Non-fiction

Non-fiction books I’m reading

2012 Reading in Review

20 Dec 2012

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2012books

In 2012 I read #44 books, up from the 37 of last year. Of the 44 only 13 where from my original 199 Barnes and Nobles classic set. The others where new purchases or library check outs. Soooo have not made a lot of progress on my original 199 lol but that’s not from lack of interest in them nor from less passion for the classics in general. The original books just lead me down a rabbit hole of connected works. For example, the two Scott Fitzgerald books in my set lead to reading almost all of his books, plus Zelda’s, a biography, and essay collection. The one Hemingway short story included in the set, was actually pretty boring lol, but some how I ended up becoming obsessed with Hem and reading 4 novels, several short stories, and two biographies (one of which I am midway through).

Sometime during the summer, I think-can’t remember exactly when, I made up a new list of books to read: my Modern Classics list. I’ve made pretty good progress on this list, 14 out of 72 in just a few months. The tricky thing about the Modern classics is deciding which to buy and which to check out from the library. For example, I bought Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and although it wasn’t a bad book I do not think I will ever read it again. On the other hand, I’m finishing up a library check-out, Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and I can see myself rereading it some day because it is so complex. Another thing that bums me out about library books, is most of the ones I check out are beat to hell and who doesn’t prefer a nice fresh book. It adds to the experience, doesn’t it?

I signed up for a few reading challenges this time last year. My results where decent, read half of the books for Adam’s To Be Read Pile challenge including: The Great Gatsby, The House of Seven Gables, Sherlock Holmes collection 2, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mansfield Park, and Les Miserable. I checked off one book for almost all of Sarah’s Back to the Classics challenge categories however, I did not read any plays, Russians, or finish rereading Wuthering Heights. Ah well. I do not feel bad at all about not checking everything off my list. It better to follow the reading whims imo. I am very pleased to have checked Les Miserable off my list because it was AWESOME.

For 2013 I won’t even pretend to have a challenge list. For one thing, I realize that going to school leaves me plenty of time to read but zero time to blog! Majoring in English means my writing energy and time are completely zapped. For now, I’ll have to be happy with updating the blog during quarter breaks. Also re: challenges, as much as I love a list, I hate feeling obligated to read something. I have to follow my moods when it comes to picking a book. Each book has it’s own time. If read in that magical little window it comes alive. If read by force in another time, completely ruined.

Now my favorite books from 2012:
All-of-the-Hemingway
Especially The Sun also rises, and A Farewell to Arms. I want to reread them both RIGHT NOW. Also love all of the bits in all of the stories where Hem is talking about writing. I have the book: Hemingway on Writing on my Xmas list, *crossing fingers* ;)
All-of-the Scott-Fitzgerald
Yeah, pretty much obsessed with these two, Fitz and Hem. Their writing and their biographies. I’m looking forward to rereading all of Fitzgerald’s novels because I think they will be even better the second time around. I’m already enjoying This Side of Paradise more. The first time I read it I was like: 1- who the hell are all these writers that I’ve never heard of!? 2-Princeton sounds beautiful but I’ve never been there, therefore have no idea wtf you are talking about. 3- Amory is kind of a tool. This time around, I am more focused on the choice of words and the beautiful flow Fitzgerald’s writing has. Also, I am more accustomed to his male characters being kind of lazy good for nothings and am willing to forgive them lol.
Papa Hemingway
Everybody knows Hemingway could be a bit of an asshole but this books captures how kind and loyal he could be to his friends. It also explains what went wrong at the end and it was SO DAMN SAD to read about a genius deteriorating. It still makes me ache to think of a great mind falling apart into paranoia likes Hem’s did.
Lust for Life by Irving Stone
Speaking of falling apart, this biographical novel on Van Gogh was flipping amazing. I bought it earlier this year, read the first chapter or so and found the writing a little awkward. I set it aside for a long time. When I picked it back up again I fell right into it. The writing gets much smoother and Stone really brought Van Gogh, his bother Theo, and the other characters and painters from this time to life.
Les Miserable
As I said above: AWESOMESAUCE I thought it would be a difficult read but I felt like I flew through it. I did read an abridged version but it was still 800+ pages. To use an annoying phrase, it was action packed. I was constantly either loving or hating someone and yes, there were tears!
Save me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
I’m including this in my favorites even though it was not quite what I expected. The book is more poetry than prose. Many sentences did not makes sense or where almost bizarre but I know each time I read it, I will get something new. Like poetry, I think it can be read in bits and pieces. I could probably spend an hour on a single page.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Again, not what I was expecting. A spin off of Jane Eyre that was so very different. But the ending was fantastic and thinking back on the book, I can almost feel the hot island sun and smell the intoxicating flowers. Another to reread.

My books completed in 2012 list

#44 The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
#43 Scott Fitzgerald by Andrew Turnbull
#42 Lust for Life by Irving Stone
#41 Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days by Scott Donaldson
#40 Les Miserable by Victor Hugo
#39 The Garden of Eden by Hemingway
#38 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
#37 1984 by George Orwell
#36 A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
#35 Papa Hemingway by A.E. Hotchner
#34 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
#33 Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
#32 Save me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
#31 Gardner’s Art through the Ages Volume I
#30 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
#29 The Awakening and selected short stories by Kate Chopin
#28 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
#27 The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
#26 For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
#25 The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#24 A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#23 Persuasion by Jane Austen
#22 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
#21 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
#20 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
#19 The Cambridge Companion to The Brontes
#18 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
#17 Middlemarch by George Eliot
#16 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#15 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#14 The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
#13 The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
#12 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
#11 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (reread)
#10 Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma
#9 Classic Greek Myths to Read Aloud by William F. Russell
#8 Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
#7 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
#6 Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
#5 The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
#4 The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
#3 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
#2 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
#1 Love and Freindship and Lesley Castle by Jane Austen

By: Shannon Category: Classic literature, Finis, analysis and reviews, Modernism, Non-fiction, Reading challenges Tags:

Add to the shelf: Classic authors in context

9 Jul 2012

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Blackwell’s Companion to Romanticism
I’ve had this book on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time but was being held back by the price. I finally bit the bullet on it and I’m relieved to find I’m really enjoying it. This companion to Romanticism contains 52 essays on all aspects of the Romantic movement. Part 1 of the book puts Romanticism in context with chapters on movements leading up to Romanticism and historical context, including the French Revolution. Part 2 has 23 essays discussing individual novelists and poets. Part 3 discusses genres of Romanticism; the novel, gothic, travel writing, etc. Part 4 is more eclectic with essays on various issues and debates. Feminism, historicism, psychological view points plus comparisons and influences such as England and Germany, Shakespeare and the Romantics, Milton, etc.

I’m currently on Chapter 5, Britain at War, and so far I’ve found the essays very well written. The authors seem to know their subject very well and express their points clearly with factual information to back it up. I’ll compare this to what I feel are some lesser and more jumbled essays next.

David Hume had taken the skepticism of the Enlightenment to its logical conclusions. In his Treatise of Human Nature Hume argued that the notions that we have of cause and effect are simply linked to the way which we experience the events in space and time and that such notions of causation have no objective existence. Thus, one’s knowledge of causation is a matter of habit or custom, not a logical certainty. Hume expressed radical skepticism about the nature of the human self, concluding that what one called the self was merely an ever-changing ‘bundle of sensations’. It was this position that ..laid the foundations for the Romantic Idealism
~Peter Kitson, Beyond the Enlightenment

 

The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel 
I purchased the kindle version of this book and I’m glad that I did because I’m not very impressed with it. Unlike the Blackwell companion, the essays in the Cambridge companion can’t seem to express a complete thought or theory. This book has 11 essays putting the Victorian novel in historical context, discussing the industrial revolution, gender roles, race, etc. So far I’ve read 6 of the 11 and most of the essays are less about sharing with the reader “actual information” and more about the authors musings. I often felt like the authors were not expressing their opinion clearly and they jumped on to another topic or aspect of their topic before they had fully expressed or gave any backing evidence for their first opinion. The exception to this sort of scattered writing was chapter 2, Simon Eliot’s The business of Victorian publishing. Eliot seemed to know his topic very well and shared much interesting information and perspective.
I’m not sure if I will go ahead and finish this book or not. I was pretty disappointed with it but maybe the last couple chapters will surprise me.

 

The Cambridge Companion to The Brontes 
Now after the Companion to Victorian novel mess, I was concerned that this title would also be a total flop. I bought this book on Amazon used for about $2.50, so at least I didn’t have much invested in it lol. To my relief though, this Cambridge companion is great. I haven’t been able to put it down. When I saw that the very first essay was by Juliet Barker my spirits and hopes where lifted. I have the humongous The Brontes by Juliet Barker on my shelf. I haven’t read it yet but I know she is one of THE experts on the Brontes. As expected her essay, The Haworth context, was very interesting. She gave me a whole new view point on the Bronte’s father Patrick.
I am now on Chapter 6, Shirley and Villette, so excited to read this today. Probably my favorite essay so far was Angela Leighton’s The Poetry. It lead me to looking up Emily Bronte’s poem Remembrance which I posted the other day. The first line: Cold in the earth- and the deep snow piled about thee, is still running around my mind.

‘Cold in the earth- and the deep snow piled above thee’, doubles not only the fact but also the sensation of cold. The line gets colder. It probes the buried source of coldness, making cold felt. By piling on snow as well, the poet transforms the sensation of cold into literal weight, as if to force or hold something down. Snow buries the dead doubly ‘deep’, as if earth itself were not deep enough.
~Angela Leighton, The Poetry

Jane Austen in Context, the Cambridge edition
I bought this title used from Amazon as well, in the hardcover. My edition, Jane Austen in context, is just one of the series that cover all of Austen’s novels, her juvenilia, and letters. I’ve flipped through the other titles online, and it looks like each includes a lengthy introduction, numerous notes on the text, and in some cases several appendixes. Not sure if I will make it a goal to collected each but I am tempted. ;)
JA in Context covers in Part 1: Life and works, a short biography, essays on Austen’s language, literary influence, her poetry, etc. Part 2 Critical fortunes includes the reseption of Jane’s work, publishing history, and the cult of Austen. Part 3, Historical and cultural context, is the longest section. It has several essays detailing all aspects of Jane Austen’s times, Agriculture, Dress, Education, Money, and Rank, etc.
I read through the first essay, the biography. It was short but well written and it made its main focus something that is often over looked in other Austen bios, her personal finances. I’ve read snips of some of the other chapters and so far, they all look very interesting and well researched.

Edward Austen (Jane’s brother) eventually enjoyed an income greater than Mr. Darcy’s, nearly £15,000 a year, but he was not at first remarkably generous to his mother and sisters after his father’s death in 1805 left them virtually homeless. Still, his initial pledge or £100 a year did almost double his mother’s income, and eventually he housed her and his sisters in the cottage at Chawton that has become the Jane Austen museum.
~Jan Fergus, Biography Jane Austin in Context

If you are interested in flipping through any of these books you can find them in my Classics Book shop, under Companions and Context. Well, you won’t find the Cambridge Victorian companion becasue I don’t recommend that one lol but you will find the others plus some other goodies to boot. The Classics book shop is just a project I am working on for fun. It is an Amazon affiliate store that I don’t really expect any traffic on but it is hella’ fun picking out my favorite books to add to it lol.
You can find additional companions, literary criticism, and biographies in the book shop under the Lit movement category pages and under the individual authors. Note that the list price for each book is just the Amazon price, click through to check for deals on used editions. The main link for the Book Shop, if you feel like browsing, is at the top of the blog home page.

By: Shannon Category: Add to the shelf, Classic literature, Non-fiction, The Romantics, Understanding & Interpretation, Victorian Tags: , , , , , , , ,

On Twain and Eliot, Flaubert and Art, and everything else I’ve been reading

11 Jun 2012

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Despite not having written a post here on the blog in ages, I have been reading a lot. Each day I have a choice few minutes where I have to decide, should I read or should I post on the blog? And reading has been winning out. I can’t feel too bad about that, although I wish I could some how find the time to be a better blog writer.

Since my last post on the Hunchback of Notre Dame I pulled a 180 and instead of reading Les Mis or another French work, I picked up Mark Twain. It was actually Dd’s doing. She was reading her kid’s version of Tom Sawyer and wanted me to join her when she found out Twain was in my book collection too. I think she ended up liking Tom Sawyer more than I did, not surprising as it really does a wonderful job of capturing childhood adventure. I moved on to Huckleberry Finn next. Dd had finished her Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry way before me but Hey, mine’s got a lot more words!

I remember Hemingway saying that ‘all modern American lit comes from Huckleberry Finn‘ so I was intrigued and curious how Huck would differ from the simplicity and scattered story of Tom Sawyer. Well I don’t know if I see in Huck what Hemingway saw, but it was certainly better. I loved Huck’s voice and his conflict between being a “good boy” and doing what was truly Good. Towards the end of Huck, Tom Sawyer shows up and things get very comical and borderline silly. Poor Jim for having to put up with those boys lol. I felt torn about Jim’s character overall. It seemed he was just on the edge of being a fully developed real person but then Twain would pull him back and use stereotypical humor. Perhaps this was Twain’s intent and not failure but I was disappointed that Twain was not… a little braver.

My daughter moved on to reading The Prince and the Pauper but I was Twain-ed out, so I picked up George Eliot’s Middlemarch. I’ve been wanting to read Middlemarch for awhile since everyone talks about how wonderful it is. But I was a little worried that I would need my full concentration cap on for Eliot’s writing. I’ve read some of her short stories, some being easy reads but others requiring focus. I’m almost on page 400 of Middlemarch now and I am really enjoying it. The reading is going faster than I expected, really not difficult at all. Although, there are some paragraphs, that I must admit, I have little idea about what the heck Eliot is on about. I think this is just a problem of historical perspective though. I just don’t get her timely political jokes. It does not take away from the story though.

I am getting to the point where I am a little annoyed with the lack of footnotes in the Barnes and Noble classics editions. It’s bothered me in multiple books now. There are clearly references that should be explained that have no footnotes at all. In the Hunchback of Notre Dame for example, there is a lot of Latin and there was only footnotes with translations for about half of the Latin phrases! Where is the sense in that? If you’re going to translate SOME of the Latin then we are obviously under the assumption that the reader does not read Latin lol, so why not translate all??

Besides Middlemarch, I am also reading Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. I actaully picked this one up because I was on my way to the hair salon and I didn’t want to huck around the 5lb book that is Middlemarch! I was enjoying the kaleidoscope view of Madame Bovary, it was an interesting contrast with the more straight froward Middlemarch. But I’ve set aside Flaubert for awhile until I finish with Eliot. I’ve got about 200 pages left in Madame Bovary and I’m interested to see if she has “actual” affairs or if the affairs in her head are it lol. I do feel for her, her loneliness and depression. But there is definitely a distance from the characters created in Flaubert’s writing. I think it is like looking through a keyhole rather than experiencing the character’s lives directly.

Also on the night table, well not actually because it would cause my table to flip over, is Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. This is a college art history text book, technically two books volume 1 and 2. I ordered these for what I felt was a good price via Amazon marketplace. When I saw how large they were I wasn’t sure if I was going to make any good headway with them since I have so many other things going on. But surprisingly, I am already half was through the first volume. It’s looking like I’ll be able to finish both in a timely manner, vs having another large book that I have not cracked yet guilting me from the shelf.

Even though they are textbooks, the Gardner’s art books are very interesting, not dry at all. Volume 1 starts off with pre-historic art and moves through to Gothic in the Middle Ages. Volume II picks up there and moves through to modern times (leaving off at 1990). What I really enjoy about these books is that there is as much history as art. Each piece and movement is really put in context. Also the books include much about architecture, which hasn’t been a passion of mine in the past but I am finding it really interested along side other art. The only problem with these Gardner books, is they are so big and heavy that I can only read them in certain situations. These are not bring to bed books lol. I almost ordered the all in one Gardner’s art, I think that one must be 1500 pages. Can you image how cumbersome? I dodged a bullet there!

When I’m not reading one of the above books, I’m teaching myself Latin. For fun. ‘Cause I’m a nerd like that lol. I am using Wheelock’s Latin and worbook. Plus Lingua Latina textbook and workbook. I started out with Wheelock which is grammar based because in the past I tried to learn French with Rosetta Stone. I got pretty bored with RS and felt it kind of useless because it just taught random words with out any grammar context. With Rosetta I ended up knowing random bits like: black cat, horse, red car, but really nothing useful and I didn’t have any understanding of the language. So this time I decided to use the good old fashion book method, including grammar.

I’m am slowly chugging away with Wheelock but I’ll admit it’s not the most fascinating layout or method lol. Along side though, I am using Lingua Latina which is an immersion method. The whole book is in Latin. It starts out very simple and you can figure out what is being said by the context. So that I don’t miss out on the grammar with Lingua Latina, I am using the student book on the side. This extra book just points out and explains the grammar more fully and includes vocab lists for each chapter.

I am enjoying Lingua more than Wheelock but I think both are important. I am on chapter 4 with Lingua and just finished chapter 2 in Wheelock. I find I have to reread each chapter 3-4 times, with each read I absorb something more. Using the workbooks with both is also a must for me! So it’s slow going but I’m looking forward to one day being able to read Latin. I image going into a museum and being able to read the Latin carving under a sculpture or notes under a painting, how cool would that be!

Another thing keeping me busy is preparing for school in the Fall. I took my college placement test a few days ago. I did well on the English portions, only missing one or two. But the math….was sad lol. Oh well, I expected it. I had been reviewing math knowing that I had to take this test but at this point I just feel if I don’t know if fully I might at well just take the class, no big deal.

So that’s my little update, now back to reading!

 

By: Shannon Category: Ancient Rome, Classic literature, Non-fiction, Now reading, Realism, Self education, Victorian Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Caesar’s English Classic Edition

19 Apr 2012

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In case you were wondering what I was on about yesterday with my “MCT loot”, MCT stands for Michael Clay Thompson, author of an amazing language arts curriculum sold by Royal Fireworks Press. I’ve mention MCT before in my chatter about the books Building Language and Music of the Hemispheres (the poetry book). Building Language teaches children Latin stems, Dd and I are about half way through that book. The second book in the Latin stems series is Caersar’s English I. I just had the brand new Classical Education edition delivered yesterday and let me tell you, it is so BEAUTIFUL.

If you don’t have children and you’re starting to wonder why you should read this post lol, maybe you don’t want to. BUT, I don’t know….maybe you do. These books are so amazing. I think ANY adult who loves language would get a kick out of them and learn quite a bit.

MCT’s belief is that we should not dumb down language for children and the books certainly reflect that. I believe CE-1 is aimed at gifted 4rth graders or 5th grade students. The vocab in the books though, ranges from 4rth grade words like: Vivid and Vex to SAT or at least high school level words like: Prodigious and Superannuated.

Since I read a ton, I am pretty familiar with most of the vocab in Caesar’s English but I’ll completely admit, I can easily decipher in context but that is not the same as internalizing these words and using them in every day conversation. The lessons in CE are not your standard open the workbook and fill out the answers. It is 99% Socratic discussion. It is about sitting together, child and teacher, going over each part of the book slowly and talking about it in depth.

Each chapter is a lesson in either 5 Latin stems or 5 vocab words (the book alternates). The stems or vocab are taught with historical context, through poetry, and, my favorite, via quotes from classic literature. It is so cool to flip through the book and see quote after quote from my favorite books and favorite authors. Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Herman Melville, etc, etc. I flipped through the book briefly with my dd and she found the quotes exciting as well. Whenever she came across a familiar author she had to run to the bookshelf and pull out her Kid’s classic version of that author and present it with an “ahhhhhh” like an angel descending from heaven sound effect lol.

Here is a list of the info and exercises included in each chapter of Caesar’s English classic edition.
Odd Chapters:
5 Latin Stems- with detailed definition and 3 sample words each including the stem
Non-Fiction words- more advanced vocab using the 5 stems
Caesar’s Analogies- Classic this is to that, as this is to that. 2 analogies for students to solve
Caesar’s Spanish- the 5 stems in use in Spanish. Illustrates similarities between Spanish and English
Caesar’s Word Search- Classic word search. The only consumable, must be filled in in the student book exercise.
Caesar’s Grammer- Sentences to diagram with the parts of speech, includes stems in action
Poem- with historical Roman focus. Facing page includes the same poem in Spanish with stem words in bold.
Essay- on Roman history with facing map

Even Chapters:
Classic Words: 5 vocab words varied in difficulty
Quotes from Classic Literature- 4 to 5 classic lit excerpts PER vocab word.
Who is that Writer- Biographical info on one of the authors featured.
Caesar’s Math- Roman numerals explained with exercises to translate Roman numerals into numbers and vice versa.
Word Search—see above
Spanish- Vocab list shown in Latin:English:Spanish
Caesar’s Synonyms- 5 synonyms for each vocab word given, discuss the differences.
Caesar’s Rewrites- Rewrite the classic lit quote in simplified language.
Caesar’s Antonyms- Student must decide and explain their antonym of choice for each word.
Caesar’s Analogies-Poem-Historical Essay- Sentence Diagramming (same as above)
Review stems and classic words

In later chapters and through out:
Even more advanced vocab that contains stems.
Roman facts
Caesar’s Paragraphs- Student asked to write a historical essay on Rome that includes vocab. Requires research.

Also through out the books are beautiful black and white photographs of Roman ruins and Roman art. The sculpture photos in particular are amazing. Although only in black and white, the contrast is just perfect to bring out the “folds” in the stone fabric and facial expressions.

So! What I plan to use these books for right away is for a family vocabulary challenge. I’m going to choose a word or stem each week and write it on a large dry erase board in our kitchen. I’ll include the Word of the Week’s definition, stems or etymology, use it in a sentence, probably also underline the phonemes/phonics. Then the challenge is that each member of the family has to use the word as many times as possible during the week. Whoever comes up with the most or cleverest sentence wins. No real prizes but a big cheer from everybody.

I plan to read the books in their entirety and am looking forward to it! I mentioned I’m a words nerd already, right? After I’ve gone through them I’ll decide which bits to share with dd now and which to save for the future. I imagine we will be using Caesar’s English for several years. Here is the link to the Caesar’s English curriculum if you want to check it out.

Now I find, the more I learn about word stems, the more I want to learn Latin!

By: Shannon Category: Afterschooling, Non-fiction, Self education Tags: ,

Happy mail day: MCT loot

18 Apr 2012

1 Comment

No time to make a decent post today (bummer because I have things to get out of my head!) But I couldn’t resist snapping a pic of my Michael Clay Thompson loot! I can’t wait to flip through these books. They are all about language and what could be better?? Nothing I tell you :D

By: Shannon Category: Add to the shelf, Afterschooling, Non-fiction Tags:
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