Some Books for You

Simon did this meme again, and given the fact that I am extremely busy, haven't reviewed much in the last two months, and am now sick, I figured I would give it another go too!

1. Book I am currently reading: With me, there's never just one! I'm reading A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli, (for school--I teach this to my freshmen), Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (also for school--I teach it to my juniors), and Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy, (for Wallace's readalong; I'm dreadfully behind). I'm currently listening to Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, by Rick Riordan, because I'm trying to find some more boy-friendly books that I can have on my classroom shelves.

2. Last book I finished: A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin. It's been my favorite of the series so far, but A Storm of Swords is really good so far!

3. Next book I want to read: I really want to read The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater, but I will probably read A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin, if my hold goes through at the library in time.

4. Last book I bought: The Scorpio Races. I've actually been REALLY good about not buying books lately ;).

5. Last book I was given: I don't get books very often. But I do have high hopes of getting this gem for Christmas:

Readathon: Update the Last

I got a little distracted by the internet last night, so I didn't manage much more reading. Overall, however, this was one of my more successful readathons! Can't wait for April's!

1.Which hour was most daunting for you? Probably from about 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. That's when I finally gave up and went to bed.
2.Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I was completely enthralled by the end of A Clash of Kings, but I think only the last 200 pages could be considered "high-interest" in terms of makes you want to keep reading even at 3 a.m. I did have The Scorpio Races but didn't get to it because I was so engrossed in Clash.
3.Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
4.What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Everything! I visited the site and others' blogs less this year just because I was driving for a good chunk of the time, but I LOVE the readathon!
5.How many books did you read? I read three and finished two.
6.What were the names of the books you read? Revolution, by Jennifer Donnelly, A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, and A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin.
7.Which book did you enjoy most? A Clash of Kings
8.Which did you enjoy least? There were parts of Revolution that dragged for me, but that's probably because I was in the car and listening for a LONG time.
9.If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
10.How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Very likely! And I'll probably sign up to cheerlead!

Here are my final stats:
Books finished: 0 (2 total)
Pages read: 37 (231 total)
Minutes listened: 45 (255 total)
Hours read: 1 1/2 (9 total)

Readathon: Update the Second

I just finished A Clash of Kings, and HOLY SMOKES. It was so good that I'm going to dive right into A Storm of Swords instead of starting The Scorpio Races. Given how much I've been looking forward to The Scropio Races, that is saying a lot!

Here's my progress:
Books finished: 1 (2 total)
Pages read: 169 (194 total)
Minutes listened: 0 (210 total)
Hours read: 3 1/2 (7 1/2 total)

Readathon: Update the First

I just got home from my parents', and I am DYING to dive back into A Clash of Kings! I read a bit when I stopped for lunch, and it got INTENSE!

Here are my bookish facts/stats:

Books finished: 1 (1 total)--Revolution, by Jennifer Donnelly
Pages read: 25 (25 total)
Minutes listened: 210 (210 total)
Hours read: 4 (4 total)

The Readathon Begins!

As you are reading this, I am driving home from my parents'. Luckily for me, I can still participate in the readathon because I'm listening to Revolution, by Jennifer Donnely, and will also probably have a chance to start the first Percy Jackson book, The Lightening Thief.

I don't have a strict schedule for today, but I do hope to come close to finishing A Clash of Kings, I'd like to read a good chunk of Anna Karenina,and, if UPS cooperates, The Scorpio Races will also make an appearance (I hope!).

Happy reading to all!

Further Evidence That I Am Crazy

But that's pretty much a prerequisite for an English teacher, right?

The evidence alluded to in my post title is the fact that I am joining Wallace's read-a-long of Anna Karenina. I actually tried to read this back in college, but a serious bout of mono derailed my reading, and I never went back to it. Each week's reading is extremely manageable, so I'm hoping this proves doable.

But why is that so crazy? Book bloggers join read-a-longs every day. Well, it's crazy because I'm starting a new reading project; it's even more crazy because I am currently 160 pages in to Clash of Kings (its over 1,000 pages long), and I have Storm of Swords staring me down from the shelf thanks to some fluke in the library system that resulted in my hold requests for both (1,000+ page books) being processed at the same time. This means that I have until October 21st to finish those two books, or else I have to return Storm of Swords without finishing it (highly unlikely) or keep it and rack up library fines (highly likely). We do have a school break in about two weeks which could help my chances on the bookish front, but still. What am I thinking?

There are too many books....I cannot resist them....

You know you have a book problem (is there such a thing?) when you start telling yourself things like, "well, it will be okay because I can read the Martin during D.I.R.T. (Daily Independent Reading Time--I do it three times a week with my freshmen), and I can read the Tolstoy on the weekends; everything will get read!" Only in a perfect world, self, only in a perfect world.

Now it's time to fess up: who else has this problem? Please tell me I am not alone...

Various and Sundry Things

Happy Sunday to all!

This has been a puttering type of weekend for me. I started to feel rather icky Friday morning at school and have been trying to ward off fully succumbing to illness (and missing school), so I haven't done much this weekend that required a lot of energy. I did enjoy going through my books to find some candidates for my new project (send me some suggestions! 1900-1920 are looking a little bare!), and I've managed to almost finish Game of Thrones. Sadly, I won't get the next book for almost three weeks, but I hope to get a good start on some of my project reading as I wait for A Clash of Kings.

Another excellent bit of bookish news is the fact that the date for the fall read-a-thon has been set: October 22 it is! Mark your calendars, sign up, and start stockpiling your books! I know I will.

I hope all of you are experiencing more typically fallish weather than we are here. The high for today is 81 (grrr), and I'm tired of it. Last year we had our first snow of the year the first week in October, so I just hope we get a little fall before winter comes to stay.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A New Project

A few days ago, Simon announced that in 2012 he was going to try to read a book published in ever year of the twentieth century. As soon as I read that, I knew I wanted to read through the twentieth century too!

I also knew, however, that I would need more than a year to try to finish the project. A hundred books is a lot of reading, and it is also about how many books I've read each year for the last few years; I can't see myself reading ONLY books for the project, so I'm going to go ahead and plan for some contingencies that will give me some freedom within the confines of the project.

I am going to start working on the project now; I hope that the extra three months will mean that I will be finished with the project by the end of 2012. I'm going to try to keep my reading for the project more on the classical side of things, and I'm going to try to include as many books that I already own as I can. I'm looking forward to reading Virginia Woolf, Iris Murdoch, and E.M. Forster for the first time!

I'll be making a project page to keep track of what I read, and I hope to review each book that I read for the project. If you have suggestions of things I MUST read, please share!

School Started....But You Probably Already Know That

Hi, bloggy friends!

Life has been a bit crazy these last few weeks with school starting; somehow I always manage to forget just how exhausting those first two weeks can be. School becomes the proverbial black hole, and it sucks everything (energy, ability to function, desire to socialize, desire to read for long periods) into its vortex. Things are settling into their routine, however, so the blog should start getting more attention from me!

Since school wasn't enough of a time-eater, I also (innocently, and without full knowledge of the implications of my decision) embarked on a journey through the Doctor Who universe shortly before school started. It is my NEW FAVORITE THING. It is amazing and geeky and everything that I like, so I will admit that when it came down to a choice between reading and watching another episode of Doctor Who (especially the first few days of school), I chose the Doctor every time.

I have a post of mini reviews planned for tomorrow, but here is some bookish goodness to hold you over until then.

1. Which book has been on your shelf the longest?
This is a tricky one. It's probably either my copy of Winnie the Pooh or one of my All-of-a-Kind Family books. The library was my main source of books as a child, and the compulsive book-collecting didn't start until I was in my teens.

2. What is your current read, your last read and your next read?
Currently I'm reading Game of Thrones and Ceremony; I'm listening to Anne of Green Gables in the car on my drive to work. The last book I finished was the audio version of A Long, Long Sleep, which was mediorcre at best. Next I will either read Sherman Alexie's War Dances or A Month in the Country since I am on the waiting list for A Clash of Kings, the sequel to Game of Thrones, at my library.

3. What book did everyone like and you hated?
One that I hated? Twilight. One that almost everyone loved but that I was fairly impartial to? The Help.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?
Hmmm...I like to think that I will at least give a book a try even if I end up not finishing it. I guess there's a pretty good chance that I will never get around to The Fountainhead.

5. Which book are you saving for your "retirement"?
I don't really work that way. Now if you asked me about books that I would definitely need to reread in retirement, I would tell you that I would like to reread all the Dickens that I have loved (Little Dorrit, Our Mutual Friend, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield)

6. Last page: read it first or save it for the end?
Always save it for the end. I don't understand people who read it first...

7. Author acknowledgements: waste of ink and space or an interesting aside?
I always read them if they are there. I find it especially enjoyable if I have read other books by the author or have some knowledge of the author's background and biography. Plus, sometimes the author acknowledges the reader (like J.K. Rowling did in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), which is pretty cool.

8. Which book character would you switch places with?
Probably either Hermione from Harry Potter or Beth from Attachments.

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life? (a person, a place, a time?)
Here's a few: I will always associate Nicholas Nickleby and The Hobbit with Segovia, Spain, because I read them while I was studying there. Another that comes to mind is Lord of the Rings. I was a freshman in college when the first movie came out, and that was also the first time that I read the books. Several of my friends were also Tolkein fans, which was fun. Return of the King stands out especially because I whenever I had a bad day or just needed to experience a little piece of beauty, I would reread the scene where Eowyn and Faramir are standing together on the battlements of Gondor. My copy of the book automatically falls open to that page ;).

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
When my friend DeAnna got married, she gave a personalized, meaningful gift to each or her bridesmaids. During our senior year of college, I basically forced her to read Jane Eyre; I pestered her and pestered her until she finally read, and I was very happy that she liked it after all that! Her gift to me was a beautiful, antique edition of Jane Eyre.

11. Have you ever given away a book to a special person for a special reason?
I gave a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird to a guy that I was dating. He hadn't read it, and things (I thought) were getting pretty serious, so I knew he had to read what I would name, if forced, as my favorite book. Things didn't work out between us, but at least he read that amazing novel!

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
Probably Lord of the Rings. The trilogy has been to England, Colorado, Tennessee, Minnesota, and North Dakota.

13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad ten years later?
I didn't hate very many things in high school, but what I did hate I haven't revisited. Oliver Twist is the one novel that I was required to read that I despised; I know that I will go back to it eventually and that I will probably appreciate it much more than I did as a sophomore in high school, but it just hasn't happened yet.

14. What's the strangest item you've ever found in a book?
I have no interesting stories for this one. I've found bookmarks and some interesting inscriptions, but nothing crazy.

15. Used or brand new?
Either. But if I buy it used, it can't have highlighting or writing in it. I don't mind if I highlight or write in it later, but it drives me crazy to try to read around someone else's thoughts.

16. Stephen King: literary genius or opiate to the masses?
I've never read any of his work because I am a wimp. I can't handle scary things AT ALL. One of my students last year told me I should read his fantasy series, which I might try eventually.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
I liked the movie The Jane Austen Book Club so much better than the book. And of course, Last of the Mohicans the movie is briliant (and not just because it has Daniel Day-Lewis) while Last of the Mohicans the book is BO-RING.

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
Hmmm....again, kind of coming up blank.

19. Have you ever read a book that made you hungry, excluding cookbooks?
Julie and Julia. Also, lots of British books with all their talk of tea and scones.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you always take?
My friend Sara. We have a very good bookish relationship. She's the reason I'm reading Game of Thrones. In the blogging world, Angie has never failed me. I've also found some real gems through Sasha (even though we have pretty different tastes), Dolce Bellezza, Wallace, Amy, Eva, and Allie.

Ooooooo, Pretty!

I have to warn you that this blog might become YA Central for a while. Let's just attribute it to the fact that I'm trying to get ready to head back to school, shall we (I go back Tuesaday...GAH...so unprepared...)?

Anyhoo, I came across this lovely book through goodreads, and after reading the premise, finding out about the series as a whole, and poking around on the author's website, I must say I am quite intrigued and excited by A Breath of Eyre, by Eve Marie Mont. This book is strongly connected to Jane Eyre (hooray!), the second is connected to The Scarlet Letter, and the third is connected to The Phantom of the Opera (huzzah!)! They sound very clever, and the author seems lovely. You should definitely check her out!

In other, non-book related news, I think I'm about to succumb to Dr. Who. I've been hearing so many good things about for a long, long time, and I think the time to give in has come (plus I just finished Friday Night Lights *sob*). Anyone have any suggestions as to where to start in the Who oeuvre?

Tris and Izzie: Oh, I'll Be Honest...

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley

I'll admit two things: I was pretty excited when I saw Tris & Izzie, by Mette Ivie Harrison listed on NetGalley; I had seen it mentioned on both Angie's and Steph's blogs and found the cover just breathtaking. Secondly, I am not familiar with the fairy tale Tristan and Isolde, but I do know of the opera story, and I saw the surprisingly un-terrible movie from a few years agao.

All that being said, I was pretty disappointed. Some of that may be because I don't know the fairy tale, but the weaknesses in the plot and writing and characters went far beyond any lack of knowledge of the original on my part. I was expecting a story of star-crossed lovers who loved and lost, but I got a poorly structured, ridiculously magical, over-the-top (and not in a good way) adventure story instead.

Izzie has everything she wants: a great best friend, a super popular boyfriend, and a mom who does her best to provide for her and love her in the wake of her father's death when she was five. Things start to change (quite quickly) when Tris starts to hang out with Izzie's boyfriend. Turns out Izzie and Tris are destined to love each other, fight evil, and use their magical powers together to slay Gurmun, the demonic, seemingly (but not really) immortal serpent terrorizing the magical kingdom of Curvenal.

As I read, I kept thinking about Harry Potter. I don't know if this was intentional on Harrison's part or not, but everything from Izzie not knowing of her magic right away to the way she decides to sacrifice herself and the whole process she goes through to come to that decision came across as watered down Potter magic. Add to this the fact that none of the major plot developments have a sense of inevitability or reason for happening, and the story really falls flat.

What probably drove me the most crazy about this book, however, was the characterization of Izzie, Tris, Mark (Izzie's boyfriend at the beginning), and Branna (Izzie's best friend). None of these characters are terribly compelling and much as they try, none of them are dynamic either in the literary sense (they change and grow) or the personaltiy sense (you care and want to know what happens to them). Reading the book was like watching cardboard cut-outs being moved around a stage. They lacked depth and any sort of logic or reasoning behind their interactions with each other: Izzie and Tris fall in love and it's not because of the love potion? why? Mark feels very little about Izzie breaking up with him despite supposedly loving her deeply? why? Izzie has no problem with Mark and Branna getting together about 30 seconds after she breaks up with Mark? why? Mark easily and completely falls in love with Branna 30 seconds after Izzie breaks up with him? why?

There was one thing that I liked about this book: the cover. It is beautiful and haunting but doesn't really give an accurate impression of what the book will really be about (and it helped contribute to my confusion about why there was a giant evil serpent in a story that I thought was about a pre-Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet). Sadly, the story didn't live up to its gorgeous cover.


*Tris & Izzie will be released October 11, 2011*

Rabbits, Rabbits, Everywhere: Of Mice and Men

So far in my reading life, Steinbeck has been something of a mixed bag for me. I HATED "The Pearl," which was my first encounter with him, but that could very well be because my eighth grade English teacher made us read it three or four times over the course of studying it, which I did because I was a good little rule-follower. Again, this loathing could be misplaced and not Steinbeck's fault, but I do so detest "The Pearl." But I digress. My second encounter with Steinbeck was much better. The Grapes of Wrath was assigned as summer reading before my senior year of high school. At that point, I had a terrible track record with summer reading (despite being a rule-follower), probably because I was too busy reading what I WANTED to read during the summer rather than all the assigned reading which I diligently, and almost religiously, read during the school year. Imagine my surprise, then, when The Grapes of Wrath became not only the first summer reading book I ever actually finished but also was a book I rather enjoyed despite it coming from the same author who produced the oh-so-reprehensible "The Pearl." A while back (possibly years? my, time does fly), my book club read East of Eden. I didn't know quite how I felt about the novel and decided to reserve judgment until I could read it again over a shorter period of time.

When the Classics Circuit announced a Steinbeck tour, I knew I had to participate. While contemplating what book to choose, I will admit to being heavily influenced in my selection by Lost; ultimately I chose Of Mice and Men because of Lost (if you want to know how Lost is connected to the novel, you can go here. But be warned: there are spoilers for the novel and, depending on how you see it, the show itself.).


If Of Mice and Men is about anything, it is about dreams. Specifically, it is about the dream that George and Lennie have to own their own piece of land that they can work, control, and belong to. This dream of owning their own farm is really a thinly veiled desire for home and belonging, and it is their dream as a representation of home and belonging that becomes so appealing to other characters in the novel (especially Candy, an old, soon-to-lose-his-usefullness farmhand and Crooks, the ostracized Black stable hand). In typical Steinbeck fashion, however, this dream is not easily achieved, and many, many obstacles stand in the way of George and Lennie getting their farm.

Ironically, Lennie, who thinks about and clings to this dream more than anyone else in the novel, himself is probably the biggest and most consistent obstacle to achieving the dream. He longs to have rabbits he can care for, he is constantly telling George how he can't wait to live off the "fatta the land," and he is very, very strong, but Lennie has the mind and understanding of a child and often finds himself in trouble without knowing why. George, for reasons left unrevealed to the reader. takes care of Lennie, tries to protect him, and, ultimately, shows him kindness and love, but even he can't keep Lennie from destroying the possibility of achieving their dream.

I was reminded of two other works of fiction while reading Of Mice and Men: The Heart is a Lonely Hunger, by Carson McCullers, and East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. George and Lennie's relationship made me think about John Singer's friendship with Spiros Antanopolos; there's not really much of a comparison there, but this friendship from McCullers' novel popped into my mind several times as I read Of Mice and Men. It was the character of Crooks that reminded me of East of Eden. Like he does with Lee in East of Eden, Steinbeck writes Crooks to directly contradict many of the racial stereotypes and prejudices that would have been prevalent in the 1930s. Both Lee (a Chinese man) and Crooks (a Black man) are atypical according to stereotype, and I wondered while reading about Crooks, as I did while reading about Lee, what Steinbeck was trying to do with these two characters. I'd love to read more about it, so if you know of some resources, please let me know!

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel, which makes my Steinbeck experience more positive than negative or ambiguous. I think this would be a great introduction to Steinbeck (unlike "The Pearl"...okay, I'll stop complaining about "The Pearl" now): it showcases his writing style (there are some truly beautiful descriptions), it is set in California, a place he comes back to again and again, it deals with the struggling working American man, and many of the themes and ideas touched upon in the novel are expressed and fleshed out in Steinbeck's longer works.

Yes, Please!

My review of Of Mice And Men will be up a bit later today, but I simply had to share this bit of loveliness with you:

Book Snob is hosting a readalong of Persuasion in September. Given the fact that Persuasion might be my favorite Austen, I will definitely be joining in the festivities! Plus, the button is just to die for!


If you want more details, go here. Hope to see you there!

Testament of Youth, Testament of Pain

Out there, we've walked quite friendly up to Death, —
Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland, —
Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.
We've sniffed the green thick odour of his breath, —
Our eyes wept, but our courage didn't writhe.
He's spat at us with bullets and he's coughed
Shrapnel. We chorused when he sang aloft,
We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.

Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
No soldier's paid to kick against His powers.
We laughed, — knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags
He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.

--"The Next War," by Wilfred Owen

I have been listening to Benjamin Briton's War Requiem and had to pretty much stop everything to just listen when I heard these lyrics. Briton wrote War Requiem in memory of three friends who died in World War II, and he used many of Wilfred Owen's poems as the text for the requiem. Owen was a poet who wrote about his experiences in World War I, which, of course, is why I'm listening to Briton's Requiem.

I have been quite haunted by Testament of Youth. I've already mentioned how the memoir has set me off on a bit of a WWI fixation, but in all honesty it is more than just a desire to learn more about the War (although there is that as well); I want to understand what happened and see how in the world what Vera Brittain experienced could ever have occurred. In Hew Strachan's introduction to The First World War, he explains that in the purely statistical, economic, historical sense, there was no Lost Generation: populations were rebounding and those lost in the War and the Influenza Epidemic had, numerically, been replaced. But in the emotional, pyschological, and spiritual reality of post-War life, Strachan points out, there very much was a Lost Generation that left behind wounded, devasted lives who would have to reconcile themselves to living while bearing all they had lost.

Vera Brittain was one such life.

If ever there was someone unprepared to live the realities of war (not to mention modern war), it was Vera Brittain at the beginning of the War. Brittain grew up at the very end of the Victorian era, and Vicatorian ideas about propriety, manners, relationships, and a woman's place in the world were still very much in place in the provincial town where Brittain grew up. Her desire to study and go to Oxford baffled, confused, and even angered her parents, and she was left largely on her own to prepare for her exams, apply to Oxford, and navigate actually getting to Oxford. A bright, motivated spirit was not exactly in high demand in the future wives of Great Britain! Brittain was so sheltered as she was growing up that going to Oxford to live in a dorm was shocking and eye-opening, so the reader knows from the beginning that training as a VAD, nursing, and serving on the front will be a seemingly unbearable, horrible, and shocking experience for Brittain.

Given how hard Brittain worked and how important going to Oxford was to her, it is truly impressive that she gave up Oxford after her first year. Her brother, Edward, and soon-to-be fiancé, Roland, enlisted as soon as war was declared, and Brittain felt she must do something to help the war effort.

Brittain makes it very clear that she had no real desire to nurse; she volunteered because she needed to do something on the same scale as Edward and Roland. She also makes it very clear that these three, like thousands of others, felt a patriotic duty to their country and so gallantly, yet foolishly, joined the war effort with very little understanding of why the war was being fought and how their participation would affect the outcome of the war. This blind allegiance and youthful optimism are portrayed in a painful, poignant manner as Brittain details the story of her war experience. We know things will end badly, she knows things will end badly, yet her writing is so skillful that each battle, each letter, each waiting, each turn is painful and heartwrenching; we experience everything along with Brittain. There were moments I couldn't breathe because Brittain had so keenly portrayed her hope, her fear, her anger, and her mourning.

Brittain wrote her Testament almost seventeen years after the war ended, and I think her older, more mature understanding of the world (and perhaps even her ability to see the rumblings of another war on the horizon) serves her memoir well. Brittain very much condemns the War to End All Wars, and like Owen finds it despicable that men, including her men, fought "Death" for "men" and "flags" rather than "lives." Brittain became a pacifist as a result of her experiences in World War I, which is not terribly surprising. But she was a pacifist not just because she had seen the individual and personal destruction that war had brought; she also saw the historical and economical uselessness of war. Several years after the War ended, Brittain and her good friend Winifred Holtby actually toured the parts of Germany and France that were most affected by the War, and Brittain came to understand that this war had cost everyone, and though the Allies may have been named the victors, no one really won.

Brittain struggled for many years (which she documents in her memoir) to find purpose and to understand how her life could have any meaning without Edward, Roland, and other beloved friends she had lost. She details her darkest times and explains how alone she truly felt. Slowly, she starts to move on, and, eventually, contemplates a completely different kind of life with a man with whom she does not share the War (at least not in the same way that she shared the war with Edward, Roland, and others). Towards the end of her book, however, she finds some reconciliation with what had happened, at least in terms of herself:

"If the dead could come back, I wondered, what would they say to me? Roland [her fiancee]--you who wrote in wartime France of 'another stranger'--would you think me, because I marry him, forgetful and unfaithful? Edward [her brother], Victor, Geoffrey, would you have me only remember you, only dwell in those days that we shared so long ago--or would you wish my life to go on? In spite of the War, which destroyed so much hope, so much beauty, so much promise, life is still here to be lived; so long as I am in the world, how can I ignore the obligation to be part of it, cope with its problems, suffer claims and interruptions? The surge and swell of its movements, its changes, its tendencies, still mould me and the surviving remnant of my generation whether we wish it or not, and no one now living will ever understand so clearly as ourselves, whose lives have been darkened by the universal breakdown of reason in 1914, how completely the future of civilised humanity depends upon the success of our present halting endeavours to control our political and social passions, and to substitute for our destructive impulses the vitalising authority of constructive thought. To rescue mankind from that domination by the irrational which leads to war could surely be a more exultant fight than war itself, a fight capable of enlarging the souls of men and women with the same heightened consciousness of living, and uniting them in one dedicated community whose common purpose transcends the individual. Only the purpose itself would be different, for its achievement would mean, not death, but life.

To look forward, I concluded, and to have courage--the courage of adventure, of challenge, of initiation, as well as the courage of endurance--that was surely part of fidelity. The lover, the brother, the friends whom I had lost, had all in their different ways possessed this courage, and it would not be utterly wasted if only, through those who were left, it could influence the generation, still to be, and convince them that, so long as the spirit of man remained undefeatable, life was worth living and worth giving. If somehow I could make my contemporaries, and especially those who, like myself, had once lost heart, share this belief; if perhaps, too, I could have children, and pass on to them the desire for this courage and the impulse to redeem the tragic mistakes of the generation which gave them birth, then Roland and Edward and Victor and Geoffrey would not have died vainly after all. It was only the past that they had taken to their graves, and with them, although I should always remember, I must let it go. '...Under the sway / Of death the past's enormous disarray / Lies hushed and dark.' So Henley had written: and so, with my eyes on the future, I must now resolve."

Testament of Youth is so many things: it is a condemnation of the choices leading up to and continuing World War I, it is a plea for pacifism and alternative conflict resolution, it is an expression of grief and mourning, it is an example of healing, but most of all it is a labor of and testament to love: yes, Brittain mourns the men she lost in the War, but she also brings them to life, pays tribute to them, and records them so their memories may live on.

I owe a huge debt to Laura for bringing my attention to this book (you can check out her review of the book here). This is one of those books that changed my life, and I know it is a book that I will come back to again and again. As an American, my working knowledge of World War I was fairly vague (as I think is fairly typical for most Americans with only a high school understanding of World War I). The emphasis had always seemed to be on World War II, and the US doesn't have any sort of observed day of remembrance and acknowledgment for World War I, probably because the country became involved in the conflict rather late in the game. This book gave me new respect, appreciation, and feeling for all those who fought and sacrificed in World War I. Thanks to this book, you will not be forgotten.

The Scorpio Races

Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favorite young adult novelists; I've read all her books, and I would say she is probably the writer that brought me into the young adult reading fold. I adored Shiver, really loved Linger, and almost couldn't talk after finishing Forever.

So when I had the chance to meet Stiefvater a few weeks ago and get my copies of the Wolves of Mercy Falls signed, I jumped at the chance. She was funny, warm, and so kind; Stiefvater is an artist in so many ways, so hearing her speak about her experiences as a writer, artist, and musician was very enjoyable. Stiefvater mentioned that her next book, The Scorpio Races, was her favorite of all her books. I was familiar with the premise and was already excited for the book, but that pretty much sealed the deal, and The Scorpio Races became a must-read.

I mentioned that Stiefvater is an artist and musician; what I didn't mention is that she makes her own book trailers for her books. Here is the trailer for The Scorpio Races; Stiefvater did all the artwork and composed and played the music in the trailer. Cool, huh?

Derailing the Reading Plan

Even though I am very much a planner in real life, the most planning I do when it comes to my reading is reserving books at the library and participating (rather badly given my track record) in read-a-longs and book tours. I also will mentally calculate my next few books, but these plans are seldom set in stone and very rarely accomplished as planned.

My current loosely constructed plan was to try to finish The First World War before next Friday night because that is when my book club will be discussing Testament of Youth. I also was rereading the Lady Julia Grey books to prepare to read Raybourn's newest installment. After that, I was ready to give in to the winds of Maisie Dobbs, the sirens of WWI, and those wily reading fates.

Turns out the wily reading fates have stepped in a bit earlier than expected (as they are wont to do...they are fates after all). One of the blogs I love best (and one of the blogs that inspired me to start my own book blog) is Stuck in a Book. Simon has such a wonderful knowledge of books and stories, and I always find unexpected gems on his blog. Today I found mention of an article in The Guardian that moved Simon to tears and the book that the article was excerpted from, Let Not the Waves of the Sea. After reading the article (and being moved to tears myself), I jumped on my library's website to reserve it. It is not there. I went to Barnes & Noble. com; they don't have it either. I then proceeded to my old standby, Amazon. Turns out it has not yet been released in the U.S., but it is available in Kindle format.

As soon as I saw that, I felt that old familiar feeling, and knew my plans were of no use. For the foreseeable future, I will be reading Let Not the Waves of the Sea. Oh, reading fates, you are cunning!

A Well of Despair and Joy

Never fear, my friends! The despair and joy have all been of the vicarious, literary variety. Since my last posting, I have found myself immersed in the world of Harry Potter (both on the page and on the screen, and crying through both), marvelling at the wonders of Oxford (courtesy of A Discovery of Witches--not sure how I feel about it yet), and feeling deeply for the pain and loss that made up the War to End All Wars as experienced and depicted by Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth.

I will be reviewing Testament of Youth very soon, but I think the review will not be the end of it; this memoir has taken a distinct and strong hold on me (it even achieved the impossible: I found myself wondering during Deathly Hallows, Part 2 at what a difference it makes to fight a war (against Voldemort) that has meaning, purpose, and necessity; I think Brittain would have envied Harry & Co. their conviction and knowledge that fighting Voldemort was absolutely necessary and must be done, but more on that later!).

I have also picked up The First World War, by Hew Strachan, in an effort to understand this war more. I knew little about it beyond major dates, vague memories of battles, and Wilfred Owen's "Dule et decorum est." Now I find that I must know as much about the war as possible, and I sense that I could well be reading about the war (in both fiction and nonfiction) for quite a while.


So there you have it. What has captured your reading imagination of late?

Maggie Stiefvater Is Still Brilliant

After finishing Linger, I had no idea how I was going to make it a year before finding out what happened to Sam and Grace; ironically, I almost missed the release date for Forever because my brain was completely convinced that it came out at the end of July. Happily for me, my brain was wrong, and I was able to devour Forever a full two weeks earlier than I thought I would!

Like Shiver and Linger, Forever delivers another tale of love, sacrifice, and how to truly live life. The writing is just as achingly beautiful, and the use of poetry and song lyrics were pitch-perfect. Indeed, these stories would not be these stories without the songs and poems and flashes of art that imbue the writing so effortlessly. Good story is important, but I think the thing that will keep me coming back to these novels for a long time is the quality of the writing. They are so well-written and achingly reflective of the truth; this book was no exception in its ability to make me catch my breath and pause at a phrase, sentence, or passage so exquisite that it required time regardless of my urgent need to read, read, read to find out the rest of the story.

Just as Linger expanded the reader's focus from Sam and Grace to Sam, Grace, Isabel, and Cole, Forever expands its focus to center on the pack as a whole; and it is not just the pack as an abstract or a fact of Sam's past or a future responsibility for Cole: the pack is a very real factor in the present for both Sam and Grace once more. When the pack is threatened, it is not just the most important pieces of Sam's past that are threatened. Instead, it is Grace's (and by extension Sam's) future that is threatened as well. As Sam and Grace continue to struggle through these obstacles, their story widens to include Cole and Isabel. As I stated in my review of Linger, I didn't really care much about what happened between Cole and Isabel because I was so wrapped up in Sam and Grace's storyline. In Forever, however, I became very invested in Cole and Isabel and was so happy with they way they ended up by the end of the novel.

The end of the novel may be unsatisfying to some, but I really thought it was perfect. I know what I think happens beyond the end of the story (which Stiefvater left ambiguous), but the ending being happy or sad wasn't really, I think, the point. I think the point was what the characters in the novel learn by the end. They all, at some point early in the series, learned to survive in the strictest sense of the word; what they do in Forever is learn to live. Grace is the least conflicted of the four in the novel, probably because her battle to merely survive was lost (or possibly the definition of survival was changed) at the end of Linger; for her, the biggest battle is to make it back to Sam and recognize herself and their relationship in a very different light. Sam, however, has some major demons to slay: for him, truly living is all about facing down his fears. Whether it be bathtubs, Beck's true motives, shifting again, or losing Grace, Sam must come to grips with the things that have held him captive. These things were all built up very poignantly in the first two books, and seeing Sam deal with them (realistically and honestly) create some of the most moving scenes in the novel. The fact that Sam moves past being controlled by these fears is part of why the ambiguity of the ending didn't bother me; the point is not so much happens over the winter but that Sam's life can really now be a life.

Cole and Isabel are fighting to move past what they label the "toxicity" of their separate pasts that leads them to push each other away for fear of being toxic to each other. Cole starts to win his battle first and is able to show Isabel that they are only as toxic as they choose to be. Cole St. Clair grew over the course of this novel, and we see glimpses of the leader Beck knew he could be from the very beginning of the story. Isabel, on the other hand, must give up her hardness and desire to push people away in order to truly live. Her choice at the end of the novel is huge precisely because it is completely selfless; she believes she has no hope for her own happy ending, but she takes action at great cost to herself for friends who have really become her family.

In the end, this series is about love in all its forms. It is the story of friends, family, and lovers living life and taking care of each other. I so wish that I could speak more eloquently about this book and this series, but perhaps I'm still a bit too close to the experience of reading it to do so. Just trust me: read these books!

Check out Angie's wonderful review: it says everything I couldn't!

"How Harry Saved Reading"

I found this extremely interesting article over at Dickensblog. I didn't intend for the blog to have a Harry Potter theme this month, but it's sort of happening, so I'll just go with it!

The article details the Harry Potter phenomenon and then shows how Rowling was influenced by Charles Dickens. It also touches on the fact that Harry Potter made kids want to read again; the best part is, it was a well-written series of books that brought many kids back to the reading fold (*ahem-ahem* Twilight, I'm looking at you...)

Here's the link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584004576419742308635716.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Is This Even Possible?