Classics

The Bungalow Mystery

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

I had forgotten that so many of the first books in the Nancy Drew series featured Nancy’s friend Helen – and lots of different male dates for Nancy. I’m so used to George, Bess, and Ned that I’m thrown when Nancy is hanging out with Helen (who she mostly drops once Helen gets married) and dates so many different guys.

I’d also forgotten how often Nancy’s mysteries are tied to her father’s cases. The Bungalow Mystery is another one of those – what a coincidence! Also… beware of FOREIGN model cars. People who drive them are quite obviously crooks. Also, if you ask good people if they drive foreign cars, they will be a wee bit offended by the question.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

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The Hidden Staircase

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Favorites, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

I wonder what happened to my copy of The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew #2.) I’m very sure I owned it. My dad probably sold it in that infamous yard sale. Hmph.

Nancy really really could have used a cell phone in this mystery. So could Mr Drew. And also maybe Helen. (I had forgotten about Helen and Jim’s romance. Very amusing in that patriarchal sort of way.) Also amusing in this one were the food references. How exciting – floating island for dessert! Yum!

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

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Ophelia Joined the Maidens Who Don’t Float Group

2009, Books in Bed, Classics, Favorites, Fiction, Reading Lists /

Ophelia Joined the Maidens Who Don’t Float Group is the funniest book I’ve read in ages.

I’ve been trying to describe it, over in the BlogHer Book Club, and I think I can sum it up best like this:

1) Take cliff notes of all of the classics and hire someone to rewrite them.

2) Hire Christopher Moore to rewrite them.

3) Chris Moore decides to use the Facebook style interface to rewrite them.

Tada – this is the book you get.

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Chloe plus Olivia

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Classics, Favorites, Feminism, From the Stacks Challenge, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Queer, short stories, Women /

Thank freaking goodness I am very, very familiar with the work of women like Judy Grahn, Audre Lourde, Adrienne Rich etc etc etc. If I was not familiar with their work, I would still be reading Chloe plus Olivia well into the new year.

800 pages of lesbian lit. Aye yi yi. Text book style lesbian lit. Oy.

This was one hell of a lesbian anthology and if I had it to do all over again, I’d have read an author a day or skipped around a bit based on what my preference of the day might have been. Trying to read it straight through was not a fun experience and reading lesbian lit SHOULD be a fun experience.

By page 500, I was sick of lesbians… sick of masking… sick of the romantic friendship… sick of the man trapped in the womans body… I did not even want to think about the dangerous flowers or the amazons at that point. I just wanted it done. lol

There are some great writers in this anthology, some I’ve never read and a few I’ve never heard of. Great anthology, really. Just don’t try to read it straight through.

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Chasing Crusoe

Classics /

As you may remember, I recently finished Robinson Crusoe.  Of course this means that everytime I turn around I will see some sort of reference to Crusoe or to being shipwrecked or something.  It’s some sort of law that this will happen.  (Should I do a post about how often The Moonstone makes an appearance in my world?)

Check out this multimedia piece – Chasing Crusoe.  Interesting.  It was slow loading at first but once it got going, it’s pretty cool.

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Robinson Crusoe

2 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, The Moonstone /

Or maybe I should have titled this “The Legacy of The Moonstone” since I read Robinson Crusoe simply because I loved Betteridge and Betteridge worshipped RC.

Upon reflection and upon finishing RC, I think I was duped once again by The Moonstone. I believe I would have been happier with my simple childhood memories of RC. I do not remember the section in the middle, where RC was so damn fixated on “the Savages” from my childhood. (Please don’t suggest I read an abridged copy, I didn’t. I hate abridged copies and have always refused to read them.) I think I simply skimmed over that tedious bit as a child and moved along to the good part – since I was sorely tempted to do so last night.

Also upon reflection, I did appreciate picking up RC again and reading it with an eye for what Betteridge found so appealing and helpful. I wish Wilkie Collins had written a book of short stories about Betteridge’s life with the answers from RC included in each story – the moral of the story, according to RC or some such thing. That would have been interesting.

Enough with The Moonstone, sorry it has sort of taken over my life. I can usually keep it in check, but sometimes it just slips out!

Robinson Crusoe – long and tedious in the middle. The lack of “chapters” didn’t help it any. The end, back to civilization, it was all rushed and not worth reading and should have been a book of its own rather than a jumble of 10 pages.

I don’t think I can quite convince myself to read The Further Adventures of… or anything Selkirk – though if Skeeter insists, I will obey. After all, she read The Moonstone with me.

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