Book 44: Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey was book 5 out of 6 for my Jane Austen goal. I can totally relate to someone who gets so involved with a book that the people around her begin to take on the qualities of the characters in her books. I think Henry Tilney is my favorite Austen hero. I love his sarcasm and the way he lightly pokes fun at conventional society. I think I could have coffee with him and we would get along.

I checked out The Mysteries of Udolpho to read this week. This is the book that Catherine is reading throughout Northanger Abbey. I am intrigued by this gothic novel, which made Mr. Tilney’s hair stand on end.

Top 10 books on my 2012 TBR list.

I stumbled across a nice blog today called The Broke and the Bookish that has a wonderful feature called Top Ten Tuesdays. I love lists. It is supposed to be for college students, and by that I assume they mean 20-something traditional college students. Since I am indeed a college student with an emphasis in literature, I hope they don’t mind my playing along in spite of being twice as old as most of them are.

So this week’s top ten is a good one — the top ten books I want to read in 2012. Here we go.

1. My goal for 2011 was to read all of Jane Austen’s novels. My goal for 2012 is Dickens. I know he wrote a lot more, but I’m limiting the goal to his major works. If I happen to read others, that’s fine. Since he would easily take up my entire list, I’ll just put Dickens here, but certainly Great Expectations, Bleak House, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Hard Times are TBR for 2012.
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude. I just got this from Paperback Swap. Since I don’t think I’ll get it read for this year’s challenge, I’ll start the new year off with it.
3. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. I’ve never read it, and I’m ashamed of that fact.
4. Anna Karenina. See above.
5. The Other Boleyn Girl. This has always looked interesting to me.
6. Walden. I’ve had it on my shelf for ages, but I’m a little bit intimidated.
7. Gulliver’s Travels. See above.
8. Adam Beade. I started this several years ago when my mom got it for me for Christmas, but I got caught up in Harry Potter and never finished it. It’s high time I did. I was really enjoying it.
9. A Child’s History of England. This is Dickens, but I’m not reading it because it’s Dickens. I’m reading it because a) I want to read a good overview of the history of England, b) my mom’s cousin set it aside ‘specially for me, and c) it has a beautiful binding.
10.The Bible. I read through the Bible every year, following the One Year Bible Blog. Every year I read maybe half. Every year I hope to do better. Maybe this will be my year.

Book 43, One True Thing

One True Thing is another gut-wrencher from Anna Quindlen. It is the story of a 20-something just starting out who gives up everything to care for her dying mother. During this time, she discovers how little she knew the woman she thought she knew so well. She realized that she made her mother into what she needed her to be, just as we all do.

Anna Quindlen’s prose is beautiful and captures relationships so marvelously.

Books 39-42

Book 39: The Betrayal is book 2 in the Abrams Daughters series by Beverly Lewis. More family secrets are revealed, and the consequences of rebelling against the standards of the Old Order Amish are harsh. It’s fascinating to read about the Amish, but I am so thankful to be a part of a denomination that focuses on God’s grace and mercy.

Book 40: Mansfield Park is my fourth Jane Austen novel of the year, and I’m finding it easier and easier to read as I go. I have a month to read her last two books, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Both are relatively short, so I think I’ll make it. Mansfield Park is more moralistic than Jane Austen’s other novels. In contrast to her other books, her heroine, Fanny, is very meek and timid. The stronger women in the book are severely flawed. They make poor choices, and in the end the meek, “good girl” character benefits from the desire of the stronger women to be independent. They fall from their pedestals and Fanny prevails. It was an interesting departure for Jane Austen. Mansfield Park also counts as one of my 12 classics for the year, but I’m not sure what number I’m on.

Book 41: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a wonderful juvenile historical novel set during the Depression in Mississippi. It follows the story of the Taylor family, who are unique among their share-cropping neighbors in that they own their own land. This causes a lot of resentment among the white people in the community, who want the land for themselves. I read this book when I was young, and had to read it now for my children’s lit class. Since my daughter is the same age as the main character, I thought it would be a good chance to read it to her as well. I love that this book drives home the point that there is a time to stand up against oppression, and there are also times when you have to go along, at least outwardly. You have to choose your battles carefully and weigh the consequences. A good lesson for all of us.

Book 42: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is book 4 of the series, and things get very intense here. I wasn’t going to include books I’ve read in the last ten years or so, but face it, I’m four books behind, and the Harry Potter books are intense reads. My daughter is reading them right now, and I ended up reading this one aloud to her because she didn’t want to read anything else. So I’m counting it.

Books 33-38

Book 33: Mini Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) Sophie Kinsella’s books are one of my guilty pleasures. She has such a witty writing style, and the character is so much like me in many ways (except for being much more social). I cringe at the way her shopping addiction is made light of and that she never has any real consequences for hiding things from and even lying to her husband. Still, they are quick (being 5 books behind, I need quick at this point), easy, fun reads with likable characters.

Book 34: Last Light (Terri Blackstock, Restoration series #1) I’m not a big fan of the writing. The characters are pretty predictable. Still, the situation is something that is very believable. With food shortages worldwide and the dependence we have on electronics in this day and age, it’s good to get a glimpse of what could happen if it were all taken away from us and to think about how we should react as Christians.

Book 35: The Covenant (Beverly Lewis, Abram’s Daughters series #1) Again, not a fan of the writing style, but face it, the Amish are fascinating people. Beverly Lewis’ books give a rare glimpse into their lifestyle. This series follows a family of sisters, some of whom are facing very difficult consequences for choices they made during their time of freedom from the confinements of the Amish lifestyle.

Book 36: Every Last One (Anna Quindlen) Now THIS is good writing. Be warned, without giving anything away, the situation is heartbreaking and will take your breath away. But it will also make you see your family, your choices, what you think is important in a whole new light. Anna Quindlen captures all of the feelings of motherhood in such a beautiful way. Even the run-of-the-mill, driving-kids-to-soccer days are captivating in the hands of her prose.

Book 37: Night Light (Terri Blackstock, Restoration series #2) Book 2 of the series, lights are still out, food and money are scarce, and the question is how should believers respond to those who are not prepared?

Book 38: The Bible Jesus Read (Philip Yancey) Excellent look at some of the most difficult of the Old Testament books. Yancey looks at Job, Deuteronomy, Psalms, the wisdom books (focusing on Lamentations), and the prophets. I especially love his explanation of the prophets not as fortune-tellers predicting the end of the world but as people who can give us a glimpse into the mind and heart of God. I am looking forward to reading these Old Testament books again with Yancey’s insights in mind.

Book 32 — Tara Road

Tara Road follows the lives of several women as hopes and dreams are shattered and remade. I really hated the fact that the women in the book constantly give men their way. They completely give up their lives for them and take them back again and again. I also felt the voices of the American characters weren’t authentic — they sounded very much like an Irish writer trying unsuccessfully to sound American. The American teens used words and phrases that no American teen would ever use. With that said, it was an engaging read. Everyone has secrets, which make the reader keep turning the pages. For the most part, the characters are likable, even when you want to scream at them in frustration.

Book 31 — The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a riveting and disturbing book. It is set in postapocolyptic North America where a reality game show keeps society in check. A boy and a girl from each district are chosen by lot, and they must battle for life gladiator style with boys and girls from other districts and ultimately with each other. Alliances are made throughout the game with the nagging dilemma that eventually one of them will have to kill the other. The beauty of this book comes at the end, when the two main characters figure out how to play this brutal game on their own terms and send the message that the powers that be don’t own them.

Kids will be reading this book for sure, and that means parents should, too. I wouldn’t want a child under 12 reading it, but doubtless there will be 9- and 10-year-olds reading it (a boy in one of my second-grade classes is reading it). I highly encourage parents to read this book along with their kids — not necessarily as a read-aloud but just read it so you can talk about it together. There are a lot of ethical and “what would you do?” kinds of questions just begging to be discussed.

Book 30 — The Two Towers

The Two Towers is the second installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I love the story, but I found this to be one of the hardest to follow of all the Tolkein books. So many characters, so much history to keep track of. I feel like I’m missing a lot because of confusion over what happened when and to whom. Still, the story arc is classic good versus evil. The characters display loyalty and courage they don’t realize they possess. An excellent book to inspire all readers to grasp those values in their own lives.

Book 29 — Scattered

Reading the first few chapters of Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It by Gabor Mate was like a peek inside my own brain. If anyone without ADD would like to know what it’s like, read this book. “Never at rest, the mind of the ADD adult flits about like some deranged bird that can light here or there for awhile bu is perched nowhere long enough to make a home.” I have never heard a more apt way of describing my thought life. Mate explains the connection between ADD and addictive behaviors, poor self-esteem and the sense of alienation that adults with ADD often deal with. The pros and cons of medications are discussed briefly. Mate acknowledges that they can be useful without considering them a first-line treatment. Mate attributes the origins of ADD to attachments issues in early life, which he says affect the chemistry and even structure of parts of the brain. This could be why ADD rates have risen so drastically, as children are separated from their working parents at younger and younger ages and our lifestyles have become so frenzied that families have little meaningful time together. There is no blame here. It is not the parents’ “fault,” and not every child who goes to daycare will end up with ADD. It’s the combination of a highly sensitive child with a disruption of attachment that often leads to ADD. The more sensitive the child, the more likely ADD will result.

Perhaps what I love most is that in dealing with ADD children, the most important thing Mate recommends is building the relationship and letting nothing get in the way of it. That is the biggest part of helping ADD children to attend. I know that I have noticed in my own work with children that the more I am able to be with them one-on-one, the more I have their attention. Their “attachment” to me may be tenuous and brief, but I can make as much of it as I possibly can.

Book 28 — Emma

Emma is another engaging read by Jane Austen. This was my third Austen book, with my goal of reading all six of her major novels this year. I still have Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Northanger Abbey to go. I love Jane Austen’s writing style and her subtle humor. I don’t understand all of the cultural references, but it doesn’t matter. Unlike many books set in Victorian times, in which females are porrayed as either angels or shrews, Emma is such a marvelously *human* character. After a failed attempt at matchmaking which causes pain to many people, she vows never to attempt it again, and yet she can’t help herself. She stumbles and falls and yet always takes responsibility and tries to learn. Her character grows throughout the book as she realizes that she has a lot of misconceptions about people based on their social status.

Austen books — halfway to my goal. Twelve classics — this one fits the bill, so it counts as number 8. Not on the WEM list, and doesn’t get me any further around the world, as I’ve been to England several times now.