The Classics Spin

I've decided to participate in the Classics Spin.  I didn't join the first Classics Spin.  I like to read books as the mood strikes me, as I've mentioned on this blog before.  But I don't know.  This time my mood is telling me to join in.  Will I actually participate?  Probably, since I'm sort of saying I will by posting this.  I've got a variety of options below.  I have some children's stories, poems, short stories and genre tales, even a work of philosophy.  Some are long and some are very short.  Honestly, most of these titles are what I would consider "easy" compared to some of the other works I have on my Classics list.  It'll likely be June by the time I get to whatever my spin number is.  I'm not in the mood for difficult. However, to make it a little scary/potentially challenging, I did pepper a few "difficult" works in there.  I wonder what I'll be reading next month.

1. Emma, Jane Austen

2. Stories from Hans Christian Andersen, by Hans Christian Andersen

3. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

4. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

5. Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood

6. Villette, by Charlotte Brontë

7. Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

8. Appointment with Death, by Agatha Christie

9. Lyrical Ballads, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth

10. Discourse on Method, by Rene Descartes

11. A Selection of Poems (1. Life), by Emily Dickinson

12. Grimm's Fairy Stories, by Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm

13. The Man Who Loved Islands, by D.H. Lawrence

14. Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery

15. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

16. Lady Lazarus, by Sylvia Plath

17. The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

18. The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter

19. The Cat In The Hat, by Dr. Seuss

20. Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker

Are you going to Spin?  Any thoughts on the works I've chosen?

Redshirts

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas was awesome.  I loved every word.  I might have to hunt down more books by John Scalzi. I picked up Redshirts, because, well, it's about Redshirts!  I love Star Trek, mostly The Next Generation, but I have a place in the sci-fi part of my heart for the original and all the others series too.  Redshirts is so funny!  Yes, it grabbed my attention because of the title, but the synopsis really pulled me in and all the great things I kept hearing on the interwebs convinced me that this was a book I had to read.  It was funny and quirky and ironic.  I loved the main character.  Andrew Dahl was thoughtful, intelligent and honourable.  He may have been and Ensign on the Intrepid but he was the leader to his group.  I was also very excited by his conversation with Hanson at the end of the story.  Very meta.

I liked Maia Duvall, but I didn't like all her behaviour.  She was the only female lead character. There were a lot of other women in the novel, Collins led Xenobiology (and her last lines in the book were great); there were captains, security officers, scientists, everything.  I might even say there was 1:1 ratio of the supporting characters in the book. Am I just being prudish about Duvall? Everything she did forwarded the plot.  I don't know.  Though, now that I think of it, maybe she was just part of a play with archetypes.  Finn certainly could be considered a specific type of character, the brutish, overtly masculine male.  By the end, Finn and Duvall (along with Hester and Kerensky) became more. Nevermind, Duvall is fine the way she is. Maybe what I'd have liked is another leading female character?  I don't know if that works if we're altering typical science-fiction characters.  

This is what Redshirts makes you do unexpectedly, think.

I'm going to take a quick moment to mention how much I love John Scalzi's dedication.  It's probably because I also heart Wil Wheaton, Joe Malozzi and Brad Wright for geeky reasons involving words that start with "Star".

I really enjoyed the way the novel ended, with Andy and Hanson (funny and awesome), but I also was so excited to read the Codas.  Getting to know these "other" characters was really interesting and made the story even better.  Nick was hilarious.  Hester/Matthew was amazing.  The actual end of the book with Samantha Martinez was brilliant.  Each Coda was packed with emotion that you wouldn't necessarily expect after reading the novel.

Also, for some redshirt fun:

Prodigy (Legend #2)

What?!? That was a fantastic ending!  I could have yelled at the book.  It was dramatic, building on the excitement and action of the entire story.  So much was built into that final moment.  Marie Lu really knew what she was doing when she wrote the end of Prodigy.

I also really like the ending because when Legend ended, Prodigy almost had to pick up where it left off.  With Champion it could begin almost anywhere.  It doesn't have to be the next day. The time spent with June and Day in the first two books is only a couple months.  I feel like Champion could start the next day or months later.

I should really stop talking about what I think will happen in the third book.  I think I'm suffering from a book hangover.  (Maybe even a double hangover since I'm still thinking about Janie and Their Eyes Were Watching God.)

Prodigy was a fantastic sequel.  As much as I enjoyed June and Day, I was really interested in Tess.  She's not the little girl we see through Day's eyes.  She's a young woman, like June, with all the emotions that entails.  We also see how capable and intelligent she is.  I hope we get to see more of her.  I also hope that all the nice feelings I (and the characters in Prodigy) have about Anden are well placed.  He could be everything they are hoping for or he could be seriously and severely twisted.  Also, that whole thing with Razor, I totally saw it coming, from the moment they met him.

I have one small issue with Prodigy and Legend.  June is 15 years old.  15!  Why are all these men not concerned by how young she is?!  Anden is 20, which is less weird than Thomas, who has to be in his mid-twenties.  At least Day is the same age at June.  I understand that she's a prodigy and very mature for her age and smarter than most people, but still.  It find it a little weird.

The new world details we get in Prodigy had me hooked too.  The Republic and the Colonies are two different avenues that I think represent what America could become.  A country rule by the military or one ruled by consumerism.  The Colonies actually reminds me a lot of the world in Continuum.  It's all about the Corporations.  I wouldn't have to worry though, because Canada (and Mexico) sealed their borders.

Prodigy was everything I could have wanted in the sequel to Legend.  Marie Lu wrote some fantastic actions scenes, with a plot and characters that kept me more than engaged.  I devoured Prodigy and I can't wait to see how the story ends.

Enid's Near Canadian Adventure, by Peggy Bracken

It's been a few weeks since I participated in a Short Story Monday.  Mostly because I've been engrossed in some amazing novels.  I'm reading another one that I'm really enjoying, but I started to feel that short story itch.  As I was considering what short story I would read in between novels, I saw Enid's Near Canadian Adventure.  With a title like Enid's Near Canadian Adventure, I couldn't resist reading Peggy Braken's short story.  It's quite short, consisting of two letters, one from Enid to her friend Maeve and the return letter from Maeve to Enid.  It's written in a sort of slightly modernized Jane Austen-esque style, which I found interesting.  Enid seems to be very melodramatic and inclined towards extremes, which Maeve points out in her replay.  These aren't the pretty, kind, supportive sort of letters you might read between Lizzy and Charlotte in Pride and Prejudice.  Maeve's reply to Enid is a bit brutal.  

It was an interesting story.  I'm not quite sure if I liked it though.  Something about it irked me.  I think I liked the style of writing, I am often drawn to epistolary stories.  Maybe I didn't like Enid.  I'm not sure I liked Maeve either.  I didn't dislike them.  I'm not sure how I feel about them.  Maybe disconnected?  If someone else reads the story, let me know what you think.

Short Story Monday is hosted by John Mutford at The Book Mine Set.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

I've been lucky lately.  This past month, I've read some fantastic stories.  Their Eyes Were Watching God was simply amazing.  I could write/talk about this novel for hours, but I'm not going to.  I'm going to try to stick to what engaged me most.

If you haven't read Their Eyes Were Watching God, why?  Read it.  Now.  I know that the dialogue can be difficult to follow at first, but after a while, you notice that Hurston followed a pattern.  Ah = I, keer = care, skeered = scared, etc.  Not the whole book is like that either, only the dialogue, though the dialogue is important. Zora Neale Hurston creates Janie Crawford, a young black woman in the 1930s. We follow her life as she searches for who she really is and I think in the end, the Janie who sits talking with Pheoby, that's who she really is.

I have disliked a lot of introductions I've read lately, but I liked the one by Mary Helen Washington at the beginning of this edition.  Yes, there are still some spoilery moments that I had to skim, but maybe it wasn't so bad because this was the second time I've read Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Washington spoke not just of the story, but of Hurston's life.  I think it is important to know what Hurston's struggles were when this book was published and what they continued to be after publication.  

Apparently Hurston's contemporaries were mad she wasn't writing protest literature.  That was what you did if you were a black writer in the 1930s.  I don't know if I've ever read any "protest literature". I had never heard of Richard Wright before reading the introduction to the novel.  He was the writer of the time and disliked Hurston's work.  What Hurston wrote was a novel about a part of America that people didn't get to see at the time; she wrote characters that could be real people.  She also wrote about a strong woman searching for herself, making her own choices.  Janie was unique.  Hurston wrote a feminist novel.

Minor Spoilers...

There's a scene where Janie and Mrs. Turner are speaking.  Both these woman are lighter skinned and Mrs. Turner refers to the other people in their community as "black negroes" and other more derogatory terms.  She's very angry against the black negroes, she blames them for white people not accepting lighter skinned people like herself and Janie.  Tea Cake is too black for Janie.  It was a very provocative scene.  

You know what it reminded me of?  An episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  It was a very long time ago that I saw this episode, so I'm not completely clear on the details.  A woman, she's a friend or something of the Banks family.  She gives Ashley (played by Tatyana Ali) a brown paper bag and tells the girl that her goal should be to be lighter than the bag.  How she is supposed to achieve that, I don't know, but Ashley kept comparing her skin to the bag.  (If someone knows what episode this was or could clarify the details, I'd appreciate it.)  Hurston, who wrote this novel in 1937, still speaks to modern issues.  I know Fresh Prince was a show of the 1990s, but it's not really that long ago.  It chills me to think that there could be people right now telling little girls and boys that their skin is too dark.

Okay...  Back to the novel... with vague spoilers...

Read it.  Because it makes you think.  It makes you feel for Janie and even for the people that surround her.  It makes you wonder why Janie couldn't just run her own life from the beginning and how should could stay with Jody.  It even makes you wonder why she is with Tea Cake, though he treats her better than anyone else.  Janie is intelligent and clearly beautiful.  She was a rich character that I connected with immediately.  That's what drew me into the novel more than Hurston's lovely prose or the interesting plot.  Janie was a star on the muck.

Title 5/60 for The Classics Club.

Classics Club Sync Read

On My Other Blog...

On my other blog, I have some exciting news (exciting for me anyway).  I finished the first draft of a non-fiction project I've been working on.  I've let it sit for a week and I'm going to read through for the first time since finishing.  I'm very anxious.

I tend not to post to much about my creative endeavours here, but in case you're interested in another aspect of the crazy that is me, go on and have a look.

Maybe I'm Not A Light & Fun Reader

This week I found the Broke and The Bookish's top ten topic more difficult than usual.  Apparently, I don't read a whole lot of "Light and Fun" type stories.  There are a few though.  Let's see if I can make it to ten.

1. Anything by Jane Austen - They're classic, but they're romantic.

2. The Shopaholic Series/Anything by Sophie Kinsella - Kinsella's books are hilarious and my go-to read when I want something light.

3. The Undead Series, by MaryJanice Davidson - Undead might be about vampires, but Queen Betsy is hilarious.  I have to catch up on this series.

4. The Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse series, by Charlaine Harris - I started this series when I needed something light to read.  There's a fair bit of violence and sex, but whatever, it was light for me.

5. The Mortal Instruments/The Infernal Devices series, by Cassandra Clare - I've read the first three books in The Mortal Instruments series and I found them quick, fun reads.  Maybe not light?  Again, a fair bit of violence in these books.  

So, not even close to ten...  I find a lot of the Young Adult Dystopian series I've read in the past couple years "fun", in that they are quick and enjoyable reads, but they deal with some heavy/dark subjects and I don't know that they qualify for this list. Even some of the series I have up there might not really be what the topic intends.  I guess I'm not really into "light" books.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll discover some this week looking at everyone's lists.  Any recommendations?

Iron Man 3

 Iron Man 3 was a great movie. Across the three movies, Tony Stark goes through, what I think of as, a full character arc. He learns so much. As much as I enjoy the awesome suits, the action and the sarcastic humour, it's the characters that have made me love Iron Man 3.  I loved Pepper.  She's really become someone who can hold her own with the over-the-top Tony Stark.  Also, I loved what they did with The Mandarin.  It was so unexpected, I enjoyed it, though I don't know if everyone will. AIM!  Killian!  Extremis!  They all worked so well.  Don Cheadle is a fantastic War Machine.  He's also another character that can hold his own with Tony Stark.  I enjoyed the 3D, which I'm not sure is necessary, but I still liked it.  The movie was flashy without taking away from the story.

I could go on about how much I loved this movie.  Could I nit-pick it?  Maybe, but I don't want to.  Will people disagree with me?  Probably.  But this is all just my humble (and excited) opinion. I was entertained. Thoroughly.  

Also, how cute are these posters?

Classics in May: The Club Meme

This past January, I joined the Classics Club.  I've given myself 5 years to read 60 different classic titles.  I've included more than novels.  On my list I have classic short stories, poems, plays and children's books.  I've decided to participate in my first monthly Meme because I really wanted to talk about the novel I'm reading.

The meme topic is:

- Tell us about the classic book(s) you’re reading this month. You can post about what you’re looking forward to reading in May, or post thoughts-in-progress on your current read(s). -

I'm currently reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston.  It is the current Classic Club Sync Read.  I had actually been planning on reading H.G. Well's The Time Machine, but when I saw this as the sync read, I was excited.  Hurston's amazing novel was already on my list of 60 as a re-read.  I first read it in a "modern" American literature class* I had taken while in university.  I remember loving the book, but so many years and books later, I couldn't really remember what happened.  I knew there was a storm and something bad happens.  Knowing that something bad happens, but not remembering what it was has been making this a very tense read.  I'm a bit scared for Janie every time I turn the page.  Honestly, it's almost like reading it for the first time.  I have about 30-40 pages left.  I'm sure I'm going to get it done this weekend.  I've been staying up past my bedtime for the last week reading.

I'm thinking that I'll still read The Time Machine this month.  I've been feeling like I want to read more science-fiction lately and this is a genre classic.  It'll also be a re-read.  I was trying to spread my few re-reads out, but I'm going to blame the sync read for interfering with my planning.

What classics are you enjoying this month?

*The class was actually called something like American Literature from 1890-1960, but I can't remember what the exact dates were.  I just say Modern because it's easier.

Calling To Me: Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Pick Up A Book

The Broke and The Bookish are asking us this week what are the Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book.  I don't think any particular word or topic will make me automatically buy a book, but there are some that will make me at least pick it up.  I am drawn to these topics for different reasons.  They are genres that I've found many loved stories, or they call to me and my personal history.  In no particular order, here are the top ten topics I'm drawn too.

1. Dystopian - This comes from reading -and loving- The Handmaid's Tale and 1984.  They are classic dystopian to me.  It's why I picked up The Hunger Games.

2. Immigrant/Immigration - My parents immigrated to this country (separately, they met here).  Reading other immigration stories, I feel, gives me an insight into what they and my many relatives went through.  It's why I picked up The Book of Ifs and Buts (plus I really liked the title).

3. Caribbean: Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica, St. Lucia, etc. - Anything from the country my family is from, and the surrounding areas, will at least get me to pick up the book.

4. Multi-Racial/Bi-Racial - Again, this has to do with my family.  It's the reason I wanted to read Prismatic.

5. Myths - I enjoy myth retellings/interpretations.  This will get me to look at the book, even if I don't buy it.

6. Zombies - This is a recent thing.  I don't buy a ton, because I can only read so much of one genre, but after World War Z and The Walking Dead I seem to be picking up Zombie fiction more and more.

7. Short Stories - I love short stories collections, whether from one single author, like Stephen King's Everything's Eventual or from many authors, like Forty Stories.  Single author collections are great because sometimes you don't need a whole novel to tell a tale.  Multi-author anthologies are also great because it's an easy way to get a taste of authors you've never read before.

Wow, it's been a while since I couldn't come up with ten.  I'm not an overly picky book shopper.  I buy loads of books.  Hmm...

What words/topics appeal to you?

Continuum

Did anyone watch Continuum last year?  Or last night?  It is a science-fiction show about a "Protector" (cop) from the year 2077 who gets transported back to present day Vancouver. It is so good. I was addicted to the 10 episodes of season one last year.  I had been hoping and hoping that Continuum would be renewed for a second season and it was, this time with 13 episodes.  The second season premiered on Showcase on the 21st.  I think the first season is airing now on SyFy in the US.

Why do I like this show?  I don't know.  I think Rachel Nichols (who was in G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra - Don't hold that against her -, Criminal Minds, Alex Cross, Alias) is awesome as lead character, Kiera Cameron.  I find Kiera's struggles with moral decisions, to let the future play out how it's supposed to because she wants to go home vs. not being able to standby and watch people die, really interesting.  She's also not a "pure" hero.  She makes mistakes and can be selfish, but in the end it is all so she can be reunited with her son.

I'm excited to see where Continuum goes this season.

Digging, by Seamus Heaney

"Between my finger and my thumb  
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun."

I'm always pleasantly surprised when I find myself connecting to poetry.  I don't know why this surprise still lingers.  Initially, it was because I had studied it so much, poetry had lost much of its magic for me.  This last year and a half, since I read The Disney Princesses, I've been finding myself drawn more and more to poetry, whether a classic, like Rime of the Ancient Mariner or Digging.

I came across Digging by chance.  I had been flipping through my Norton Anthology of Poetry and I stopped on a page with poems by Seamus Heaney.  I recognized the name since I read Heaney's The Cure At Troy a few (like 11!) years ago.  I stopped and my eyes fell on the first lines of Digging.  I was hooked.  I sat and read the rest of the short poem.  It was lovely, an ode or homage maybe, to the narrator's father and grandfather.  The father and grandfather spent their lives with spades, working with their hands, but the narrator can not dig, he instead holds the "squat pen" to write.  It was a lovely, interesting poem.  Though short, it told a story.  I might read the rest of Heaney's poems in my Anthology.  I might re-read The Cure At Troy too. 

There are potatoes in the poem.

What A Surprise! Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did

This week The Broke and The Bookish want to know what are the Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did.  I decided to split the list, 5 each.  They're in no particular order.  Hopefully my ramblings are understandable.

I thought I'd like MORE:

(aka, Disappointed)

1. Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations, by Alexander McCall Smith - Everyone seems to love Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books.  I'd heard such good things about them. When I saw a copy of Heavenly Date and Other  Flirtations not only did I pick it up because of Smith's reputation, but I love short stories and I liked the title.  I was sadly disappointed.  I've since read another of Smith's books, a novel, not No. 1 Ladies, and also didn't really like it.  He's not a bad writer, just something about his style doesn't appeal to me.

2. Girl meets boy, by Ali Smith - Girl meets boy is a book from the Canongate Myth Series.  Up until this installment, I had enjoyed each Myth book.  They're all by different authors, so perhaps there was bound to be one I didn't really like.  It's a slim 149 pages, but it took ages for me to get through.

3. Undead Reckoning, by Mike Slabon - I was really looking forward to this self-published zombie-fantasy novel.  I've been getting more into zombies (perhaps blame Walking Dead) and I want to support self-published authors and Slabon seems like a genuinely nice guy.  I really wanted to love this book, but sadly didn't.

4. The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie, by Alan Bradley - Why do people love The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie?  I expected to love it too.  They synopsis, what other people were saying, all indicated to me that I would enjoy the book.  I found Flavia so irritating, I just couldn't handle it.

5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen - Unlike the other books on this list, I really liked Pride and Prejudice.  I loved Lizzy and Darcy; all the characters were fantastic.  It's a great story.  I read it after I read Sense and Sensibility, which I loved.  The way people spoke about Pride and Prejudice, I expected to love it more than Sense and Sensibility and that just didn't happen.  So while I still enjoyed it, I didn't love it the way I expected.  Right now, Sense and Sensibility is my favourite Austen.

I thought I'd like LESS:

(aka, Pleasantly Surprised)

1. The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling - So many people were complaining about The Casual Vacancy.  It wasn't Harry Potter, it was long, it was boring.  If you went in expecting it to be like Harry Potter then yes, you'd be disappointed, but I knew it wouldn't be.  I read the synopsis.  More than one it was mentioned that this was a book for adults.  It actually reminded me a bit of a Stephen King book.  I really liked it.

2. The Deception of Livvy Higgs, by Donna Morrissey - I knew I'd like Livvy Higgs, I just didn't know I'd love it!  I could seriously gush about it, but it would probably be simpler to read my review.

3. Living Dead In Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2), by Charlaine Harris - I read the first book in the series, Dead Until Dark and liked it.  I didn't think it was spectacular, but I had a box set and figured I'd eventually get to the rest of the books.  A while later I read Living Dead In Dallas and that was the surprise   Book 2 hooked me into the series.  I read five books in about two weeks, which is pretty fast for me.  Then, I borrowed book 8 because I just had to know what happened next. (I'm not going to talk about the most recent books.)

4. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee - I figured Lee's novel would be okay.  There would be some historical/societal/social stuff, but I didn't know.  I didn't know how amazing this novel really is and why EVERYONE should read it.  Everyone.

5. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts, by Douglas Adams - My hubby told me to read it.  He usually only reads fantasy, but here he was trying to get me to read sci-fi.  I didn't know how awesome  Hitchhiker's  was.  I want to re-read it.  Multiple times.

The Dark Tower 4.5: The Wind Through The Keyhole

The Wind Through The Keyhole was fantastic.  It was like I could hear Roland’s voice as he was telling his ka-tet the story of another storm and then the story he told to a boy there.  I was a little worried about the triple-layered story.  I know Stephen King likes to give his readers loads of information about characters that may not matter by the end of the tale, but that wasn’t the case here.  I loved visiting Roland, Jake, Susannah, Eddie and Oy.  I missed them.  I also liked that we saw a different friend of Roland’s youth. I always found that Jamie was mentioned in passing, as someone who was there, but he wasn’t Cuthbert or Alain and so his personality was never detailed.  I enjoyed quiet Jamie Redhand.  It was nice to see the Sisters of Serenity, the group of women that were Gabrielle Deschain’s refuge, also only mentioned in passing.

I have to say the highlight of the novel for me was the actual The Wind Through The Keyhole story.  Tim was an amazing character.  His story had me captivated.  I had to know what happened to him and his mother.  I worried about them.  All the little Dark Tower bits littered through the story were really interesting too.  I wonder if Roland saw them.  I loved Daria.  Really, I don’t know if I have anything bad to say about this story.  The Wind Through The Keyhole fits nicely into the Dark Tower canon. It doesn't change anything, we sadly don't get to see the ka-tet for too long, but the story Roland tells is worth hearing.  In a way, I feel like Roland was a vessel for King to tell the story of Tim Stoutheart and maybe as a way to get in some Roland/Jamie time.  Everything connected together though and I really enjoyed it.  Any fantasy fan would like this story, whether or not they have read the other Dark Tower novels.

Amazing Books From Long Ago

This week The Broke and The Bookish have asked what are my Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger. The only trouble I had with this list is remembering which books I read before I was a blogger.  I've been blogging since 2006 and that's a lot of books.  Then, I also had trouble narrowing it down to ten.  But here are ten favourites that have stayed with me over the years.  I plan on re-reading some (all) of them eventually.

1. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

2. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

4. Kindred, by Octavia Butler

5. The Lord of The Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkein

6. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

7. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

8. Lives of Girls and Women, by Alice Munro

9. The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

10. Haroun and The Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie

I'm going to sneak in an honourable mention of books 1-6 of the Harry Potter series.

What books did you love before blogging?

I Have Chosen...

Feedly!  I've been using Feedly for a week.  I like Feedly better than Google Reader, I think.  I like the options for display.  I can make it look a lot like Google Reader or I can give it an expanded look.  I like the interface.  I find it very user friendly.  I really like that I can see how long it has been since a blog has posted.  As I've been making the change from Feedly to Google Reader, I found some blogs that were on my list hadn't posted in over a year (or longer!).

I know there were some people who chose Bloglovin' as their Google Reader replacement, but it just wasn't right for me.  It's a good site; if you want to stick with something that feels a lot like Google Reader, then this is probably your best option.

I had been considering Pulse, but there were a lot of options missing.  There were no dates on the articles.  No "Mark as Read", or "Keep Unread" button.  Pulse is lovely to look at.  I really liked the display.  But there weren't really any customizing options.  I like making things feel like mine and Pulse just felt like Pulse. I actually sent suggestions to Pulse and after looking at their forum, it looks like many other users did the same.  They were very nice about deleting my account and user data, so I have to say, their customer service is fantastic.

I don't think I'll be switching from Feedly anytime soon.  I enjoy their tablet and phone apps.  They're very easy to use and also easy on the eyes.

What Reader do you use? 

Touch

Has anyone seen Touch?  It's a television series starring Kiefer Sutherland as the father of an autistic, but extremely gifted boy.  I have to say that I'm loving this show.  Hubby and I have been watching the show since February.  It sadly has short seasons of 13 episodes, but there is a lot put into those episodes   I think there are three left so we can see what else will happen to Martin and his son Jake (hopefully something good).

We have been watching this show, thinking it's awesome, an interesting blend of science and spirituality, and we didn't realize that this is actually the second season.  So much was happening, Martin found Lucy, decided to help her finder her daughter, it was so easy to be drawn in, that we didn't realize were were missing something.  I was on Netflix one day and I saw Touch.  What?  How are the episodes already on Netflix?   I had a quick look and who did I see?  Danny Glover!  Then I did a little Wikipedia search and I found that Danny Glover was on season one.  Where was I when season one was on?  I'm going to blame babies for that one; I wasn't watching a lot of television while my son was an infant.  I was more interested in sleeping.

I plan on watching the first season.  Apparently, Martin and Jake started in New York.  I'd like to know what brought them to Los Angeles.  Touch is an interesting, unpredictable show, I can't wait to see what happens next... and what happened before.

Who Do I Choose?

I'm still trying to decide about what to use to replace Google Reader.  Right now, I keep going back and forth between Feedly and Pulse.  I've eliminated Bloglovin' from the contest.  It looks a lot like Google Reader, but I was thinking, if it's time for a change, why stay the same?  Though, I've seen a few of the blogs I follow decide on Bloglovin'...  Both Feedly and Pulse have mobile apps...  I suppose I could just try each out and then decide after a couple days of playing with it.  What do you think? Feedly or Pulse?

Solid Objects, by Virginia Woolf

 Spoilers... But it's hard to talk about Solid Objects without spoilers.  It's a very short, short story. 

A piece of green glass made John go crazy! He gave up everything. To collect rubbish. I actually barely noticed the Stream of Consciousness style, because everything following John, moved so fluidly. Solid Objects might be my new favourite of Virginia Woolf's short stories (sorry A Hauted House). I went in expecting at least some extra concentration needed, that I often find with Woolf's work. I didn't get any of that.

The plot was clear and engaging. The characters were interesting. I wonder, perhaps, if this isn't some kind of commentary on British society at the time... On politics or politicians? Maybe it was about the power of change. One tiny, insignificant object, garbage, really can change a person's entire life. There are levels to Solid Objects, while also being one of the most accessible of Woolf's stories. I've always thought that starting with Flush, Woolf's short novel, was a good place to begin when venturing into her work, but Solid Objects might have just changed my mind.

Short Story Monday is hosted by The Book Mine Set.

Title 4/60 for The Classics Club.

Sever

This is all going to be a bit spoilery, but I'll try to keep it vague.

Sever is Lauren DeStefano's final installment of the Chemical Garden Trilogy. I have been wanting to know what will happen to Rhine for what feels like ages. I definitely expected what happened to Vaughn, thought didn't expect how it happened. I pretty much figured out what the "Chemical Garden" was after I read Fever. I can't believe what happened to Linden. What happened to Gabriel was a big surprise.  I expected Rhine to spend half the book looking for him and the other half looking for her brother.  I have to say, I did not at all expect the twist with Rowan and Vaughn.  Everything was Vaughn!  Ahh!

I really enjoyed how the characters grew over the three books.  Rhine matured, wanting more than just to find her brother, but that remained her main motivation.  Linden learned so much. Gabriel did too.  Cecily was wonderful.  We really get a feeling of closure by the end, we know what happens to all the crazy people we encounter.  I also really liked that the "love triangle" wasn't really a triangle.. it was more like a hexagon!  I did like that it was never about Linden versus Gabriel.  I also liked that each had their own time to really get to know Rhine and Rhine to know them.  It was a wonderfully satisfying conclusion.  I'm looking forward to more work by Lauren DeStefano, now that The Chemical Garden has been harvested.