Tag: meme

Friday Finds

Friday Finds—June 24, 2011

Posted on by Dana

Friday FindsI found a lot of interesting books this week! My department chair recommended Jennifer Donnelly’s [amazon_link id=”0312378025″ target=”_blank” ]The Tea Rose[/amazon_link], which happens to be the first in a trilogy—the other two books are [amazon_link id=”1401307469″ target=”_blank” ]The Winter Rose[/amazon_link] and [amazon_link id=”1401301045″ target=”_blank” ]The Wild Rose[/amazon_link]. I can’t wait to read these books.

Amazon sent me a mailer recommending some historical fiction that looks interesting. [amazon_link id=”0312144075″ target=”_blank” ]The Samurai’s Garden[/amazon_link] by Gail Tsukiyama has over four stars on Goodreads after thousands of ratings. That looks promising, even if some of my Goodreads friends didn’t care for it. A reviewer said of [amazon_link id=”B004VD3XQU” target=”_blank” ]The Lotus Eaters[/amazon_link] by Tatjana Soli that if you’ve never read a book about the Vietnam War, this is a good one to start with. Sounds good to me. Alan Brennert’s [amazon_link id=”0312304358″ target=”_blank” ]Moloka’i[/amazon_link] is about the leper colony in Hawaii and also has a high rating on Goodreads.

I can’t decide if [amazon_link id=”1599952025″ target=”_blank” ]The Yellow House[/amazon_link] by Patricia Falvey us up my alley or not. It’s set in Northern Ireland during the Revolutionary period, and I would like to read more about that time, but it also features a main character torn between an Irish political activist working to help Ireland achieve independence from Britain and the black sheep son of a wealthy Quaker family that owns the mill where she works. It reminds me a bit of the scenario presented in all those teen historical romances published by Sunfire in the 1980’s. The girl almost always chose the guy who was more rebellious and dangerous. The only exception I can think of is in the novel [amazon_link id=”0590331566″ target=”_blank” ]Danielle (Sunfire, No 4)[/amazon_link]. I quit reading the novels after a while because they were too predictable—even if I did learn a lot about history from them. In fact, I probably have them to thank for my love for historical fiction. I need to write a Life in Books post about those novels soon. I am suddenly overcome by a wave of nostalgia.

After reading [amazon_link id=”0345521307″ target=”_blank” ]The Paris Wife[/amazon_link] by Paula McLain (review), I sought out [amazon_link id=”143918271X” target=”_blank” ]A Moveable Feast[/amazon_link] and discovered a newly restored edition published in 2009. I am interested to read it after reading the story of the Paris years from Hadley’s point of view.

Browsing around on Goodreads for books set in Paris, I found [amazon_link id=”1596914254″ target=”_blank” ]Paris: The Secret History[/amazon_link] by Andrew Hussey. It’s not about Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It’s more about the prostitutes, street urchins, opium addicts, and artists. Looks really good.

[amazon_image id=”0312378025″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Tea Rose: A Novel[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1401307469″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Winter Rose[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1401301045″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Wild Rose[/amazon_image]

[amazon_image id=”0312144075″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Samurai’s Garden: A Novel[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”B004VD3XQU” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Lotus Eaters: A Novel (Reading Group Gold)[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0312304358″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Moloka’i[/amazon_image]

[amazon_image id=”1599952025″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Yellow House: A Novel[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”143918271X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1596914254″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Paris: The Secret History[/amazon_image]

So did you find any good books this week?

Related posts:

Booking Through Thursday: Firsts
Review: The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
WWW Wednesdays—August 3, 2011
WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays—June 22, 2011

Posted on by Dana

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Paula McLain’s novel about Hadley Richardson Hemingway, [amazon_link id=”0345521307″ target=”_blank” ]The Paris Wife[/amazon_link]. I have been reading a lot of books set in Paris this year (compared to usual, I guess). I guess I’m on a France kick. This one is really good so far.

I recently finished reading [amazon_link id=”0743482832″ target=”_blank” ]The Tempest[/amazon_link] by William Shakespeare (review) and [amazon_link id=”1401302025″ target=”_blank” ]The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School[/amazon_link] by Alexandra Robbins (review).

Next I plan to read [amazon_link id=”B0048EL84Q” target=”_blank” ]The Dream of Perpetual Motion[/amazon_link] by Dexter Palmer, and beyond that one, I’m not too sure. I guess I’m open for whatever looks interesting.

Related posts:

Booking Through Thursday: Skeletons
Reading Update: February 13, 2011
Musing Mondays—May 9, 2011
Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday and Top Ten Tuesday—June 21, 2011

Posted on by Dana

What to do when you have found two interesting book memes and want to do both, but you don’t want to write two different blog posts? Combine, them I say.

Teaser TuesdaysTeaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teasers:

[amazon_image id=”0345521307″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” class=”alignleft”]The Paris Wife: A Novel[/amazon_image]“This isn’t a detective story—not hardly. I don’t want to say, Keep watch for the girl who will come along and ruin everything, but she’s coming anyway, set on her course in a gorgeous chipmunk coat and fine shoes, her sleek brown hair bobbed so close to her well-made head she’ll seem like a pretty otter in my kitchen.”

—location 116 on my [amazon_link id=”B002Y27P3M” target=”_blank” ]Kindle[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”0345521307″ target=”_blank” ]The Paris Wife: A Novel[/amazon_link] by Paula McLain

Top Ten TuesdayThe Broke and the Bookish has a weekly Top Ten. This week’s focus is book blogging.

Top Ten Reasons I Love Book Blogging

  1. The other book bloggers in the community are some of the nicest people on the Internet. I enjoy being a part of such a friendly group.
  2. Book blogging offers me a chance to reflect on (as well as keep track of) all the books I read. It’s nice to be able to look back at books I’ve read and know not only exactly how many I read, but also how I felt about them.
  3. Blogging has opened some doors for me in terms of being able to afford more books. I am an Amazon associate, and the good people who buy books from Amazon after clicking through a link I followed generate a small commission that Amazon pays me in gift cards. It feels a little bit like being paid for doing something I love, but it has also enabled me to do what I love—not sure I could buy all these books otherwise.
  4. This last year especially had some real professional ups and downs for me, and this blog was a refuge. I blog about education at huffenglish.com, and I have found it harder to feel motivated to write for that blog lately for many reasons, but this blog has been a true source of inspiration.
  5. Through this blog and through Twitter, I have had the opportunity to interact with authors. Syrie James and Jael McHenry both have mentioned my reviews of their books, and I had the amazing opportunity to interview Mary Novik.
  6. Being a part of the book blogging community has introduced books and authors to me that I might otherwise not have heard about or read. It would be impossible to figure out how many wonderful books I discovered through other book bloggers.
  7. Participating in reading challenges and chronicling them on my blog has helped me try out new books. I have enjoyed many of these new books. Some challenges I have begun to look forward to every year (Carl’s RIP Challenge, for one). For the first time this year, I hosted my own challenge.
  8. Book bloggers inspire me to read more. One year a few years ago, I only read 14 books. This year, I’ve already read 21. Some book bloggers are such fast readers that I can never hope to compete with the speed through which they fly through books, but without the inspiration to try, I’m not sure what my reading life would look like. My friends tell me all the time they don’t know how I read so much or how I find the time. Little do they know there is this world of readers in the book blogosphere who far outstrip anything I do! I do think I have become a faster reader since I began blogging.
  9. There is no better community for talking about books and reading than the book blogging community. Everyone else loves reading as much as I do and is just as excited about reading as I am. Reading can be a lonely activity. I’m not part of a book club, but I plan to revive our faculty book club next school year. It’s fun to share books and reading with others. It’s one of the reasons I chose to be an English teacher. Now that I am moving into technology teaching, it will be more important than ever for me to have an outlet for talking about books. The only thing that could be better is if we could gather regularly with food and chat in person.
  10. This last one might seem silly, but I find that book blogs are the prettiest blogs I read. All the pretty book covers and headers with books or readers of cups or coffee or tea. So homey and pretty. I like hanging around places like that.

Related posts:

Typically British Reading Challenge
Soliciting Template Advice
Readers Who Don't Read Historical Fiction
Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays—June 20, 2011

Posted on by Dana

Musing MondaysThis week’s musing asks…

Do you like movies made from books? Which ones do you think have been done well—kept mostly to the plot of the book, etc?

I do like movies made from books, and I find that it is OK for them sometimes to veer a little from the book. I think books and movies probably need to be viewed as separate entities and enjoyed accordingly. Even though the [amazon_link id=”B001UV4XHY” target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter[/amazon_link] films have cut some of the things I like best about the books, and sometimes even added details that were not in the books, I have still enjoyed them immensely. Most of the Jane Austen films I have seen have been pretty good. I even liked the 1999 [amazon_link id=”6305907145″ target=”_blank” ]Mansfield Park[/amazon_link] (but will admit the Fanny Price in the movie was not the Fanny Price in the book). My favorite? Eeesh. I don’t know. It’s hard to pick between Ang Lee’s [amazon_link id=”0800141660″ target=”_blank” ]Sense and Sensibility[/amazon_link] and the two Pride and Prejudice films. ([amazon_link id=”B00364K6YW” target=”_blank” ]Colin Firth[/amazon_link] or [amazon_link id=”B000E1ZBGS” target=”_blank” ]Matthew Macfadyen[/amazon_link]? You see the dilemma.) [amazon_link id=”1451635621″ target=”_blank” ]Gone With the Wind[/amazon_link] and [amazon_link id=”0061990477″ target=”_blank” ]The Thorn Birds[/amazon_link] were great both in print and on film.

I almost always say the book is better than the movie, but there are some exceptions. Because of its superb casting, I felt that the film version of [amazon_link id=”B000TJBNHG” target=”_blank” ]The Princess Bride[/amazon_link] improved on the book. I also thought the film based on [amazon_link id=”B00005JOC9″ target=”_blank” ]The Da Vinci Code[/amazon_link] was better than the book, perhaps because Dan Brown’s strong suit is not character development, which is something actors can compensate for. Annie Proulx’s short story “Brokeback Mountain” was great, but the [amazon_link id=”B00005JOFQ” target=”_blank” ]film[/amazon_link] fleshed out the characters and storyline more, and I thought it was better (one of my favorite films, actually). I haven’t read [amazon_link id=”0743453255″ target=”_blank” ]Forrest Gump[/amazon_link], but I did read [amazon_link id=”0671522647″ target=”_blank” ]Gump & Co.[/amazon_link], the sequel, and if Forrest Gump was written similarly, let’s just say that the film was probably an improvement.

On the other hand, no one can deny that films sometimes butcher the story badly. Perhaps because I haven’t seen it, I should not speak about the latest [amazon_link id=”B0011NVC98″ target=”_blank” ]Beowulf[/amazon_link] film, but come on—Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s mother? And Grendel is the—well, one hesitates to use the word love child, but—love child of Hrothgar and Grendel’s mother? And the dragon is the unholy offspring of Beowulf and Grendel’s mother? Nope. That’s playing too fast and loose with the material for my liking. I don’t even care that Neil Gaiman wrote it. And do you remember the [amazon_link id=”B003RACGZM” target=”_blank” ]evil Disneyized version[/amazon_link] of Lloyd Alexander’s [amazon_link id=”080508049X” target=”_blank” ]The Black Cauldron[/amazon_link]? No? Good. I’m trying to forget it. I am saddened by the notion that plenty of people never picked up those wonderful books because of that horrible film. [amazon_link id=”0679751521″ target=”_blank” ]Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil[/amazon_link] is one of my favorite books, but [amazon_link id=”B003ASLJQ8″ target=”_blank” ]the film[/amazon_link] stank. A lot. Funny story about that, too. John Berendt was the keynote speaker at Georgia Council of Teachers of English conference in 1998. He was asked what he thought of the film, and he replied that he had been so good… then diplomatically added that he liked the film for many reasons, not the least of which was that it sold a million copies of his book. The [amazon_link id=”B00005JKKY” target=”_blank” ]film[/amazon_link] based on A. S. Byatt’s [amazon_link id=”0679735909″ target=”_blank” ]Possession[/amazon_link] was OK, but there are too many layers to that book to capture on film.

I haven’t seen Water for Elephants yet. I don’t have major problems with the casting, as some folks seem to have had, but I’m scared it will stink. And I loved [amazon_link id=”1565125606″ target=”_blank” ]that book[/amazon_link]. The reviews have been mixed.

Some book-based films I’m looking forward to seeing are The Hunger Games and The Help.

Related posts:

Friday Finds—May 27, 2011
Teaser Tuesdays—April 26, 2011
The Hours (The Movie)

Booking Through Thursday: Interactive?

Posted on by Dana

Numerique - papier - un texte est un texte

I detect a bias in the way this week’s Booking Through Thursday question was asked:

With the advent (and growing popularity) of ebooks, I’m seeing more and more articles about how much “better” they can be, because they have the option to be interactive … videos, music, glossaries … all sorts of little extra goodies to help “enhance” your reading experience, rather like listening to the Director’s commentary on a DVD of your favorite movie.

How do you feel about that possibility? Does it excite you in a cutting-edge kind of way? Or does it chill you to the bone because that’s not what reading is ABOUT?

I know that there is a dedicated group of readers who seem to be anti-ebook and are worried about the direction reading is going in. I am not among their membership. I think ebooks are great. I think the possibilities for books are opening up. Who knows what ways we might be able to interact with them? I have an app on my iPhone that is a version of “The Three Little Pigs” (iTunes link) illustrated and read by a six-year-old boy in Texas. I also have another app based on “The Velveteen Rabbit,” (iTunes link) one of my favorite stories as a child because oh! I wanted my toys to become real. The app allows me to watch a video based on the book, read the book, listen to Meryl Streep read it, or read and record myself. I have a Sherlock Holmes Vook (video book—iTunes link) on my iPhone that allows me to view videos that contain insights into Sherlock Holmes and Victorian London. My [amazon_link id=”B002FQJT3Q” target=”_blank” ]Kindle[/amazon_link] has a feature that allows me to see what passages other readers like enough to highlight. I can share my own notes and highlights with others and access them online later with a secure link. It sure beats thumbing through a book trying to find that passage again. I love being able to move my cursor to look up words I don’t know in the dictionary.

If you haven’t guessed the answer to my question, I’m excited about the possibilities that ebooks and devices like the iPad and Kindle offer readers. Who says that reading has to fit some narrow definition or be confined by some idea that a book isn’t supposed to be a certain way? If you don’t want to interact with your book, you have the option not to—paper books have not gone anywhere and won’t go anywhere soon. I for one think that now is an exciting time to be a reader (and a writer—ebooks are opening up the closed world of publishing to indie writers like me).

I am starting to see a trend among readers who want to stop any sort of change. The most disturbing aspect of this trend to me is that these types of readers seem to believe that they are somehow more authentic readers or love books more because they don’t like ebooks. That’s snobbery. Why be so judgmental? So it’s not for you. Don’t do it. You can avoid ebooks if you want. But to insinuate that interactive features that are now available with the advent of ebooks detract from reading and are not what reading is ABOUT is a fairly antiquated opinion to hold. It rather reminds me of folks who insist graphic novels aren’t real books or that one should not read books like romance novels, mysteries, or chick lit. Bottom line? People should be able to read what they want, however they want, and other folks should have better things to do than stick their noses in the air about it.  Put your nose back in your paperback where it belongs. I guess I am getting a little tired of these snobs telling me I shouldn’t read ebooks.

The subtitle of the photo I chose for this post is “un texte est un texte.” Translated into English, that means “a text is a text.” Exactly so.

Edited to add:

I forgot to mention ebooks on the iPad and Kindle and just about every other reader I can think of allow readers to change the font size, which opens up reading to people who couldn’t. So there is also that.

photo credit: Remi Mathis

Related posts:

Friday Finds—May 6, 2011
Review: Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Teaser Tuesdays—June 7, 2011
WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays—June 15, 2011

Posted on by Dana

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading [amazon_link id=”1401302025″ target=”_blank” ]The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School[/amazon_link] by Alexandra Robbins. It’s a really good read, and I think anyone who is a teacher or parent should probably read it for the insight it gives into how painful the teen years can be and what children that age are facing.

I know I said that I would read [amazon_link id=”0743482832″ target=”_blank” ]The Tempest[/amazon_link] next, but I am just not feeling up to it yet. I guess I want lighter fare as the summer begins. I will probably start [amazon_link id=”0345521307″ target=”_blank” ]The Paris Wife[/amazon_link] by Paula McLain next—perhaps not tonight, but tomorrow. It looks pretty good. It’s told from the point of view of Hadley Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife.

I recently finished [amazon_link id=”1439191697″ target=”_blank” ]The Kitchen Daughter[/amazon_link] by Jael McHenry (review). Wonderful book! Highly recommended. I also finished [amazon_link id=”1594202885″ target=”_blank” ]A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter[/amazon_link] by William Deresiewicz (review) since last week. Summer means more time to read!

A side note: I am really enjoying seeing my map fill up for the Where Are You Reading Challenge. I am beginning to have a little bit more diversity in terms of setting than I had a few months ago. You can view my map in progress (you can click on the map and drag it around):
View 2011 Where Are You Reading Challenge in a larger map

Related posts:

Multiple Copies
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë
The Heretic's Daughter
Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays—June 13, 2011

Posted on by Dana

Musing MondaysThis week’s musing asks…

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?

I devoured [amazon_link id=”1565125606″ target=”_blank” ]Water for Elephants[/amazon_link] by Sara Gruen (review) in the space of a day, but I can’t remember how late I stayed up reading to finish it. I do remember clearly staying up really late because I was hooked on [amazon_link id=”0385737637″ target=”_blank” ]Revolution[/amazon_link] by Jennifer Donnelly (review). It’s not something I have done in a while; I have had a run of four-star and lower books. It’s usually the five-star books that keep me up at night. I will say that [amazon_link id=”1439191697″ target=”_blank” ]The Kitchen Daughter[/amazon_link] by Jael McHenry is running on five stars right now, as is [amazon_link id=”1401302025″ target=”_blank” ]The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School[/amazon_link] by Alexandra Robbins. I think some of the books that have kept me up most have been the [amazon_link id=”0545162076″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter[/amazon_link] series and the [amazon_link id=”0545265355″ target=”_blank” ]Hunger Games[/amazon_link] series. I have yet to read books to match those two series for making it impossible for me stop turning pages.

Related posts:

Teaser Tuesdays—May 3, 2011
Musing Mondays—August 22, 2011
Booking Through Thursday: Cheating
Friday Finds

Friday Finds—June 10, 2011

Posted on by Dana

Friday FindsI only have two finds this week. The first comes via an Amazon recommendation. [amazon_link id=”0061288519″ target=”_blank” ]97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement[/amazon_link]  by Jane Ziegelman sounds like a fascinating read. Probably my New Yorker friends will laugh at me for being surprised about this, but when I Googled the book title, I found out that 97 Orchard on the Lower East Side is a the home of the Tenement Museum. The book looks like a pretty cool read, although reviews say that it focuses less on the families and more on the food. I should have thought “edible history” made that clearer, but maybe not to some.

Another find this week came straight from the publisher, who asked if I’d like a copy of [amazon_link id=”1401302025″ target=”_blank” ]The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School[/amazon_link] by Alexandra Robbins. Of course I said yes! I’m a geek! Anything that looks like it will celebrate my kind of people is welcome, but once the book arrived, I realized it is really more about high school culture, or at least it appears to be. I do think it looks interesting, though.

[amazon_image id=”0061288519″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1401302025″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School[/amazon_image]

Related posts:

R.I.P Challenge Book Pool
Musing Mondays—June 6, 2011
Booking Through Thursday: Coming Soon to a Theater Near You
WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays—June 8, 2011

Posted on by Dana

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading [amazon_link id=”1594202885″ target=”_blank” ]A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter[/amazon_link] by William Deresiewicz. He has divided the chapters into life lessons he learned from each of the six major novels by novel title and lesson, and I am currently in the chapter about [amazon_link id=”193659451X” target=”_blank” ]Persuasion[/amazon_link], which might be my favorite Jane Austen book. I really love [amazon_link id=”1936594293″ target=”_blank” ]Pride And Prejudice[/amazon_link] and [amazon_link id=”0141040378″ target=”_blank” ]Sense and Sensibility[/amazon_link]. I’m not sure I like the author all that much. The book is part memoir, part literary criticism, and his descriptions of himself are quite candid.

I recently finished [amazon_link id=”B004R1Q9PI” target=”_blank” ]The Secret Diary of a Princess[/amazon_link] by Melanie Clegg. It is a novel about Marie Antoinette’s later childhood leading up to her marriage with the future Louis XVI—an interesting peek into the Viennese court.

I think the next thing I will read will be [amazon_link id=”1439191697″ target=”_blank” ]The Kitchen Daughter[/amazon_link] by Jael McHenry (my sidebar says I’m already reading it, but I haven’t really started it yet) and perhaps [amazon_link id=”0743482832″ target=”_blank” ]The Tempest[/amazon_link]. I do need to finally read [amazon_link id=”B0048EL84Q” target=”_blank” ]The Dream of Perpetual Motion[/amazon_link] by Dexter Palmer.

Related posts:

The Kitchen Daughter, Jael McHenry
Booking Through Thursday: Serial
More Reading Challenges
Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays—June 7, 2011

Posted on by Dana

Teaser TuesdaysTeaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teasers:

[amazon_image id=”1594202885″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” class=”alignleft”]A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter[/amazon_image]“Her [Jane Austen’s] genius began with the recognition that such lives as hers were very eventful indeed—that every life is eventful, if only you know how to look at it. She did not think that her existence was quiet or trivial or boring; she thought it was delightful and enthralling, and she wanted us to see that our own are, too.”

—location 355 on [amazon_link id=”B002FQJT3Q” target=”_blank” ]Kindle[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”1594202885″ target=”_blank” ]A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter[/amazon_link] by William Deresiewicz.

An answer to those who think Jane Austen writes about trivial matters that appeal only to women.

Related posts:

Which Jane Austen Heroine Are You?
BBAW Meme
Musing Mondays—July 4, 2011