The "Sense and Sensibility" Read-Along Begins!

Today's the day, my friends!  The day we start reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen together.

I will post the first discussion post soon (maybe even tomorrow!), but first I want to talk a little about how this will work.  Several times a week, I will post about the next section of book.  I'm going to include two chapters in each discussion post because Sense and Sensibility has fifty chapters, but most of them are very short.  So we'll have twenty-five discussion posts, and I'll try to post about three of those a week.  If you're doing math at this point, that means we should be done by the end of April, even if we take a little break over Easter.

It is entirely up to you whether you want to read the chapters first or my post first.  I think if you're already familiar with the story, either way works.  If you've never read it or seen any adaptation of it, then you might want to read the chapters first and then my post, as I'm not going to mark spoilers.  If you find yourself struggling to understand the text, you can always flip that and read the posts first and then the chapters.

In each post, I will include one or two discussion questions after I share my thoughts.  You are encouraged to comment with your answers to any questions that interest you, and you are also encouraged to reply to each others' comments!  Don't think of this as a dialog between me and each individual, but a discussion we are all having together.

I'm going to be reading the annotated edition pictured here, and I'll definitely be sharing any insights it gives me that I think will be of interest.  Every time I share a new post, I will link to that post on this page for easy reference.

I think that's all I have to say today, so I'll leave you with a couple of questions to answer so we can get to know each other:

1. Have you ever read Sense and Sensibility before?

2. Have you seen any movie versions of this story?

3. Have you read any other Jane Austen novels?

Remember, answering discussion questions is always optional -- don't feel obligated to answer any or all of them!  It's fine if you don't, though I think the discussions can be the best part of a read-along, so I definitely encourage you to try if you're so inclined.

Oh, and will there be a giveaway at the end of this read-along like there have been for so many of my previous read-alongs?  Probably ;-)

Thrusting the Snow Aside: February 2021 Inklings

It's still February, so I still have time to join this month's Inklings link-up hosted by Heidi here at Along the Brandywine.  This month, the prompt is a snow scene in book or film.

I'm choosing the attempt to pass through the Redhorn Gate in the White Mountains of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.  The fellowship is trying to make their way through the mountains, but a mysterious and evil snowstorm falls upon them and forces them to halt.  They realize they must turn back, but they've become cut off by vast mounts of snow, both before them and behind them.  The snow is so deep, it's far over the heads of the hobbits, and they'll never be able to struggle through it.  So Aragorn and Boromir decide to force a path through it for the others to follow.

Aragorn was the tallest of the Company, but Boromir, little less in height, was broader and heavier in build.  He led the way, and Aragorn followed him.  Slowly they moved off, and were soon toiling heavily.  In places the snow was breast-high, and often Boromir seemed to be swimming or burrowing with his great arms rather than walking (p. 284).

I love that image of the two mighty warriors and leaders of men turning themselves into snowplows to make a path for the smaller members of their company.  And that's not all they do!  When they return, the hobbits worry that still the snow will be too deep underfoot for them to get through.

"Have hope!" said Boromir.  "I am weary, but I still have some strength left, and Aragorn too.  We will bear the little folk.  The others no doubt will make shift to tread the path behind us.  Come, Master Peregrin!  I will begin with you."

He lifted up the hobbit.  "Cling to my back! I shall need my arms," he said and strode forward.  Aragorn and Merry came behind.  Pippin marvelled at his strength, seeing the passage that he had already forced with no other tool than his great limbs.  Even now, burdened as he was, he was widening the track for those who followed, thrusting the snow aside as he went (p. 285-86).

Again, what an amazing example of true leadership!  The heir to the stewardship of Gondor and the rightful king of all Middle-earth use their strength to serve others.  They're not too proud or too busy or too filled with their own self-importance to serve even the smallest person.  What mighty leaders!

(Mine from my Instagram account.)

I'm eager to see what Heidi's prompt for next month is!  Here's hoping I don't wait to participate until the very last day next time ;-)

"Faces to the Sun" edited by S. J. Blasko

This is a collection of poetry and short stories all written by people who struggle with mental health and mental illness.  The point of the anthology is to help other strugglers to see they're not alone, and to help people who don't deal with mental health troubles to understand what that can be like.  It succeeds admirably at the latter, for me.  

All proceeds from sales of this book go to organizations that provide mental health services, which I think is neat.

I liked so many pieces in this book, so I'm just going to list my favorites, in the order in which they occur:

• "From Suns to Moons" by Karen Nelson
• "The Sunflower Cycle" by Adrien Farinas
• "While Gardening" by Theo Oliver
• "Bouquet" by Beka Gremikova
• "Dichotomy of Queen Anne's Lace" by Maggie D Brace
• "Walls" by Lucinda Cylights
• "Wormwood: A plant that smells so sweet and looks so nice but will kill you if you take a bite" by Erik Olson
• "Dandelions" by Katie Hanna
• "the noose" by Cassandra Hamm
• "CICADAS AND COFFEE AND ROSES" by Suzanne Lea

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for some discussion of panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, and other things that younger readers probably aren't ready for yet.

This was my 9th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2021.

Top Ten Tuesday: I Dearly Love a Laugh

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "books that made me laugh out loud."  I dearly love a laugh, much like Elizabeth Bennet, and so a book that can make me laugh aloud is one I will probably like a lot.  Here are my top ten, with all titles linked to my reviews:

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery -- An orphan girl with a big imagination is adopted by an aging brother and sister and spreads sunshine and bemusement wherever she goes.

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster -- An orphan girl with a big vocabulary is sent to college by an anonymous donor and must write him letters detailing her progress.  The sequel, Dear Enemy, is also very funny.

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis -- Lots of fairy tales get mixed all up together in this story about a woodcutter's daughter, a frog, and a heap of fairy tale antics.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim -- Three middle-aged London ladies pool their resources and rent a villa in Italy, where they rediscover what it means to be alive.

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart -- Three eccentric sisters are harassed by a bootlegger until one of them takes the law into her own hands.  Based on the real-life adventures of one of New Jersey's first female police officers, Constance Kopp.  The whole series is a delight.

Greenwillow by B. J. Chute -- People living in rural England in the early 1900s have gentle and funny adventures.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen -- Country girl Catherine Morland goes to the big city of Bath, reads too many novels and starts thinking she's living in one, and eventually opens her eyes to the truth about love.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen -- Girl meets boy.  Girl hates boy for being a snob.  Boy secretly thinks girl has fine eyes.  Boy insults girl.  Girl insults boy.  Girl gradually learns it was she who was being a snob.  Boy continues to think girl has fine eyes.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman -- True love, pirates, princes, princesses, giants, sword fights, and the Pit of Despair.  What's not to love?

A Sidekick's Tale by Elisabeth Grace Foley -- A ranch hand tries to stop a family feud, help a young couple realize they love each other, and figure out who rightfully owns an heirloom.

Have you read any of these?  Did you do a TTT list this week?  Do share!

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling

My Year with Harry Potter continues rolling delightfully along!  I basically inhaled The Chamber of Secrets in three days.  I just kept sneaking off to read it whenever I had a few minutes, and that's such a delightful way to live :-)

My plan for this year is to make myself read at least two books between each installment of the Harry Potter series so that I won't just smush them all together in my head.  And to make their joy last longer.  I do love to savor things I particularly enjoy.  And I love to anticipate things -- sometimes the anticipation can be as pleasurable as the actual experience or even itself, to be honest.  So I simply cannot pick up the next book (which is my favorite) until I finish a cople of the books I have going right now, and that is kind of killing me... but also, I'm loving how much I am looking forward to it!

I find this book SO MUCH BETTER than the first one, which I reviewed here a couple weeks ago.  Of course, it helps that we don't have to spend as much time explaining the wizarding world, though Rowling deftly catches any potential new (or forgetful) readers up to speed on things like Quidditch and the Sorting Hat and why everyone's so scared of Voldemort.  But overall, the pacing in this second book is so much tighter than in the first one.  The mystery about the Chamber of Secrets gets rolling quickly, and the book's tension builds so beautifully to the very thrilling climax.  Having high human stakes for Harry to fight to protect was extremely effective.

Once again, we have characters learning to be kind to people who are different from them, how to be a good friend instead of a wishy-washy one, and how to treat those who some would say are inferior to you.  A huge theme here is the importance of actions versus words.  Good or bad intentions are not as important or as powerful as good or bad behavior.

Also, Dobby makes me laugh a lot.  The whole book does.  Wonderful stuff.

And Mrs. Weasley is #MomGoals.

(From my Instagram account.)

Particularly Good Bits:

Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a saber-toothed tiger (p. 32).

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" (p. 333). (I know that gets quoted a lot, but It's Just So True I Must Mention It.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some rude humor, children in danger, and a pretty creepy gathering of ghosts.

New Short Story "Run, Run" Now Available!

I have a new FREE short story available for both Kindle and Nook!  "Run, Run" is a follow-up to my Snow White retelling, One Bad Apple.  As such, it does give away the ending of that book just a little, in that you'll know a lot of characters who survive to the end.  If you're sensitive to spoilers and haven't read One Bad Apple, you might want to save it until you've finished the book.  That kind of goes for the synopsis below, too.

This story retells The Gingerbread Man, and here's the official synopsis:

Levi Dalton, his siblings, and his cousins want to give a nice Christmas present to the uncle who is raising all seven of them. But their plans go awry when someone runs off with their basket of gingerbread! A wild chase through a small town leads to disaster, but an old friend suggests a plan that just might save the day in this short story sequel to One Bad Apple.

You can get "Run, Run" from Amazon here and from Barnes and Noble here, and you can add it to your Goodreads shelves here.

If you're in the mood for something short and sweet, give it a try!  As a bonus, I've included a recipe for gingerbread at the end that's based on real 1800s gingerbread recipes!

Subscribers to my newsletter were able to read this story back in January already.  One of the perks of being a subscriber!  If you want to sign up yourself, you can do that right here.

"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" by Frederick Douglass

I can't believe I'd never read this before!  You'd think with all the history classes, all the literature classes, surely someone would have assigned Frederick Douglass's Narrative to me.  But, nope.  You'd also think I would have gotten around to reading it before now, on my own, especially since I've owned a copy for at least two years.  But, nope.

Well, I've read it now, and I found it both enlightening and enjoyable.  While sometimes Douglass does start to sound a little bit... oratorical... he mostly tells his life story in a straight-forward and easy-to-read manner.  Certainly, he was writing this with an agenda, namely to convince people of the evils of slavery, but it rarely felt like a lecture or an argument.  Just a man telling you about his own experiences, and letting you conclude for yourself whether or not his life was typical or atypical for those living in slavery.

I was a little sad that he couldn't give a more detailed account of his escape to freedom in the north, but he withheld most of it to protect those who helped him, who were still alive and possibly in danger of reprisals, so it was understandable and wise of him to omit that part, I thought.

It was really interesting to read this on the heels of The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby because it succeeded in something that I thought Tisby failed at.  Douglass did a great job of pointing out that the failure of Christian churches toward enslaved people is not the fault of Christianity, but of individuals claiming to be Christians.  Tisby lumped those together, but Douglass clearly separated them, especially in the book's appendix, where he wrote:

What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference -- so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked.  To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other (p. 71).

If you're looking for something to read for Black History Month, this gets my vote.  It's a quick read, not difficult, and both historically and culturally important.  Since yesterday is believed to have been Douglass's birthday, I thought it was a good time to read it, and I'm glad I did.

Particularly Good Bits:

The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears (p. 9).

The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness (p. 24).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-15 for descriptions of whippings, beatings, and other acts of violence, as well as discussions of sexual misconduct and force.  Those were non-graphic, but I won't have my kids read it until high school because I don't think they'll be ready for it.

This was my 16th book read for my 3rd Classics Club list, and my 7th book read off my unread shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2021.