Mirkwood Reflections

The Light Princess by George MacDonald 1/1/2015 Excellent - Children's - 110 pages (Print) A princess is cursed with a lack of gravity. I assigned this to Emily to read and decided to read it myself as well. I've always wanted to read MacDonald, but a difficult reading experience with one of his books when I was a teenager had prejudiced me against him. However, this wasn't at all hard to read! Very simple, but deep. Season of Storms  by Susanna Kearsley 1/11/2015 Good - Chick Lit - 501 pages (Print) Young actress Celia Sands is offered the lead in a play in Italy because she shares the name of the actress for whom the play was written. A couple friends rave about Kearsley and I've read two of her so far, both entertaining and light. Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life  by Brian Wansink 1/16/2015 Excellent - Non-fiction - 320 pages (Print) How to set up your living environments so that you naturally lose weight. Interesting ideas on...

W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton - 1/11/2014 Good - Mystery - 497 pages (Kindle) Kinsey finds she is distantly related to a recently deceased homeless man I've always enjoyed reading about Kinsey Millhone's private investigations. This latest in the alphabet-named series was quite enjoyable. Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich -1/26/2014 Good - Mystery - 337 pages (Print) Dead old ladies are being found in dumpsters and Stephanie and Lula keep seeing a giraffe running the city streets. Another long-running series about an investigator - Stephanie Plum, inept bounty hunter. This one did not disappoint! Lots of Ranger. Yes ! The Annotated Sense and Sensibility edited by David M. Shapard, original text by Jane Austen - 1/31/2014 Excellent - Classic - 709 pages (Print and audio) I listened to the book but read the annotations in the print version. Sense and Sensibility is not my favorite Austen. I have no patience at all for the idealist heroine, Marianne. This is my 3...

Austen adaptations abound! I read this blog post which ranks 21 of them with clever explanations then thought to myself that my own list would look somewhat different. And then someone (yes, you, Austenacious !) asked me HOW my list would shuffle the films. So here I am in the wee hours of the morning, ranking Austen movies instead of sleeping.  Go read that blog post before reading mine because her comments are far more comical than mine could ever dream of being. Plus mine will make more sense if you look at hers first.  Two of the movies on her list I haven't seen -  Austenland , 2013 since it has yet to open in Michigan and  Bride & Prejudice  since Bollywood films make my skin crawl . Then I added one that she left out, which is at the bottom of my list. So, without further ado, I present to you my top twenty Austen film adaptations in reverse order of preference! Ta-dah! 20. Northanger Abbey 1980 - one of THE worst movies I have eve...

Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier - 11/6/2011  Excellent - Historical Fiction A tale of 1790's London with Mr. William Blake (poet) and Mr. Philip Astley (circus) along with a family from Dorsetshire I tend to enjoy Chevalier's portrayals of famous historical artists. This one was slightly different as Blake and Astley were secondary characters to the children that formed the basis of the story, but still interesting.  The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - 11/10/2011  Good - Classic Ten year old orphan Mary Lennox comes to live with her uncle in England and discovers an unkempt garden behind a locked door. A re-read for me, as well as a book club selection. If you've only ever read a children's version (or heard the Focus on the Family radio play), you will find this different. I was motivated this time to do some research into Burnett and her involvement in spirituality and the "New Thought" which is the basis for the "Magic" in t...

Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare - 9/3/2011  Good - Classic Gender-bending comic tale of shipwreck, love, and mischief.  Read this for the Brit Lit class I am co-teaching. We also went to see the play at Grand Valley State University - excellent! Very funny. Always remember Shakespeare is meant to be watched, not read! Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell - 9/20/2011     Excellent - Non-fiction    Some interesting thoughts on how successful people got that way, and some myths debunked. I found this book so intriguing that I assigned it to David. Did you ever wonder how some people seem to "make it big" and others just don't?  A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller - 9/26/2011  Excellent - Non-fiction Best book I ever read on prayer - what it is, what it isn't, how to do it, why to do it Such a wonderful practical book on prayer that I began reading it ...

Clara & Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland - 3/1/2011 Fair - Historical Fiction Clara is a designer at Tiffany Studios around the turn of the 20th century. I listened to this on audiobook and I didn't particularly like the narrator. It was a good story, though. GOVERNESS: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres by Ruth Brandon - 3/2/2011 Fair - Nonfiction This was more about the lives of several real women who were governesses at some point. So, more about the TIMES than the LIVES of governesses. Mildly interesting and somewhat lurid (because one of the women was Byron's mistress and another was the mother of Mary Shelley), but not what I expected. I had expected something else, as this didn't seem like a fair account of the average governess. But I did learn a lot! Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo - 3/5/2011 Excellent - Chick Lit Emma Grant, college professor in disgrace, travels to England hot on the trail of some previously unknown Austen letters. Enjoyed...

Margins are acting crazy again. Sorry!   Me and Mr. Darcy Alexandra Potter 2/4/2011 Good Fiction Bookstore manager goes on Jane Austen tour on a whim and, through a twist in time, meets the real Darcy. But he's not all she imagined. Interesting, if you need something light and Austen-related.   Emma Jane Austen 2/8/2011 Good Classic Spoiled rich Emma Woodhouse tries to make matches for everyone but herself. Loved Emma this time! The Postcard Killers James Patterson & Liza Marklund 2/8/2011 Good Suspense A pair of killers roams Europe killing young lovers. Gory but interesting.   Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 2/10/2011 Good Classic Catherine Morland visits Bath for the 1st time and meets Henry Tilney Tilney is my fav. Austen hero!!!   One Tough Mother: it's time to step up and be the Mom Julie Barnhill 2/11/2011 Good Parenting Tips on parenting Took me forever to read this. Really, I started it a couple years ago and then it sat in my basket for a ...

These are the books I read in 2010 that I rated Excellent. I would recommend any of them to you. They are in the order I read them. A Bride in the Bargain by Deanne Gist Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (But read Hunger Games 1st, ok? This is 2nd in a series) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte Emma by Jane Austen Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (part of the Outlander series, so start with Outlander) Read It and Eat by Sarah Gardner Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen Every Last One by Anna Quindlen Let's Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Juliet by Anne Fortier Yes, my list is a little heavy on the Jane Austen. That's because of the Austentatious class I am co-teaching at our homeschool co-op. But if you h...

I've missed posting here monthly, but quarterly will have to do for now. Maybe soon I can post more regularly. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - 9/8/2010 Excellent - Classic Re-read (AUDIO version) Catherine Morland visits Bath and falls in love. I am so glad I read this again. The girls I am teaching are reading all 6 of the Austen novels this school year and I'm reading along with them, of course. Northanger Abbey was first. The reading experience was so much richer this time around. Listened to the librivox version . I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman - 9/10/2010 Good - Suspense Eliza Benedict is contacted by her kidnapper/rapist 25 years later because he wants her testimony to save him from the death penalty. Interesting since it deals with the aftermath of a serious crime - not just the immediate results, but the long term effects on a victim's life. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - 9/20/2010 Good - Young Adult Katniss becomes a reluctant leader in the Rebellion...

OK, if you're not a vampire fan, skip this post. Yeah, just click the X now. :-) But if you're like me - a Jane Austen fan and intrigued by the Twilight series, you're probably still reading. Therefore, you may be interested in the new book by Amanda Grange, Mr. Darcy, Vampyre. Amanda Grange says, "The idea for the plot of Mr Darcy, Vampyre came to me when I was rereading some of the classic Gothic novels of Jane Austen's era. I was starting to write Henry Tilney's Diary , Henry being the hero of Jane Austen's Gothic novel Northanger Abbey , and I wanted to put myself in the right mood." (Lisa says: I cannot WAIT for Tilney's Diary !!!) "As I read The Mysteries of Udolpho , and as I followed the heroine over the Alps and into Italy, I found myself thinking, What if Lizzy and Darcy went to the continent for their wedding tour? What if they visited a remote castle and then went across the Alps to Italy? And what if, in those far flung location...

A novel about reading? Why yes, that's what Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey really is. Catherine Moreland, a naive seventeen-year-old with a taste for Gothic novels, is invited to Bath (a resort town) with family friends. Befriended by several young people, she is then invited to Northanger Abbey, the sinister-sounding home of Eleanor and Henry Tilney. Her imagination runs wild due to all the novels she reads and her visit ends badly. My Rollicking Readers book club discussed Northanger Abbey yesterday evening. Although not everyone there had actually READ the book, those of us that did enjoyed it. I know I did! I think I'm finally getting the hang of reading Austen! Our discussion ranged from the uses of novel reading in the plot to the difference of the hero from the average Austen hero to our enjoyment of the verbal repartee. We then watched tw o versions of Northanger Abbey on DVD - one from 2007 and one from 1987. Oh my, what a difference! We found the recent ver...

Doesn't every woman long for a group of girlfriends she can laugh and cry and indulge with? These women are the ones you can be silly with, the ones who you can confide in, these are the ones who will even make you a cake on your birthday and sing to you! Well, I am blessed to be part of just such a fabulous group of ladies - it's our Rollicking Readers book club. For the past four months now, we've been meeting every few weeks to eat and discuss one of Jane Austen's books. This month, our selection was Mansfield Park . Those in attendance vary from session to session, but we usually have eight or nine women on any given date. I enjoyed Mansfield Park more than any of the other Austen works I have read thus far, save Pride and Prejudice . However, I am beginning to think that it's because I am learning to read Austen and becoming more comfortable with her language and style, rather than the plot and characters of Mansfield Park itself. Fanny Price, the insipid and...