A lovely Book Week poster from 1924, designed by Jesse Wilcox Smith, who illustrated many children’s books. (via bookorithms)
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (via bookmania)
RAK Wrap-Up - March 2012
This month I sent “A Wrinkle In Time” to Kelly Rancilio, St. Louis.
I did not receive any RAKs.
Click the link in the sidebar to sign up to participate in RAK!
‘Mansfield Park’ by Jane Austen
I came to this novel expecting to find that the events which unfolded on screen in the 1999 film adaptation would unfold similarly on the page. What I found was altered in so many ways, that they seem to me almost different stories. This is further evidence which supports that it is better to read the book, then see any film adaptation, because the author and the screenwriter are two different people, with different visions, telling different stories.
As for the actual novel - to me, it was the least ‘Jane Austen’ of her novels that I’ve read so far… The writing was not always clear, and while her dry wit did find its way onto some of the pages, the whole thing just seemed lacking in some way. In one of the earlier chapters alone, it was not clear for some time as to which character was actually speaking, or to whom.
The love between Fanny and Edmund is the redeeming feature of the novel. Henry and Mary Crawford are very well written characters - both irksome and vexing to a vast degree.
Overall, I liked it, but I’m not sure if I would read it again or not…
‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ by Jules Verne
I’m not sure if it was the translation or just the writing, but it took me ages to become close to interested in this story… The first half bored me so much that I kept reading a little bit, then leaving it for ages to read other works, then I’d pick it up and read another chapter, and so on… However, I am glad that I persevered with it, because there are a few gems to be found inside its covers. The character of Passepartout made me smile and chuckle at various points, and the anticipation of whether or not Phileas Fogg would achieve his goal did finally hook me as the story progressed. The closing lines of the novel are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever read, and I love how they challenge the reader whilst stating their truth.
It’s not a book I would read again, but as I said, I am glad that I persevered - it was worth it even just for the last few chapters.
"If someone mentions the Cottages today, I think of easy-going days drifting in and out of each other’s rooms, the languid way the afternoon would fold into evening then into night. I think of my pile of old paperbacks, their pages gone wobbly, like they’d once belonged to the sea."
— Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
(Source: lb12)
"…a patch of ocean so phosphorescent that it cast a glow into the sky before they reached it. As they came to it, the whole water sparkled like stars, and everything that moved in it was sheathed in cold flame. Deep beneath it some fish sent out a rotating light, like a lighthouse."
— Richard Hughes, In Hazard
(Source: lb12)
from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
RAK Wrap-Up - February 2012
This month (my first participating in RAK), I sent:
Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys to Lisa Jochelson, USA.
I did not receive any RAKs, but enjoyed sending that one! Lisa contacted me to let me know that she received the book and was really happy with it.
Looking forward to sending another RAK this month and brightening someone’s day!
(Don’t forget, if you want to sign up for RAK (or find out more about it), just click the banner in the sidebar.)
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2012 - Book List
Devising the book list for the History of Royals challenge has inspired me to set a book list for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. As I read and review each book, I’ll update this post to include a link to each book’s own post. (Each link will open in a new window.) (List position of unread books subject to change.)
Goal: 20 books - historical fiction of any kind.
(Definition of historical - set a significant number of years prior to being written; reviews will include setting and publication dates).
1. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
2. The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff
3. The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff
4. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
5. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
6. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
7. The Siege by Helen Dunmore
8. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
9. Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas
10. Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas
11. Louise de La Vallière by Alexandre Dumas
12. The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
13. Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
14. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
15. Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
16. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
17. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
18. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
19. The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
20. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
The list includes:
- The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers - the last two books in Sutcliff’s ‘The Dolphin Ring Trilogy’, the first book being The Eagle of the Ninth, which I read last summer.
- The whole series of D’Artagnan adventures by Dumas, beginning with The Three Musketeers and ending with The Man in the Iron Mask.
"Edmund’s friendship never failed her… he was always true to her interests, and considerate of her feelings, trying to make her good qualities understood, and to conquer the diffidence which prevented their being more apparent; giving her advice, consolation and encouragement."
— Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
