Space Station Mir

Question: What is the novel you find most quotable or what are five of your favorite quotes from novels? My Answer: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on." Prospero, in The Tempest . And, okay, it's not a novel, but this is definitely one of my favorite quotes and one of the ones I think of most often. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man possessed of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." This has to be one of the finest wrought and most memorable first sentences in literature, from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice . "There seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them." -Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey "She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older-the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning." -Jane Austen, Persuasi...

Here's my go for this week's topic at the Broke and the Bookish. 1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Still one of the scariest books I've ever read. I'll never forget staying up all night thinking that the madwoman was coming to get me. 2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley After the whole Jane Eyre debacle, there was no way my mom would let me touch Frankenstein . Naturally, I snuck around and got my hands on it anyway. I didn't find it nearly as scary, I was more interested in how he got those dead body parts to reanimate anyway and feeling sorry for the poor abandoned monster. 3. The Ghost Writer by John Harwood An old creepy mystery that I read as a kid. 4. The Oxford Book of Scary Tales These are the ghost stories I'd scare my little sister and her friends with, I used to bring it out every Halloween and every camping trip. 5. Falling Up by Shel Silverstein Shel Silverstein is frightening. I'll never forget the poem about the man who grew ol...

I've gotten some beautiful copies of children's books from the class I help teach in the summer, but this also means I have some duplicate copies. All books are like new or lightly used. If you know a young person who would really enjoy one of these classics, leave a comment with your answer to the question, which book you are interested in, and your email address. Sorry, I am only willing to send within the continental United States. Winners will be chosen randomly. Entries will be accepted until Nov. 1 and winners will be announced in November. Covers are as pictured! Redwall by Brian Jacques The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery Question: What was your favorite book as a child? My Answer: I think I've already answered this or a similar question. My favorite book from childhood was A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle, closely followed by The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and all the Chr...

This week's topic at the Broke and the Bookish is Top Ten Books Whose Titles Or Covers Made Me Buy Them. Another topic that challenges my usual way of thinking about books! Because...I really DON'T judge books by their cover. That's not entirely true, I'm sure there are some subtle things that will make one cover catch my eye over another, but I'm not very aware of it, and I tend to pick up books that a) I've already heard about from a friend/fellow book blogger/newspaper review or b) are in a topic or genre I'm already interested in. If I do pick up a random book, I'm more likely to judge it by the blurb on the back or a quick skim of the first few pages than the picture on the front cover. That said, here goes. 1. Gloriana's Torch by Patricia Finney I saw the cover in the library and was immediately intrigued when I recognized the Armada portrait. I might not have noticed it otherwise and I'm glad I did because this was definitely o...

This week's Top Ten Tuesday at the Broke and the Bookish is Top Ten Books I Wish I Could Read Again For The First Time. Usually, books that I love, I just want to read again, period, and I often find I get more out of a second reading. Still, there is a certain pleasure in reading for the first time. 1. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien The first time I read LOTR, I savored it and loved it and just enjoyed spending time in every place and with every character and I got INCREDIBLY emotionally invested, and it's never quite the same, even though I pick up on more in subsequent readings. 2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen I just loved being pulled along by the wit and sparkle, and yes, I knew they were getting married in the end, but I had no idea how that was going to happen. I also kept waiting for what I considered enough vindication for Darcy, never really got there... 3. Harry Potter 1-7 by J.K. Rowling An experience like no other, because of all the hype a...

45. Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life by Stephanie Staal Reading Women is neither more nor less than it claims to be. The memoir-in-books begins with a quote from Virginia Woolf; "When a subject is highly controversial-and any question about sex is that-one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions, as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncracies of the speaker." Staal, despite what I perceived as limitations in her interpretations of the texts, fulfills the conditions of the quote admirably. In her Author's Note she explains, "Let me be clear that I approached these books as neither critic nor scholar but rather, as Virginia Woolf put it, 'the common reader.''" I suppose this is what ended up being particularly disappointing for me, because, without knowin...

This week's topic for Top Ten Tuesdays at The Broke and the Bookish is "Top Ten Book Endings That Left Me With My Mouth Hanging Open (because of the cliffhanger or because it the ending was MINDBLOWING, etc. Be careful with spoilers on this one! :P)." First of all, what a great question! Second, this is kind of difficult for me to answer for two reasons; 1) I'm unusually good at predicting endings and 2) I don't tend to read for plot, but for character, detail, language, world-building, insight into humanity etc. Therefore, a lot of the books I read simply do not have surprising endings, because that's not the point. Still, I'll try my best. 1. The Giver by Lois Lowry I remember reading The Giver for the first time and crying at the end. It is still one of the few books that has ever made me cry. I had not predicted the ending at all, but I liked it. I was also a lot younger when I read this, though, so this was before I was particularly good at gu...

44. Elizabeth I by Margaret George Like her Autobiography of Henry VIII , Margaret George's Elizabeth I is a foundational text in Tudor fiction. Every moment of this book was an absolute pleasure to me, and I have devoted many hours to reading about Elizabeth Tudor and Elizabethan England, both fiction and non-fiction. George writes with the authority and thorough consideration of the queen herself, and brings to life arresting portraits of many Elizabethan figures, particularly the underrepresented (in Tudor fiction and biography) Letitia Knollys and the ubiquitous William Shakespeare, but I also reveled in her portrayals of the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, William and Robert Cecil, Edmund Spenser, and lesser known figures like Admiral Charles Howard and his wife Catherine, nee Carey. As soon as I saw that George was coming out with this book (it came out in May), I wishlisted it on Amazon. Then, I received it as a graduation gift from my aunt! I ha...