Month: September 2022

Top Ten Tuesday 9/6/22

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where people like me who love lists and books can share our thoughts on fun bookish topics. This week’s topic:

September 6: Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library (Maybe you received an ARC or borrowed from a friend/the library and loved it so much you wanted your own! Or maybe you read it in one format and wanted another format, like you read it in ebook and wanted a physical copy to display on your shelves or you read it the paperback and would love to re-read it on audio. Change this TTT title to fit your post best!) (Submitted by Alecia @ The Staircase Reader)

I’m not a big re-reader. Not that I don’t appreciate the value of re-reading. You pick up different things upon each reading and books change meaning as you are at different points at your life. There are just so many new books I want to read That I don’t make much time for reading old favorites. So, my list is limited to the complete works of Jane Austen and Jane Erye by Charlotte Bronte.

Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.

But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?
Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work “her own darling child” and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, “as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print.” The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen’s radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.
Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen’s most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.
Persuasion is Jane Austen’s last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year (but dated 1818). Persuasion is linked to Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy, in which two of Jane Austen’s brothers ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath-well known to Austen, who spent several relatively unhappy and unproductive years there-is portrayed extensively and serves as a setting for the second half of the book. In many respects Persuasion marks a break with Austen’s previous works, both in the more biting, even irritable satire directed at some of the novel’s characters and in the regretful, resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot, in the first part of the story. Against this is set the energy and appeal of the Royal Navy, which symbolizes for Anne and the reader the possibility of a more outgoing, engaged, and fulfilling life, and it is this worldview which triumphs for the most part at the end of the novel.
Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor’s warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.
A wonderfully entertaining coming-of-age story, Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen’s “Gothic parody.” Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.

The story’s unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry’s mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.
Taken from the poverty of her parents’ home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle’s absence in Antigua, the Crawford’s arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen’s first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.

Middle Grade Book of the Week: Area 51 Files written by Julie Buxbaum and illustrated by Lavanya Naiou

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review. Publication Date: September 13, 2022.

Summary:

When Skye’s grandmother moves to a retirement community, Skye is not allowed to go with her. Instead, she is sent to live with her Uncle Anish in Area 51. Yes, that Area 51. Rumors of alien landings in Area 51 are true, but there’s a lot more to the story. It’s not some UFO crash site, it’s a place where beings from the entire universe can live in peace. The catch is you can’t leave or communicate with the outside world; it would be too dangerous if the truth ever got out.

The same day Skye arrives a group of zdstrammers go missing. It seems like too much a of coincidence for everyone to believe that they happened to disappear at the exact time Skye appeared. Skye’s uncle soon becomes the first suspect, but she knows he’s innocent. Skye teams up with her new alien buddy, Elvis, a mean kid from school, Zane, to solve the crime. Her pet hedgehog, Spike and Elvis’s dog, Pickles come along for the ride.

My Thoughts:

This was the perfect book for engaging middle grade readers. It’s filled with action, aliens, fart jokes and funny illustrations. I love the characters names. What kid won’t laugh at Agent Belcher and Agent Fartz? The story itself is very entertaining, but the drawings really enhanced the book. In most of the illustrations, Spike, the hedgehog, holds up signs with his own commentary (usually asking for pizza).

Rating: 5 out of 5.

My Favorite Read of August 2022

“Libraries are like a net, there to catch those of us in danger of falling through the cracks.”

Freya Sampson, The Last Chance Library

Goodreads Synopsis

June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way.

Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.

Joining a band of eccentric yet dedicated locals in a campaign to keep the library, June opens herself up to other people for the first time since her mother died. It just so happens that her old school friend Alex Chen is back in town and willing to lend a helping hand. The kindhearted lawyer’s feelings for her are obvious to everyone but June, who won’t believe that anyone could ever care for her in that way.

To save the place and the books that mean so much to her, June must finally make some changes to her life. For once, she’s determined not to go down without a fight. And maybe, in fighting for her cherished library, June can save herself, too.

My Thoughts

There’s no lack of books featuring an introverted millennial who spends their life absorbed in books, avoiding real life. That is until their beloved bookstore or library comes under threat, and they must step out of their comfort zone to save it. Naturally, a handsome potential love interest will show up as well, and they must learn to risk their heart. While it might be turning into a cliche, there’s a reason these books are so popular. They leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling and a sense of belonging with the reading community. The Last Chance Library was both funny and touching. I really liked the way it emphasized the role of a library in a community beyond just providing books.

What I liked about this book:

  • the group of “pensioners” occupying the library was so funny
  • the way June and Alex shared books with each other to convert the other to their favorite genre
  • even the minor characters were well developed and showed different sides
  • it’s about the love of books!

More favorite reads of 2022

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