A Break from Reviews: Thoughts on Monday Morning

For those of you who don't know me, I feel I should begin by saying that I am a teacher, and that I live in a state that just got a ton of snow. A TON. We missed 4 days of school last week, which means this is the first time I have had to work in a week, the first time I've had to be up at a particular time in a week, and the first time I've really had to think about something other than reading books and blogging in a week. WOW.

I had a wonderful lot of fun with all of my free time, including really getting my blog started, redesigning it, joining a bunch of book challenges, and reading book reviews on other blogs. If you haven't looked closely, I'm in 9 book challenges. Last night, in an effort to forget that I had to work today, I planned out what I'm going to read for each of them. That was an interesting endeavor, but it's something I'm glad I did. I figured out where my overlaps were, what I would need to purchase or borrow, and just what sounded interesting. I think I'll edit this post when I get home and show you my choices.

One surprising thing I enjoyed while doing this was looking up the nationalities of authors. For example, Oscar Wilde is a personal favorite of mine, and I had no idea he was Irish! I also realized that I couldn't have named an Australian author or book to save my soul. When I get it posted, check out my list and see what you think!

Book Challenge	Planning to Read
Nordic: (written by a Nordic author or taking place in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and/or Sweden)	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
British: Books by British authors	The White Queen, The Red Queen, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Sherlock Holmes, Wuthering Heights
Global: (Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, +1 from a "continent" of your choice)	Haunting Jasmine (Asia), Like Water for Chocolate (South/Central America), Oscar and Lucinda (Australia), Snow Crash (Seventh Continent), The Yacoubian Building (Africa)
Eastern Europe: (Croatia, Ukraine, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Belarus, Estonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Rep., Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Romania, Moldova, and Kosovo.)	War and Peace, Three Sisters, Crime and Punishment, Dracula,
Historical Fiction: Any historical fiction	The White Queen, The Red Queen, The Name of the Rose
Ireland: (written by Irish author or taking place in Ireland)	The Irish Princess, Dracula
South Asian: (written by South Asian author or taking place in South Asia [Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and the Maldives])	Haunting Jasmine
Memorable Memoirs: Any memoir	Thin, Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood, Intern
Gothic: any novel with Gothic characteristics	Wuthering Heights, Northanger Abbey, The Hound of the Baskervilles (Holmes), Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jane Eyre, The Name of the Rose, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Book #5: The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch

This book was really out of character for me to read. I was drawn in by the historical fiction aspect, which is all that got me past the fact that this is a mystery/thriller -- genres which I normally lack the patience to read and enjoy.

This is a translation, and I personally thought it was very well done. There was only one time in my reading that I thought, "I think that XXXX was the word they really meant to use instead of YYYY."

As for the story, it's captivating. The history of it deals with it's location in Bavaria and the duties and families of hangmen. But what makes this book fascinating is the action that the hangman, Jakob Kuisl, takes to save a supposed criminal and out the right person to save the town. He works with the young town physician, who is in love with Jakob's daughter, Magdalena. Magdalena is a strong character in her own right, but is by no means the main character.

The inward struggles of characters in this story are what give it so much life, and what made me stay up until almost 3am today to finish it. I would definitely recommend this one!

Book #3: Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

On the same Friday night I found The Year of the Hare, I found this book. Well, actually, a friend of mine found it first, showed it to me, and I bought it first! I'm a book thief!

I got sucked into this book almost immediately. It's not what I would usually call historical fiction, but I think technically it is. I love learning about the way things happened, the history of things, and especially if it has to do with literature.

This book is about Alice Liddell, the woman who inspired Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He's much older than her (20 years to be exact), but the two of them are clearly in love, even though at the time she was only a child. At first I was like, "Ewww, pedophile!" But then my logic kicked in, and I realized that what was happening was not a revolting thing. It's just very important to keep Victorian views in mind when you read this novel.

Alice is the middle child, the rebellious one, the messy one, the individual. She is a constant rival to her older sister, Ina, but dearly loved her little sister Edith. Her mother had no love for her, and she had to find the answer to all her troubles. She finds that in Dodgson (Carroll), and becomes his inspiration for photography and, of course, writing.

I'm having a hard time describing why I loved this book so much, but I did. It's a perfect and tragic picture of an original child star and how she grows up. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I plan on going back to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland soon.

Let the Games Begin!

I have tried this blogging thing before, failed at it, and stopped. I'm trying again because I actually feel like I'm doing something worth talking about this year! Although technically, after too much free time in my 4th consecutive snow day, I'm now doing 9 (edit: dang it Stephanie!) things.

1. My own personal challenge: One book per week all year long (52 books)
2. The Global Book Challenge (7 books)
3. The British Book Challenge (6 books)
4. The Eastern European Book Challenge (4 books)
5. The Nordic Book Challenge (2 books)
6. The Ireland Book Challenge (2 books)
7. Historical Fiction Challenge (5 books)
8. South Asian Challenge (1 book)
9. Memorable Memoirs Challenge (4 books)
10. Gothic Challenge (5 books)

Links for numbers 2 through 10 are on the right side of my blog!

The personal challenge is the most important to me. I spent a lot of time in the past few years feeling overwhelmed, and I stopped making time for myself. I hardly read anything that wasn't for a class or something I was supposed to be teaching. My 52 book challenge is me making that stress-free time for myself each week to do something that I have loved since I was little. So far, I'm on track! Let's hope I can keep it up and even exceed my goal!

Now, as for the other challenges, I have a good friend of mine to thank for me finding the Nordic Challenge, but the rest was all me! I'm going to be reading 52 books this year, so why not make it a more social endeavor? Plus, these constraints will make me choose books more diverse than what I might normally choose on my own.