Since I live on campus and have no car it is very difficult for me to go to the movies, at least for feature films. I did manage to escape over the weekend to my home away from home, Des Moines, where my boyfriend took me to Where the Wild Things Are. Being the book obsessed girl that I am I was very excited to see the movie, especially since it was one of my childhood favorites. Since I saw it a week after it came out I was also able to hear what a lot of other people thought about it. Most of the things I heard surprised me. My boyfriend's aunt, a librarian, absolutely hated it. Several people that I work with at the front desk in my residence hall also said it wasn't good. I also work at an elementary school where I heard a few teachers say they didn't like it. Obviously this made me very interested to find out why everyone was so against a movie I've been waiting to see since last March.
I can understand why so many people don't like Where the Wild Things Are. It is very different from the book, but the book is also, what, 32 lines? Since I am familiar with Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze I kind of knew what I was getting myself into. Let's face it, neither one are the most conventional of characters, although both are brilliant. I feel like what is causing a lot of the dislike towards this movie is fear. The fear of being honest with children and not always creating a perfect happy ending. As we all know, Max returns to his mother at the end of the book, but that does not mean all the problems go away. His mother is still single and he is still a lonely little boy. The plot is very much for adults, but I do not think that means it is not also for children, or that children will not understand it.
On the contrary, I feel like the movie is great for children. The bulk of the movie takes place with the wild things, and this is where the imagination from Sendak, Eggers, and Jonze really shines. The home that is created is so magical I felt myself wanting to be a child again, more than have in a long time. The scenery is so breathtakingly beautiful (it was filmed in Australia) that I literally had to catch my breath at some points. The world created is one that children can dream about very several years. Even with the beauty, the movie deals a lot with loneliness, and loneliness is a concept I think all children are familiar with. I work with three children as a reading tutor and I can tell that all three of them are very aware of what loneliness is, and they feel it. This is the concept that I think is tying all of us together in this movie, answering to the tag, "There's one in all of us."
Overall I felt that the movie stuck to the spirit of the book, even if others do have problems with it. Where the Wild Things Are encourages imagination, honesty, and community, all three of which I think children's movies and books have been lacking in recently.
Release date: October 16, 2009 Running time: 101 minutes Language: English Director: Spike Jonze Writers: Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze Based on Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.
I mentioned yesterday that I got a lot of books for Christmas. I thought I'd go through which ones I got as a preview for what I'll be reviewing in the next few months. The coolest book I got is probably The Wild Things (Fur-covered Edition), which I received from my boyfriend. For those of you who don't know this is an expansion on Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I haven't read a lot by Dave Eggers but I am a big fan of Best American Nonrequired Reading. This book averages four stars on Amazon, hopefully it will hold up well under my critical eyes.
I received A Good Man by Larry Baker from my boyfriend as well. Baker lives in Iowa City as well so I am eager to read his book. The man character of this novel is essentially at the end of his rope. He is failing at everything until he meets a strange man named Peter Prophet. This man makes many claims that the main character is skeptical about, but they begin to turn around his life.
I got two Bronte novels, Emily's Ghost: A Novel of the Brontë Sisters and The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte
. Emily Ghost is about the three Bronte sisters but seems to concentrate on Emily. As a child Emily goes to school and says she can see ghosts. She is punished for this and it later inspires a scene in Jane Eyre. It averages four stars on Amazon. The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte begins with Charlotte trying to clear her name against an accusation of plagiarism. On the way to London she witnesses a murder and this is the beginning of her adventures. The book averages four and a half stars on Barnes and Noble. I will be reading both of these books for the All About the Brontes Challenge.
Gone With the Wind is one of the longer books I received this Christmas, which is frustrating because I am very eager to read it. This is the description of the book from Amazon: "Gone With the Wind is a sweeping, romantic story about the American Civil War from the point of view of the Confederacy. In particular it is the story of Scarlett O'Hara, a headstrong Southern belle who survives the hardships of the war and afterwards manages to establish a successful business by capitalizing on the struggle to rebuild the South. Throughout the book she is motivated by her unfulfilled love for Ashley Wilkes, an honorable man who is happily married." This book averages four and a half stars on Amazon. Another book about the Civil War I received is A Separate Country. Both of these books are historical fiction and a little different from the normal historical fiction I read. I'm looking forward to them both.
I got a few other books but these are the most exciting ones that I actually got for Christmas. I've bought a few other books using gift cards and other books I just couldn't resist because they were on sale. Needless to say I won't be buying new books for awhile. (And I mean it this time!)
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They are tattered yellowing fragments of bygone civilisations, ancient manuscripts that open a outstanding window on preceding millennia, including the earliest days of Christianity. But papyrus scrolls are also now increasingly hot items in the distinctly 21st Century globe of the on the web auction trade.Papyrus trading is becoming feverish with 15 tattered lines of Homer selling at £16,000 [Credit: Telegraph]
A rectangular scrap measuring about 4.five inches by 1.five inches and featuring 15 partial lines of Homer's epic poem The Iliad in the elegant hand of a 4th Century Egyptian scribe was just [DEC] picked up by an unidentified European purchaser for £16,000 right after a feverish Net auction battle.
That value was way above the posted estimated but is standard of the sums that collectors will now devote to lay their hands on these fingerprints from the previous. Indeed, it is not just modern day art that has been setting jaw-dropping records at auction lately - so have ancient scrolls.
When a fragmentary parchment sheet from the 3rd century AD featuring portions of Paul's epistle to the Romans was bought at Sotheby's for £301,000 auctioneers and antiquity authorities alike have been stunned.
But even though there is no suggestion of any impropriety in these unique sales, scholars are alarmed by the burgeoning online trade as some unscrupulous sellers also cash in. They portray a no cost-ranging trade, particularly on the on line auction giant eBay, exactly where precious documents are carved up for sale, potentially stolen goods are trafficked and forgers can flourish.
Brice Jones, a papyrologist and lecturer in New Testament and Early Christianity at Concordia University in Montreal, has turn into an on the web scrolls sleuth, scouring auction web-sites for manuscripts that are usually incorrectly labeled or their provenance unclear.
A couple of pieces are straightforward forgeries. Most famously, the papyrus fragment called the Gospel of Jesus's Wife created headlines for apparently overturning almost two millennia of theological teaching that Jesus was unmarried, but is now widely viewed as a forgery.
Considerably a lot more distressingly, some sellers are dismembering papyrus books to sell things page-by-page, a financially lucrative endeavor that amounts to small extra than vandalism of ancient works.
A single eBay papyrus seller turned out to be two sisters who ran an online beauty supplies store. They had inherited a Book of Revelation from which they cut person pages to sell on an ad hoc basis to fund the wedding costs for one.
But Mr Jones has also identified a proliferation of scrolls becoming sold of which the origin and ownership is unknown or unclear. A fragment of papyrus with neatly penned Greek script of Homers Iliad, 565-580, 4th Century AD. Ex Hamdy Sakr collection, London, formed in the 1960's. There had been only two serious bidders on the piece and it probably went a lot greater than either of them had anticipated.
Papyrus itself is a tall, fibrous reed plant that grew along the shallow banks of the Nile River in Egypt. 'Papyrus' is the Latin type of the Greek word papuros, from which the English word 'paper' is derived.
The papyri - mostly written in ancient Greek and Coptic - variety from items such as rare biblical texts or the lines of the Iliad to hum-drum but fascinating each day records of book-maintaining accounts or letters amongst loved ones members. All exert an incredible lure for collectors, historians, archaeologists and theologians.
But under American and Egyptian law, only antiquities that can be verified currently to have been in private hands ahead of the early 1970s can be traded. Those guidelines are intended to avoid looting and end the export of papyrus that is generally still identified by Bedouin tribesmen, preserved by the arid desert situations. But critics say that lots of sellers skirt or ignore the guidelines on Internet internet sites that are difficult to monitor and regulate.
The disapproving tone from academia also reflects a deep philosophical objection by many scholars to how manuscripts flow by means of private hands, fearing that priceless scripts will disappear forever amid the frenzy of trading.
"The study of ancient papyri is a fascinating field of historical inquiry, simply because these artefacts are the fingerprints of true men and women from a bygone era," Mr Jones told The Telegraph.
"Each time I study a new papyrus, it is as if I am peeking over the shoulders of the scribe who wrote it, eavesdropping on a conversation that in several cases was meant to be private: an argument in between a husband and wife, a divorce contract, an invitation to dinner, a letter in between a father and son.
"But when private collectors acquire papyri for private enjoyment and restrict scholarly access to them, the instant consequence is that we drop worthwhile historical info that would otherwise advance our understanding about ancient people."
Nonetheless, the owner of a little specialist World-wide-web auction corporation, who asked not to be named due to the fact of the sensitivity of the situation, pushed back against these criticisms.
"We are scrupulous about producing certain of ownership despite the fact that not everybody is so fussy and it's accurate that there are some people today who know practically nothing who are out attempting to make a buck in the wild West of the Web," he mentioned.
"But some of these archaeologists and purists simply hate the reality that that any private person would personal, invest in or sell antiquities.
"They ignore the reality that things like this have always been collected. Indeed, some of these scripts have been commissioned by the private collectors of that time.
"Collectors play a crucial function in preserving these items with their interest. A lot of these items would stay hidden, forgotten, fading away, unknown to the scholars, if there was not a industry for them."
Amongst specialists in the research of early Christianity, there is specific concern about the emergence of eBay as a absolutely free-wheeling marketplace for antiquities, with low opening bids and normally exaggerated language to lure in possible purchasers.
An eBay spokesman, however, stated that its150 million buyers and sellers "must make certain listings comply with our clear policy on artefacts. We operate with regulators, law enforcement and other parties which includes the Egyptian Embassy to apply this policy, and if a listing of concern is identified we will need proof that it was legally exported and take away any listing exactly where this proof is not supplied."
As a specialist who spends his life studying such scrolls, Mr Jones also has concerns for the preservation and conservation of sensitive centuries-old documents when they are handled by traders.
He cited then instance of the well-known papyrus codex of the Gospel of Judas, which published in 2006. It was stored by one particular of its owners in a protected-deposit box on Long Island for sixteen years, and then placed in a freezer by a possible purchaser who thought that was the ideal way to preserve it.
"The benefits of these choices have been horrifying: the codex crumbled into quite a few hundreds of tiny pieces and what was after a practically total codex was now badly deteriorated and tricky to restore," he stated.
The booming trade has clearly revealed to scholars how numerous papyri have survived down the centuries.
"This prompts the question: just how quite a few ancient manuscripts are sitting in the basements, match boxes, drawers, safes, or shelves of private collectors about the globe?" Mr Jones asked lately.
"It is nearly certain that numerous ancient manuscripts or fragments thereof are just sitting in the dark closets of their collectors, decaying and crumbling to pieces. The public demands to be conscious of the importance of the preservation of antiquities, for the reason that when they are gone, they are gone forever."
Author: Philip Sherwell | Source: The Telegraph [December 28, 2014]
The forests surrounding the ancient temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia are once more echoing to the eerie, whooping calls of the pileated gibbon, a species, like so many in southeast Asia, that has been decimated by hunting and deforestation.Angkor Wat wildlife has been decimated by hunting and deforestation [Credit: Getty Images]
Conservationists have reintroduced the gibbons as part of an ambitious project for the "re-wilding" of Angkor Wat, a vast "temple city" that was once surrounded by forests teeming with deer, monkeys, birds and big cats before the arrival of commercial hunters with guns, traps and an appetite for money.
The re-wilding is being led by Nick Marx, a conservationist who believes the project could become a model for other parts of Southeast Asia hit by the trade in endangered wildlife.
Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument on earth, was made a World Heritage Site to protect its sprawling network of temples. Now conservationists want to restore the surrounding forests of Angkor Archaeological Park to their former glory, Marx said.
"The area of forest is beautiful and mature. It's a unique site but it's devoid of wildlife now," he said. "We want to introduce different species that would be appropriate, such as a cross-selection of small carnivores, herbivores, primates and deer, to try to get a build-up of wildlife populations with sufficient genetic diversity."
Cambodia, like many countries in southeast Asia, has suffered from the illegal trade in wildlife. Large numbers of animals have been shot, trapped, butchered and skinned, or sold alive in one of the many Cambodian food markets.
Spiralling demand for traditional Chinese "medicine" has driven the trade to new heights.
The reintroduction of the pileated gibbon has been a success [Credit: Getty Images]
"China has done a pretty good job of decimating its own wildlife and now it is moving into other countries," he said. "There is a certain amount of consumption within Cambodia, but most of the valuable items that can bring a high price such as pangolins and cat skins would be going out either to Vietnam or to China," he said. "With the opening of borders and trade, things are getting worse globally. That means we have to work harder to stop it."
Marx is director of a wildlife rescue service funded by Wildlife Alliance, a New York-based non-governmental organisation that specialises in protecting forests and wildlife. He runs Cambodia's Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team which tackles animal trafficking with undercover operations, armed raids on restaurants and markets, and a network of paid informants willing to provide tip-offs on illegal shipments of live animals and body parts.
"We are known throughout Cambodia. We are feared by wildlife traders. It would be foolish to say there is no risk. We're pissing people off and we are rescuing things like cobras, which often have their mouths stitched up and we have to unstitch them," he said.
Why cobras? "They cut their throats to drink their blood with wine and then eat the flesh. People eat everything, from spiders and grasshoppers up."
Many recovered animals are alive and the aim is to return them to the wild if possible.
"Almost everything we confiscate, about 90 per cent of it - provided it is in recent captivity and is fit and healthy, and of an age it can look after itself - is released back into a safe habitat," Marx said. "If they cannot take care of themselves, we look after them at a rescue centre."
Having established Cambodia's official task force to tackle wildlife crime, Marx said it was time to think about reintroducing species to areas where they once thrived such as Angkor Wat. "We were given permission to release animals back into Angkor last year and we released the first pair of pileated gibbons into this forest last December. This has gone really well. The pair had a baby in September. We've taken up another pair of gibbons and a trio of silver langurs, which are a kind of leaf-eating monkey, which we hope to release later."
Author: Steve Connor | Source: Independent via The New Zealand Herald [December 29, 2014]
Sharks and Boys by Kristen Tracy is a book I really wanted to like. It's contemporary, which I absolutely love, and it also has this wild-survivor life thing going on. I mean, a bunch of teenagers stuck on a raft in the middle of the ocean while sharks swim right next to their puny little inflatable 'boat'?! It has got to be amazing, right? Sadly... Not so much.
The story follows 4 sets of twins, Enid (main character), her twin Landon; her boyfriend Wick and his (jerkish) brother, two older twins and two twins with a multi-cultured background. These 8 teens have been involved in a twin-studies program since they were young kids, so they have known each other and been pretty close for years. Enid is the only girl and while it's not really a big issue, it has started changing things.
To be perfectly honest, I thought that Tracy tried to do way to many things with this story and what I feel it ended up with is a main character who drove me insane. Enid is that super clingy, controlling, possessive, annoying and insecure girl friend that no one ever wants to be around. She constantly needs Wick to tell her she's amazing or talented, even when they've already talked about that specific subject 10 times. She needs him to always be there, right when/where she needs him and she's just... UGH! Somehow, when Wick tells her that he needs some space, she's completely blindsided. (Umm, really? You didn't see that coming?!) She immediately assumes it's because of another girl, who crushed on him before moving and gets really upset. Wick then goes with the 6 other boys in their twin studies (including her brother) for a post graduation party for the oldest set of twins (who Enid has been upset with since their parents were both killed in a car accident and they took their grief out by being mean).
So, naturally, Enid assumes that he's going to cheat on her with this other chick, so she steals her mother's car (stranding her mom) and stalks him. And, it's planned. She stole the directions out of her brother's garbage can. She sneaks onto the boat the boys are all partying on, so she's there when the huge storm wrecks it. *Surprise!!*
Do you see? Do you get why I was annoyed with her? Why I didn't want to spend time with her?! Sigh.
Not only that, but there is so much additional drama to the story. And not the good kind of drama like TNT, but more like Soap Opera drama. It's about that well thought out and well planned. There was more than one occasion where I feel like the internal dialogue must have been — Oh ya... Let's go with that plot thread! But, we didn't do anything to prep for it! Oh well. That'll be okay. They won't notice because we'll toss in another shark or something right there. Ooh! Great idea! No one will notice that this is ridiculous if there's another shark!!
I have a feeling that this review is coming across as overly harsh right now, and I feel really bad about that. There were some good points to this book as well. It really wasn't all bad. But the more time passes since I've read the book, and the more I think about it, the less favorable I feel toward it.
I did like the twin dynamics at play here. It was really interesting to watch the differences and similarities from one twin set to the others and then to break that down more into the actual twins. I also really liked Landon. A lot. He was sometimes a bit stand-offish and brusque with Enid, but it was obvious that he really cared about her, and when it came right down to it, he always had her back.
I did not, however, like Wick. At all. I don't blame him at all for wanting space from Enid. I wanted space from Enid after the first chapter. But the way that he handled things later and the way that he spoke to Enid really rubbed me the wrong way. And even though Enid really bothered me, she does have some pretty valid reasons for being a little insecure in her relationship (insert really crappy dad here) so I got it, even while it bugged me.
For good or bad, the relationships were really what drove this book. The plot was just such a convoluted mess that I had no idea what to focus on. And that's not even including the bit about the sharks! I was expecting that. But there was just so much random, seemingly unconnected information and so much drama that didn't move the story anywhere or help the character development that it got overwhelming. Also, I felt like one of things that should have been the most emotional parts of the story was a complete cop-out. And, if you've read the book, I have a feeling you know which part I'm talking about.
Honestly, there are more things about this novel that bothered me. The way certain characters handled personal situations and decisions, the way the author represented certain facts about and characteristics/beliefs of the characters and so on. But, I honestly don't want to just tear the book down. It really wasn't that bad. It just definitely wasn't the book for me.
Would I ever read this book again? Highly unlikely. Would I ever give Tracy another chance? Most likely. Would I recommend this book to others? Possibly, but not without some strong reservations.
If the idea intrigues you, give the book a chance. And then, please! Come back and tell me what you thought. I'd love to be able to chat with someone about their thoughts on the book!
*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this through a Teen Book Scene Tour.
Whoa, guess what today is. My six month blogaversary! Yeah, that's right, it's English Major's Junk Food's half birthday. I was really excited about this day, but when I told my friends and family they all said they couldn't believe it had only been six months. I guess I kind of feel that way too, sometimes it's hard for me to remember a time when I wasn't blogging. I've always been big on celebrating halves because I figure it's an extra incentive to get you to a whole. In my six months of blogging I've met some veteran bloggers and helped some new bloggers get a start. I've been interviewed on the radio and for a newspaper. I've reached 100 followers and surpassed 100 followers. I've read twice as many books as I did before I was blogging. I've read books for review and joined in on a blog tour. I've bloggiestad and I've changed my layout a lot. In short, I've done a lot in six months!
Unfortunately I did not bake this cake, but if I could bake a cake I would and I'd want everyone who has helped me these past six months to have a little cake too. I couldn't run this blog without all of my great blogging friends and followers- like you!
So this week I posted a review of the The Lightning Thief and I revisited a teen favorite, Fifteen. These are both YA books and I'll just warn you I've read a lot of YA recently so several of my upcoming reviews will be YA. Not all of them though. If you're ever curious to see what books are coming up for review you can check out my 2010 reads page. I usually review the books in order. (PS, If you love YA I'm probably going to have a Hunger Games week next month as I just finished The Hunger Games and I'm reading Catching Fire right now. So good.) I revisited Where the Wild Things Are in my children's book vlog. On Friday I posted an awesome music video that makes literary references. Check out the Filligar video and enter to win a free t-shirt from them!
is all about my favorite kind of novel: the gothic romance. What makes this novel special though is that it pokes fun at the gothic romance but is still enjoyable for a gothic lover like myself. Our heroine is 17 year-old Catherine Morland, lover of great gothic thrillers. She is visiting Bath with friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen, which is where she makes friends with Isabella Thorpe and finds the two love interests of the novel, Henry Tilney and John Thorpe. The Tilney family invites Catherine to stay with them at their home, Northanger Abbey. Catherine expects Northanger Abbey to be like the great ancient and dark abbeys in the books she reads. She is easily persuaded by Henry Tilney that the home actually does inhabit all the creepiness she expects. She convinces herself that General Tilney had a hand in his wife's death and searches her room and the rest of the abbey for any clue that will tell her the truth. She spends sleepless nights wondering and letting her fears get the best of her. Of course there is a wild storm outside to accompany all of this. Henry makes Catherine realize that she is ridiculous, and that life and art do not always inspire each other. Gothic novels are meant to be thrilling because they are a diversion from life.
This novel is definitely a coming of age story, which I enjoyed a great deal. It's very different from the other novels I have read by Austen because it mainly about Catherine and not the other characters, although they do move along her story. Catherine is so naive and I felt myself cringing at some of her thoughts. She is completely oblivious to the fact that John Thorpe is courting her and to Isabella Thorpe's bitchy motives. The novel is written in such a way that you can see all the stupid things Catherine thinks but it is obvious that she doesn't know they are stupid. It's not all her fault though, obviously she is young and John Thorpe does not help matters. He plays with the Tilney's minds and leads them to think very different things about Catherine than are actually true.
I liked this one. I felt like it dealt a great deal with perception, which is a common theme in many of Austen's novels. My favorite part was the way the ride home from Northanger Abbey looks so different from the ride there because she realizes that everything she saw on the way there was a working of her imagination. I sympathized with Catherine when she began to realize that everything she thought about the world is... wrong. Don't you hate that? The novel ended a little too tidy for me, but that is a common complaint with Austen.
Pub. Date: February 2008 (Reissue) Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated Format: Mass Market Paperback, 256pp
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This post is just me casting lonely puppy dog eyes at fairy tales, both released and announced that I'm itching to get my hands on. There's a lot of them, but this is in no ways an all-inclusive list. There are a lot of really great looking retellings that got left behind, simply because the post was so long. For that same reason, all that's included about each title is a tiny bit about why I want it so bad.
Shadows on the Moon by Zoë Marriot — If you haven't yet picked up on how much I want this book, I don't think you've been paying attention. I loved Zoë's previous novels and this retelling of Cinderella fascinates me. This is probably my most highly anticipated of all the books on this list.
Sweetly by Jackson Pearce — The companion novel to Sister's Red, which I loved (my review) , this is Pearce's version of Hansel and Gretel. But, just as Sister's Red was unlike any Little Red Riding Hood story I've read before, Sweetly promises to be just as original, and just as fabulous.
Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier — I loved Marillier's writing in Wildwood Dancing (my review) and Cybele's Secret. I'm eager to read more of the fairy tale retellings that she has written. Heart's Blood is the one that I used as my example, but really, any of her books I've no yet read would fit there.
Thornspell by Helen Lowe — I haven't read too many retellings of Sleeping Beauty but it's one that, in my experience, often does very well on the retell. I've had this one on my tbr for a while now, and can't help but think that it's getting time to take it off.
Dread Locks by Neal Shusterman — The first in his Dark Fusion trilogy, this promised to be a very unique and twisty version of Medusa. The series also retells Little Red Riding Hood and The Ugly Duckling.
The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab — The cover is beautiful and haunting, and the synopsis sounds like it comes from a fairy tale. But it is instead a wholly original story, a new fairy tale. And I for one, cannot wait to read it. (Thank you Victoria for the correction. My apologies for having it wrong before.)
The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey — This is the first book in her Five Hundred Kingdoms series, and it's the one I've chosen to represent Lackey in general. I've heard a lot of great things about her writing in general and about this series in particular, and it is one that I am eager to read.
Birdwing by Rafe Martin — This is the book that has, perhaps, been on my list the longest without having been read. Birdwing is a retelling of The Six Swans (or The Wild Swans etc.) but it is the story of the youngest brother, the brother who was given the shirt with only one finished sleeve. What was his life like, with one arm and one wing? This idea fascinates me, because I've thought about that before, and I would love to see where Martin takes this story.
White as Snow by Tanith Lee — There is a whole fairy tale series where several writers grouped together and all (somehow) decided to tell their own tales. White as Snow is one of them, as is Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, which is definitely a book worth reading. I'd love to go through and read each of the books in this series. They all seem fascinating.
Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson — I really enjoyed Tomlinson's The Swan Maiden and was excited to see that she had another fairy tale retelling coming out. I can't wait to see what she does with this story. It's a lesser known tale, and one that is a little bit... weird (gems or snakes falling from your mouth every time you speak?!) and it's one that could very definitely be fascinating on the retell.
So there it is — a very small grouping of fairy tales that I'm insanely anxious to read. Have you read any of them? What did you think?! Any you recommend more than others? Any you are adding to your own TBR?
Well I'm over halfway through. I'm actually pretty proud of myself because without the readathon I would not have gotten this much reading done this weekend. I've decided to leave Lady Audley's Secret for later because a) It is late b) I'm reading it for class c) I'm already way ahead. So I will read that tomorrow.
I think my next project is going to be And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie because I am reading it for the Barnes and Noble Literature by Women book club. I've had the book for years just sitting in a drawer so I'll give it a shot tonight. Eventually though I'm going to have to go to bd, but I don't think I'm quite ready yet.
Books Read: And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander Pages Read: 180 Total Books Read: And Only to Deceive Emma: A Victorian Romance Volume One, and Sense and Sensibility (And I saw Where the Wild Things Are) Total Pages Read: 466
Books Read: Reading And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander Pages Read: 40 Total Books Read: Emma: A Victorian Romance Volume One and Sense and Sensibility Total Pages Read: 286
Haven't made much progress because of dinner and I'm afraid I probably won't make much more progress for the rest of evening because I'm going to Where the Wild Things Are which is book related. I do plan on finishing And Only to Deceive tonight if possible. I'm looking forward to a more planned readathon in December thanks to Dreadlock Girl Reads. If nothing else I've enjoyed finding all of these great book blogs to look at in the future!
For those of you that like to write as well as read and love challenges, join National Novel Writing Month to try your hand at writing a novel! It starts November 1 and I will be participating in it. For more information go here.
I did end up falling asleep about halfway through And Then There Were None. I'm not sure of the exact time, but I'm going to guess I made it about sixteen hours, so that was pretty good. Next time I will go all out.
Books Read: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Pages Read: 124 Total Books Read: Half of And Then There Were None, And Only to Deceive Emma: A Victorian Romance Volume One, and Sense and Sensibility (And I saw Where the Wild Things Are) Total Pages Read: 590
Overall it was a great experience to read with so many other people. There are some awesome book blogs out there I wouldn't have found without this.
