READATHON HOUR TWO!
I finished my first book! Which was *checks* 515 pages long, not counting footnotes!
Ok, I only had like fifty left, but still.
Elaine Showalter’s A Jury Of Her Peers, American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, I have finished with you. And I now feel ready to take any American women’s literature quizzes any of you may have on the shelves.
In the meantime, here is a picture of my snacks for the afternoon:
BAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH yeah right. Let’s try that again.
Three is perhaps a little excessive?
READATHON!
HOUR ONE! You guys, this is the definition of excitement.
1)Where are you reading from today?
Sunny north London. Beautiful day today.
2)Three random facts about me…
I have a ridiculous musical memory. Play me a song once and I can pretty much sing it back to you.
My career highlight is going to No 10 Downing Street.
I am a cheese and guacamole devotee as well as a teadevotee. And a baker.
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
I know, modest. But you know, there is the Nugget, and the cohosting, and the X Factor to be watched. So you know, anything else is a bonus.
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
Not really. Just survive the cohosting and eat my own bodyweight in chocolate. Anything else is a bonus.
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?
I am a rookie, not a veteran. I look forward to learning.
LET THE READING COMMENCE!
Eleanor Brown – The Weird Sisters
Every other blogger in the whole wide blogosphere was reading this, before every other blogger moved on to ‘The Night Circus’ but I am both slow off the mark, and unoriginal. Anyway, this is SUPER.
So! Shakespeare-spouting father bestows Shakespearian names on his three daughters. Rosalind is sensible, bossy, dull, organising everyone, martyring herself and frightened of life. Bianca, or Bean, is fast, aggressive, trading on her looks while simultaneously losing them, big on attitude, short on morals. Cordelia is vague, impractical, swooshing about the road, a hippie in an age with no use for hippies. Ostensibly, Bianca and Cordelia come home to help Rosalind look after their mother, who has cancer. Really, they are just hiding from their mistakes; while Rosalind is hiding from life entirely.
The only problem with reading books about three sisters when you ARE one of three sisters is that your reviewing criteria becomes all messed up. Instead of concentrating on important things like story, themes, plot, writing; you become obsessed by ‘how much am I like Rosalind?’ (more than I’d really like to be, except less prone to floaty podge-covering clothes) ‘how much is Rebecca like Cordelia?’ (quite a bit, they both have a tendency to wander off, though Rebecca is more likely to wander to a rave than to a Woodstock-throwback) and ‘how much is Kathryn like Bianca?’ (not at all. Kathryn has no tendencies towards grand larceny or sluttiness).
Searching for yourself and your sisters aside, this is absolutely cracking. Intelligent, contemporary, believable women’s literary fiction, where people speak as people actually speak, is my absolute favourite genre. I would read this and only this if only I could find enough to satisfy me.
Unusually, the story is written as ‘we,’ where ‘we’ are the sisters and follow each sister in turn. It gives the book a chanty, magic spell feeling. Even though the boring side of my brain says that ‘we’ can’t possibly know various things. Like Shakespeare himself, this is comic and tragic – and fantastic.
Eleanor Brown was kind enough to send me not just one, but two copies of this book; as the postman appears to have eaten the first. Or possibly seen one of the reviews and kept it for themselves.
The Pot of Random Has Been Stirred
And SAM has won a nicely read red copy of The Awakening. Thanks everyone for coming round to play and especially our hostess Judith, queen of organisation.
Sunday Salon: What Do Book Bloggers Most Like To Do (Apart From Read?)
That’s right, my friends, they like to 1) drink tea 2) meet other book bloggers and natter 3) stuff their faces.
So imagine the joy when Team Austen in Advent got together with Sakura and Claire (and Alex’s friend) accompanied by a large number of poached eggs and a very tiny person.
Left to right: Alex’s hostess Magdalena, Alex, Claire, Sakura, Yvann, Nugget Eating Her Hand and Me, Iris.
I had to make the usual choice between ‘the photo where my eyes are shut’ and ‘the photo where my face looks really round,’ and have gone for round-face. I am extremely jealous of Alex’s photogenic-ness: she looked good in every picture.
Then we went to the National Portrait Gallery where we worshipped at the shrine of Jane Austen, discussed the dynamics between the Brontes, and mocked the ridiculous David Beckham installation. Happy times.
We did a lovely book swap and I am very excited to read my freebie, which is a beautiful Persephone. I may even save it up for Persephone weekend. The only thing missing was poor Ana, who was unfortunately too poorly to make it.
The husband is off work for two weeks. Which is exciting in itself, obviously, but particularly because I hope to take advantage of the time to 1) read 2) blog and even possibly 3) go to the pub.
Win The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Hello, searchers for free books. You have come to the right place.
Can I just take advantage of you for one second to ask if you’ll go to this Facebook page and vote for Nick to benefit from £100 000 to give kids in Ghana better healthcare? I haz writ all about it in my previous post if you are interested.
Ok, done? Thanks so much.
The main event – I am giving away’The Awakening’ by Kate Chopin. Feminist classic and all that. Something a bit different to enter, I think. Reading Fuelled by Tea and I have been playing a ridiculous game answering the silly questions posed by songs. For example, don’t you remember, we built this city on rock and roll….well, it would be tricky to forget a thing like that. So please answer any question asked in song or book title. Make your answer as facetious as you like.
This has nothing to do with anything, it is purely for my own enjoyment. ENTERTAIN ME! And one of you shall be richly rewarded.
And now you can head on over to one of the other fifty-odd blogs giving away lovely free books:
Thank you again Judith for your co-ordination efforts!
We Interrupt Our Usual Broadcast To Ask For A Good Deed
Friends and family, you know how people are always asking you for sponsor money for marathons and cake baking and abseiling? Here is a way to raise £100 000 for charity JUST BY CLICKETY-CLICKING ON YOUR FACEBOOK.
I have been a long-term supporter of Afrikids, where my incredible friend Sally is a director (and award-winning fundraiser). Afrikids is a truly inspirational organisation: the brain-child of Georgie who went out to Ghana on her gap year and ending up setting up a charity to work with children in this region where one in nine will die before they are five. Since then, it has grown from a foster home to all sorts of things: a hospital, an eco-lodge and a pretty ace pyjama making business.
What makes Afrikids different is that they exist to put themselves out of business. By 2018, they will not be reliant on any UK funding, but will be completely self-supporting – all the community businesses and fair trade products in Ghana will raise enough money to keep themselves going.
Also, they run a totally sweet pub quiz.
Anyway, Nick (Afrikids medical dude and Sally’s dad) is in the running for a £100 000 grant from vodafone which will really help their hospital. Nick can tell you all about it in this little video, and then all you have to do is go to this Facebook page and VOTE NICK.
The number once again, ladies and gentlemen: VOTE NICK
And if you want to leave a comment to tell me you have, then I will hurrah you.
Thank you very much
Charlotte Bronte – Villette
I’m sorry, but Vill-what? I was so excited and SO UNBELIEVABLY LET DOWN by this book. And also I’ve spent so many hours of my life desperately turning the pages in the faint hope that surely something, ANYTHING was going to happen, I can hardly bear to waste any more writing a review. But here goes:
FAINTLY CREEPY PRELUDE ONE: Lucy Snowe hangs out in her Godmother’s house and watches freaky-squeaky doll girl develop an obsessive crush on lion-maned Graham.
FAINTLY CREEPY PRELUDE TWO: Lucy Snowe works as a ladies maid for an eccentric lady. There is a thunderstorm. She dies.
ACTUAL STORY, SUCH AS IT IS, COMMENCES: On little more than a whim, Lucy Snowe goes to Belgium. Though she does not know anyone there, or speak the language. On little more than a chance remark, she heads off to Villette, where she gets a job as a teacher.
What I found most irritating about this book is that everything that happens is both extremely unlikely and completely obvious at the same time. Like, guess who turns up in this tiny town in Belgium even though Lucy hasn’t seen them for ten years? But though this factor topped the irritating charts, there is much more to annoy throughout. Mostly Lucy based. She is so sanctimonious and oooh, these evil chattels of Rome are always trying to convert me. And I hate smug foreigners, with their smug foreign Catholic ways. DON’T GO ABROAD IF YOU HATE FOREIGNERS should be the first rule of travel. Then she’s all, oh, I am so pure and I walk in the ways of the righteous, and yet for some reason, I have absolutely no problem with the fact that people are constantly going through my desk and my room.
Supposedly this is a classic of gothic literature. Sure, if by gothic you mean every time Lucy is in a bad mood, the weather goes stormy, and then she drivels on for about fifteen pages. Oh yes, that’s another irritating thing about this book: Lucy isn’t really given anything to do. So even if she was faintly interesting, she’d still be pretty limp as a protagonist.
Uggggghhhhh I can’t believe I wasted so long with this. Oh Charlotte, how CAN you let me down this way?
Announcing Austen In Advent
Unpeel your ears, my friends, for I bring you tidings of great joy. December is always a pretty stressful time, what with all the shopping and the wrapping and stuffing your face and the partying even though you inevitably have a cold. This Advent, why not change gear and join Alex, Iris, Ana, Mistress of Ceremonies Yvann and I in celebrating the 236th birthday of Jane Austen? We have christened this December Austen in Advent, because why not.
In true Jane Austen style, participating is ever so polite. Simply head on over to Reading With Tea to sign up; then come December, make yourself some cucumber sandwiches, sharpen your wits, and revel in six of the best books ever written. As Jane wrote, the person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. You don’t want to be stupid, right?
Your hostesses will be inventing revealing more of the extravaganza nearer the time, but the jubilee will include:
A readalong of Sense and Sensibility
Sunday night viewings of Austen classics, complete with group gossip on twitter
The honour of achieving one of our levels of Austen-awesomeness:
1 point: Aunt Norris
2 points: Mr Collins
3 -4 points: Mr Bingley
5-6 points: Captain Wentworth
7 or above: Mr Darcy
To gain points, simply read books or watch films. Extra points for TV adaptations, because those require much more investment. Books can include modern spin offs and biographies; not just the big six.
Come play with us, says Mr Darcy, in a smouldering way.
Amy Chua: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother vs Naomi Stadlen: How Mothers Love and How Relationships are Born
Like I said over here, most parenting books are basically insane. All of them say TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS, when what they mean is DO NOT TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS, FOLLOW MY RULES. ALL OTHER PATHS LEAD TO SHOPLIFTING AND WORSE. They hector. And while the general rule for life is: everything in moderation; the general rule for parenting books appears to be: no moderation, only extremes.
Case in point: Amy Chua. I am a little bit torn on this, because on the one hand it is an enjoyable read if you like car crash books. On the other hand, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
This is the book equivalent of that really annoying thing people do at dinner parties of being deliberately provoking and controversial just to whip up attention.
Basically her idea of raising children is to choose them an instrument and then scream at them for eighteen years until they are successful. Both her children are extremely talented musicians, but that is not surprising when she makes them practice fifty hours a day and not let them go to the loo unless they’ve completed their etudes (what’s an etude?)
I mean, it is funnyish, as it’s written tongue-in-cheekly. And at one level, she knows that she’s absolutely barking. I think. But it can’t have been fun for the kids at all. And how can she be a reasonably amusing writer when she is such a joyless parent?
She says, when it works, it works. Sure, if your definition of ‘it works’ involves running across Red Square screaming because your daughter says she doesn’t want to eat caviar. Lady, no one likes caviar. No need to call her a barbarian and a juvenile deliquent. You are teaching them nothing except how to be melodramatic. Also, I hope you’ve been saving for the therapy bills.
But it was a nice easy read and made me think I’m not really doing such a bad job after all (*ponders which instrument I can use to exploit Cerys*)
Anyway, after that, I’d thought I’d just mention Naomi Stadlen’s book.
I can’t remember much about the content, I just remember the sense of relief in reading it. She has run a group for mothers of tiny people for about twenty years, and this book is based on common things they say. Stadlen is the only person who has broken the trend. She does not tell you what to do. She does not want to undermine you. She wants you to know you are not alone. Reading her book was like having a nice warm bath. Lovely. Highly recommended.
