Books
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wins the Orange Prize for Half of a Yellow Sun!
Ms. Adichie, from the website for her book. Dewey over at The Hidden Side of a Leaf has interviewed me about my recent read, Half of a Yellow Sun. Coincidentally, I recently found out that Half‘s author won the Orange Prize for this book! She’s only 29 years old, so this makes her the youngest author ever to be awarded the Orange Prize, AND, I believe she is the first African to be awarded this honor. So, to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I say, CONGRATULATIONS!
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Scarlett’s Trilogy
While researching my list for the challenge, I noticed that Gone With The Wind won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. I have mentioned a few times of my love for Gone With The Wind, how I’ve read it over and over again, how I can open it at almost any point in the narrative, and know exactly what’s going on. I have to say, though, that I have always felt a bit guilty for loving it, because of the racism of the writing, in addition to an overly romanticized view of the ‘gentility’ of the antibellum south. And yet…I’m sucked in. Sucked in so completely that I can’t resist a…
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Book Awards Reading Challenge
I discovered a new book reading challenge that I’m all over like a cheap suit…this one is called the Book Awards Reading Challenge. Coincidentally, Ted got me hooked last week on yet ANOTHER internet timesuck, which would be goodreads, where you can keep track of all of the books that you ever remember reading, look at what your friends are reading, compare your lists and ratings with them, and figure out what NEW books you might want to read. Fun, huh? Definately. (Mom, it looks like you can upload your spreadsheet maybe…if you want another time suck in your life. 😉 ) Back to the challenge…this challenge is to read…
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Half of a Yellow Sun
Last night, I finished the second book in my Chunkster Challenge, Half of a Yellow Sun, in which the author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of the small, short lived nation of Biafra. Biafra tried to seperate itself from Nigeria in a horrible civil war, from 1967 – 1970. Nigeria received support from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, while Biafra was supported covertly by France, Rhodesia and South Africa. While Nigeria certainly had military superiority, they mainly won victory by shutting off borders and shooting down relief planes, causing a famine that killed over a million people. It was from the horrors of Biafra that the humanitarian…
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Madame Bovary
(image from stereototal.com) I’ve finally finished Madame Bovary, just 2 months late for the Winter Classics Challenge. I have no idea why it took me so long to read this book, why I had so much trouble becoming engrossed in it, especially as I have read it before, perhaps 15 years ago, and I loved it then…so why don’t I love it now? Is it because I’m older now, and not as sympathetic to the youthful Emma Bovary? Or, as a married woman, I’m not as forgiving of a woman who strays from her marriage so readily? Or, maybe, I already know the story, and I’m out of touch with…
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Marguerite Duras
The other day, I was flipping through the latest New Yorker, and I came across a short story by Marguerite Duras, The Stolen Pigeons. My first thought was, “Hey, I thought Duras was dead?” Well, I was right about that, she died in 1996. I didn’t know that the New Yorker published fiction by dead authors…I mean, there are so many LIVE authors out there, who would LOVE to get their work published in the New Yorker, so why go with someone who doesn’t care? I guess this gives me away, and you all know now that I don’t read the New Yorker closely every time…just look for anything interesting,…
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Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to all of my Easter Celebrating friends! Whether you celebrate the Resurrection as part of your faith, or the return of spring, as symbolized by bunnies and eggs, I hope you have a wonderful day, and have some chocolate. 😉 This is my favorite Easter book, bar none. It’s about the Country Bunny, who wants to try out to be an Easter Bunny, but as she is a single mom, the old Easter Bunny doesn’t think she will be able to manage. But, like good single moms everywhere, she has taught her little bunnies to do all of the chores around the house, which they demonstrate by cleaning,…
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The House of Mirth
I’ve fallen terribly behind in my “Winter Classics Challenge”. I had vowed to read 5 classics during the months of January and February, and here we are, almost at the Ides of March (BEWARE!), and I’m just now finishing my 4th classic. I’m going to spread the blame out here, because East of Eden was kind of slow for the first 100 pages, and it was a mighty long book, too. Then there was the time I spent trying to get into Tell My Horse, which didn’t go very well, due to a regrettable lack of interest on my part. Add to these factors the return of Lost, Battlestar Galactica,…
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A Meme for Monday
I saw this meme at my mom’s blog, Maya’s Granny. You’re tagged if you read it, though of course, you can choose to play or not. I’m in, nice for a Monday, right? BOOKS I’VE READ MEME *Look at the list of books below. *Bold the ones you’ve read. *Italicize the ones you want to read. *leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. *If you are reading this, tag you’re it. 1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) 2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) 3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) 4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) 5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King…
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Tell My Horse
The third book in my “Winter Classics Challenge” was Tell My Horse – Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica, by Zora Neale Hurston. I picked this book up because I enjoyed reading, Their Eyes Were Watching God several years ago. Because that book was a novel, I (wrongly) assumed that this was as well. Rather, it is a travelogue delving into the world of superstition and voodoo. Ms. Hurston traveled to Jamaica and Haiti herself in order to write this book, which is detailed in three parts. The first part is about life in Jamaica, and talks a lot about the culture, and the superstitions revolving around the ‘duppy’,…
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Are You a Re-Reader?
Are there books that you’ve read so many times, you can open them to any page, randomly, and know exactly where you are in the narrative? I am definitely a re-reader, though as I write this, I’m realizing that the books I’ve read and re-read so many times are all books I had read by middle school. Sometimes, I’m just sitting somewhere, minding my own business, and one of these books will call out to me. I wonder, is it the writing itself, or the simplicity of the story, that makes it so easy for me to return, again and again? What is so comforting about these books, that is…
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Henry and June
I finally finished the second book in my Winter Classics Challenge, Henry and June. I vaguely remember watching the film when it came out, and we own the soundtrack, which is lovely, but I don’t remember a lot about the movie, other than that I liked it. If you’re not familiar with Henry and June, it’s the journal of Anaïs Nin, written in France during a year of sexual awakening, in which she becomes involved with writer Henry Miller and his wife, June. In the beginning of the book, Anaïs finds herself drawn to June, and they share a kiss. June leaves France and returns to New York and the…
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Misc. Friday Stuff
I was at an all day meeting at work yesterday, and it was interesting and fun, but I don’t talk about work on my blog, so that’s that. But, since I usually write my post the evening before, and post in the morning, I don’t have a lot of time to post much now. Gotta shower, get ready for school, walk the dog, etc. What to do? Just miscellaneous stuff, I think, is the way to go. Some of this stuff could easily be flushed out into long, serious posts of their own, but not today. 1. A piece of advice. If you don’t keep your glasses in the SAME PLACE…
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East of Eden
I finished East of Eden last night. Whew, what a story. I can’t believe it took me almost a month (started on the 1st), but I guess that’s what makes it a Chunkster…that it takes awhile to read. What makes it a Classic, though, is not only the fact that it’s over 50 years old, but also that it’s famous, and accepted in literary circles as a great work. In case you haven’t read East of Eden yet, I’m going to highly recommend that you take a month out of your schedule and do so. This is a wonderful book, full of hope and love, pain and death, sex and…
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Chunkster Challenge
I decided to participate in the Chunkster Challenge, but I don’t know if I mentioned it in my blog more than in passing. Silly me. The time frame is January 1st through June 30th, and the guidelines are pretty free flowing. Bookfool from Bookfoolery and Babble decreed that all participants should read as many or as few (but duh, at least one) ‘chunksters’ during this time period. What, you may ask, is a ‘chunkster’? Well, as it has nothing to do with the size of my waist OR my thighs, I’ll be happy to tell you. It’s a book that is daunting in length, or, if you must be specific,…