Dōmo Arigatō

Today is my birthday. And the best thing about your birthday is you can do just about whatever you please.

It pleases me to read. It pleases me to indulge in a Cinnamon Dolce latte when normally I would choose a tall cappuccino. It pleases me to have chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for dessert, buy a new lipstick, and, like Bilbo Baggins on his birthday, give presents to others. Presents in the form of prizes.

For today is also the day that the Japanese Literature Challenge 3 comes to a close. This year has been the most successful year for the Japanese Literature Challenge yet. There have been approximately 101 participants. There have been 241 reviews. And, for me, the reading in this genre gets more exciting every year because I find out from your reviews all the books I'd like to add to my "Must Read" list.

As promised, I have prizes to give out. There is the set of Japanese screen cards, brochure and magnet from the Art Institute of Chicago:



There is the hardcover copy of Good-bye Madame Butterfly:



as well as Kuhaku, both from Chin Music Press:



There is a poster of Do Not Disturb! which looks like a watercolor:



and a set of Hello Kitty! items including pencils, notebooks, stickers and two giant Pez Dispensers (only one pictured here):



There's a new, paperback copy of Haruki Murakami's novel South of the Border, West of The Sun:


and finally, a hardback copy of Eat Sleep Sit, thanks to Kodansha Press:



So, how can you be entered into the drawing? First, leave a comment of your favorite read (or two, or three, or more) for the challenge. I will add these to the list of suggested titles if they're not already there. Secondly, tell me which prize you would like to be considered for. I will announce the prizes one week from today, on February 6. I wish I could give one to everybody...however, there will be a Japanese Literature Challenge 4. The time frame for this challenge is always July 30 until January 30, so you may want to mark that in your calendar.

It has been my great joy to host this challenge. Thank you, どうもありがとう, dōmo arigatō for all you've given.

To The Lighthouse

Hoy High Lighthouse, Graemsay, Orkney Islands (in northern Scotland)
Photo taken by Richard Harvey

She looked up over her knitting and met the third stroke and it seemed to her like her own eyes meeting her own eyes, searching as she alone could search into her mind and her heart, purifying out of existence that lie, any lie. She praised herself in praising the light, without vanity, for she was stern, she was searching, she was beautiful like that light. It was odd, she thought, how if one was alone, one leant to inanimate things; trees, streams, flowers; felt they expressed one; felt they became one; felt they knew one, in a sense were one; felt an irrational tenderness thus (she looked at that long steady light) as for oneself. There rose, and she looked and looked with her needles suspended, there curled up off the floor of the mind, rose from the lake of one's being, a mist, a bride to meet her lover." (p. 63-64)

I can't escape the idea that the lighthouse represents Mrs. Ramsay. Not literally, of course, but in terms of beauty. Purpose. Meaning for those who are searching for a guide, a beacon of light to help them through the dense fogs in life.

In the beginning of the book, James, her tender-hearted son of six, wants nothing more but to go to the lighthouse. His mother says yes, while his father is adamant that the weather will not permit it. More than what these words mean is the significance behind them: Mrs. Ramsay is soft and beautiful and loving;  Mr. Ramsay is seen as a tyrant. He slams doors, he focuses on his books, he whirls plates out of windows if he is displeased that an earwig has landed upon his meal.

Virginia paints for us a picture in words, just as scrunched-face Lily paints one with her brushes. She laments the worth of her painting; do the shadows and light balance one another? Do the images connect? and we wonder the same about the family. Each member brings his or her own personality to create the whole, and each distinct characteristic is needed. For instance, Mrs. Ramsay sees her husband's work as a scrubbed table:

Whenever she ''thought of his work" she always saw clearly before her a large kitchen table. It was Andrew's doing. She asked him what his father's books were about. "Subject and object and the nature of reality," Andrew had said. And when she said Heavens, she had no notion what that meant. "Think of a kitchen table then," he told her, "when you're not there." (p. 23)

Whereas he sees woman's minds as foolish:

There wasn't the slightest possible chance that they could go to the Lighthouse tomorrow, Mr. Ramsay snapped out irascibly.

How did he know? she asked. The wind often changed.

The extraordinary irrationality of her remark, the folly of woman's minds minds enraged him. He had ridden through the valley of death, been shattered and shivered; and now, she flew in the face of facts, made his children hope what was utterly out of the questions, in effect, told lies. He stamped his foot on the stone step. "Damn you," he said, But what had she said? simply that it might be fine tomorrow. So it might." (p. 31-32)

Despite their differences, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay love each other. They forgive each other their faults.

Then, suddenly, Mrs. Ramsay is gone. There is no one left to bring the group together; the summer house is neglected, the books grow mushrooms and spiders, James longs for a reassuring word which he doesn't receive from his father until the very last pages. Her absence is felt keenly, as Virginia must have felt when her own mother died.

It seems to me that Virginia Woolf is mourning the loss of her mother through the loss of Mrs. Ramsay. We know that her mother was beautiful. That she led a family of eight children just as Mrs. Ramsay does. We know that her sudden death caused Virginia to suffer tremendously, as the death of Mrs. Ramsay causes those who knew her to mourn deeply. And these are the very things that happen in To The Lighthouse.

For how could one express in words these emotions of the body? express the emptiness there? (She was looking at the drawing-room steps; they looked extraordinarily empty.) It was one's body feeling, not one's mind. The physical sensations that went with the bare look of the steps had become suddenly extremely unpleasant. To want and not to have, sent all up her body a hardness, a hollowness, a strain. And then to want and not to have-to want and want-how that wrung the heart , and wrung it again and again! Oh, Mrs. Ramsay! she called out silently...(p. 178)

Thank you, Emily, for leading us To The Lighthouse. I'm already looking forward to the next Woolf in Winter read, Orlando, hosted by Frances on February 12.  The last read for Woolf in Winter is The Waves, hosted by Claire, on February 26. Hope to see you there!

Sand to Stone and Back Again

My mother used to say that I am water.

I wanted to be rock, at first, because rock is so indomitable. But, she reminded me that water is harder in its own way. It is consistent, but gentle, and it will wear the rock away with its focus and flow.

Rock, or water, together they make a beautiful thing. Consider these lines:

Ages ago, I began as a tiny grain of sand

at the bottom of the sea.

Millions of other sand crystals surrounded me.

The ocean's heavy water pressed and pressed until finally -

we cemented into stone...

Water trickles

through tiny

cracks.

Narrow streams flash through

corkscrew

corridors,

slicing out

twisty, twirly,

skinny slot

canyons.

The writing is lyrical, the photographs sensational:





and they can both be found in this beautiful book written by Nancy Bo Flood with photographs by Tony Kuyper:



Other reviews of this lovely book can be found here: SMS Book Reviews, Never Jam Today, SmallWorld Reads, Our Big Earth Media Co., Whispers of Dawn, Cafe of Dreams, The Hungry Readers, My Own Little Corner of the World, KidzBookBuzz.com

A Wrinkle In Time

When Kailana said she would host a read along for the Time Quartet, I couldn't refuse. Never mind that I've read them over and over and over since 1973; every single time I read Madeleine I gain a new perspective.

I used to think that A Wrinkle in Time was "only" about love. It is a huge lesson in love. By realizing her love for her brother, Charles Wallace, Meg realizes she has something which can wrest him away from the power of IT. In fact, it is the only thing she can use that has any power. It was an important lesson for me at 11 years of age, sitting in my sixth grade English class, and one I've needed remediation in several times since: hate cannot win in the face of love.

But, there's so much more. This time around I saw Madeleine was writing about more than hate; in particular, I saw her address conformity. There is a certain evil in the expectation, or even desire, that we should all be the same. When we have given up our identity, our own special uniqueness, we might as well have given up our souls.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident!" she shouted, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

As she cried out the words she felt a mind moving in on her own, felt IT seizing, squeezing her brain. Then she realized that Charles Wallace was speaking, or being spoken through by IT.

"But that's exactly what we have on Camazotz. Complete equality. Everybody exactly alike."

For a moment her brain reeled with confusion. Then came a moment of blazing truth. "No!" she cried triumphantly. "Like and equal are not the same thing at all!"

"Good girl, Meg!" her father shouted at her.

But Charles Wallce continued as though there had been no interruption. "In Camazotz all are equal. In Camazotz everybody is the same as everybody else," but he gave her no argument, provided no answer, and she held on to her moment of revelation.

Like and equal are two entirely different things. (p.160)

Hate and love are two entirely different things; like and equal are two entirely diffferent things; control and freedom are two entirely different things. Thank you, Madeleine, for reminding me that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made.

The Summer We Fell Apart

Title: The Summer We Fell Apart
Author: Robin Antalek
Published: January, 2010
Number of pages: 384
Reviewed for TLC Book Tours

For the first 50 pages of this book, I didn't think I had anything in common with the characters. It reminded me of Augusten Burrough's Running With Scissors: dysfunctional family with a capital D.

The mother is the star of horror films, the father is a philandering fool, and the four children are basically left to bring themselves up in the tilted, falling down Victorian which is their home.

But, the more I read the more I connected with the children. I mourned the loss of their parents; while alive, they could hardly be called parents in the sense that I think of parenting: nurturers, advisors, comforters, a source of stability in an unstable world. I read of the son, George, and his love affair with Sam, with a bizarre hope that they would be able to meet each other's needs. So carefully were they drawn that I could feel their need acutely.

When I came to the part of the story told through the oldest sister, Kate, I was in complete empathy. Perhaps oldest children are able to relate to each other no matter what their gender, home town, or vocation. Certainly Kate and I have nothing in common with our careers; she was a lawyer from Washington, D.C., I'm simply a teacher of eight year olds. But, in everything else I can relate to her whole heartedly. Somehow, we both feel the need to make sure everyone's all right, we borrow guilt if we aren't manufacturing enough on our own, we worry and work and stress as if everything depends on us.

I wonder if the title, The Summer We Fell Apart, isn't a misnomer. In many ways, it seems that it was the summer everything was levelled off so that a fresh beginning could occur. At least the siblings had a chance to pull together, to find the best quality each one possessed, and to make a family of their own. Afterall, it's the sisters and brothers who are left to carry on in every family, if they're fortunate enough to have one another.

(Find a YouTube clip on this book here.)

Shanghai Girls

In Shanghai, life flows like an endlessly serene river for the wealthy, the lucky, the fortunate. For those with bad fates, the smell of desperation is as strong as a rotting corpse. (p. 41)

That, my friends, is about all the hope you're going to find in this book.

I really struggled with it.

It dragged me endlessly from one betrayal, rape, death, and illness to another.

On almost every page someone was wounded by someone else, either emotionally or physically. Husbands and wives, parents and children, cultures and classes, and even governments and citizens were at odds with each other. The only relationship that we're left to believe in is the one of these sisters who, despite every adversity imaginable, cling to each other in devotion and love.

If you have a sister, then perhaps this book is for you. As for me, the characters, and all the other events in these 309 pages, have simply left me with an enormous heartache.

(I am in a huge minority here, as almost every review I've read shows great affection for this novel. Why not see for yourself? I have two copies to give away; simply leave a comment below for a chance to win one of them.)

Find other stops along the tour here:
Monday, January 18th:  Booking Mama

Tuesday, January 19th:  Booking Mama author guest post

Tuesday, January 19th:  Savvy Verse & Wit

Thursday, January 21st:  Book, Line, and Sinke

rFriday, January 22nd:  Word Lily

Jane Austen Begins This January on PBS

For those of you who may not be aware, Masterpiece Classics will be showing special presentations of some of Jane Austen's works this Winter. They are starting off with:



Emma on January 24, January 31, and February 7...



Northanger Abbey on February 14, and



Persuasion on February 21.

I saw each presentation last winter on PBS, and they were all truly outstanding. Now, if only I had time to read them before they air.

Marian Halcombe, Chapters VI-X; Postscript

On my way to the village I prepared myself for the possibility of meeting Sir Percival. As long as I had him to deal with alone, I felt certain of not losing my presence of mind. Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper. (p. 315)

Alas, it is an overconfident Marian Halcombe who said these words which made me cheer. After listening to Count Fosco and Sir Glyde, while hiding herself on the roof above the library where they met, she becomes so ill from getting chilled that the Count has invaded her journal. He knows that she heard all of their discussion: there is a tremendous need for money, especially on the part of Sir Glyde, which can only be obtained if Laura will sign the parchment or in the case of her death. In addition to this, is the Secret. It has something to do with the reason Anne Catherwick was put in the asylum (where she has since escaped), something to do with her mother, something which makes this mystery all the more mysterious...and Sir Glyde all the more evil.

I'm afraid I became so enraptured with this book that I finished it, many days before the Big Read V is to officially end. Suffice it to say, that I can think of no book more intricately layered, nor full of unexpected surprises, than this. Not even the end of A.S. Byatt's Possession, which has one of my favorite surprises of all, can compare to this unveiling of the woman in white which we take through the eyes of Laura, Walter, Count Fosco, and Sir Percival Glyde. No book of 600+ pages goes more quickly.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

This is the first book in the Woolf in Winter read along. It's also the first time I've personally read Virginia Woolf. I'm amazed that a book written in 1925 can have so much bearing on life today in 2010. 85 years have done little to lessen the grief people suffer from war, or the social status some try to achieve, or the way that we look back on our lives with a mixture of joy and regret.

Mrs. Dalloway is 52, I'm 48. I can relate to her almost perfectly as she remembers how she looked and what it felt like to be 18. I, too, look back on my life and wonder, "What if I'd married this person?" or "How would my life be different if I'd made that choice?" (I doubt that the loves of our lives are ever fully erased; even 30 years later Peter feels "extraordinary excitement" when he sees Clarissa at the end of her party.)

Her party is the vehicle for which the novel takes place. All day long she prepares for it, from stepping out early in the morning to buy the flowers herself, to meeting most of the people whom she had invited.  My favorite of these characters happens to be Sally Seton:

But her voice was wrung of its old ravishing richness; her eyes not aglow as they used to be, when she smoked cigars, when she ran down the passage to fetch her sponge bag, without a stitch of clothing on her, and Ellen Atkins asked, What if the gentlemen had met her? But everybody forgave her. She stole a chicken from the larder because she was hungry in the night; she smoked cigars in her bedroom; she left a priceless book in the punt. But everybody adored her (except perhaps Papa). It was her warmth; her vitality-she would paint, she would write.  (p. 181)

I don't think I'm supposed to like Sally best; afterall, the novel isn't entitled Mrs. Seton. But, Clarissa ended up irritating me. I found her too focused on the external, too intent on a good facade, too motivated by the demands of society.

In the end, I think Clarissa made peace with her choices. She finds great contentment in her party, in her guests, her daughter, her husband, her life. This is in high contrast to the tragedy of Septimus Warren Smith, who announces throughout the novel that he will kill himself, then succeeds by throwing himself out of a window.

What are we to make of this? Can we surmise that the lives we live are an indication of our spirits? I will be contemplating both of these characters for a long time: one takes his life, the other plans her party. It's such a dichotomy.

Join in the discussion of Mrs. Dalloway with our fine hostess, Sarah.

Calamity Jack

Title: Calamity Jack
Author: Shannon and Dean Hale
Illustrated by: Nathan Hale
Number of pages: 144
Genre: Graphic Novel
Ages: 10 and up

Join Jack and Rapunzel (and her trusty braids) in this thrilling new graphic novel as one tiny, tossed-out bean becomes a giant building-destroying nightmare and the courageous pair must save Shyport from imminent destruction.

The creators of the highly acclaimed Rapunzel's Revenge-Newbery Honor-winner Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale-set Jack and Rapunzel loose in a fairy tale-tainted city, and catapult them into a fantastical adventure. (back cover)

I have to confess, I'm not a huge fan of graphic novels. I am intrigued by manga; the whole idea of beginning from the back of the book, as well as reading from right to left, was a fascinating new concept. But, graphic novels in general? I somehow can't escape the recollection of comic books from my youth: Archie, Mad Magazine, and even Peanuts where my brother and I used to press our Silly Putty in order to stretch the transferred images.

That said, this graphic novel did grab me in some places. Based loosely on Jack And The Beanstalk, in terms of a schemer named Jack and a giant named Blunderboar, along with Rapunzel and her braids, we encounter a tyranny of Ant People who are in cahoots with the giants. Sabotaging business, they are, to their own convenience. But, could they be giant people? And, what of the magical beans which Jack threw near the sewer when his beanstalk plan turned less than successful? (I like how the readers ought to be grounded in fairy tales, which so many children seem to be largely ignorant of today.)

One of the things about graphic novels that I discovered is that you must rely on the illustrations for part of the context clues. I'm so used to reading literature that I found myself skimming over some of the pictures, and then I'd have to go back for clarification. Which wasn't to be found in text. This is a whole new way to "read".

But, the reader in me, who revels in text, rebels at the thought of graphic novels. Are we trivializing the written word? I ask this at the risk of sounding like my grandmother, who could accept nothing invented past 1950; I don't want to deny the appeal this genre has to many readers, especially those of you who've joined in the Graphic Novel Challenge.

Do you like graphic novels? If so, what do you find compelling about them? For me, it was the resemblance to fairy tales portrayed in a fresh new way.

Find other stops along the tour here:
Sally Apokedak, Reading is my Superpower, firesidemusings.blogspot.com, Through the Looking Glass Book Review , Booking Mama, Cafe of Dreams, Becky’s Book Reviews, The Hungry Readers, The Friendly Book Book, My Own Little Corner of the World, Book Blather, GreenBeanTeenQueen, Book Crumbs , Abby (the) Librarian,  Homeschoolbuzz.com, The Book Cellar, Carrie’s YA Bookshelf, Bookshelf Monstrosity, Everyday Reading, Frenetic Reader, KidzBookBuzz.com, Maw Books

Overcommitted

Whenever I'm asked to take part in a tour, or review a book for an author, I consider carefully if it's a book I'd like to read.

Whenever I consider a challenge, or read-along, I think about the book to be discussed before I accept the challenge.

Each book I've said yes to, I've agreed because I want to read it.

Only, here's the problem: I've said yes to so many books, I'm afraid of running out of time! I'm reading like a mad woman here, finishing a book last night, and one I need to review on the 20th today, and posting in the sidebar all the exciting books I'm going to review in February. It helps to organize the list. It might help more to agree to only one or two a month.

How are your reading commitments? Have you exercised a little bit more self-control than I have?

The Woman in White: Walter Hartright, Chapters IX-XV

This section of The Woman in White brings us the sorrowful news that Walter loves Laura Fairlie, and apparently, the feeling is reciprocal. Why sad? Because it has already been determined that she must marry one Baronet, Sir Percy Glyde, to be exact.

He seems to be the very Baron the woman in white had spoken of to Walter when they met on the road in the middle of the night. When a letter arrives, decrying his character, both Walter and Miss Halcombe set out to find who wrote the letter. Or, at least, who delivered it.

Walter waits in the graveyard by the tombstone of Mrs. Fairlie which has only recently been polished. He discovers the woman in white who has returned to clean the marble cross in order to honor her friend, or mother figure.

They are calling the woman in white Anne Catherick. I can't completely rely on Walter Hartright's story yet, not because I don't trust him, but because I don't think he has all the angles at his disposal. Why would Sir Percy have set her in an asylum? Why is she so frightened? Why won't she tell them who she is?

Now I'm on to the narrative from the point of view of the family lawyer, as poor Walter has to leave his love. Thanks to Marian's urging. (Should she have done that?!)

Follow The Woman in White: Big Read V here.

23 Days For The Japanese Literature Challenge 3 Left...

As the new year begins, so do all the exciting reading challenges. But, the JLC3 is drawing to a close. There are twenty three days left in which to complete the task: read one book of Japanese origin by January 30. Many of you have already completed it, and others have far surpassed my wildest dreams in terms of number of books read, but a few may need a bit of encouragement.

I have a number of prizes which will be given away at the end of the month. It matters not if you've already won once before, or if you're just getting around to reading your first Japanese literature work now. All who complete the challenge will be eligible for one of the following prizes:

• a set of Japanese screen cards, a magnet, and a brochure from the Art Institute of Chicago's exhibit "Beyond Golden Clouds"  which appeared there this summer


• a paperback copy of Haruki Murikami's novel South of The Border, West of the Sun


• a print of  Do Not Disturb! by Yoshitomo Nara which was used for one of the JLC3 buttons


• a set of Hello Kitty supplies: stationary, pens, stickers, notebooks and PEZ dispenser (due to the child in me ;)


• a hardback copy of Good-bye Madame Butterfly


• a hardback copy of Kuhaku and Other Accounts From Japan


• a hardback copy of Eat Sleep Sit: My Year at Japan's Most Rigorous Zen Temple

So, all my best to you as you finish, or begin, the Japanese Literature Challenge 3. I hope these prizes entice you to completion.

The Woman In White: The First Epoch

I'm excited to join in the Big Read V, for The Woman in White, hosted by Leila of Bookshelves of Doom. Over the month of January, participants will be reading this famous work by Wilkie Collins, and posting their thoughts on the portions "assigned". There will be, in fact, eleven posts in all to complete the book. If you haven't read it before, perhaps the discussion will entice you to begin with us now, or at least pick it up when you have the chance.

It's been so long since I've read The Woman in White that I hardly remembered any of the characters. Only vaguely did they come to my recollection as each one was introduced in the First Epoch:

• Walter Hartright, age 28, teacher of drawing who begins the narration


• Professor Pesca, his Italian friend, who teaches Italian as Walter teaches drawing


• Mr. Fairlie, who lives at Limmeridge House with two young ladies and a neurotic condition of nerves


• Miss Laurie Fairlie, neice of Mr. Fairlie, who is rich and lovely


• Miss Marian Halcombe, half-sister of Laurie's, who has no financial means and masculine characteristics to her face


• Miss Vesey, Laura's old governess

and most intriguing of all,

• the woman in white who has appeared to Mr. Hartright in the middle of the night as he makes his way to Limmeridge House.

Ironically enough, it is the place she says she loves for Mrs. Fairlie's sake. Isn't it a bizarre coincidence that this total stranger speaks of the very home to which Walter is going? The foundation is being laid for this spectacular mystery, complicated all the more at the end of this reading by the introduction of yet one more character:

• Miss Anne Catherick, daughter of Mrs. Catherick (who is the only sister of a certain Mrs. Kempe). Anne Catherick is bears a remarkable resemblance to Miss Laura Fairlie, who oddly enough, is wearing only white the evening that we meet her. It appears that Anne, Laura and the woman in white are inter-related somehow. The specifics are as yet unclear, but so intriguing.

My favorite depiction, so far, is that of Mr. Fairlie. What an ass! But, he's an ass who makes me smile at his odd affectations:

"So glad to possess you at Limmeridge, Mr. Hartright," he said in a querulous, croackiong voice, which combined, in anything but an agreeable manner, a discordantly high tone with a drowsily languid utterance. "Pray, sit down. And don't trouble yourself to move the chair, please. In the wretched state of my nerves, movement of any kind is exquisitely painful to me. Have you seen your studio? Will it do?"

"I have just come from seeing the room, Mr. Fairlie; and I assure you-----"

He stopped me in the middle of the sentence, by closing his eyes, and holding up one of his white hands imploringly. I paused in asonishmennt: and the croaking voice honoured me with this explanation: "Pray excuse me. Could you contrive to speak in a lower key? In the wretched state of my nerves, loud sound of any kind is indescribable torture to me. You will pardon an invalid? I only say to you what the lamentable state of my health obliges me to say to everybody. Yes. And you really like the room?" (p. 40)

Jeepers. I feel like I've had some teachers like him...

Follow The Woman in White: Big Read V here.

Sunday Salon: The Mosiac

I didn't start reading the Bible until I was 13. Oh sure, I had memory verses for Sunday school: Psalm 100, Psalm 23, John 3: 16. But, when I was in seventh grade, my mother took us to France for the summer. And all I had with me to read was The Children's Bible translated by Kenneth Taylor (which is no longer in publication), and The 21 Balloons by William Pene DuBois. So, I read them both. A lot.

Ten years ago, I decided to read through the Bible in one year. There are many ways to do this: you can choose the One Year Bible which has the readings all organized for you according to the date, or you can get a bible reading plan and check off each day as you go. Which I've done for ten years. Until this year? I decided I was doing it more compulsively than spiritually.

My husband was raised Catholic, of which I know very little, and he speaks of Holy Days of Obligation. The very sound of that kind of day does not fill me with imminent joy and freedom. It sounds ominous, heavy, and hard to fulfill. That is how my Bible reading has become: a Year of Obligation.

So, this year I'm trying something different. Bookfool sent me The Mosiac Bible, newly released from Tyndale this year, when I won it for one of her giveaways. The first half is organized according the liturgical church; you start with Advent, come through Christmas, and next week will be the beginning of Epiphany. There are little devotions you can read all during the week, and then there is the whole Bible in the second half in case you want to read more. Now this sounds perfect.

Instead of obligation reading, I can have devotion reading. Less is more, when I look at one thought, instead of ticking off the days.

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre

Title: Mr. Darcy, Vampyre
Author: Amanda Grange
Published: 2009
Number of pages: 308

We arrived at the castle in a terrible storm. It is in a far-flung part of the mountains and surrounded by woods which are inhabited by wolves. I saw them on the way here, running alongside the coach, their fur grey and their eyes shining red through the foliage. I can hear them howling at the moon as I write. The castle itself is an old building built of stone dark and gloomy, and it is a state of disrepair. When we arrived, one of the axes fell off the wall, narrowly missing Darcy and myself. The servants say it means I will cause his death! And yet, although I know it is ridiculous, I can't help feeling afraid. I feel shut in here; indeed when the drawbridge was raised behind me I felt like a prisoner. Things would not seem half so bad if you were by my side. Together we would laugh at the wolves and the strange portents. But without you, my own dearest Jane, I find myself surprisingly nervous. God forbid I should end up like Mama! (p. 92-3)

What a tremendously fun read to begin the year! I picked this up at the library Wednesday night, where I went for a copy of The Woman in White as I gave mine away twenty years ago, tucking it under my arm in case I had time for something light this holiday. With some reservation I opened the cover, wondering how Elizabeth, Jane, or Darcy could ever be recreated without Austen's help. I must say I am pleasantly surprised.

Darcy will not touch Elizabeth after their wedding. He takes her on marvelous outings, to dances in London, and even horseback riding in Paris. But, he is elusive at night, and she cannot help but wonder if he feels he's made a mistake in marrying her. When they go to visit an uncle of his, Count Polidori, for wisdom and advice, I am immediately transported into the tales of Count Dracula, or The Historian.

Book Suggestions for Japanese Literature

• A Personal Matter by Oe


• A Quiet Life by Oe


• After Dark by Murakami


• All She Was Worth by Miyabe


• Asleep by Yoshimoto


• Beyond the Blossoming Field by Jun'ichi Watanabe


• Be With You by Takuji Ichikawa


• Confessions of A Mask by Mishima


• Dreaming Pachinko by Adamson


• First Snow on Fuji by Kawabata


• Five by Endo by Endo


• Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto


• Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murkami


• I am A Cat by Natsume


• In The Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami


• Kafka On The Shore by Murakami


• Kitchen by Yoshimoto


• Kokoro by Soseki


• Kusamakura by Soseki


• Memoirs of the Priest Honkaku by Yasushi Inoue


• Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Oe


• Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro


• Norwegian Wood by Murakami


• Now You're One Of Us by Nonami


• Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsu


• Rashomon by Akutagawa


• Remains of The Day by Ishiguro


• Rouse Up O Young Men of The New Age by Oe


• Silence by Endo


• Singing Shijimi Clams by Kojima


• Singular Rebellion by Maruya


• Snow Country by Kawabata


• Some Prefer Nettles by Tanizaki


• Supermarket by Azuchi


• Strangers by Yamada


• Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Ueda


• Teach us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kenzaburo Oe


• Ten Nights' Dreams by Soseki


• The Bells of Nagasaki by Nagai


• The Dancing Girl of Izu by Kawabata


• The Diving Pool: Three Novellas by Ogawa


• The Elephant Vanishes by Murakami


• The Fox Woman by Johnson


• The Housekeeper and The Professor by Ogawa


• The Old Capital by Kawabata


• The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki


• The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Basho


• The Pillow Book by Shonagon


• The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Mishima


• The Sea of Fertility by Yukio Mishima


• The Setting Sun by Dazai


• The Sound of Waves by Mishima


• The Stationmaster by Asada


• The Tale of Genji by Shikibu


• The Temple of The Golden Pavilion by Mishima


• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami


• The Woman In The Dunes by Abe


• Thirst for Love by Mishima


• Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Murakami


• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Murakami


• When The Emporer Was Divine by Otsuka


• Yakuza Moon by Tendo