All Roads Lead to Austen

Nonfiction

This book combines memoir-like storytelling with literary discussion. The author, a university professor, has taken a sabbatical from her post at a California university to spend a year travelling around South America. She learns Spanish, reads Austen books in translation and, with others she meets along the way, has book club meetings.
I have finished the section about Pride and Prejudice - interesting discussion there- and am now in the second leg of her journey. Following serious illness, she is now discussing Sense and Sensibility. The conversation has gone through feminism and on to employment.

Blathering on about Books: No one wants to talk in real life.....

My friend has the same feelings that inspired me to give it a try.

Blathering on about Books: No one wants to talk in real life.....: So I have never really understood the blogging phenomenon.  It felt like it was people posting their diaries online for everyone to read and...

busy busy

Oh my gosh, this is what happens when I go back to work, and move, and all that other terribly important stuff that I do. I keep reading, but I stop writing about it!
I'm currently reading this:

at home on my nook. Catelyn -- ick.

And I picked up this:

one day at school when I forgot the nook -- I I'm keeping that in my classroom right now and reading it. It's a lot more interesting than I thought it would be -- and will be very timely very soon in my life.

Plus, I read this last weekend:


because I needed to start teaching it to my students. Oh my gosh, is it ever dense. There's a lot going on in it -- and with its questions of identity, jealousy, and self esteem I think the students will really be able to get into the book.


And finally, I love Calvin and Hobbes.
http://bookriot.com/2012/02/06/sixteen-things-calvin-and-hobbes-said-better-than-anyone-else/

Why is the warfare book making me want fruit?

So yeah, peaches. Yum. I love a fresh orchard peach. I didn't expect to have A Clash of Kings make me think this much about peaches though...

I find it weird that peaches have been stuck in my mind ever since the parley between Stannis and Renly. But I hear that they didn't include the peach in the show. 

On the surface, the peach seemed so innocuous. So forgettable. Except to these folks:

http://wicnet.tumblr.com/post/16522327475/writeoutoflove-steepedsea-got-confessions

(He said yes.)

But I actually find it really interesting. The peach is a symbol of longevity. Irony, eh? It has also been used as a metaphor for utopia. Does that mean if Renly had become King everyone would have been happy? Plus, peach wood has been said to be able to ward off evil, but have connections to magic. And poor Renly died from evil magic!

*shakes head*

Links to back up my assertions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peach

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/chinese-symbol-for-longevity.html

Game of Thrones Book 2

Again, not the copy I'm reading. Love the art though.

So I scooted on to book two with nary a pause. It's a very riveting series. Right now Dragons have been reborn, three or four different kings are claiming powers, Bran and Arya and Jon are finding their roles in society...

I super want to start watching the series now. Does anyone know the correlation between seasons and books? 

Sean Bean dies a lot.

I love the actor Sean Bean. 

But in almost everything, the character he plays dies. 

Usually quite violently:

Sean Bean Death Reel

Except, of course, when he is a soldier in the Napoleonic Wars!

 

Then he lives. 

So, when I heard that he plays Eddard Stark in A Game of Thrones, I was just kind of waiting for that character to die.


I got to that point in the book last night. 

Random Shakespeare Love

http://dailyinfographic.com/8-quotes-we-owe-to-william-shakespeare-infographic