Friday, February 28, 2014

#12 down

Finished that one rather quickly as well.  The Sun Also Rises was a good story - no plot in particular, but a semi-autobiographical telling of some of Hemingway's time in Europe.  And it is well known that he had a hell of a time for many years.  I have a book of letters of his - some he wrote and some written to him - and he had a fascinating life.  Did things that most people only dream of, and he did them with gusto.  My favorite letter in the book was written to Hemingway by Zelda Fitzgerald, and in the letter she mentions how she did not want to give the baby (who was teething) too much heroin - I'm sorry?  Is there a correct dosage of heroin for infants?  Those '20s were some crazy times, for sure!

Anyway, on to the next book - An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.  Originally published in 1925, it is listed as crime fiction, which is probably my favorite genre.  I have never read anything by him, so I am looking forward to finding out why this is considered a classic. I just hope it doesn't take me too long to read - at over 900 pages, it is quite a bit longer than pretty much any book I've EVER read.  Maybe it's in big print?

Monday, February 24, 2014

Some good quotes

I picked out a couple of quotes I like in particular:

"Don't ask me a lot of fool questions if you don't like the answers."  This is something I tell people all the time - if you come to me for an answer, don't doubt me just because it's not what you expected or wanted to hear.  You must have thought I knew the answer or else, why ask me in the first place?

"Direct action.  It beats legislation."  Don't just talk about it - do it.  Simple yet profound message.

Halfway through, and thoroughly enjoying this book, even if it's not about much more than a drunken vacation.  It is also an antiwar book as our protagonist is now impotent due to a war injury.  I believe Hemingway was injured in a similar fashion during WWI, and this book came out only eight years after the end of the Great War.  Seems like it would have been fresh in his mind still.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Another Easy Read

Already a third of the way through The Sun Also Rises, so it looks like I'll be making up some much needed time on my year's quest - especially since I just saw that the next book on the list, An American Tragedy, is about 900 pages in paperback, and the one following that is over 1100 pages (Atlas Shrugged).  There are an awful lot of things on my plate right now, and the daunting amount of pages those two books possess is going to make it difficult for me to attain my goal, but I will persevere.  As Springsteen once wrote, "No retreat, and, baby, no surrender!"

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Another Book Down

That sure was a quick read - all done with to Kill a Mockingbird, and it only took a few days.  I might be getting back on track to finish this list in a year like I originally planned.  That's eleven books down since I started this on July 26.  I should be about to start #15 at this point instead of #12, but the last few book shave gone much faster than a couple of other ones (like Catch-22 and Invisible Man, both of which took FOREVER), and it looks like the next one will be fairly quick as well.

Next on the list is The Sun Also Rises by my favorite author, Ernest Hemingway.  I have every book he ever wrote, so I didn't even have to hit the library up for this one.  My copy is not a first edition, but it is from 1926 at least.  It also has an inscription on the first page (blank) of the book.  It reads, "This is about the younger generation and you belong to it," and it is simply signed "E."  Could be for Ernest, but my luck probably doesn't run that good!


The book was originally published in 1926 and was critically acclaimed, both then and now.  Even though I'm a self-proclaimed Hemingway freak, I have not read this book before.  Totally looking forward to it, so I think I'll get started now.

Over Halfway

A little over halfway through Mockingbird now, and we are finally getting to the courtroom.  I grew up in the south, and although it was after the time in which this book was set, there were still a lot of prejudiced rednecks around (and still are, I assume), so many times, I have heard those kinds of things spew from people's mouths - sitting in amazement at how ignorant folks can be.  It takes a long time to work through those prejudices, but the way to do it is through patient prodding - doing the right thing day by day and letting others see the errors of their ways through your eyes.  That's Atticus to a tee - a quiet strength that can move mountains.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

One Fourth Done

That's about how far through the book I am already - such an easy read.  Even with a paper deadline looming over my head, I just have to read this book.  Still working through all the set up and not into the meat of the book yet - I know what's coming, so anticipation is getting to me, but I do love reminiscing with Jem and Scout and all their antics.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

It's a Start

I have a paper due on Friday (all about the etymology of the word frog), but I did manage to get a few chapters read while waiting for my daughter at the dentist's office.  I know so much about this book that it seems like it's starting off so slow, but an author has a right to set up the story, right?  Like I said yesterday, at least I know I will get a satisfactory conclusion to this one. It might be hard to concentrate since it's National Wine Drinking Day, but hopefully I can still get a few more chapters in tonight! 

Monday, February 17, 2014

Moving On

Well, not bad if I do say so myself - done with The Grapes of Wrath, a 454-page book, in only 8 days.  And while I cannot say it was a bad book (because it was truly excellent), I have figured out a couple of things.  One is that I like Disney endings - and most of the books I have been reading definitely do not fall into that category.  Gloom and doom seems to be what is necessary for "great literature," and that's why Karen Eiffel's last novel in Stranger than Fiction, as Dustin Hoffman's character said, would never be great literature.  The second thing I figured out is that I prefer popular fiction - most of the books I read, mainly cop books and lawyer books, get tied up in neat little bows by book's end, and I LIKE THAT.  I don't think that has happened with any of the books on this list I'm no, but there's still hope.

Anyway - on to To Kill a Mockingbird, the only novel by Harper Lee.  Originally published in 1960, this book has never been out of print in the past 54 years due to its continued popularity.  It's also the last book on the list that made 8 of the 11 "Top 100" lists.  I have read this several times, and I do love it - I get that satisfaction of a clean and wrapped up ending in this one, so on I go.

Happy President's Day

To mark the occasion, I am posting a list of (mainly) Presidential firsts I have gathered over the years of aspiring to become a contestant on Jeopardy.  Enjoy!



Clinton is the most recent William to hold the office; this man was the first:  William Henry Harrison
First U.S. president to appear on moving film:  Grover Cleveland (signing a bill into law in 1895)
First man to receive a million votes for president in one election:  William Henry Harrison
In his first term, this president held the first press conference that would be shown on TV--later that day: Eisenhower
First president to receive full-time protection from the Secret Service:  Theodore Roosevelt
He was the first president not of British descent: Martin Van Buren (as in the first born in the United States after the country won its independence)
He was the first president to use a middle name:  John Quincy Adams
First man to become president as a result of the 25th Amendment:  Gerald Ford
The first winning presidential ticket of 2 sitting U.S. senators:  JFK & LBJ
Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to wear a beard; this man was the second:  Ulysses S. Grant
The first & last to preside over exactly 48 states:  William Howard Taft & Dwight Eisenhower
His first term saw the turn of the 20th century & the annexation of Guam & Puerto Rico:  McKinley
First president to die in office:   William Henry Harrison
The first Republican president:  Lincoln
First president for whom all women were eligible to vote:  Warren G. Harding
First U.S. coin with the likeness of a president was this coin based on a photo taken in Mathew Brady's studio: Lincoln penny
In 1835 Richard Lawrence tried to kill this seventh president, the first time such an attempt was made: Andrew Jackson
First president born after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution:  John Tyler
First sitting president to visit Hawaii:  FDR
After serving one term, this first Quaker president was defeated for re-election in 1932 by FDR:  (Herbert) Hoover
First president to ride in a car: William McKinley
His first inaugural address, in 1801, was also the first delivered in Washington, D.C.: Jefferson
First president to make a radio broadcast (speaking to WWI troops in 1919):  Woodrow Wilson
In 1976 he was the first incumbent president to take part in a campaign debate with a rival candidate:  Gerald Ford
First (& only) president to take the oath of office aboard an airplane:  Lyndon Johnson
At his second inauguration, Coolidge took the oath of office from this former president, a first:  William Howard Taft
This former general was the first Republican to serve 2 full terms as president:  Ulysses S. Grant
In 1937 he became the first man sworn in as U.S. president on a January 20:  FDR
John Hanson is considered by some the first U.S. president, as he was the first to serve under these:  Articles of Confederation
First president inaugurated in Washington, D.C.:  Thomas Jefferson
He was the first U.S. president to serve just 4 years:  John Adams
This Ohioan was the first sitting U.S. senator elected president:  Warren G. Harding
First president born in Missouri -- Lamar, Missouri, to be exact:  Harry S. Truman
First sitting president to meet a pope in the U.S. when he met Paul VI:  Lyndon Johnson
First California native to become vice president & the first to become president:  Richard Nixon
First West Point graduate to become president:  Ulysses S. Grant
His 1934 trip to Cartagena, Colombia was the first by a sitting president to South America: FDR
First president to serve 2 terms in office: George Washington
First president who had been a U.S. senator, he represented Virginia from 1790 to 1794: Monroe
First president not born a British subject (from Kinderhook): Martin Van Buren
First president to marry in the White House; also the first to have a child born there: Grover Cleveland
First veteran of the U.S. Navy to serve as president:  JFK
First president to preside over all 50 states:  Eisenhower
First president to hold an open press conference with reporters:  Woodrow Wilson
First president who was not a college graduate:  Washington
First president to use campaign buttons:  McKinley
First president to use a phone (his phone number was 1): Hayes
First president to serve the nation from coast to coast:  Polk
First president to ride in a train:  Jackson
First living president to appear on U.S. paper money--on a $10 demand note authorized in 1861: Abraham Lincoln
First president to hold a law degree:  Pierce
Last president without a college degree:  Truman

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Halfway There

Nineteen chapters down and a little over halfway through.  One of St. Mary's Professors, Dr. Richard Pressman, always tells his students that they should pay attention to what happens at the exact middle of the book because it's often times important.  Exactly halfway through The Grapes of Wrath is when Gramma dies - I'm sure this will have some significance father down the line.

I found it very interesting the way Steinbeck portrays the "guards" posted throughout California trying to keep the unwanted out of the state - like border guards at the Mexican border.  Very interesting - I don't know if that is historically accurate or not, but even the concept is astounding to me.  But all the tenant families hitting California just found it commonplace, never thinking to complain or fight back.  Something like that happening nowadays would send anyone into an uproar, replete with a "How dare you!" and a "This is America - you have no right!"  The times are definitely different now.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Busy, busy, busy

Class tonight, so no time to read.  My goal is three chapters a day, and at least I haven't fallen behind on that.  Going to have to do four or five tomorrow, but that's okay - that's what weekends are for, right?  Curling up with a good book sounds like a perfect weekend to me - especially with a nice Cabernet to keep me company!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Wow Factor

So I am surprised that considering the subject matter how easy a read this book is - I expected it to be slow going, but three days in, and I'm already over a quarter of the way through.  I have set a goal to read at least three chapters a day so that I can finish in 10 days (since I'm WAAAY behind  where I should be on the list - this is book 10 of 26, and I'm already 6 months into it), and I was worried at first, but it does not seem like it is going to be a problem.

I think my favorite parts of the book are when Steinbeck focuses so intently on such little things, almost describing them too much but not quite.  Some, like the chapters I mentioned yesterday, were almost like little short stories in themselves, but in today's reading, the level of detail about how the truck was packed up for the big move was something I found fascinating.

I am seriously wondering, however, just when Tommy leaving the state while on parole is going to come back to bite him in the ass.  The time frame in which this novel is set was not a time where you could easily track someone who leaves his home, travels 2000 miles west, and is probably well on his way to becoming a migrant farm worker, but I think that Tommy's parole has been mentioned too many times for it not to become relevant to the story at some point.  Let's see if I'm right.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Getting into it

Ran through eight chapters between yesterday and today, and I can tell it's going to be slow going sometimes.  Some things are quite funny, though, like when young Tom is telling how his mother beat a door-to-door salesman with a live chicken - got myself a vivid picture of that and had to share with my children, who were cracking up as much as I was.

I also was amused about how Steinbeck wrote a whole chapter about a turtle moseying along in the sun and how it got itself up over a curb on the side of the road.  He also wrote the entire chapter 7 about a used car salesman, out to take everyone for every dime he could.  Seems like that stereotype has been around for the whole 75 years since this book was written and perhaps even before.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Another one bites the dust...

Done with Toni!  As opposed to many of the scenarios that were running through my head about hoe the end of this novel could have been written, it ended much to my satisfaction.  Almost mundanely, comparatively speaking, but not anything macabre, which is what I was really expecting.


Although I am an English major, I am not reading any of these novels with any thought of analyzing them to death - that has been done too many times already by those much more brilliant than I am.  Rather, I am reading for pleasure, a notion that most English majors have difficulty with once they have gotten to the Master's level or beyond.  I, however, never want to lose that - it is more important to me that I read a good story than that I read a story that can be analyzed in a particular fashion.  And I did enjoy this novel - the subject matter is hard to swallow, but Morrison's prose is easy to enjoy.

Next up:  Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.  Yet another book I should have read already, but since I did not go to high school past the first semester, books that most folks read in high school were ones I never got around to.  That is one of the reasons I decided to take on this list - it is giving me an opportunity to enjoy some classic literature that should have already been in my arsenal.  The Grapes of Wrath definitely falls into that category, and I look forward to it with anticipation.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Nice!

I much prefer Toni Morrison's version of stream of consciousness than Faulkner's - because she actually uses punctuation (most of the time at least).

Only a few more chapters to go now, and I am not sure how this book will end.  That is unusal for me with the type of book I read, but this definitely has many directions it could go, and I'm afraid it's just not going to a Disney ending like I would prefer it to be.

Wow

Can't believe I haven't had time to read (or post) for almost a week.  I've been busy, busy, busy at work and school, but Friday nights are good for something!

Got done with section one last night - and all I can say is Wow!  The story of what happened to Beloved is intense and very sad.  definitely made me think of Heidi Durrow's novel, The Girl that Fell from the Sky.  What has to go through a mother's mind to think that the best way to protect her children is to kill them?  On an intellectual level, I can semi-understand the fact that you do not want your children to suffer the atrocities that you yourself have lived through, but as a mother, especially as one who has lost a child, I cannot fathom how you think no life is better than a hard one.

Morrison's treatment of such a heart-breaking topic is stellar, and as a Black woman, it had to be intense for her to research the topic so thoroughly, but her research paid off - the authenticity is there, in every vivid detail.  I am hoping for a semi-happy ending, but I think that may be optimistic of me.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Finally

Very busy day, but I finally got some time to read.  I'm almost halfway through the book now, and I find it very compelling.  I know what's going on to a certain extent, but I also am sure that I'm about to get blind sided about something.  Not sure if I'm up for that, but guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.