Jane Austen

Blog about a Spark writer reading Jane Austen for the first time: http://community.sparknotes.com/2010/08/27/blogging-pride-and-prejudice-as-if-it-were-a-teen-novel-part-1

Eat Pray Love

I've been wanting to read this book for several years now, as it slowly grew in popularity. I have finally snagged a copy to read in between book club books. It's a light hearted, quick moving, short chapter book that is easy to enjoy.

The book is one woman's journey of herself. However, unlike the usual sappy memoirs (Tuesdays with Morrie, The Last Lecture) that I had read previously, this story didn't literally lecture me on how I should live my life. Instead, it was a woman sharing her personal journey, and simply reflecting on it ... and fortunately for her, it turned into a best-selling book and I am sure it will do well in the theaters. She tells the tales of the lessons she's learned, without instructing her readers to do the same. Why should she? They are HER lessons. And she leaves it up to her readers to go discover their's.

And the next book club book could be...

The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan was recommended to me. As I sat on a boat cruise with local industrial hygienists, safety professionals and occupational health nurses, I somehow steered the conversation to the topic of books. Is anyone surprised? I mentioned the next genre was to be historical fiction and The Twentieth Wife was recommended. Here is a review: www.curledup.com/20thwife.htm

It looks like there is a sequel available for further reading if it turns out to be an interesting read.

Until Wednesday, happy reading!

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

I was excited to read this book, as suggested by my personal librarian, Angela. I was hoping for a lighthearted kid book with deeper adult messages.

I was never a big fan of the Disney movie, but scenes reappeared in my head as the story went from tale to tale. Reading the introduction made it all sane for me; understanding that Lewis Carroll was really just a kid at heart and always imagining. But for someone as practical as I, the tales got stranger and stranger, and by the end, I was ready to be done.

What I did really enjoy was home much like a dream he wrote it. Through The Looking Glass did it more, but how each tale seemed to transform into the next without any transition, just like in dreams.

I am glad I bought a hard-cover copy. I will save it to read with my children to get them started into "chapter books." But I don't plan on recommending it to anyone else in any other scenario, so it will probably collect dust on my book shelf until then.

Alice in Wonderland

We are all familiar with the little girl Alice who fell down a rabbit's hole and found herself in a bizarre world of backwardness. As a child, the Walt Disney version of this tale made me very uncomfortable; it had no plot line that I could see and it's lack of structure made me bristle. Then, loving Johnny Depp the way I do, I rented Tim Burton's version of the film and loved it. Here was something I could get behind: not only was there a plot, but Burton et al presented a story of a young woman's journey toward muchness, a substance many young women these days lack.

So I suggested to the Club that we read the story by Lewis Carroll, knowing that most of our generation probably hasn't. As I read I was sorry I had suggested it, mostly.

The story itself has much more in common with the Disney film than I was anticipating. Strange world, when Disney gets most of it right, eh? There was almost no plot, save for a thinly written bit about trying to become a queen. Most of what happened was absolute and pure nonsense, which is fine when it leads to a conclusion, but I don't feel this did. The entire book seemed to me like an infuriating riddle with no answer to be had.

The parts I enjoyed the most were bits and pieces that Burton et al pulled out to put the more recent film together. At one point, Alice is heard to tell a Queen that "one can't believe impossible things." To which the Queen replies: "I daresay you haven't had much practice,...sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." This is a lovely habit of childhood that so many grow out of as they progress, yet still missing their opportunity to develop their muchness. This theme is used by Burten et al to develop a sense of aimlessness in their Alice, and built a back story involving her dead father (aren't there always dead parents? Isn't that how storybook children find appeal on the shelves?).

The story Burton et al build around principally concerns the Jabberwok poem. The book is full of songs and poems and riddles, many of which the reader would recognize from the Disney film. Burton et al pieced together a totally new Alice story, one that makes sense, is empowering, is visually appealing, and still manages to preserve Carroll's general ideas. My conclusion: read the story, it is easy enough and you might love it. However, given the choice, I'd rather Tim Burton had written it.