Book #47: "Far From Here"

When I was in high school, I was...not an exemplary student. I used to describe my scholastic approach as "did enough to get by", but that implies a level of foresight and planning that frankly was not present. In all honesty, I did the work I felt like doing. This naturally led to some difficulties in most of my classes (everything but choir, drama, Spanish, and, interestingly enough, geometry. I don't care for math classes generally but I loved my teacher.)

My grades suffered the most in English classes, which always surprised people. (Still does, as a matter of fact.) The problem was this: every English class I took in high school required the reading of several books over the course of the school year. And to make sure the books were read, the
various teachers all assigned a schedule; so many pages read by each date, and at each checkpoint some kind of response to the book would be required. What you thought the character was feeling, predictions about plot, thoughts about symbolism, etc.

So the issue I ran into (repeatedly) is that I would take the books home and read them in a couple of hours, and then either not bother to complete the responses at the required time (because I didn't feel like it) or just forget about them. Usually there would be four or five of those assignments per book. worth maybe five or ten points each, and to my knowledge I never did a single one. Missing one or two would not have affected my grade significantly; missing thirty or forty a year did. As a result, despite knowing the material and excelling on the tests, I barely got through English every single year.

Nowadays, they often print what I think of as English-class-assignment questions in the back of books, I think mostly to inspire discussion in book clubs. Given my relationship with such things, it is not difficult to imagine how I feel about them, But I occasionally scan them anyway, and in this book one of the questions about the ending did make me reconsider how I'd interpreted the book. So well done, Discussion Question People!

This was an ARC I got during my bookstore days. It's about relationships and discovering how well you can really know another person, even (and perhaps particularly) in marriage. I found it interesting and a little frustrating.

Author:  Nicole Baart

Potentially objectionable content: Some language, sex, intense scenes.

Book #46: "Expecting Joy"

This is a sweet and fairly quick read. First-person narrative can sometimes be off-putting, particularly when there is a dialect of sorts involved, but it works here. I also find LDS authors to be something of a gamble; they're usually excellent or terrible, with not a lot of middle ground. I like this book, and I think (though I am not certain) it is actually a sequel.

Author: Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard

Potentially objectionable content: Hot-button political topic (abortion) a plot point.

Book #45: "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle"

Children can be divided into two camps: those who like to read, and those who really don't. And in my admittedly anecdotal experience, the following generalizations can also be made: More girls like to read than boys; most girls don't care if the characters are male or female, which is good, because children's literature features more male protagonists than female; most boys between the ages of eight and fourteen won't read a book with a female protagonist. So here is my soapbox moment. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, friends: encourage reading in kids. Teach them to read a lot of different things. Show them how to identify good writing and that even poor writing can have something to offer. Help them discover what appeals to them and why. But for the love of Harry Potter, do not discourage a particular title because it's a "boy" book or a "girl" book, okay? Books are books, and books are good.

Soapbox over. This was one of my favorite books as a kid, and still one I recommend all the time. Historical fiction, a female protagonist who was roughly my age when I first read it, and a villain who is completely unhinged to boot. It's still great.

Author: Avi

Potentially objectionable content: Has some rather scary moments.

Book #44: "Lady Susan"

This is the Jane Austen book that no one has ever heard of-and with good reason, since it's not as good as the others.It's also told entirely in letters, which is occasionally tedious. But a not-as-good Austen is still better than a lot of writers' best. And the main character/villain is all kinds of nuts, which I always enjoy.

So at the end of my Austen section, I have just this to say: You win, Jane. I will never doubt again.

Author: Jane Austen

Objectionable content: I cannot stress enough how completely batty Lady Susan is. But it's Jane Austen battiness, so it's still genteel.

Book #43: "Persuasion"

And now we have come at last to my favorite Austen novel: the lovely and lyrical "Persuasion". This was my second time reading it, and I was a little nervous that I might not like it as much. I should have had more faith. It's perfect. So perfect that I both wanted it to be longer and realized it didn't need to be.

If pressed, I admit it would be difficult to define exactly why I love it so much. I certainly identified with Anne Elliot much more than any other Austen heroine: I was 27 when I read it the first time and had some relationship woes of my own. But more than that I would be unable to say. So I will leave you with this thought: "Pride and Prejudice" has been done (and redone, and modernized, and Mormon-ized, and Bollywood-ed, and even zombie-fied). ENOUGH. Let's do some "Persuasion" movies now.

Author: Jane Austen

Potentially objectionable content: None.

Book #42: "Northanger Abbey"

To be honest, I really wasn't looking forward to reading this one, "Northanger Abbey" is Jane Austen's satirical take on a Gothic novel, and my best recollection from the first time I read it is that she couldn't ever quite decide whether she was being sarcastic or not, so I ended up thinking the book was...well, kind of stupid.

I'm sorry, Jane. I take it back. It's hysterical. Funnier than "Emma". Yes, the ending is a bit abrupt and resolves fairly quickly, but still delightful. Forgive me.

Author: Jane Austen

Potentially objectionable content: None.

Book #41: "Emma"

There isn't a lot to say about this experience that I haven't said about the previous Austen books, except that the modern movie adaptation is accurately named. I also found it not quite as funny as I had remembered, though it certainly has its moments. But in finding less humor, I also found more beautiful language. A more than fair trade.

Author: Jane Austen

Potentially objectionable content: Well, Mr. Elton is a jerk.

Book #40: "Mansfield Park"

When I was growing up (and still today, though I am not around to witness it as much) my parents watched a lot of sports on TV-my father in his comfy chair in the family room, my mother on her bed upstairs with some sort of project (cross-stitch, sewing, knitting, etc.) They are people of strong but conflicting loyalties (my mother is a Lakers and Rams fan; my father likes the Suns and the Cowboys), hence the separate rooms. They are also people who like to shout at the television as though it would affect the outcome of whatever event they are watching, which made hanging out on the middle floor of our house quite the experience, particularly if you were unfortunate enough to be there when their teams played each other.

I can only give my parents a hard time about this because it's a trait I inherited. I talk to EVERYTHING, which is why my car and my electronic devices all have names. (Important to be able to scold things properly, and also to encourage them when necessary. Positive reinforcement is especially important to the continuing maintenance of motor vehicles.) And though I don't watch a lot of sports, I do read a lot of books, and I tend to get very involved. Which is why, no matter how many times I have read something, I frequently find myself being baffled and/or frustrated by the characters' actions.

This brings us to "Mansfield Park", which I mentioned before as the only Austen novel I enjoyed the first time. And I still like it, even though it features one of the most oblivious love-interests in all of modern literature (and only misses out on the top spot because of Emma. And Scarlett O'Hara. More on both of those later.) I spent this time through thinking, repeatedly, "Seriously, Edmund. Get it together, man!"

But I find his perpetual obtuseness annoying, at least in part, because of the many, many times in my life when I have been focused on something I was sure I needed to make me happy, only to discover eventually that I was wrong, wrong, wrong. So I suppose I can cut Edmund Bertram some slack.

Author: Jane Austen

Potentially objectionable content: None,