Sunday Salon: Reading Plans For May

Now that the world of literature is reopened to me, given that Lent has come and gone, I'm almost overwhelmed by the plethora of possibilities. Like a child before aisles of candy, I hardly know what to choose.

But, I have happily committed to the following:

Ready When You Are, C.B. is hosting the Hop-a-long, Git-a-long, Read-a-long Challenge for  May. I love Westerns! I loved Larry McMurty's Lonesome Cowboy, and these are the three titles I'm considering for his challenge:

That Old Ace In The Hole by Annie Proulx

Cowboys are My Weakness by Pam Houston

Comanche Moon by Larry McMurty

The Classics Circuit is having a 'duel' between Austen and Dickens. While it is impossible to chose which author I prefer, I decided to read Jane Austen because I've read less of her works than Charles Dickens'. Looks at these gorgeous covers of Northanger Abbey; don't they thrill you? Even if you've read it, or seen it, before?!

Be sure to check out The Classics Circuit for reviews of Austen and Dickens this month.

Other novels I'm going to review are Sarah Jio's Violets of March, William Boyd's Ordinary Thunderstorms, and Molly Peacock's The Paper Garden all of which have been sent by author or publisher.

So, what are your plans for May? Do you have time to join me in any of these?

The Royal Wedding: The Epitome of Elegance

No "This is the stuff from which fairy tales are made."

No over-the-top wedding dress, train of 25 feet, bouquet of 6.5 pounds.

And while I loved Diana's wedding, for which I woke, and watched in amazement, 30 years ago, this was the perfect wedding as far as I'm concerned.

It was the epitome of elegance. From a simple bouquet of lily of the valley, a modest dress of lace, to a set of sapphire and diamond earrings given to the bride by her parents, nothing could have been more lovely.

Not to mention the scripture read, the hymns sung, the sentiment expressed during the service.

May God bless them, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his lovely bride, Catherine.

One book into the perfect movie...how about The Secret History?

If you could see one book turned into the perfect movie–one that would capture everything you love, the characters, the look, the feel, the story–what book would you choose? ~Booking Through Thursday

Donna Tartt's The Secret History has long been in my top ten list of favorite novels. From the opening paragraph:

Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw," that shadowy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.

the visualization of this novel remains as clear in my mind as the first day I read it 15 years ago. Can you picture this in the film?

Trees creaking with apples, fallen apples red on the grass beneath, the heavy sweet smell of them rotting on the ground and the steady thrumming of wasps around them. Commons clock tower: ivied brick, white spire, spellbound in the hazy distance. The shock of first seeing a birch tree at night, rising up in the dark as cool and slim as a ghost. And the nights, bigger than imagining: black and gusty and enormous, disordered and wild with stars.

As far as I'm concerned, the mood that Donna Tartt was able to convey with her writing is beyond memorable. Beyond fantastic. Beyond  my imagination. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize it doesn't need to be made into a film at all. The images are already emblazoned on my mind. It's a college I've always wished I could have attended, the separate classroom with six Greek scholars and a cup of Mont Blanc pens at one's disposal...

It was with something of a shock that I saw it for the first time - a white room with big north-facing windows, monkish and bare, with scarred oak floors and a ceiling slanted like a garret's. On my first night there, I sat on the bed during the twilight while the walls went slowly from gray to gold to black, listening to a soprano's voice climb dizzily up and down somewhere at the other end of the hall until at last the light was completely gone, and the faraway soprano spiraled on and on in the darkness like some angel of death, and I can't remember the air ever seeming as high and cold and rarefied as it was that night...

What a wonderful aura of an academic environment.

Except for the murder.

Ruby Tuesday: I'd Never Seen Red Eggs Before

Here is one of the eggs my mother and I colored for Easter. Red has become our tradition after she and my son celebrated the Resurrection in Greece, where the eggs are red instead of pastel, many years ago.

Would you like to dye your eggs red next year? Here's the dye we used, the best of several I've tried.

Χριστός ἀνέστη! Christos Anesti! He is Risen!

Find more Ruby Tuesday posts here.

First Winner of Yoshimoto's The Lake

In the old fashioned, tried but true method, of pulling a name...

all the names from the post were written down,

folded in half and placed in a bowl...

and the winner is Trish of Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity.

Now, for those of you who were hopeful you'd win, all is not lost. I'll give away two more hardcover editions: one after my review post, and one when the Japanese Literature Challenge 5 starts this June.

 

Thank you for entering, and congratulations Trish!

Sunday Salon: In the Ninth Hour, So To Speak

My husband and I greeted at the 8:00 a.m. service. "Don't make me wait," he said, as he's rather fanatical about being on time Sunday morning, and I've been racing ever since.

But, the last dish has been washed, the last bits of dinner have been put in the fridge, and we're awaiting the third episode of Upstairs, Downstairs.

I have a few moments to leave you with the photograph of the Easter basket my parents brought me. Filled with fruit, biscotti, nuts, and my favorite Hero jam. Not a chocolate bunny to be found, but I wouldn't expect anything ordinary from them. Nor anything that could be considered bad for you; they are far too loving for that.

And now that I can read? I'm sitting here paralyzed, too overcome by delicious possibilites to choose just one book. Perhaps tomorrow night. With a piece of fruit.

Have a wonderful week!

The End is Nigh

As I come to the conclusion of my Lenten promise to read only the Bible for 46 days, it feels that I should have something terribly profound to say. And I've been wondering for the past couple of days what that could be. I'm not a pastor, or a teacher of doctrine, only a woman of faith walking through each day as it comes.

Carol called several days ago. She's the one who committed to read the Bible with me. She's the one who suggested that there would be a huge blessing from it. "Well," she said, "I guess you didn't get a blessing after all." This comment came from our discussion over how I'd spent the last part of Spring Break, and the subsequent two weekends, in the hospital with my mother. That I'd struggled and fussed over my father bringing her home those many miles from Naples, Florida to Naperville, Illinois.

But, it's not true. I did have a blessing from reading only the Word. I felt Him walk with me through every difficult step. I felt His reassurance, most especially through the Psalms. I felt encouraged and strengthened as I realized I had to relinquish everything; nothing is in my control although I'd like to believe otherwise.

As I reflect over the last 45 days I find a certain beauty in the 'sacrifice'. There was a simplified focus to my reading. A restoration to my spirit. An awareness of His presence through trial. A sense of discipline that is too easy for me to let slip by as I tend to indulge my every fancy. So there were lots of blessings, after all.

And, there's a request for forgiveness. Yesterday, as I reread the crucifixion story, and realized all the suffering He endured, I felt ashamed of complaining. Because I miss my books more than anything. But they don't compare to His sacrifice.

May every blessing rest on you tomorrow and the in the days to come.

Happy Easter,
Bellezza

You can pre-order Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84 now!

It's true! Amazon.com has 1Q84 available for a mere 19 dollars and change! It won't be released until October 25, 2011, but sign up now. So you can wait by the mailbox every day until all 928 pages are delivered to your door.

I can't stand myself I'm so excited. And, I'm not even an Amazon associate so there's no benefit to me in spreading the word.

Except that maybe more of you will fall in love with Haruki as I did.

Life Without Literature Day 44

Why does something always seem the hardest just before it's over? The darkest hour is just before dawn and all that?

This week the temperature has been around 36 degrees Fahrenheit every day. The kids don't have recess, so they're jacked up. Never mind their anticipation about Easter. Two days ago there was such a storm that both our computers and phone went down. I'm cold. I'm crabby. And to top it off, I "can't" read.

I almost gave in. The night I had no computer, and a horrible day at school, and a freezing night ahead of me in which nothing would have given me more pleasure than to curl up under my monogrammed cashmere blanket with a new book, seemed indefinite.

But, in the morning, I was glad I didn't. There are only two more days before Easter. Two. If I can't make it through these, my sacrifice will be worth nothing.

To me, anyway.

Mailbox Monday: Yoshimoto's The Lake Give-away

How delighted I was to receive four copies of Banana Yoshimoto's latest novel, The Lake, from Melville House publishers. Their publicist had seen my longing for this book here, and he kindly offered to send me a copy or two. As the book won't be published until May 3, 2011, I'm so excited to receive one now.

I can't read it yet, as my Lenten promise is not quite fulfilled, so here's my plan: I'm going to give away one for this post today, one for my review post when I've finished it, and one for the Japanese Literature Challenge 5 which will begin June 30, 2011. That way, there will be multiple chances for you to obtain a copy of your own. Which you'll want. Because Banana Yoshimoto is awesome.

Advance praise for The Lake:

"The simplicity of this elliptical novel's form and expression belies its emotional depth. There's almost an artistic sleight of hand in the latest from Yoshimoto...a novel in which nothing much seems to happen yet everything changes." ~Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Yoshimoto's marvelously light touch is perfectly captured by Emmerich's pristine translation." ~Publishers Weekly

"Yoshimoto aficionados who have savored any of the dozen-plus novels she's written over the last three decades since she became a near-instant pop literary phenomenon with Kitchen will recognize her signature crisp, clipped style...and revel in her latest cast of quirky characters. Newbies with a penchant for Haruki Murakami's mind-bending protagonists or Yoko Tawada's sparse precision will do well to begin their so-called Bananamania with this beguiling title." ~Library Journal

For a chance to win? Simply leave a comment. I'll draw a winner for next Monday, May 2, 2011.

Mailbox Monday is hosted this week by Passages To The Past.

The New Testament In A Week, But I'm Only on The Third Book

The teachers on my team and I like to say that education is a journey, not a race. And I find that holds true for many of life's endeavors. There's simply little point in rushing from one place to another without finding meaning along the way.

I never intended the New Testament in a Week Challenge to be a race through the New Testament for myself. I thought perhaps I could adhere to a plan which would take me from Matthew through Revelation if I started on Monday and ended on Sunday.

But, here it is is Thursday evening, and I'm only halfway through Luke.

That's good, though. I've loved seeing the similarities, and the differences, between the gospels. And because Luke is my favorite, I might take the rest of the week reading there. It has, after all, the very essence of the week to come: the story of Jesus' life, teachings, and sacrifice.

Winner of The Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction

The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg.

Have you read it? Have you even heard of it? Any thoughts?

Long Posts? Short Posts? Google Reader or Sidebar?

(It seems good to think of numbers right now, as they're concrete. They distract me somewhat from my mother still in the hospital, and my father not feeling so well himself...)

This is the breakdown for preference of post length:

• 18% like long posts
• 36% like short posts
• 46% don't care as long as the quality of writing is there

This is the breakdown for where people like to go in order to read other blogs:

• 54% like Google Reader
• 7% like using an email subscription
• 21% like reading from their sidebars

I was really interested in your answers as I'm always trying to figure out the best way to blog. Is there such a thing? I think the 'best way' is the way each individual prefers.

As to my preferences, I personally enjoy short posts the best; succinct is what I have the time and energy for at the end of my teaching day. And, as much as I'd love to use my Google Reader, it just seems annoying to go there, click through all my subscriptions, click on a blog if I want to comment, and click back to the Reader. Nope, I like how Blogger has made it possible to organize my sidebar with blogs which have just posted being continually refreshed to the top of the list. I also like returning to all the bloggers who have taken the time to comment here.

Thanks for answering my questions, those of you who did, and I hope to have a post about my reading soon. Not to mention getting by to all of you, my friends.

Just a Girl Writing...With A Few Questions

Love this painting of A Girl Writing by Henriette Browne. It was on the front of a birthday card I received in January from my dear friend, Jean. We were about this girl's age when we met, in an English class, in sixth grade.

Since then, we've done a lot of reading. And writing. Although she's the one to have a bird at her side, whereas I'm more likely to have a coffee. :)

I'm thinking about reading and writing and blogging. And I have a few questions, much like I did with the recommendations from Hubspot to post a Like button for Facebook and a Tweet button for Twitter (both of which I disregarded):

• Do you like to read longer posts or shorter ones?
• Do you read more blogs from your sidebar, your "Google" reader, or comments of blogs you've visited?

I have my own answers to these two questions, but I'd be interested in your point of view before I reveal them. Let me know what you think, if you please.

Praying Them Home

It's funny how pictures aren't always worth a thousand words. Unless you know the story, quite often a lot of words are left out.

If you just looked at my photographs of Florida, you'd think we had a lovely time. And you'd be right in many ways. Sandy beaches, Italian dinners, collecting shells, family time; what is better than that?

But, I didn't tell you about Friday when my mother had an acute attack of some sort in her abdomen, nor Saturday which we spent in the ER of Naples Community Hospital, nor getting on the plane to come home on Sunday. It was the worst flight I've taken, trying not to be overcome with the feeling that I was doing exactly the wrong thing by leaving them there. Alone.

Yet, are we really alone? What is my faith worth if I don't recognize His presence? Not too much. I had my Nook. I had lots of quiet time on the plane. So I read the Psalms, that wonderful collection of poetry which is the Balm of Gilead to my soul. Especially Psalm 31:24.

Once I got home I asked Sara, and Bookfool, and Carol to pray. They don't know it, but they helped me so much. Together we prayed my parents home.

Monday Mailbox...With a Shot of Espresso

As exciting it is to receive these from Picador, Bloomsbury and Gotham books...

almost better is what is in the background:

a DeLonghi coffee/espresso/cappuccino maker made in Italy, which was on our doorstop upon returning from Naples.

Sorry, Starbucks, at almost 5 bucks a pop for one grande cappuccino, I'll be making my own from now on. As to the books, most of them are already in my sidebar. Except for one unexpected surprise from my friend Lesley, to be revealed at a later date. Around the time the Japanese Literature Challenge 5 starts.

More mailbox finds can be found at Passages To The Past.

Home Again, Home Again

So much to catch up on with what you've written, and who has visited me, while I've been en vacance. For now, a brief view of Naples through my eyes:

I'll be around to see you soon!