2014 Challenges, Books, The Classics Club

Book 276: Dracula – Bram Stoker

Welcome back Classic Club! I apparently needed a four, almost five, month break from the club. There wasn’t a specific reason other than perhaps the epic-ness of War and Peace, but I’m glad I took the break. I think this was an even better break because I came back with such a wonderful book! There were so many cool things that I learned that I didn’t know, or some how avoided knowing, came from Dracula!

I thought for sure I was familiar with the plot of Dracula, we all are aren’t we? But I was so wrong! I’ve never seen a film version of this and most of what I know is what pop culture has co-opted over the years. One of my favorite podcasts, Good Job Brain, even did an episode titled Very Superstitious which included a lot of fun trivia (some I think might’ve been wrong) about the myriad versions of Dracula. However, what I found out that most caught me off guard was that although the book was about Dracula he wasn’t the main character AND there was a bad ass female protagonist who rocked. There are spoilers, the book is over 120 years old so get over it! 😀

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2014 Challenges, Books

Book 272: The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid’s Tale #1) – Margaret Atwood

[Check out my review of Margaret Atwood’s much awaited seque, The Testaments, here.]

I can’t believe it’s been over five years since I last read this incredible novel. But thinking about it as I write this I’m not too surprised. I last read this while working on a paper for my MA and that paper didn’t go well, because I apparently didn’t “understand how to apply gender theory” and I was given the opportunity to completely re-write the paper.

I was incredibly pissed at the insult, because that’s how I took it, and I spent a lot of time rewriting the paper in such a way as to insult my professors and the program. In no uncertain terms I stated that gender theory does not preempt every other theory and that scholars needed to be incredibly careful of over-stepping their bounds. I did eventually receive a passing grade and they invited back to pursue a PhD (I declined), but it left a sour taste in my mouth.

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – April 2014 Meme

Classics ClubThis month’s question from The Classics Club is super specific, but after almost two years I guess they would have to be start getting specific.

Contemplate your favorite classic to date. When was the book written? Why would you say it has been preserved by the ages? Do you think it will still be respected/treasured 100 years from now?

My immediate thought was any of Jane Austen’s novels and those will definitely be around for many years to come. Her wit and way with words is excellently placed when she was living but her stories and characters have a timelessness about them. So I went to my next thought, the works of Anne Brontë: Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – March 2014 Meme

Classics ClubThis month’s question from The Classics Club is a great one! I’ve struggled with many of the other questions and this one wasn’t any different. I loved the reflection required and as with the other questions asked so far, I’ve looked outside of what I’ve read for the club to find an answer, but perhaps not the answer. This month the moderators have asked us

What is your favorite “classic” literary period and why?

For me it’s hard to explain as geography/location/setting plays a bigger role in books for me than time period, but I realized that a lot of the books I thoroughly enjoy that qualify as classics are from the mid 1900s, but not the standard books. I was thinking along the lines of Bastard Out of CarolinaThe Color Purple, To Kill A Mockingbird and anything by Carson McCullers and Truman Capote.

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Books

Book 261: Significant Others (Tales of the City #5) – Armistead Maupin

Coming back to Maupin’s San Francisco is like going home after a really long vacation. There’s something comforting and something genuinely nice about being back on Barbary Lane. (See the first quote under Additional Quotes).

I can’t believe it’s been almost three years since I binge read Tales of the CityMore Tales of the CityFurther Tales of the City and Babycakes. And like everyone else who has ever read a single one of The Tales of the city books, I’m finally taking the time to catch up on the series, which has spanned five decades so that I can read the final (I’m assuming) novel in the series The Days of Anna Madrigal released at the beginning of 2014. I won’t binge read them, but they’re such quick reads I plan to read them all this year.

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