book trail: august
hello book trailians. (and all you book trailian wannabes. i know you’re out there.) i am here to pump you up for this month’s read: what is the what by dave eggers.
now, dave eggers is a special man. he writes the kind of books that really polarize people: readers either love eggers and devote their lives to him or they hate him with a kind of vehemence that is really sort of startling.
as is customary for me in all kinds of polarizing subjects, i can see the virtue in both sides of the argument. i both love eggers and i hate him. i love the olympics and i hate what’s happening in darfur. (see?)
this newest eggers book is written alongside valentino achak deng, a real-life survivor of sudan. bless eggers heart, he can’t call the book true anymore (thank you very much, oprah and james frey) but it is semi-true. (go ahead and throw stones, but isn’t everything about life both completely true and “semi-true” all at the same time?)
i hope you’ll give this one a try. i’ve been waiting for months for my number to come up at the local library and it looks like my time has finally arrived!
if you’ve started what is the what and you’ve caught yourself thinking, “this eggers boy is a freaking genius” then check out a heartbreaking work of staggering genius and mcsweeney’s. you won’t be disappointed.
join us august 31st to laud or defame what is what. whichever camp you’re in, i promise it will be fun.
Filed under book trail | Comment (0)wind in the willows
yikes. i’m a little late. [every day seems to slip into the next when i’m on vacation.]
in any case, did you not love wind in the willows? this time through i read the 100th anniversary edition–the pictures are absolutely magical. i love mole. i love rat. i love toad. i don’t think i’ll ever get tired of them.
what was your favorite part?
Filed under book trail, children's lit | Comments (3)the brothers karamazov
here it is. the end of june. have you finished the brothers karamazov? neither have i. but i’m still there. i’m still reading. and gosh darn it, i’m going to finish if it kills me. (which it just might.) here’s our guest host’s review: don’t worry, no spoilers or loosening of important plot points follows. feel free to read and comment no matter how far you got into the heavy thing.
I figured we should start our discussion with the introduction because many people may have read this far before the enormity of the task overcame their best intentions to read the entire book. If that is not the case, at least you know where to look for the introduction in the book.
I love the introduction to this book because of the many different roles it plays in the story. On the one hand, it gives us a taste of the voice of the narrator unencumbered by the plot and characters. This is particularly valuable in this novel because Dostoevsky often highlights the narrator’s voice in the foreground of his novel. Is the narrator a participant in the story? How does the narrator’s extreme proximity to the events of the story shape the narrative that s/he relates? Is s/he trustworthy? Is s/he one of the named characters in the story? I don’t have good answers to any of these questions, but they make the novel fun to read and reread.
On the other hand, the introduction draws particular attention to Alexey Fyodorovich Karamazov (Alyosha) as the ‘hero’ of the novel. If we take this comment at face value, the novel becomes a standard bildungsroman with Alyosha as the central character who passes through moments of spiritual crisis on his way to greater understanding.
What sets Brothers apart in my mind is the masterful way in which Dostoevsky engages the big questions from a variety of viewpoints. Dostoevsky’s writing is often noted for its polyphonic nature (a multiplicity of independent voices within a single work), but many times when you pin somebody down and try to get them to tell you exactly what that means, the waffling begins. As I read Brothers this time, I was struck by the variety of themes and voices in the novel. I really felt the richness of his characters as they struggled with the fundamental issues treated in the book (guilt, responsibility, suffering of innocents, family, loyalty, greed, buffoonery, faith). Dostoevsky allows each of his characters to experience and express these themes and allows each to move from the background to the foreground in the words and actions of each of his characters. The best comparison I hav eheard likens Dostoevsky’s style to a symphony―themes emerge in one voice, and are later picked up and developed by another voice in the orchestra. When we encounter the same theme in a different voices, we take something new away from the experience. So it is with reading Dostoevsky.
The themes of suffering and responsibility/guilt stood out to me in my reading this time. (Perhaps this is because of the circumstances in which I read the book.) These themes are inextricably linked by the the contradictory phrases that Dostoevsky associates with them in the book . . . On the one hand, “All are guilty (often translated as responsible) for all and for everything.” (все виновны перед всеми и за все) but at the same time, “All is permissible.” These statements seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum in the first sections of the book, representing the wide range of philosophies embraced by the members of the Karamazov family. Throughout the course of the novel, these ideologies charge towards each other, finally colliding in the climactic episode of the story (though we do not see them collide until long after the ‘climactic’ event has taken place). Again, Dostoevsky’s narrator leaves it to his ‘hero’ Alyosha to sort things out after the conflict passes.
There is so much more to write about this book, but I have a widget installed that uses an algorithm built on the length of a post, the number of multi-syllabic words and the frequency of semi-obscure literary references to warn the would be blogger if readers will make it through a given post. Said widget informs me that my time is up
I am curious to hear your responses. I would love to discuss the points that you find interesting. I would love to hear that anybody else read this book.
our guest host, spencer is (almost) ABD for his PhD in arabic language and literature and lives in jordan (the country) where he enjoys the best chocolate milk in the universe.
Filed under book trail, classic | Comments (5)the enchanted april
i hope the enchanted april enchanted your own april. here’s our guest host sarajane’s take on the book.
Filed under book trail, classic, fiction | Comments (4)I was totally enchanted by Enchanted April. I found myself completely taken in by the delicious descriptions on every page of this delightful novel. It was almost magic how quickly I felt totally transplanted into this warm, fragrant world of San Salvatore. It was not hard to picture myself among the ladies as they discovered the beauty of the Castle and themselves. Von Arnim’s writing is witty and charming both in her characters and descriptions. I am amazed that she wrote the book in a little over five months. I feel like each of the four main characters where given adequate attention and development as they bloom into lovely women.
The wall flower Mrs. Wilkins blossoms into Lotty who is full of life, love and friendship. Mrs. Arbuthnot the reserved, ashamed, and repressed charity worker blooms into Rose the passionate bosom filled lover. Then there is Lady Caroline the pent up girl who can’t catch her breath discovers that she has all along been Srcap “a spoilt, a sour, a suspicious and selfish spinster.” Hiding underneath the name of Droitwiche and underneath the beautiful skin and voice she is after all just a lonely girl who is afraid that someone will discover that she too is vulnerable. We can’t forget Mrs. Fisher who begins to burgeon and feels that at any moment she “might crop out all green,” and actually make new friends. Each one of these charters speaks to me in their old and new states.
Lotty, after living with Mr. Wilkins for so many years actually began to feel that she was of no value. After realizing that other people placed value in his wife Mr. Wilkins began also to treat her with affection. “The more he treated her as though she were really very nice, the more Lotty expanded and became really very nice, and the more he affected in his turn, became really very nice himself.” This principle seems to really exist in relationships. People act the way they are treated. Do we not become the kind of people that others think us to be? It is a circle that continues for good or bad. As we see with Rose, the more Mr. Briggs thought Rose charming the more charming she became.
The book illustrates that the true test in a relationship is to be able to throw justice out the window as Lotty realizes when she says,“At home I wouldn’t love Mellersh unless he loved me back, exactly as much, absolute fairness. And as he didn’t, neither did I…” This book speaks out about relationships and having trust in others. Can there be love without trust? How did these women bloom into such loving people? Was it the influence of the atmosphere at the castle or was it the influence they had on one another? What are your thoughts? Feelings? Insights? Likes and dislikes about the novel?
This novel is rich with beautiful setting and blooming characters. I enjoyed being transported, after all “everybody needs a holiday.”
the windows are open
spring has sprung! and, to update on our adorable little hal, after a frightful weekend of 103 degree fevers and a sinus infection wandering up into the little guy’s eye: he’s officially (as of today) disease free! thanks for all your well wishes and advice.
to celebrate, i want to invite you all to join the book trail for april. we had a weak showing in march: so join up! grab the enchanted april and dig in. you won’t regret it. and, as a new feature on the site, here is a place where you can find answers to all the questions you’ve been dying to ask about the book trail.
to spring! to warmth! to sun! and to planning and planting the garden!
Filed under book trail, life, motherhood | Comments (3)