Anna Karenina Giveaway Winner

We have two winners for our Anna Karenina giveaway!

Congratulations dangermom and Julie, you won a copy of the movie tie-in edition of the book, the official soundtrack, and a special edition Votivo candle and bookmark. Please contact us thebluebookcase@gmail.com with your shipping address so we can send you your lovely prizes. 

Visit the official site here! 

Scene of the Blog

Good morning!  Just wanted to let all y'all know that The Blue Bookcase is being featured today on Scene of the Blog over at Kittling: Books.  This is a really cool program that lets you peek inside different bloggers' reading/writing spaces.  I (Christina) was super excited to participate!  Here's a list of all the book bloggers who have been featured; you can search by blog name or by location.

And, the words you've been waiting to click: the direct link to the post about ME!  Check it out!  I'm loving this feature.  And while you're there, enjoy Cathy's excellent book reviews and photography posts.  She tends to focus on mysteries and crime fiction, and she takes beautiful photos, too.

June 2012 Literary Giveaway Hop Winner!

The winner of our giveaway is Teresa from all the way over in Spain! Teresa chose to win a copy of A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. (An excellent choice.)


Congratulations Teresa! 


Thanks for playing, stay tuned for another giveaway coming up in a few weeks!

June 2012 Literary Giveaway Hop

We're participating in the Literary Giveaway Hop again!

As before, you can choose to win any book we've ever reviewed from our Reviews Archive.

Enter the giveaway on our facebook page here.)


(Does that link work? If not, leave a comment with your choice and your email address.)

After you enter, check out the other blogs participating in this giveaway hop in the list below.

 Good luck!

Leeswammes Candle Beam Book Blog Musings of a Bookshop Girl The Book Whisperer Book Journey (US/CA) breieninpeking (Dutch readers) bibliosue heavenali I Read That Once... The Parrish Lantern The Bibliomouse (Europe) Tell Me A Story Seaside Book Nook Rikki's Teleidoscope Sam Still Reading Nishita's Rants and Raves Readerbuzz Books Thoughts Adventures (North America) 2,606 Books and Counting Laurie Here (US/CA) Literary Winner (US) Dolce Bellezza The House of the Seven Tails The Book Diva's Reads (US) Colorimetry Roof Beam Reader Kate's Library Minding Spot (US) Silver's Reviews (US) Book'd Out Fingers & Prose (US) Chocolate and Croissants Scattered Figments Lucybird's Book Blog The Book Club Blog

Lizzy's Literary Life The Book Stop Reflections from the Hinterland (US) Lena Sledge's Blog Read in a Single Sitting The Little Reader Library (UK) The Blue Bookcase (US) 1morechapter (US) The Reading and Life of a Bookworm Curled Up with a Good Book and a Cup of Tea My Sweepstakes City (US) De Boekblogger (Europe, Dutch readers) Exurbanis Sweeping Me (US/CA) Living, Learning, and Loving Life (US) Beauty Balm Uniflame Creates Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book (US/CA) Curiosity Killed The Bookworm Nose in a book (Europe) Sharon's Garden of Book Reviews (US) Giraffe Days Page Plucker Based on a True Story Read, Write & Live Devin Berglund (N. America) Ephemeral Digest Under My Apple Tree (US) Annette Berglund (US) Book Nympho A Book Crazy, Jane Austen Lovin' Gal (US) Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity

Rebecca Read-along

join up!

Quick post!

I'm participating in this read-along over at Book Journey and thought I'd spread the word in case anyone wanted to join me.

People have been telling me to read Rebecca for years, and my book group is reading it now as well.  So it has worked perfectly with the read-along!  I'm so lucky!

Here's a little commercial for Rebecca:

"'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.' This opening line from Rebecca is one of the most powerful, most recognized, in all of literature. For more than sixty years, audiences around the world have praised Daphne du Maurier's novel as a spellbinding blend of mystery, horror, romance, and suspense. In this book, readers can see the traditions of romantic fiction, such as the helpless heroine, the strong-willed hero, and the ancient, imposing house that never seems to unlock its secrets. Using elements familiar to audiences of romances through the ages, from the moody and wind-swept novels of the Brontë sisters in the 1840s to the inexpensive entertainments of today, Rebecca stands out as a superb example of melodramatic storytelling. Modern readers considered this book a compelling page-turner, and it is fondly remembered by most who have read it." (via)

I'm about 80 pages in and still not enthralled, but I'm hoping I'll start to enjoy it more as I have more uninterrupted reading time these next few days.

Post: Reading Ulysses on Bloomsday

Our Man 

Post by Ingrid

That's right, I'm going to read Ulysses today! (Well, part of it.) o from delaissé is hosting a little Ulysses-reading event today to celebrate Bloomsday. As you may or may not know, Ulysses takes place within a single day, June 16, 1904. And because we're cool like that, we're going to try to read as much of the book today, June 16, 2012.

I'm not sure how many of them plan to read the entire book today, but that seemed to be the goal. I know that o reads insanely fast, so go check out her blog and see how she's getting along. She's also provided a wonderfully helpful breakdown of the novel here. Also, go check out the sign up post to see the other participants.

I found a cheater version of Ulysses on my Kindle that has summaries and explanations at the end of each chapter, so maybe that will help with smoother sailing ... I'll update this post as I read and let you know how it goes.

Wish me luck!

10:30 am: Well hi. So I started last night by reading some of the extra material in my Shmoop ebook edition (Oh look, here it is online.) It was a nice, easy introduction to what I know will be extremely difficult reading. I like how the writer(s?) of this guide encourage different interpretations of the text instead of only presenting one, as if that is the definitive interpretation (like Sparknotes does.)

This morning I've read about half of the first section, Telemachus. It is quite difficult but the Kindle dictionary is helpful (prepuces=foreskin? Nice.)

Here's a quote from the Shmoop guide about Joyce's difficult writing that I quite liked:

[S]ome of Joyce's sentences can be quite hard to process. You read the same sentence over and over again and you really have no idea what he's saying. Frustrating as these may be, you have to realize that as you struggle with the sentence, Joyce has forced you to bring much more attention to his words than you would have otherwise. Your eyes can't just move idly over the page in Ulysses. It's an active book, and as a reader you have to put in a great deal of effort in order to figure out what the sentence is saying. One way to think of these sentences is as Gordian knots, seemingly impenetrable riddles. But once you undo the knot and make the sentence go flat, you'll often find that the realization inside is pretty remarkable and probably couldn't have been communicated any other way.

Now back to reading!


4:15 pm: Alrighty. So I just finished the second section, Nestor. I'm starting to realize what makes Joyce's writing so difficult - he doesn't explain what is happening really at all. When he writes in stream of consciousness, he's just inserting all of these random bits without writing something like, say, "Stephen thought." It's just ... there. This forces you to read the book differently, and it's uncomfortable at first. (Well, it's still uncomfortable for me, but I'm hoping that as I get used to it that will change.)


It's also difficult to tell when people are making fun of things. I didn't catch on that those Latin phrases in the first section were there because Mulligan was making fun of the Catholic mass until the nice Shmoop guide explained it to me. It seems like it would be impossible to read this book without some help! 

April Classics Challenge: Book Covers

Posted by Connie

It's been a little while since we've posted for the Classics Challenge, but I decided to jump back into it this month. Lately, I have been chipping away at Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, and since I'm in the midst of moving, it's taking me longer than usual, and it's also the only thing I have time to read. Hence my lack of reviews.

Enough disclaimers. On to the discussion. The questions for this month are:

• What are your first impressions of the cover?
• Does the cover reflect the character, setting, or plot?
• If you designed a book cover, what would you have chosen?

Anna Karenina has been released so many times, so it has had many a cover. Here's the one I'm reading (since this is the translation Ingrid recommended):

I am about 65% through the book, so I cannot definitively say this, but thus far, I do not remember an instance when any character has bare legs and holds some flowers dramatically between them. So unless that comes later (and who knows, perhaps it does), I'm thinking this is not meant to be a literal representation of any particular event in the book.

So let's look at it in the abstract. The legs are bare, and though nowadays women parade around in super-mini-skirts, such was not the fashion among high society in 1870s Russia. So between the nakedness of the legs and the flowers, it could be alluding to Anna's affair with Vronsky (her "de-flowering", if you want to get vulgar), or even more abstractly, the loss of her innocence. Also, the purples are in color while everything else is in black and white, making for an overall dramatic and tragic feel -- perfectly fitting the story of Anna Karenin.

Man, I had to pick a hard cover, didn't I? Other Anna Karenina covers would have been a lot more obvious, like these:

 Anna is so sad that she's ruining her life, so she lies dramatically on the chaise.

Anna is beautiful and high society but oh so sad and tragic, so she leans on the table to keep from fainting from the sadness and tragedy of it all.

Anna Karenina is a modern, haute couture model trying desperately to get her picture on the cover of Marie Claire.











All right, you Anna Karenina fans out there, what do you make of the flowers and legs cover?

Blogoversary Giveaway Winner!

via

Congratulations novelchick02 aka Stephanie! You won our giveaway!

Stephanie chose to win The Instructions by Adam Levin. (I know Christina will be very happy about this!)

Thanks to everyone who entered our giveaway and helped us celebrate The Blue Bookcase's 2nd birthday! The more money we make from ads and affiliate purchases, the more giveaways we'll have in the future ... just throwing that out there for you to act upon as you choose. If you click on the banner at the bottom of this post and buy something, we'll get a percentage of your purchase. 

We love you all! Thanks for reading!

The Classics Club: Our Lists

Penguin Hardcover Classics

Our good book blogging friend, Jillian, at A Room of One's Own, has acted on a fabulous idea and created a Classics Club for bloggers of classic literature to join together to blog about and discuss the classics. Interested? Read more about it here.

We've decided to join the fun. Here are our lists of classic books along with our goal deadline. Once we finish a book on our list, we will cross it out and link to our review. We will also place a link to this post at the top of our home page for easy reference.

Connie:

Goal date to finish: March 30, 2016
Date started: March 7, 2012
Prizes: some really excellent reading and hopefully some rousing discussion

I have chosen fewer books over a longer period of time. As I started creating my list, I started getting sad -- if I blow through all of my to-read classics in the next couple of years, then I will hardly have any classics to look forward to tackling for the rest of my life. And that really does make me sad. So I reserve the right to shorten my list and/or not finish within my goal date.

Finished: 0/40

British
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (re-read)
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Possession by AS Byatt Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (re-read)
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (re-read)
Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf

American
O Pioneers by Willa Cather
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (re-read)
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (re-read)
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Russian
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

French
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Other
The Illiad by Homer
The Inferno by Dante
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Ulysses by James Joyce

Ingrid

Goal date to finish: March 30, 2014
Date started: March 7, 2012
Prizes: Having read a bunch of books I want to read.

Finished (0/50)

Works originally written in English:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Ulysses by James Joyce
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
The Ambassadors by Henry James
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Far From the Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy
A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Light in August by William Faulkner
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen [Karen Blixen]
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
French Ways and Their Meaning by Edith Wharton
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Works in translation:

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset - trans. Tiina Nunnally
Chéri by Colette
The Pure and the Impure by Colette
The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - trans. Pevear and Volokhonsky
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - trans. Pevear and Volokhonsky
The Trial by Franz Kafka
No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Book Two - In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
Book Three - The Guermantes Way
Book Four - Sodom and Gomorrah
Book Five - The Prisoner
Book Six - The Fugitive
Book Seven - Finding Time Again
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov - trans. Dmitri Nabokov
Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin - trans. Vladimir Nabokov
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy
If Not, Winter by Sappho
Letters by Mme de Sévigné
Elective Affinities by Goethe
Tales from Ovid - trans. Ted Hughes
Les Liasons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos

Christine-Chioma (C-C)

Goal date to finish: March 30, 2016
Date started: March 7, 2012
Prizes: I will probably celebrate my success via bragging every 10 books. After I finish all 50 I might just have a party for myself which would definitely include a bowl of ice cream

Finished: 0/50

Written in English:
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
1984 by George Orwell
A Death in the Family by James Agee
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Zeely by Virgina Hamilton
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Howard's End by E.M. Forster
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Things Fall Apart by Chiua Achebe
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (started reading, but never finished)
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (read half of this before)
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (re-read)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (re-read)
Middlemarch by George Eliot (re-read)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (re-read)

Written in other languages:
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (tried to read this in French several years ago)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (re-read)

Post: Tips for Reading Moby Dick

Post by Connie & Ingrid

Ok, we promise this is our last post about Moby Dick. Inspired by Ingrid's post with tips for reading War and Peace, here's a quick list of our tips for reading Moby Dick ... for those of you who know you want to read it someday but need a little push.

Source: fashionsalade.com via Rhiannon on Pinterest

1. Change your expectations. This is NOT an action-packed adventure book. Some of the best advice we received upon starting this book was to view each chapter as a short story. If you start the book expecting a linear plot, you will grow very, very frustrated. Approach the book expecting a lot of non-fiction, a lot of experimentation, and a lot of jumping around, and try to enjoy it. As our fellow read-alonger Shelley at Book Clutter said in one of her posts, be ready to switch into non-fiction mode a lot in this book. And when you get discouraged, just trust, trust that the end will make it all worth it.

2. If you have a Kindle or other ebook reader, consider reading it on that. I started reading this book the old-fashioned way, but because it was so slow moving, it felt like it took FOR-EV-ER (read that in your best Sandlot voice) to even turn a page. I felt like I was making no progress at all. When I switched to the Kindle (and it's a free download), I stopped paying attention to how much progress I was making and how many more pages I had left to go, and I was able to enjoy the process much more.

 3. Set a finish date. It's easy to abandon this book because it's long and some parts are . . . well, boring. Both of us had a hard time getting through some parts, but we both ended up loving it after we finished. If you set a goal to finish before a certain date, you'll be less inclined to give up.

4. Don't be afraid of supplemental reading. Ingrid read Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick while she was working through Moby Dick and found it clarifying and encouraging. Don't be afraid to read outside sources - even though they discuss the end, we think it actually might enrich your reading experience if you already know what happens in the end. So don't be afraid of spoilers. Check out our Moby Dick intro post for some more suggested reading.

Oprah.com also has some advice for reading Moby Dick and other hard books.

Good luck! And when you decide to tackle this leviathan (had to do one more leviathan joke; come on, when am I going to be able to use that one again?) make sure you stop by and tell us what you think! Happy reading.

Announcing our Literary Giveaway Hop Winner!

via

Congratulations to Jenny O. from Lit Endeavors, you won our February Literary Giveaway Hop!


Jenny chose to win The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. Jenny, I'll be emailing you today for your shipping address. 


Thanks to everyone who entered our giveaway!

Post: Why I Review

Post by Ingrid

We've never participated in The Sunday Salon before, but since I had a topic in mind I thought today would be a good day to start.

What makes a good review? It seems like everyone has a different answer to this question. Last summer Jeff at The Reading Ape wrote a post on the reader centered review, which sparked a great conversation in the comments. I reread this post today as I've recently been thinking quite a bit about how I frame my own reviews.

The Blue Bookcase is coming up on its 2 year anniversary in March. Over these past 2 years we've cycled through different reviewers and started to participate in and host new memes. The main content of this blog, though, has always been book reviews. In her one year anniversary post last March, Connie wrote that her original purpose for the blog was to keep track of the books she had read and to exchange reviews with her friends. We've tried to keep the tone of this blog casual and accessible, and though we have expanded quite a bit since those first few months, we hope that The Blue Bookcase will always remain this way.

I was still in school and inculcated in academia when I first started to review here, and I remember how I tried to write my reviews from a more scholarly point of view. (The Comparative Literature department I studied in was known for its elitism, and though I tried not to let it affect me, I realize now that it kind of did.) However, now that I'm more familiar and comfortable with the book blogging community and the other girls that write for this blog, I realize that in those early reviews I came off a little bit arrogant. I truly hope that I've been able to move away from that tone as my reviewing style has evolved. On the other hand, as I've read back over some of my more recent reviews, I wish I had been able to discuss the books I've reviewed in more depth instead of just quickly listing off what I liked or didn't like about it. Part of me misses that academic frame of reference that school provided for me, and I wish I could somehow still bring that into my reviews.

So, as we move toward our second anniversary, I hope to be able to strike a balance between maintaining the fun, casual tone of this blog as well as digging a little deeper in the way I write about books. I also hope to apply to graduate school this year, and I want to use this blog as a platform to improve the way I write and think about literature. I love the fun, laid-back book discussion this blog has provided, and I believe the atmosphere this blog has created is truly why I review.

Of course, we also have the lovely and intelligent Connie, Christina, Lucia, Liesl, and Christine-Chioma who also regularly write reviews for The Blue Bookcase. Part of the fun of this blog is the fact that we all approach our reviews in different ways. Hopefully these girls will share in the comments their point of view on this topic.

What about you? If you are a book blogger, why do you review? What do you look for in reviews you read from other book blogs?

Moby Dick Readalong: Chapters 56-93

Jan 9: Introduction

Jan 12: Chapters 1-26

Jan 19: Chapters 27-55

Jan 26: Chapters 56-93

Feb 2: Chapter 94-epilogue

Here we are at the end of chapter 93! We're getting close to the end! Here's what happened in this section:
---------------------
Ishmael tells us that he likes certain French engravings of whales and considers them quite decent. There are also depictions of whales made from other materials, such as teeth, wood, stones, and stars.

The Pequod is quite far out to sea by this time. The sea is wide and terrible, and Ishmael claims that "man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it." The relationship of the sea to the land is analogy to something within the self, Ishmael says, "For as this appalling ocean surounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!" (Spooky.)

Oh! The great white whale is spotted in the distance! The boats are lowered, the men go after him - however, they turn back when they see a huge squid which is very bad luck. Bummer.

Ishmael describes how ropes are used on the ship. Stubb kills a sperm whale. The process of harpooning a whale is exhausting, we're told. (Reading about it can be a little exhausting too...)
Stubb eats a whale steak for dinner. Sharks gather around the freshly killed whale which is still in the water. Stubb reprimands the cook for not cooking his steak to his liking.

Ishmael discusses the whale as a dish, which parts are eaten, what they taste like, etc. Sharks continue to feed on the whale corpse in a frenzy. They seem to be possessed by devils.

The men cut the blubber from the whale using a large hook. Whales have a thick coat of blubber around their bodies to keep them warm, but around their very outside they have a thin, transparent, vulnerable skin. The big white blob of what's left of the whale is pulled alongside the ship, and Ishmael believes its ghost may be following as well. Ahab peers down the side of the ship at the head, wondering what mysteries of the sea it has seen.

Read more »

Top 10 Books Connie's Started but Never Finished

I was so excited to do a top 10 this week of whatever I want. I have been wanting to do this list for a while, and it was nearly impossible to narrow it down to only ten. See, I have so many books I want to read that if I start reading one that I just can't stand, it doesn't bother me to stop reading it and move on to something else. But then I don't feel right about reviewing them, since I didn't read the whole thing, and that wouldn't be fair. So they just hang out in this middle space in my mind, and I just need to tell you why I quit them. So here are 10 books I gave up on.

10. The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch-- This book was all the rage last year, but once the daughter turned into some stereotype of a girl who's obsessed with male attention, I got annoyed and quit reading, even though it's one of the few full-priced books I've bought for my Kindle.

9. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith -- For some reason or other, I just couldn't get into this book, which is in total contradiction of Ingrid's top ten last week, when she said that anyone could. Maybe it was just the timing. I'll probably try it again some day.

8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston -- I think I need to get an audiobook of this one. I am a fast reader, so reading in very strong dialect annoys me because it forces me to read too slowly. I think I'd like it otherwise.

7. Bossypants by Tina Fey -- I was prepared to love this book, but I gave up after a few chapters when it just became all about how it's ridiculous that gay marriage isn't legal nationwide. It was seriously like 5 of the first 6 chapters. Sure, you can write your opinion about it, but don't try to pawn it off as a comedic memoir. I still love you though, Tina Fey.

6. Moby Dick by Herman Melville, though I'm hoping to remedy that right now with our Moby Dick read-along. And let me tell you, if it weren't for this read-along, I probably would have quit again, probably when Melville all of a sudden started writing a play about random sailors.

5. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey -- I was right in the middle of this one when it came out about it all being totally made up, which was annoying, so I ditched it. The writing style was pretentious, anyway.

4. The Two Towers by JRR Tolkein -- I know, crucify me. I got weary of alllll the lengthy descriptions of nature or of a gate or whatnot, even though I loved The Hobbit and enjoyed Fellowship.

3. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy -- I enjoyed The Road so much, I was really excited to read another McCarthy, but boy oh boy was I bored.

2. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah -- I feel terrible admitting this. It makes me sound like a terrible person, but even though I am really interested in learning about the various revolutions in Africa and have even hosted fundraisers to help child soldiers escape, I couldn't finish this book. The premise is very appealing, but because English is not Beah's native tongue, he uses a ton of cliches to describe his experience, which made it difficult to find it very compelling. That makes me a total snob, doesn't it. For example, this is not necessarily directly from the book (though it could be), he might say something like when he and his brother got separated, he felt his heart break. Man, it feels worse admitting this than I expected, but, well, there it is. I have crazy respect for the guy and what he's gone through and what he has subsequently made of himself, but I wasn't very impressed with the book, she says sheepishly.

1. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer -- Yes, I am a proud Twilight non-reader. It only took me about two pages to realize how terrible the writing was and how dumb I was going to find the rest of the book. So why continue? Non-Twilighters, unite!

Moby Dick Read-Along: Chapters 27-55

Here we are, our second discussion post. Pat yourself on the back, guys, you're now half way through the book. (That seems like something a middle school teacher would say.)

Here is our readalong reading schedule with links to our past posts:

Jan 9: Introduction

Jan 12: Chapters 1-26

Jan 19: Chapters 27-55

Jan 26: Chapters 56-93

Feb 2: Chapter 94-epilogue

Let's summarize:

Ishmael introduces us to the first and second mate, Stubb and Flask, as well as the other harpooners and sailors on the ship which include an American Indian from Martha's Vineyard and a big black guy from Africa. After this, Ahab FINALLY emerges from the cabin and into the light. Oh and he has a peg leg made from a whale bone. He likes to walk along the side of the ship at night and his peg leg makes a lot of annoying noise, but Ahab will not be told what to do, so everyone just deals with it. Ahab smokes a pipe, then throws it into a sea. Stubb has a dream that he shouldn't bug Ahab.

In chapter 32, we are given an extensive and fascinating tour through the history of whale scholarship, called "Cetology." Ishmael tells us that the most general way to categorize a whale is that it is a spouting fish with a horizontal tail.

In old-times, the chief Harpooner was in charge of everything to do with the actual whales on a whale ship, but now it's the captain. Speaking of the captain, he eats with the crew in his cabin, which comes with its own set of protocol which we discover in detail. (Poor Flask. "However it was, Flask, alas! was a butterless man!").

Ishmael describes what it's like to be on duty on the mast-head as a look out. He isn't very good at this, because he always becomes lost in his own thoughts as he stares out at the ocean for hours at a time.

Next, something finally happens. (Ha! A change of pace!) Ahab calls the whole crew to assemble on the quarter-deck. He tells them all to be on sharp lookout for a great white whale, one called Moby Dick. Whatever lucky guy spots him first will be the recipient of a Spanish gold piece, courtesy of Captain Ahab.

After this, Ahab gazes out of his cabin on the sunset, overcome with his desire to kill Moby Dick. He realizes he can never appreciate anything beautiful or happy because he just wants to kill this whale. So. Bad.

Starbuck and Stuff aren't too excited about Ahab's obsession with this dumb whale.

Then, there is some sort of play with sailors from around the world ... not sure what that was all about.

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Moby Dick Read-Along: Chapters 1-26

Well, here we are at the end of chapter 26! (Right? If you're not caught up yet, just come back to this post when you are. It's not going anywhere.)

Each week, we'll offer a summary of what has happened in the book so far, a few discussion questions and our thoughts. Feel free to add your own questions, answers, or general thoughts in the comments or on your own blog. If you leave the link to your post in the comments we'll add it at the bottom of the post.

Next week, we'll be reading chapters 29-55.

Ok. So here's what's happened so far:
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In chapter one, we meet our narrator, and are invited to call him Ishmael. Ishmael loves the ocean. Or, rather, he explains that to him, going to sea is his alternative to suicide. That's kind of the same as "love," right?

Our new friend Ishmael begins his story. Once upon a time, Ishmael decided to go a-whaling. He used to work on a merchant ship, but that work just wasn't doing it for him anymore and now he wants to kill whales like a real man. On his way to Nantucket, Ishmael stops in New Bedford, where he finds a gloomy old inn to stay for the night. Actually, the inn-keeper informs him there is really no room in the inn, unless he wants to share a bed with a Harpooner. Ishmael hesitantly agrees, and this is how he meets Queequeg, a tattooed cannibal. Ishmael and Queequeg are fast friends and snuggle into bed together for the night. In the morning, Ishmael eats breakfast then visits a church with a strange pulpit and a peculiar chaplain. He listens to a sermon on Jonah and the whale.

Ishmael and Queequeg pal around, hug, and smoke together. That night, as they lay in bed together, Queequeg tells Ishmael about his island and how he came to be a harpooner. The next day, the two set out for Nantucket where all the whaling ships set out from. While on the schooner, Queequeg throws a man up in the air, then saves him when he falls in the water. Queequeg is a hero. Ishmael likes him even more.

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A Classics Challenge: Ingrid encounters Edith Wharton

Edith herself.

Oh, hey! Remember when Connie and I signed up for A Classics Challenge for 2012? Well ... it's 2012 now and the challenge has begun. Katherine at November's Autumn has posted the prompt here. And now I shall answer it.

The book I chose to read this month, which also happened to appear in the number one spot on my list, was The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Technically I started reading this book right after Christmas, but I DID finish it in January of 2012 on the beaches of Hawaii where I vacationed just last week. So I'm pretty sure it counts for this challenge.

Technically I think I'm just supposed to answer the questions from Level 4, since I finished the book, but I don't want to miss out on all the fun from the first three levels. So I'm just going to answer random questions from each level that I like.

Who is the author? Oh - well that would be Edith Wharton, of course. I didn't know much about her before I read this book, besides that she was awesome, was friends with Henry James, and had visitors come talk to her while she laid in bed.

What does she look like? Furs, fancy dress (which I imagine has a bustle,) and hair that reminds me of the name "Cordelia."

Edith Wharton's handwriting. (via)

Where was she born? In January of 1862, Edith Wharton was born as Edith Newbold Jones in New York City, where she lived most of her early life.

What does her handwriting look like? I like this question. See photo to the left. 

What other novels has she written? Edith Wharton wrote more than 20 novels, many short stories, and even some non-fiction. Her most well-known works are The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), Summer (1917), and The Age of Innocence (1920).

What is an interesting and random fact from her life? Apparently, the phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses" was said to refer to her father's family.

What do you think of her writing style? I like it, I can appreciate it. My favorite writing style is something between Virgina Woolf and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But if Edith Wharton wrote like them, she wouldn't have been so distinctly her. Her style is clear and articulate, but not too sparse and not too wordy. In The Age of Innocence, her descriptions move between objects in the room to social protocol to inner thoughts of the main character, Newland Archer.  Since much of this novel is social commentary, she often slips in gentle yet somewhat snide descriptions of situations that I thought were both amusing and sad, such as in this quote:

They went up to the library for coffee, and Archer lit a cigar and took down a volume of Michelet. He had taken to history in the evenings since May had shown a tendency to ask him to read a lound whenever she wasy him with a volume of poetry: not that he disliked the sound of his own voice, but because he could always foresee her comments on what he read. In the days of their engagement she had simply (as he now perceived) echoes what he had told her; but since he had ceased to provide her with opinions she had begun to hazard her own, with results destructive to his enjoyments of the works commented on.

Hehe. I like that. I find it interesting that Wharton is able to be critical of upper-class society while at the same time very compassionate to her characters.

Why do you think she wrote this novel? How did her contemporaries view it? That is an interesting question. My copy of The Age of Innocence had an awesome introduction that claimed the novel was greatly influenced by Wharton's experiences during World War I. As we all learned in history class, this war caused a great shift in cultures around the world, but especially in American culture. We most often associate authors like Fitzgerald and Hemingway (i.e. The Lost Generation) with this grand disillusionment after the war, but Wharton was there too - she had experienced life as an adult in society before and after the war. She understand both the old ways and the new ways, which, as my introduction claims, led to "a more complex understanding of the human condition and a more fully developed sense of compassion."

I'm not sure, but I think her contemporaries responded positively to her work, judging by the fact that The Age of Innocence won the Pulitzer prize in 1921.

That was fun! My next classic I'll be reading for this challenge will be Moby Dick (for which we are hosting a readalong this month. An intro post goes up on Monday.) Can't wait for next month's prompt!

Moby Dick Read-Along: Intro

This month we are excited to host a read-along of that notorious classic we all wish we could say we've read, Moby Dick. This Thursday, January 12th, we will be discussing chapters 1-26. But first, let's get aquainted with Moby Dick and its author. (Don't worry, no spoilers ahead!)

Herman Melville (via)

Herman Melville lived from 1819-1891. He was born the son of a New York City import merchant, who reportedly loved to tell his eight children adventures involving the sea, but who struggled to financially support his large family. Desperate to attain his own financial stability, after college Herman Melville signed an 18-month contract to work on Acushnet, a whaling vessel. While aboard, he sailed around Cape Horn and around the South Pacific. Melville wrote from his first two novels shortly after - Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847), both based on his experiences in the South Pacific. Both novels met high critical acclaim.

However, when Melville published Moby Dick in 1851, his popularity had declined significantly and the novel was not successful at all. Some say that part of the reason readers in 1851 didn't like this book was the fact that the epilogue was not included in the first edition. The epilogue explains a very significant part of the plot, and without it, the novel wouldn't make much sense.

First edition of Moby Dick (via)

Moby Dick is narrated by a wandering sailor named Ishmael, who tells of his adventures on the whaleship Pequod and its monomaniacal captain Ahab. Ishmael learns that a large white sperm whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg - driving Ahab to obsessively seek revenge and kill this whale called Moby Dick.

Though most often classified as a novel, Moby Dick is many ways seems unclassifiable - it could be so much as an epic, a saga, a treatise, or perhaps as Phillip Hoare calls it, an "alternative testament," alluding to the way Melville uses biblical allusions and themes to both deconstruct and build on Christian themes.

As a collection of seemingly disjointed chapters, the structure of this novel is not only what sets it apart from contemporary works. Some have gone so far as to call Moby Dick the first postmodern novel.

Another interesting fact that Jillian pointed out, (in her words): "I read that Melville was close friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne and that Hawthorne's style had a profound influence on the dark vs. light allegorical feel of the book. That's why the homage to Hawthorne at the beginning of the novel."

Seemingly endless scholarship has been written on Moby-Dick, analyzing it form every possible angle. However, since this is the first reading of this novel for many of us, we will mainly be discussing our first thoughts and reactions to the text.

Though unpopular in its time, Moby Dick has come to be seen as one of the greatest and most treasured works of American Literature. On Thursday we'll be talking about chapters 1-26. Hope to see you there!

Other resources: 

"What Moby Dick Means to Me" by Philip Hoare (from The Book Bench) - If you need further inspiration to finally crack open this book, I highly recommend this article.  In response to Philbrick's recently published collection of essays (linked below,) Philip Hoare describes how this great novel came to be, how it became popular many years after it was first published, and his personal experience with it. This article is deliciously readable, and Hoare makes Moby Dick sound enticing. Worth the read.

Radio West - "Why Read Moby Dick?" interview with Nathanial Philbrick (aired 12-7-11) Radio West host Doug Febrizio is known for his thoughtful and probing interview style. I listen to his show almost every day. In December, Doug interviewed author Nathanial Philbrick about his new book, Why Read Moby Dick? (Again, see link below.) In this interview, Philbrick explains why he developed such a strong passion for this novel. Also highly recommended. 

Entitled Opinions on Life & Literature - "Moby Dick" (aired 1-11-11) - An interesting, though at times a bit convoluted discussion between two Stanford professors - Robert Harrison of the French and Italian department, and Andrea Nightengale of the Classics and Comparative Literature department. Both claim Moby Dick as their favorite book. The discussion mostly centers on psychoanalytic scholarship, though moves around quite a bit as conversation is apt to do.

Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathanial Philbrick - Nathanial Philbrick is the author of The Heart of the Sea, an account of the true story of a whaling ship on which Moby Dick is based. Philbrick has now written a collection of essays on Melville's novel, illuminating the text for readers in new ways. Philbrick wrote the introduction to my Penguin Classics edition of Moby Dick, which I quite enjoyed. His style is very readable and approachable.  

Moby Dick Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations Melissa from The Avid Reader's Musings, you've won a copy of Moby Dick to read for our readalong! Please email Connie at thebluebookcase@gmail.com with your address and she will send you your book.

The intro post for the Moby Dick Readalong will go up on Monday, and on Thursday we'll discuss chapters 1-28. See you there!

Top 10 Books Connie Hopes Santa (or her husband) Will Bring this Year

Let's see if I'm capable of beginning this post some way other than, "It's time for another Top 10 Tuesday, hosted by our friends over at the Broke and Bookish." There, I think that counts.

This week, I, Connie, shall list the top 10 books I hope to show up under my Christmas tree this year. And what a beautiful Christmas tree it is. Seriously.

Now, I would like to put in a request, Broke and Bookish friends, that next year we don't wait until 5 days before Christmas to do this one. How about a couple weeks before, to give those lovely, wonderful, but clueless significant others/gift givers/Santa's elves time to locate said books on Amazon and take advantage of the free super saver shipping? Mmmmm?

All right, here we go.

10. Vegetariana by Nava Atlas -- remember when I mentioned this in my review of Literary Ladies? Still need to get my hands on a copy.

9. A Writer's Diary by Virginia Woolf -- key excerpts from my favorite author's many diaries

8. You Learn By Living by Eleanor Roosevelt -- the more I learn about her, the more I love her.

7. Reading Women by Stephanie Staal -- ever since reading Ingrid's review of it, I have been dying to get it.

6. Any Kazuo Ishiguro book I haven't read yet (any recommendations?)

5. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss -- I know, I know, this book was SO 6 years ago, but I never got around to it, and now, as an English teacher, I have a feeling I will find it particularly applicable.

4. Ulysses by James Joyce -- Not that I expect to read it any time soon, but it would be nice to know that it is on my bookshelf, patiently waiting for the day I feel particularly ambitious.

3. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens or any other of these beauties printed by Penguin.

2. The beautiful, hardbound, Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou

1. A first-edition, with the dust jacket, copy of Orlando by Virginia Woolf *long sigh*

All right, Brad, (husband) go ahead and bookmark this page, and keep it in mind for next year.

What books are you hoping for this Christmas?