Space Station Mir

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at the Broke and the Bookish ! Most of these are from college or graduate school, since a lot of the books I read in grade school I had read on my own before we read them in school. 1. Tripmaster Monkey by Maxine Hong Kingston 2. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum by Aemilia Lanyer 3. The Tragedy of Mariam by Elizabeth Cary 4. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy 5. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin 6. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox 7. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev 8. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer 9. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo 10. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

1. After North and South , I've gone straight on to another Elizabeth Gaskell novel that's been on my TBR shelf, Mary Barton . Unfortunately, my puppy got to it before I did, but despite that, I've been enjoying it so far. It was the first written of the novels of hers I've read, and it feels like the most honest and--I think--the best. 2. I'm listening to the audiobook The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory. It's about Henry VIII's sixth wife, Katherine Parr, the one who survived. However, I realized that the title makes it sound quite more salacious than it is, and I wonder what people passing by, who see the case on the seat in my car, think. So far, I'm enjoying it, but I dislike that Gregory credits Parr with giving Elizabeth the "woman with the heart and stomach of a king" line. 3. Also, it is hard to read historical fiction in a time period you've studied--so far, in Taming of the Queen , there's an inaccuracy when ...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at the Broke and the Bookish ! Since I've been blogging for eight years, I'm happy to report that most of the unread books on my shelf since then are gone. I read some, and the rest probably left with my KonMari book purge of almost a year ago. There are only two still left, one of which I'm currently reading. 1. The Templars by Piers Paul Read I know I bought this (at Borders, RIP), after my first trip to Israel, and I'm finally reading it after my third trip. It's not a hard read, but it is nonfiction, and until recently, I've had a vast preference for fiction (still do, it's just not SO vast). To be fair, this isn't the first time I've started it, but will hopefully be the time I finish! 2. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok Also one I've started before, but never finished. No plans to get to it anytime soon. It's been on loan from my uncle for probably some 15 years at least. He said I could ke...

37. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell A less sparking, more thoughtful Pride and Prejudice . I've discussed more of my thoughts here . For those who wish Jane Austen was more political. 38. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith The third installment in this character-driven detective series finally focuses purely on the detective, Cormoran Strike, and his assistant and would-be co-detective, Robin Ellacott. The novel gets into some interesting disability politics, and of course many shades of evil, and will thoroughly break the hearts of Strike/Robin shippers. 39. My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem (audiobook) I'm glad I read this, because I was familiar with Gloria Steinem's name linked with the feminist movement, but not much else. Now, I feel like an expert! Her memoirs about all the places she's been cover her childhood, and many of the momentous occasions of her adulthood. I feel like I have a much better idea of what an activist actual...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at the Broke and the Bookish ! Some of my lesser known (but still, let's be honest, pretty well known) favorites set in the nineteenth century. Some are contemporary, but some were written more recently. 1. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 2. Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston 3. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell 4. Persuasion by Jane Austen 5. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev 6. Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy 7. Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin 8. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke 9. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 10. Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

As I commented before , North and South  is like a less sparkling, more political Pride and Prejudice. Margaret Hale and Mr. Thornton are more muted, but also more thoughtful, characters than Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. While Jane Austen concentrated on her "little bit of ivory," Gaskell tackled social inequalities head-on, and through her characters, expresses the disparate political opinions of poor and rich, and ventures to propose compromises between them. It's really quite revolutionary work, and I wonder if anyone at the same time was writing anything quite like it.  I've also read Gaskell's Cranford , which similarly exposes social inequalities, but although it's possible to sympathize with the ladies of Cranford, one always feels they are being mocked almost as mercilessly as those who oppress them. Margaret and Mr. Thornton, however, are real people, not caricatures. Although North and South does take a more conventional romantic plotline, it s...