Excellent Women - by B. Pym

Funny story about this book.  I had downloaded it on my Kindle a few weeks ago, intending to read it on the plane.  As I read, I kept thinking that this did not at all sound like Barbara Pym.  I had only read one of her books (Some Tame Gazelle), and I wasn’t sure if I could make that judgment based on one previous book, so I read a little bit more.  But it was not her voice.  Specifically, it lacked the humor that was in Some Tame Gazelle.  So I double checked, and sure enough, I had downloaded a different Excellent Women (sigh…).  I immediately stopped reading (it was pretty boring) and started reading Walden instead. 

Anyway, I finally got the real Excellent Women from the library and just finished reading it.  Barbara Pym’s humor was certainly there.

A quick summary: Mildred is in her thirties and unmarried.  A couple moves into the apartment beneath hers.  The book talks about the time period from about the moment they move in to the moment they move out (which I think is about a year), the different things that happen, and the different people in Mildred’s life.

Like Some Tame Gazelle, Excellent Women is more of a quiet book, talking about some day-to-day things that happen to Mildred and the other characters.  But it was entertaining to read.  I certainly wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters and their relationships.  And like I said, there is some quiet humor that pops in every now and then. 

Definitely a good read, and I look forward to more Barbara Pym in the future!

Walden, by H. D. Thoreau

This was an interesting book, very unlike anything I’ve read before (and I don’t mean this in a bad way).

A quick summary: Thoreau moves to Walden Pond, and lives there for two years in a cabin that he built himself.  In the book, he talks about building the cabin and how he spent his two years there. 

The book talked about what I consider an interesting topic:  living simply.  Thoreau moved to Walden and lived in the cabin, where he cooked his own meals and had only the things that he actually needed.  I found it impressive that he was able to live that way for two years.  Besides talking about his experience living there, he shares his ideas about different topics.  I thought these parts of the book were the most interesting to read, and there were definitely many great quotes (I thought).

What I didn’t like about the book was that at times it seemed a bit too slow for me.  For example, he spent a lot of time talking about the natural habitat around him, and while I did enjoy reading about it, it sometimes went on for (what I considered) too long.  I think I would have enjoyed a shorter version of the book a lot better.

But, like I said, there were parts I enjoyed very much.  Here are some of the quotes I liked:

“The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling.  Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.”

“What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”

“In the long run, men hit only what they aim at.  Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.”

“We should be blessed if we live in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it, and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty.”

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Classics Challenge January Prompt

As part of the Classics Challenge, I have started reading Walden, by Henry David Thoreau.  I just now discovered he was actually born David Henry Thoreau.

 

He was born July 12, 1817, and for a while lived on Walden Pond (below), where he built himself a little cabin.

Other books he wrote include:   

    Resistance to Civil Government, or Civil Disobedience (1849)

    Slavery in Massachusetts (1854)

    The Maine Woods (1864)

    A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers (1866)

Interesting/random fact about Thoreau:  His father was a pencil maker, and for some years, Thoreau worked at his family’s pencil factory.

*Note:  Pictures and facts from Wikipedia.

   

2012 Challenge!

I have decided to sign up for a challenge, and I'm very excited!  I'm signing up for the Classics Challenge hosted by November's Autum. 

Here’s a list of some classics I hope to read this year.  I know there are more than seven.  I will choose seven from this list, depending on which ones I find first.   And who knows, I may end up reading them all.

• The Scapegoat (D. du Maurier) – I bought this at a book sale and it’s been sitting on my bookshelf for far too long! 
• Crime and Punishment (F. Dostoevsky) – I read The Brothers Karamazov when I was in high school.  It’s about time I read another book by this author. 
• A Passage to India (E.M. Forster) – I’ve heard some mixed reviews about this one and want to see what I will think about this book.  I've read and enjoyed other books he's written, so we’ll see. 
• Lady Susan (J. Austen) – I love Jane Austen!  I’ve read her other six novels several times, so it’s about time I read this one! 
• Walden (H.D. Thoreau) – This book was mentioned in Rules of Civility, a book I really enjoyed reading.  I’ve been curious about Walden ever since then. 
• Excellent Women (B. Pym) – I read Some Tame Gazelle and enjoyed it, so I want to give another of her books a try. 
• Miss Marjoriebanks (M. Oliphant) – It’s been on my TBR list for a really, really long time.  
• Daniel Deronda (G. Eliot) – I like George Eliot and have already read most of her books, but still haven’t read this one.  
• The Last Chronicle of Barset (A. Trollope) – As the title suggests, it is the last book in the Barsethire series.  I’ve already read the previous ones, so I should really read this one. 
• Can You Forgive Her? (A. Trollope) – This is the first book in the Pallisers series, and I thought it might be a good one to try once I finished with the Barsetshire ones. 
• Lady Anna (A. Trollope) – I really, really liked the other stand-alone novel I read by Trollope (The Way We Live Now), so I wanted to try another of his stand-alone ones.

Reviews, short and sweet (part 2)

So since the last time I posted, I have moved apartments, and gone on two trips.  Needless to say, I’ve been pretty busy.  I have three short reviews here.

 

My Life with the Saints, by J. Martin

I read James Martin’s The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and really, really liked it (see previous post).  So, I looked up what other books he had written, and decided to start with My Life with the Saints. 

 

A quick summary: In this book, every chapter is dedicated to a different saint who inspired Martin.  He talks about the saint and his/her life, and also shares stories from his own life. 

This is the first time I read anything that talks about saints – this is a topic I pretty much knew nothing about until I read this book.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  Martin talks about the saints as people, and describes how they came to follow God and how they have helped him deepen his faith in various ways.  As a Christian, I’m always interested in learning about other people’s paths in the faith – how they came to know God, what (if any) obstacles they faced, and how they learned to completely rely on God.  One of the reasons I liked this book was that each chapter in a way introduced me to another Christian, and from each one, I could learn something about what it means to follow and love God.  Reading this book has made me want to try to find other books that talk about other Christians’ paths to God.  Luckily, Martin provides a nice list of book suggestions – I may start by reading some of those.

The Marriage Plot, by J. Eugenides

I enjoyed reading this book, although somehow the ending didn’t really feel like an ending to me.  I’m not sure what ending I was expecting, but I felt like I wanted something more. 

A quick summary:  Madeleine, Leonard, and Mitchell are undergraduates at Brown, in the 1980s.  The book starts out on graduation day, but has some flashbacks that tell you what happened to the characters throughout the four years of their studies.  The book then goes on to tell what happened after graduation. 

I thought overall, the book was well written, and I definitely enjoyed that.  Madeleine is an English major, so there are references to books that I think book lovers will enjoy (I know I did!).  There were some R-rated scenes throughout, which I did not like.  I never understand why authors think those are necessary, but maybe that’s just me.  Besides that and my issue with the ending, I did enjoy the book.  Once I started it I wanted to keep going until I finished it. 

Three Men in a Boat, by J.K. Jerome

I had never heard about this book until recently, when I started to read about it in other people’s blogs.  I enjoyed it very much!

A quick summary:  Three friends and their dog decide they want a little vacation, in the form of sailing along the Thames.  The book talks about their preparations for this trip and describes the things that happened on this trip.  The narrator also shares stories of things that had happened to him and his friends at different points in their lives.

Even though the different bloggers seemed to enjoy the book, I was a bit skeptical.  But once I started reading, I realized why the book had such positive reviews.  It’s really entertaining!  The narrator talks about his friends and their experiences in a way that’s interesting for the readers.  He was also, in my opinion, pretty funny.  It really was a good read, and it’s a book I would recommend.