I teach this novel, I face my students' frustrations with the language. Golding uses very dense, descriptive language throughout most of the book. Students find this confusing and even annoying. I freely admit that I sometimes am tempted to zone out when I'm reading his descriptions too. However, I tell them that Golding does not spend so much time on strong descriptions just for the heck of it. From the beginning of the novel, I ask them to consider why Golding uses imagery the way he does.
This semester, we began the novel with a passage from Chapter 1 that is particularly descriptive. After I read it, I had the students draw whatever they could remember. They then compared their drawings to other group members. Finally, I had them go back to the passage we read and pinpoint the particular lines that were most influential on their drawings. In this way I called attention to the power Golding's description has. There was not one student who said "I don't know what to draw," because Golding's images do stick in your head.
Last week we read the first two pages in Chapter Three out loud. These pages are devoted to describing the character Jack as he is hunting in the jungle. We pointed out the imagery used, including how Jack is likened to a dog and an ape, and then I asked them what the point was. Rather quickly a student responded that Golding was showing that Jack is becoming a little savage, and describing Jack as an animal helps to further that idea.
A little later in the novel, when things started getting particularly nasty on the island, I am going to do an activity where half of the class notes all the imagery describing the island they can find in the 1st chapter. The other half will note all the imagery they see in a later chapter. When we compare the descriptions we will see pretty clearly that in the beginning of the novel the island is described as a beautiful paradise, but by the near end of the novel the presence of the boys and their descent into savage behavior has destroyed this paradise. The island becomes menacing, terrible, and literally destroyed. When I have done this activity before, students have been struck by this.
I think these activities help to get students to understand that authors choose their words carefully. Description is not just pretty; it has a purpose. In the case of Lord of the Flies, the imagery directly correlates with some of the major themes of the book.
All of these activities with my students help me as a reader too. I am much more interested in characters and ideas than setting descriptions. It's just how I am. But by finding a purpose for description I gain a new appreciation of authors and what they are trying to do.
One thing I love about being a teacher is that I learn right along with my students. And what fun to keep learning about one of my greatest passions: reading!
Whenever I teach this novel, I face my students' frustrations with the language. Golding uses very dense, descriptive language throughout most of the book. Students find this confusing and even annoying. I freely admit that I sometimes am tempted to zone out when I'm reading his descriptions too. However, I tell them that Golding does not spend so much time on strong descriptions just for the heck of it. From the beginning of the novel, I ask them to consider why Golding uses imagery the way he does.
This semester, we began the novel with a passage from Chapter 1 that is particularly descriptive. After I read it, I had the students draw whatever they could remember. They then compared their drawings to other group members. Finally, I had them go back to the passage we read and pinpoint the particular lines that were most influential on their drawings. In this way I called attention to the power Golding's description has. There was not one student who said "I don't know what to draw," because Golding's images do stick in your head.
Last week we read the first two pages in Chapter Three out loud. These pages are devoted to describing the character Jack as he is hunting in the jungle. We pointed out the imagery used, including how Jack is likened to a dog and an ape, and then I asked them what the point was. Rather quickly a student responded that Golding was showing that Jack is becoming a little savage, and describing Jack as an animal helps to further that idea.
A little later in the novel, when things started getting particularly nasty on the island, I am going to do an activity where half of the class notes all the imagery describing the island they can find in the 1st chapter. The other half will note all the imagery they see in a later chapter. When we compare the descriptions we will see pretty clearly that in the beginning of the novel the island is described as a beautiful paradise, but by the near end of the novel the presence of the boys and their descent into savage behavior has destroyed this paradise. The island becomes menacing, terrible, and literally destroyed. When I have done this activity before, students have been struck by this.
I think these activities help to get students to understand that authors choose their words carefully. Description is not just pretty; it has a purpose. In the case of Lord of the Flies, the imagery directly correlates with some of the major themes of the book.
All of these activities with my students help me as a reader too. I am much more interested in characters and ideas than setting descriptions. It's just how I am. But by finding a purpose for description I gain a new appreciation of authors and what they are trying to do.
One thing I love about being a teacher is that I learn right along with my students. And what fun to keep learning about one of my greatest passions: reading!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Sunday Salon: Cloud Atlas part 1
I don't quite know what to think yet, but I'm going to keep reading.
For this Sunday's post I thought I'd write about a book I am reading with my English Teacher book club. I'm also using this book for the New Classics Challenge. The novel is called Cloud Atlas and it is by David Mitchell.
The novel is really six stories of completely different people from completely different times. Yet, the stories of these people are connected.
This novel is definitely unique, and I am quite intrigued as to how it will all end up. I am 153 pages into the novel and I have reached the fourth story in the book. The first story, called "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing," bored me a little bit. I liked that Adam was a man of good morals, but the writing style in this section was not quite captivating. The vocabulary was almost too complex and varied. I'm a lover of Victorian novels, which are full of big words and sentence structures that many people can't warm up to. So when I say the vocabulary is a little over the top, I definitely mean it. We find out that Adam has a tropical parasite, and his doctor is attempting to cure him of it. All of a sudden Adam's journal ends mid sentence and we are plunged into a very different world.
This world is the world of Robert Frobisher, a wanna-be composer who is desperate for money. His narrative is written through letters to his friend "Sixsmith." We follow him to the home of a retired and ill composer who takes Frobisher on to help him compose again. Meanwhile, Frobisher begins sleeping with this man's wife. Frobisher's tendency to use everyone around him while only caring for himself definitely made me dislike him. However, just as I was about to think I wouldn't like this novel, Frobisher happened to find in the library The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing! That got me very interested. Funnily enough, Frobisher thinks there is something weird about the journal too. He says: "Something shifty about the journal's authenticity - seems too structured for a genuine diary, and its language doesn't ring true -" (64). So it wasn't just me!
From Frobisher we move to Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery. There are even more connections now between the stories. For one thing, Frobisher's friend Sixsmith is a major player in this story. He informs Luisa Rey of a major scientifc project that is being pushed through to completion even though there are serious dangers. Sixsmith has refused to be paid off by the corporate meanies who want the project to go through, and he is eventually killed. However, Luisa ends up in posession of the letters Frobisher wrote to him 30 years ago. After reading the letters, Luisa realizes that both she and Frobisher have an abnormally shaped birthmark on their backs! She also begins searching for some of Frobisher's music, and finds out that he wrote a piece called "Cloud Atlas Sextet." Interesting...
I'm not far enough into the next story to know how it ties into the other stories, but obviously the connections will continue to build. I'm wondering if all of the stories are written by the same author, and the characters are going to find out they are all connected. Or maybe the idea of reincarnation will be involved somehow, since Lusia and Frobisher have the same birthmark. I'm not sure, but now I definitely want to keep reading so that I can see how everything turns out!
Has anyone read this? What did you think of it? (Don't give anything away!!)
Have a great week!
For this Sunday's post I thought I'd write about a book I am reading with my English Teacher book club. I'm also using this book for the New Classics Challenge. The novel is called Cloud Atlas and it is by David Mitchell.
The novel is really six stories of completely different people from completely different times. Yet, the stories of these people are connected.
This novel is definitely unique, and I am quite intrigued as to how it will all end up. I am 153 pages into the novel and I have reached the fourth story in the book. The first story, called "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing," bored me a little bit. I liked that Adam was a man of good morals, but the writing style in this section was not quite captivating. The vocabulary was almost too complex and varied. I'm a lover of Victorian novels, which are full of big words and sentence structures that many people can't warm up to. So when I say the vocabulary is a little over the top, I definitely mean it. We find out that Adam has a tropical parasite, and his doctor is attempting to cure him of it. All of a sudden Adam's journal ends mid sentence and we are plunged into a very different world.
This world is the world of Robert Frobisher, a wanna-be composer who is desperate for money. His narrative is written through letters to his friend "Sixsmith." We follow him to the home of a retired and ill composer who takes Frobisher on to help him compose again. Meanwhile, Frobisher begins sleeping with this man's wife. Frobisher's tendency to use everyone around him while only caring for himself definitely made me dislike him. However, just as I was about to think I wouldn't like this novel, Frobisher happened to find in the library The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing! That got me very interested. Funnily enough, Frobisher thinks there is something weird about the journal too. He says: "Something shifty about the journal's authenticity - seems too structured for a genuine diary, and its language doesn't ring true -" (64). So it wasn't just me!
From Frobisher we move to Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery. There are even more connections now between the stories. For one thing, Frobisher's friend Sixsmith is a major player in this story. He informs Luisa Rey of a major scientifc project that is being pushed through to completion even though there are serious dangers. Sixsmith has refused to be paid off by the corporate meanies who want the project to go through, and he is eventually killed. However, Luisa ends up in posession of the letters Frobisher wrote to him 30 years ago. After reading the letters, Luisa realizes that both she and Frobisher have an abnormally shaped birthmark on their backs! She also begins searching for some of Frobisher's music, and finds out that he wrote a piece called "Cloud Atlas Sextet." Interesting...
I'm not far enough into the next story to know how it ties into the other stories, but obviously the connections will continue to build. I'm wondering if all of the stories are written by the same author, and the characters are going to find out they are all connected. Or maybe the idea of reincarnation will be involved somehow, since Lusia and Frobisher have the same birthmark. I'm not sure, but now I definitely want to keep reading so that I can see how everything turns out!
Has anyone read this? What did you think of it? (Don't give anything away!!)
Have a great week!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Sunday Salon - Understanding Comics and a Question about Visualization
One of the books I'm reading right now is Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. I mentioned it last week, and now I thought I'd say more about it.
The book is really a graphic book technically. It's written with words and pictures, just like a comic book. However, the subject is really quite academic. Scott McCloud is discussing the comics as a serious art and trying to reach some understanding about comics and where they fit as an art form.
One of the concepts he has been talking about that I find interesting is closure. Closure is the idea that our mind can finish an idea that is suggested to us through words and pictures. One example he uses is one frame of a comic strip that has an open eye. In the next frame, the eye is closed. When the reader sees these two frames in sequence, he makes the assumption that the strip showed an eye closing, based on his knowledge of what closing an eye looks like it. He explains that reader's mind does this is much more complex situations as well. He then suggests that even though comics is a visual art, between the frames the rest of a reader's senses are allowed free reign. We use our imagination to fill in the gaps between each frame and understand what is happening in the comic.
I don't know a lot about comics, but this idea made me think of the ways reader's of regular literature use their imagination and mind to "fill in gaps." Good writers certainly appeal to all five of our senses, but as readers we still create visual images of the text we are reading, usually based on our own experience.
This brings me to a question I'd like to ask anyone who wants to answer. My question is: When you are reading, do you ever visualize scenes happening in places that have actually existed in your life?
In other words, as we read we tend to see scenes in our minds. I know I do. And I also know that with some books I actually picture scenes happening in places that I have known. Often these places are from my childhood. For instance, I see all the neighborhood scenes of To Kill a Mockingbird (oh I love that book) happening in the neighborhood I spent most of my childhood in. The Finch house is my old house. When I first read Wuthering Heights, I imagined some of the scenes happening in the the kitchen of my old house. However, once I saw the Ang Lee (I think) movie version that location has changed into a scene more like the movie.
So, when you are reading do you ever visualize scenes happening in places that are actually a part of your life? Why do you think we do that?
Or is it just me?
The book is really a graphic book technically. It's written with words and pictures, just like a comic book. However, the subject is really quite academic. Scott McCloud is discussing the comics as a serious art and trying to reach some understanding about comics and where they fit as an art form.
One of the concepts he has been talking about that I find interesting is closure. Closure is the idea that our mind can finish an idea that is suggested to us through words and pictures. One example he uses is one frame of a comic strip that has an open eye. In the next frame, the eye is closed. When the reader sees these two frames in sequence, he makes the assumption that the strip showed an eye closing, based on his knowledge of what closing an eye looks like it. He explains that reader's mind does this is much more complex situations as well. He then suggests that even though comics is a visual art, between the frames the rest of a reader's senses are allowed free reign. We use our imagination to fill in the gaps between each frame and understand what is happening in the comic.
I don't know a lot about comics, but this idea made me think of the ways reader's of regular literature use their imagination and mind to "fill in gaps." Good writers certainly appeal to all five of our senses, but as readers we still create visual images of the text we are reading, usually based on our own experience.
This brings me to a question I'd like to ask anyone who wants to answer. My question is: When you are reading, do you ever visualize scenes happening in places that have actually existed in your life?
In other words, as we read we tend to see scenes in our minds. I know I do. And I also know that with some books I actually picture scenes happening in places that I have known. Often these places are from my childhood. For instance, I see all the neighborhood scenes of To Kill a Mockingbird (oh I love that book) happening in the neighborhood I spent most of my childhood in. The Finch house is my old house. When I first read Wuthering Heights, I imagined some of the scenes happening in the the kitchen of my old house. However, once I saw the Ang Lee (I think) movie version that location has changed into a scene more like the movie.
So, when you are reading do you ever visualize scenes happening in places that are actually a part of your life? Why do you think we do that?
Or is it just me?
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Sunday Salon: What I'm Reading Now
I have no idea how this has happened. I used to be the type of reader who could only read on book at a time. Now, I seem to be reading about 5 books at once. I've got one book for each room, or mood, or something. Here's what I'm reading now:
1. Animal Farm by George Orwell.
I'm an English teacher, so I'm reading this one with my sophomore students. I've read this book quite a few times, and it's always interesting to me to see how my students like it. So far, quite a few students are getting wrapped up in the injustices they are seeing as the farm is progressing. It makes them angry that the animals are letting themselves be taken over, but they wisely point out that when you are caught up in the moment, you sometimes don't realize what's really happening. We have also been talking about the "propaganda" that the pigs use to maintain control of the other animals. I've pointed out that propaganda is used all the time in our own society, and many of the students are responding to that. Their project with this novel is to create their own commerical that uses different types of propaganda.
I think this book is useful because it does challenge citizens of any government to be intelligent and pay attention to what is going on around them. My hope for my students is that they are able to use this awareness of the way people use words to be more intelligent and thoughtful consumers and citizens.
I like this book. Why is it always sadder when animals die in books? I too am horrifed by what happens to this fledgling government. I think a book that scares you can be a very good thing though.
2. Twlight by Stephanie Meyers
This is not the type of book I would choose to read. However, I have been hearing rave reviews from everyone, my students, my co-workers, my friends. So, I figured I'd give it a shot. When I first started reading I was impressed that the book has rather an extensive vocabulary for a bestseller. That's always nice to see. As I've read on I have not been that impressed with the character development or the depth of the relationship between Bella and Edward, the two main characters. Characters are the most important part of books for me, and I'm not thrilled with these characters. Nevertheless, I find no reasons to stop reading this book. I am curious to see where the story goes, and I want to know what everyone is so excited about. I will keep on!
3. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
My husband and I are reading this one out loud to each other. Collins was a contemporary of Charles Dickens, and he wrote some of the most successful sensational novels of that time. The Moonstone is well-lauded by such writers as T.S. Eliot and Dorothy Sayers. It is a mystery/suspense novel about the disappearance of a magnificent diamond, and so far it has kept the interest of both my husband and I. At times I feel the plot is too drawn out; it takes so long to get to certain points. Certainly plenty of dramatic and completely implausible events occur throughout the story. However, I like the narrative structure of different "narratives" by different characters in the book. We are almost finished with this one, so I will have an updated review soon enough.
4. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
George Eliot is, in my opinion, one of the most intelligent writers that has ever lived. Her book Middlemarch is my absolute favorite novel. My high school English teacher recommended The Mill on the Floss to me, and I am finally getting around to reading it. So far I'm not as into the story as I was with Middlemarch, but the characters are interesting and Eliot's writing style is incredibly dense, but incredibly rewarding and fascinating. I can sense the seeds of tragedy being sown already, and I am curious to see how the book develops.
The main storyline so far is about the relationship between a brother and sister, Tom and Maggie Tulliver. Maggie is a very interesting character; she is an intelligent, dreamy, and passionate little girl that doesn't quite fit in the restrained society she lives in. I'm looking forward to seeing how Maggie deals with the world she lives in as she grows up.
5. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud A friend suggested to me, and I'm reading it because I'm interested in reading at least one graphic novel. The genre is growing in popularity. This book is about comics and what their place is in terms of literature and storytelling. I know nothing about comics, so I will be interested to see how this book pans out. I'll be honest; this book is the one I read the least often; it just isn't as high on my interest scale. If anyone has read this book and liked it, I'd love to hear what you thought about it.
So there we have it! I certainly am keeping busy. Of course, reading more than one book means I may never finish any of them... Oh, and I need to start Jane Eyre soon for the Classics Book Club. Maybe I do need to focus on just one...
Sunday Salon
1. Animal Farm by George Orwell.
I'm an English teacher, so I'm reading this one with my sophomore students. I've read this book quite a few times, and it's always interesting to me to see how my students like it. So far, quite a few students are getting wrapped up in the injustices they are seeing as the farm is progressing. It makes them angry that the animals are letting themselves be taken over, but they wisely point out that when you are caught up in the moment, you sometimes don't realize what's really happening. We have also been talking about the "propaganda" that the pigs use to maintain control of the other animals. I've pointed out that propaganda is used all the time in our own society, and many of the students are responding to that. Their project with this novel is to create their own commerical that uses different types of propaganda.
I think this book is useful because it does challenge citizens of any government to be intelligent and pay attention to what is going on around them. My hope for my students is that they are able to use this awareness of the way people use words to be more intelligent and thoughtful consumers and citizens.
I like this book. Why is it always sadder when animals die in books? I too am horrifed by what happens to this fledgling government. I think a book that scares you can be a very good thing though.
2. Twlight by Stephanie Meyers
This is not the type of book I would choose to read. However, I have been hearing rave reviews from everyone, my students, my co-workers, my friends. So, I figured I'd give it a shot. When I first started reading I was impressed that the book has rather an extensive vocabulary for a bestseller. That's always nice to see. As I've read on I have not been that impressed with the character development or the depth of the relationship between Bella and Edward, the two main characters. Characters are the most important part of books for me, and I'm not thrilled with these characters. Nevertheless, I find no reasons to stop reading this book. I am curious to see where the story goes, and I want to know what everyone is so excited about. I will keep on!
3. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
My husband and I are reading this one out loud to each other. Collins was a contemporary of Charles Dickens, and he wrote some of the most successful sensational novels of that time. The Moonstone is well-lauded by such writers as T.S. Eliot and Dorothy Sayers. It is a mystery/suspense novel about the disappearance of a magnificent diamond, and so far it has kept the interest of both my husband and I. At times I feel the plot is too drawn out; it takes so long to get to certain points. Certainly plenty of dramatic and completely implausible events occur throughout the story. However, I like the narrative structure of different "narratives" by different characters in the book. We are almost finished with this one, so I will have an updated review soon enough.
4. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
George Eliot is, in my opinion, one of the most intelligent writers that has ever lived. Her book Middlemarch is my absolute favorite novel. My high school English teacher recommended The Mill on the Floss to me, and I am finally getting around to reading it. So far I'm not as into the story as I was with Middlemarch, but the characters are interesting and Eliot's writing style is incredibly dense, but incredibly rewarding and fascinating. I can sense the seeds of tragedy being sown already, and I am curious to see how the book develops.
The main storyline so far is about the relationship between a brother and sister, Tom and Maggie Tulliver. Maggie is a very interesting character; she is an intelligent, dreamy, and passionate little girl that doesn't quite fit in the restrained society she lives in. I'm looking forward to seeing how Maggie deals with the world she lives in as she grows up.
5. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud A friend suggested to me, and I'm reading it because I'm interested in reading at least one graphic novel. The genre is growing in popularity. This book is about comics and what their place is in terms of literature and storytelling. I know nothing about comics, so I will be interested to see how this book pans out. I'll be honest; this book is the one I read the least often; it just isn't as high on my interest scale. If anyone has read this book and liked it, I'd love to hear what you thought about it.
So there we have it! I certainly am keeping busy. Of course, reading more than one book means I may never finish any of them... Oh, and I need to start Jane Eyre soon for the Classics Book Club. Maybe I do need to focus on just one...
Sunday Salon
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
My next Online Reading Adventure - The Sunday Salon
Why not just jump into this whole book blogging thing full force? I have now joined The Sunday Salon. This group simply reads books and blogs about them on Sundays, then comments on the blogs of other members of the group.
I think this is a fun idea and a great way to build community. Plus, imagine how many book recommendations I will get every week!
I guess that's rather a dangerous thing...
Nonetheless, we will see how I do!
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