* July *

ex_pseudonymous328 wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 12:38 am (UTC)

Thank you for the awesome suggestions.

I am new to this Internet community thing and it really help to know what works in other groups.

seanlily wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 12:57 am (UTC)

Just a thought - Don quixote is huge, it might be worth splitting over 2 months and then you'd only need a book for December. I know I couldn't read it in one month and I am a huge reader.

ex_pseudonymous328 wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 01:00 am (UTC)

I did not check to see how long it was. 992 pages! I will split that up over two months. Thanks for noticing that.

mrslovett wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 02:02 am (UTC)

Having a schedule is incredibly useful. Great idea! Unfortunately, I don't have any book suggestions at the moment.

lysimache wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 02:20 am (UTC)

How about the Princess of Cleves by Mme de la Fayette? She's old (1678) and white, but not male! :P

Or, I really love Anne Brontë's Tenant of Wildfell Hall, although I see the Brontes are already represented...

fifi wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 03:00 am (UTC)

Talking of Princesses, do you know if Regards from the Dead Princess by Kenize Mourad is any good? I've been looking at that novel for yrs but haven't taken the plunge.

Review:
Based on facts she could uncover concerning her late mother, Selma, the author has re-created the story of a Turkish princess and granddaughter of Murad V, the last ruler of the Ottoman Empire. The result, reminiscent of a gothic TV tale, portrays the coming of age of the beautiful, young, expatriated princess in Beirut and her subsequent arranged marriage to a handsome rajah in India whom she does not meet before her wedding night. Forced to live a secluded life as an unaccepted stranger in the rajah's palace, the pampered, rebellious princess gains her freedom by fleeing to Paris at the time of the Nazi Occupation. There she gives birth to a daughter. This novel won't win any awards for literary skill, but with its opulent Oriental imagery it allows us to glimpse a distant and romantic world swept by change in a turbulent era.

anehan: Elizabeth Bennet with the text "sparkling". (Default)

anehan wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 10:31 am (UTC)

Seconding The Princess of Cleves. And it's available at Project Gutenberg.

lethia wrote:

May. 29th, 2009 05:36 pm (UTC)

I third The Princess of Cleves. ;)

ex_pseudonymous328 wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 10:31 am (UTC)

Has anyone read The Interesting Narrative in the Life of Olaudah Equiano?

An exciting and often terrifying adventure story, as well as an important precursor to such famous nineteenth-century slave narratives as Frederick Douglass's autobiographies, Olaudah Equiano's Narrative recounts his kidnapping in Africa at the age of ten, his service as the slave of an officer in the British Navy, his ten years of labor on slave ships until he was able to purchase his freedom in 1766, and his life afterward as a leading and respected figure in the antislavery movement in England. A spirited autobiography, a tale of spiritual quest and fulfillment, and a sophisticated treatise on religion, politics, and economics, The Interesting Narrative is a work of enduring literary and historical value.

absque_setentia wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 01:28 pm (UTC)

How about Jane Eyre? I know we already have one Charlotte Bronte book, but at least the first part of it made such an impression on me.

We did a chronological literature course at uni, and after months and months of reading about men, suddenly there were women and girls, interacting and being important to each other. I nearly cried with relief. :-)

fifi wrote:

May. 28th, 2009 12:19 am (UTC)

Oh, yes! I think even if P. doesn't choose that one for September we should have it in mind for later. I'm so lobbying for that one partly because I have an ulterior motive called: Wide Sargasso Sea. The discussions would be amazing:

The most striking difference between the two novels is that Wide Sargasso Sea transforms Rochester's first wife from Bertha Mason, the infamous "madwoman in the attic," to the lively yet vulnerable Antoinette Cosway. She is no longer a cliché or a "foreign," possibly "half-caste" lunatic, but a real woman with her own hopes, fears, and desires. Wide Sargasso Sea tells her side of the story as well as Rochester's, detailing how she ended up alone and raving in the attic of Thornfield Hall. It gives a voice not only to her, but to the black people in the West Indies whom Rochester regards with such loathing.

Edited 2009-05-28 12:23 am (UTC)

absque_setentia wrote:

May. 28th, 2009 03:33 am (UTC)

I love Wide Sargasso Sea! I must admit, I had that same ulterior motive as you. ;-)

fifi wrote:

May. 28th, 2009 08:44 pm (UTC)

Yay for ulterior motives. 8D

absque_setentia wrote:

May. 29th, 2009 03:47 pm (UTC)

I wouldn't get much done without them. :-P

ex_pseudonymous328 wrote:

May. 31st, 2009 11:02 pm (UTC)

Eventually I hope to do Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea back to back.

absque_setentia wrote:

Jun. 1st, 2009 01:59 am (UTC)

Fantastic. :D

lecari wrote:

May. 27th, 2009 04:56 pm (UTC)

Perhaps a Virginia Woolf?

fifi wrote:

May. 28th, 2009 12:22 am (UTC)

Orlando?

lecari: Based on a design on gorgeous notecards by tinatarnoff on etsy (Marie Antoinette silhouette)

lecari wrote:

May. 28th, 2009 10:10 am (UTC)

I didn't check to see whether her books were on Gutenberg, but yeah, that sounds good :) She is an author I've always wanted to read, I've read "To the Lighthouse" and tried "the Waves" but I found it quite difficult to follow and would like to give her books another go. Discussing it with others as I go would really help! (And probably encourage me to persevere with it :P)

(Nice icon, BTW :))

fifi wrote:

May. 28th, 2009 08:42 pm (UTC)

I think Orlando would be a cool pick because we have nothing on else on cisgender + transgender issues.

Thanks ♥

mrslovett wrote:

May. 28th, 2009 07:14 pm (UTC)

What about her final novel, Between the Acts? There are only a few books of hers on Gutenberg, but I found this one online at a different site.

chrissytng wrote:

May. 29th, 2009 02:06 am (UTC)

Yay! I'm very excited by this list! I sadly didn't have time to read this month's book (hopefully I'll read it eventually though), but I've been wanting to read/reread most of that list for a long time now and am totally making time for it! :D

lethia wrote:

May. 29th, 2009 05:35 pm (UTC)

Yay, Dorian Gray! I have it on my bookshelf and I've been meaning to read it for quite some time, so I'm glad we'll be starting out with it.

lysimache wrote:

May. 31st, 2009 01:18 pm (UTC)

Just curious: I see that Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is on the sidebar now for September. Is that what was decided on?

lecari wrote:

May. 31st, 2009 10:57 pm (UTC)

I noticed this also - I didn't see it mentioned above, maybe I missed something.

ex_pseudonymous328 wrote:

May. 31st, 2009 11:01 pm (UTC)

I posted a new version of the reading list. I changed some things around to get a wider variety of authors and subjects.

lecari wrote:

May. 31st, 2009 11:04 pm (UTC)

I just saw the post, I was just wondering where

fifi suggested it is all, as I didn't see it mentioned in any of the comments above. :)

ex_pseudonymous328 wrote:

May. 31st, 2009 11:07 pm (UTC)

Fifi gave a really great list of classics by a diverse group of authors. There are a lot on there I haven't read yet.

http://readingtheclassics.dreamwidth.org/2568.html?thread=23304#t23304

lecari wrote:

Jun. 1st, 2009 11:11 am (UTC)

ooh thanks, that looks like a great list :D I've not heard of a lot of them.

ex_pseudonymous328 wrote:

May. 31st, 2009 11:00 pm (UTC)

I posted a finalized version. I switched some things up to get a wider variety of authors and subjects.