Tag: in-progress

In Progress: Company of Liars

Posted on by Dana

The Black DeathA student of mine loaned me Karen Maitland’s novel Company of Liars, and when a student loans me a novel, I feel an extra compulsion to finish it. I was, however, having some trouble getting into this novel until right about yesterday when I was somewhere between 50 and 100 pages in. Then the characters drew me in, and I had read enough positive reviews of the novel to expect it to end with a bang.

One of the novel’s selling points is its historical accuracy. I have to say I have no trouble feeling as though I am traveling with the company, trying to flee the pestilence right along with them. The sights, smells, and atmosphere of the Middle Ages is perhaps too realistic, but certainly is accurate. Life in the Middle Ages was difficult. I think a lot of books set in the Middle Ages, perhaps even including my own, romanticize it a bit too much.

The Black Plague has been one of my grimmer interests–one I’ve shared with my husband, as a matter of fact. The fear of the Plague is all too palpable in this novel. Nine companions are brought together while fleeing the Plague. Each of the nine travelers in this novel has a secret. I think I have some of the secrets figured out, but nearly halfway into the novel, I know I have a way to go before I unravel the rest. Expect, as always, my review once I finish. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a good Plague yarn, pick it up and read along with me.

Image obtained from Rancho Buena Vista High School Advanced Placement European History and is used in accordance with Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Purposes.

Related posts:

Review: Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell, narrated by Ell Potter
The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton
Reading Update: July 1, 2010

Matthew Pearl’s The Last Dickens

Posted on by Dana

This week I received a galley copy of Matthew Pearl‘s new book The Last Dickens, which will be released on March 17, and I feel duty-bound to sit down and read it since Matthew was kind enough to send it.  Actually, I’ve been looking forward to the book ever since I heard it was coming soon.  Folks interested hearing Matthew discuss the book, please note:

  • March 17 at 6:30 P.M., Barnes and Noble, Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY
  • March 19 at 7:00 P.M., Newtonville Books, Newton MA.
  • March 23 at 6:00 P.M., Margaret Mitchell House, Atlanta, GA. (I’ll be at this event.)
  • March 24 at 8:00 P.M., Books and Books, Coral Gables, FL.
  • March 26 at 7:00 P.M., Prairie Lights Bookstore, Iowa City, IA.
  • March 30 at 7:00 P.M., University Book Store, Seattle, WA.
  • March 31 at 7:00 P.M., Books, Inc. (Opera Plaza), San Francisco, CA.
  • April 2 at 7:00 P.M., Boosktail, Chicago, IL.

More information about venues, including full addresses, phone numbers, and contact information, can be found at Matthew’s Web site.

I would encourage you to check out Matthew Pearl’s books if you haven’t read them before.  He writes smart literary thrillers that appeal especially to book lovers.  I really enjoyed his first two books, The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow.  One of my literary treasures is a signed manuscript page I won by correctly answering a trivia question at Matthew’s last stop in Atlanta.  It was a lot of fun to meet him.  He’s very friendly and personable in addition to being a great writer.

Related posts:

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Bookish Updates
The Ballad of Tom Dooley, Sharyn McCrumb

Studs Terkel

Posted on by Dana

I have not abandoned this blog, I promise you, but grad school has made it difficult for me to read as much as I’d like.  Not reading as much means no book reviews.  I’m finished with the semester, and I’m re-reading junk food favorite Twilight in addition to my new copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.  I am enjoying a study of Macbeth with my juniors.  I begin Romeo and Juliet again in January, and I love teaching that play.  In addition, I also get to teach A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the second time ever and The Taming of the Shrew for the first, so I’m looking for some good times with Uncle Will.  I will probably blog about any experiences teaching these plays at my education blog rather than here.

I came upon the New York Times article about the memorial service for Studs Terkel today.  I listened to a long recording Terkel did with people who discussed the Great Depression, and it reminded me so much of what my grandfather did when he sent me a long letter about some of his experiences.  My life is richer for having heard his history, and now I can pass it on.  That’s what is valuable about the stories of the ordinary man in addition to politicians and famous folk, and that’s what Studs Terkel really understood about compelling stories — they are our stories and our voices, and our lives are richer when they are heard.  I listen to This American Life often as a subscriber of their podcast (which is where I heard the Terkel recording), and every week I find something new and enjoyable about the stories of people.

Related posts:

What Kind of Reader Am I?
Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver
A Summer of Faulkner

Free Audio Book: Persuasion

Posted on by Dana

Through the Internet Archive’s audio offerings, I found LibriVox has a free audio version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which some of you might remember I’m currently reading.  The reader is Moira Fogarty.

Visit the site to download the book, or check out this embedded version:

Related posts:

Review: Prince Caspian, C. S. Lewis, narrated by Lynn Redgrave
Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Red Circle, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Naval Treaty, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Breaking Dawn: I Need Junk Food

Posted on by Dana

The subtitle of my post refers to my current need to read something light and fun that I don’t have to think about too hard.  And Breaking Dawn has just been released.  One of my students has been after me to read it already, so I’m running out right now and buying it.  I still want to finish Persuasion and Who Murdered Chaucer? However, as I inferred, my brain is fried, and I need to take a break from the serious reading.

Speaking of Persuasion, it strikes me as I read that my favorite parts of Austen’s books often involve her most annoying characters: Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet, Miss Bates, the Thorpes, and now Mary (Anne Elliot’s whiny sister).  She just cracks me up.

I have had good response to a query about a book club at work, so perhaps my quest to find grown up with whom I can discuss literature may be fulfilled soon.

See you on the other side of the latest vampire romance.  Oh, and as usual, blogging will be light due to the fact that I return for my Master’s degree on Monday, and I’m already so busy with work that I’m wondering how that will work out.  Wish me luck and send good time management vibes in my direction.

Related posts:

Re-Reading Harry Potter: "Never Laugh at Live Dragons"
Saturday Reads: February 4, 2012
Best Dads in Literature

Well, I’m Persuaded… To Read Another Austen Novel

Posted on by Dana

I spent this morning watching Becoming Jane, and even though I know I might get my Janeite card taken away for saying this, I liked it.  Oh, I know it’s inaccurate, but it made for a good story.  Of course, I just love watching Austen-related movies because of the clothes.  I was surely born at the wrong time.  Take a look at some of the stills in this movie.

I just love, love, love Jane Austen.  At this point, I have read all but two of her novels: Persuasion and Mansfield Park.  I have started Persuasion twice and set aside for reasons I can’t remember.  I suspect it might be partly due to the fact that I’ve seen the excellent adaptation starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds.  I loved that movie, and it didn’t surprise me when I took a recent quiz and discovered Anne Elliot is the Austen heroine I am most like.  I felt that when I watched the movie, too.  Still, it’s shameful not to have finished the book, and I am turning back to it again.  I plan to read Mansfield Park as well, but I’m not sure when.  I’m definitely due for re-reads of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.

I love immersing myself in her world, and if you do, too, you might check out Jane Austen’s World and Austen Blog.  Of course, there are many more wonderful Jane Austen’s blogs in their blogrolls, too, but I have to get going and that means I need to wrap up this post.

Related posts:

Books I Can't Live Without, Part Nine
Is Stephenie Meyer the Next J.K. Rowling?
Chapter Three, The Midwife

Terry Jones: Chaucer Scholar

Posted on by Dana

Not many of his fans know it, perhaps, but Terry Jones is a medievalist.  In my Medieval Literature course in college, my professor told my class he had actually written a fairly interesting argument that Chaucer’s fabled knight was probably a mercenary.  If you enjoy history, perhaps you managed to catch an episode of Medieval Lives or Crusades on the History Channel (or its International cousin).

My next book is Terry Jones’ Who Murdered Chaucer: A Medieval Mystery.  Was Chaucer really murdered?  Well, he did sort of vanish from the historical record.  I am hoping that Jones explores even this weighty topic with his usual sense of humor and interest in the trivial (but) fascinating details of the subject.  Perhaps I can finish the book before I begin teaching Chaucer this year and have some interesting tidbits for my students.

I just thoroughly enjoyed my re-read of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Of all the books I’ve read, it’s the Harry Potter series that I return to time and again and always glean something new from each time.  These books have enriched my life in so many ways, and I will always be grateful I had them during what was otherwise not a very happy time in my life.

Related posts:

Re-Reading Harry Potter: The Man with Two Faces
A Few Thoughts on Re-Reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Again)
Re-Reading Harry Potter: The Beginning

The Lace Reader Received

Posted on by Dana

I received an advance reading copy of Brunonia Bryant’s The Lace Reader.  I’m looking forward to being one of the first bloggers to be able to review this novel, so I will begin it as soon as I finish The Plague of Doves (which is really, really good so far).

Related posts:

Outside, or Here Be Dragons
Banned Books
Living the Literary Life

My Next Read and Clarification on DailyLit

Posted on by Dana

I have decided (since I received my Amazon package) to read Louise Erdrich’s A Plague of Doves. If you would like to learn more about this book, listen to this interview with Valerie Jackson on Between the Lines:

Between the Lines: Louise Erdrich

Because I received such a nice e-mail from a representative of DailyLit about my concerns regarding Emma, I feel the need to clarify a couple of things. I have been and remain a huge fan of DailyLit. I think it has enabled me to read some books I otherwise might not have read. I complained that Emma was broken up in some odd places, and DailyLit’s representative assured me they are taking steps to fix problems like this. I don’t want to discourage anyone from using the service, and I would be grieved if anything I said in my review of Emma influenced anyone not to try it.

Related posts:

Move Over, Mr. LeTourneau...
The Da Vinci Code
Summer Reading

Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader

Posted on by Dana

I heard about Brunonia Barry’s novel The Lace Reader yesterday via Book Club Girl’s blog.  Book Club Girl has an interview with Barry that really intrigued me, and you ought to give it a listen if my description of the novel intrigues you.  I was lucky to be one of the first ten commenters, which means Book Club Girl will be sending me a free advance reader edition of The Lace Reader.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of the novel is how it came to be published.  Trying to get a book published is hard, trying, and often disheartening work.  Rather than spend years trying to find a publisher, Barry published her book herself.  The book became popular with readers and book clubs, and it attracted the attention of publishers who then had to bid for her book.  I love that part of the story.  Barry was able to score a $2 million book deal; the novel will be published by William Morrow and has already generated film industry buzz.

The novel is the story of Towner Whitney, a native of Salem, MA who can read the future in patterns of Ipswich lace.  She returns to her hometown after the murder of two women.  Barry says that her inspiration for the story was Joseph Campbell’s theory of the monomyth, around which I built a senior English elective at my school.  Needless to say, a new book deliberately written with the Hero’s Journey in mind intrigued me.  Barry explains that “Most stories that follow this pattern have a decidedly male orientation: a lone individual acts heroically and saves the day. I wondered if there might be an alternate form, a feminine Hero’s Journey.”  Barry is right.  Of the books I chose, all of them had a male protagonist, and it wasn’t that I didn’t want to find a book that had a female protagonist — I couldn’t.  I chose books like The Iliad, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte D’Arthur, The Ramayana, The Hobbit, Star Wars, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which was nixed by my principal), among a few other selected texts.  In part I am intrigued by this book for possible inclusion in my course.

I am about one-quarter into Northanger Abbey, and it’s been a delight.  I love the “heroine” Catherine, and I am looking forward to discovering what the Editrix of Austen Blog loves about Mr. Tilney (I’ve only seen him twice so far).  Austen, as always, has a pitch-perfect ear for conversation, and I was completely charmed by chapter six, in which she recounts a dialogue between Catherine and Isabella Thorpe (whom I also adore).  I should be finishing Emma this weekend, so please look for a review some time on Sunday.  I have decided I will read Charles Dickens next on DailyLit, but I am having trouble choosing a book.  I have narrowed down the list to three selections, and if you have thoughts about which one I should choose, please leave me a comment.

David Copperfield would take me more than a year in 447 daily installments, but A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations are broken into 170 and 231 parts respectively.  When selecting novels for DailyLit, I try to choose books that I think I would otherwise not read, and all three books fit that description, so if you don’t help me, I’m afraid I’ll have to rely on eenie, meenie, miney, and moe for assistance.  Here’s incentive for you: if you successfully convince me to read the book of your choice, I will send you a DailyLit subscription to the book of your choice (so long as it’s free), and you can enjoy a bit of DailyLit in your own inbox.  What do you say?

Related posts:

State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
Time and Chance
Beach Books