It's Monday! What Are You Reading?: March 8, 2010

Hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books, It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly bookish meme whereby bloggers share their reading for the past week.


It was a slow reading week for me. I just couldn't seem to settle down and reign in my short attention span, so I only finished one book.


This week, I finished reading:

The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley


This week, I reviewed (Click on the title to read my review):

Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin
Gone With the Wind (Chapters 1-9) by Margaret Mitchell

This week, I'm reading:

Gone With the Wind (Chapters 10-18) by Margaret Mitchell
A Century Turns by William J. Bennett
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Fallen by Kate Francis

This week, I hope to begin reading:

Gone With the Wind (Chapters 19-27) by Margaret Mitchell
The Flesh Statue by U.L. Harper
The Lady of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Sea Glass by Anita Shreve

What are you reading this week? 

Gone With the Wind Read-Along: Chapters 1-9

Last week, I found this post by Amy at My Friend Amy. She was proposing an informal read-along of Gone With the Wind and The Wind Done Gone. I've had a used copy of GWTW sitting on my shelf for awhile now, so I thought joining in as other bloggers read the book would be fun.

First, I must warn you that I have never read this book, nor have I seen the movie. I know, shocking, isn't it? It's just something that hasn't appealed to me until recently, even though I love the Civil War era. As a result of 25 years of complete lack of exposure to GWTW, outside of the occasional clip or famous line, I had no idea what to expect. I likely will draw some conclusions as I read this book that those of you who have read the book/seen the movie may laugh at because they're likely very naive in terms of what happens later, but I like to live under my rock, thank you very much.

Here's what I thought of the first nine chapters:

I think Mitchell does a great job of portraying life in antebellum Georgia. The settings are lush and green, the manners are genteel and the people are charming. I can already see why, simply on the strength of her writing alone, Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for this book.

I have to discuss Scarlett O'Hara, as she is the main character and all. At first, I really liked her. She was just sassy enough to endear her to me, and she had a little extra spark that wasn't considered "proper" in a Southern belle. Then, she became a shallow little teenager. I had to keep reminding myself that she is only 16 years old, which accounts for her selfish behavior and flighty ways, because she was so obsessive about finding a husband. She has no ability to be nice or charitable to any other female, other than her mother, because she's always in competition with them.

She continued to grate on my nerves when she decided to marry Charles even though she didn't care for him. But, again, I had to remind myself that she was only 16 and a lot of 16-year-olds do really stupid, selfish things. However, she didn't get any better in the selfish department after getting married, becoming a widow and having a baby. If anything, she got worse because she became so jealous of all the girls her age who didn't have to live under the same restrictions she did.

Even though we only see him briefly in the first nine chapters -- once at the Wilkes' barbecue and once at the hospital fundraiser -- I really, really like Rhett Butler already. He impresses me as a Mr. Darcy: A man who has a bad reputation and makes for a really good foil to the main character. I think there's definitely a lot more to him than meets the eye, but we shall see.

I also really like Melanie. She's quiet, kind and definitely more deserving of Ashley Wilkes (What we know of him now, at least) than Scarlett is.

I'm really excited to read the rest of this book over the course of the next several weeks. I'm glad Amy decided to host this read-along and break the book down into manageable sections because, if I were to tackle it straight off my shelves and on my own, I think I might just end up putting it aside for something else because it's just so long.

In My Mailbox (5)

Hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren, In My Mailbox explores the contents of bloggers' mailboxes on a weekly basis.

 

The Life of Glass by Jillian Cantor - This signed (!!) copy was a win from The Novel Girls and sent to me by Jillian Cantor herself!

Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Life, Death, and Everything in Between by Theresa Brown - From the publisher

Next by James Hynes - A Twitter win from @littlebrown - This is a Reagan Arthur book, so I am so excited to read it for the Reagan Arthur Books Challenge hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion and Julie at Booking Mama!

Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser by William Irwin and Richard Brian Davis - From the publisher for review

It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian by Samir Selmanovic - From the publisher for review

Denise's Daily Dozen by Denise Austin - A win from The Book Chick 

What was in your mailbox this week?

 

 

Booking Through Thursday: Grammar

In honor of National Grammar Day … it IS “March Fourth” after all … do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books?


More importantly, have you read them?

How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?

For more Booking Through Thursday responses, click here.

In a way, I'm embarrassed to admit the answer to this question...

I have several grammar, writing and style books in my house. I have a few MLA guidebooks, a few AP stylebooks from my former life as a reporter, several grammar books and a bunch of other random writing and grammar books. Most of them come from my college years, where writing and style books often were required course books, but I keep them around because I think having references is important.

I don't refer to/read them particularly often, mostly because I've internalized many of the grammatical rules. I'm not being elitist here or anything, I just spent so much of my life writing and teaching others how to write that the rules just became second nature.

Grammar is incredibly important in my book. I cringe when I see misspellings and blatant grammatical errors in my reading, whether it be books, newspapers or blogs. I've been known to point out errors on signs and in advertisements to friends (Most notably, the "20 Items or Less" checkout at Wal-Mart - AHHH!). It bothers me when I hear obvious grammatical errors on TV and in movies, except when a character's background supports poor grammar. These people are professional writers and should know their stuff, but many don't.

Unfortunately, grammar is overlooked far too often in schools now. I have friends who went on to become teachers and were told, during their student teaching tenures, not to "worry" about proper grammar on papers. It was the ideas that supposedly counted. As a result, we have kids who cannot form coherent sentences but who spend so much of their time writing through text, instant message and blogs. It's just sad and makes me fear for the future of actual writing.

I could go on for a lot longer on this subject, but I will spare you all my grammar diatribe. In short, yes, grammar is vital and I strive to use proper grammar at all times.

Review: Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin

Title: Brooklyn: A Novel

Author: Colm Toibin

Pages: 262

Source: The library where I work

Rating: 9/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review challenge

First Sentence: "Eilis Lacey, sitting at the window of the upstairs living room in the house on Friary Street, noticed her sister walking briskly from work."

Summary (From book flap):

Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she cannot find a job in the miserable Irish economy. When and Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America -- to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood "just like Ireland" -- she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.

Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, a blond Italian from a big family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. He takes Eilis to Coney Island and Ebbets Field, and home to dinner in the two-room apartment he shares with his brothers and parents. He talks of having children who are Dodgers fans. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.

My Two Cents:

I absolutely loved this novel. If I hadn't had other distractions to deal with, I easily could have finished it in an afternoon. It was short, but rich in characterization and lyricism.

The central character, Eilis, is just what anyone would expect of a fairly sheltered girl moving to a big city in a foreign country. After a lifetime spent in the shadow of her sister, she doesn't know how to act when all the focus is on her. It takes Eilis some time to gain her sea legs, so to speak, and even then she struggles somewhat with the female relationships into which her boarding situation forces her.She is a woman caught between two worlds, and the reader really gets to see that struggle. As the end of the book neared, I found myself growing angry with Eilis for some of the choices she made, but I also could see that her choices grew out of the way Toibin had characterized her for the bulk of the book.

My favorite character, though, was Tony. I couldn't help but smile nearly every time he came into the action. He was funny and charming and incredibly caring. You know how everyone on the Twilight bandwagon says they want to find their Edward? Well, I would want to find my Tony. I just adored him.

Toibin's writing is beautiful. He brings both small-town Ireland and big-city New York to life on the page, and he writes a very convincing female character in Eilis. Here's an example of his writing, chosen at random:

She lay on the bed with the letters beside her. For the past few weeks, she realized, she had not really thought of home. The town had come to her in flashing pictures, such as the one that had come during the afternoon of the sale, and she had thought of course of her mother and Rose, but her own life in Enniscorthy, the life she had lost and would never have again, she had kept out of her mind. Every day she had come back to this small room in this house full of sounds and gone over everything new that had happened. Now, all that seemed like nothing compared to the picture she had of home, of her own room, the house in Friary Street, the food she had eaten there, the clothes she wore, how quiet everything was.

The only criticism I have of this book is that Eilis makes a big choice in the end, but she doesn't make that choice for the reason I would have liked her to. Was the decision in character for her? Yes. Did it make sense? Yes. But, did I like the reason behind that choice? No, I didn't.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes vivid characters, flowing prose passages and coming-of-age stories.

Teaser Tuesday: March 2, 2010

Teaser 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!

Here are mine:

Rhett, standing in the hall, his hat in his hand, heard as he was intended to hear and, turning, surveyed the room for a moment. He looked pointedly at Mrs. Elsing's flat bosom, grinned suddenly and, bowing, made his exit. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, p. 195







The trident thrust and the Samnite convulsed and then was still, his bright blood staining the sand. Gaius sat back, licking his dry lips, his throat raw from cheering. The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley, p. 307







Then she pulled a Seattle map out of her backpack. As she studied the city's confusing layout, she pondered the impact of landscape upon personality. Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos, p. 147

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?: March 1, 2010

Note: My 50 Followers contest (international) ends at 10 p.m. CST today. Click here for details.

Hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books, It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly bookish meme whereby bloggers share their reading for the past week.

This week, I finished reading:

Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure by Allan Richard Shickman
Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin
Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country by Allan Richard Shickman

This week, I reviewed (Click on the title to be taken to my review):
Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

This week, I'm reading:
The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley
A Century Turns by William J. Bennett
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

This week, I hope to begin reading:
Lady of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Flesh Statue by U.L. Harper
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosenay

What are you reading this week?