As well as dreaming of being a writer, I definitely plan on being a teacher, and so this quote is one of my favorites. Hey college kids - we may be "grown ups" but we are still artists too, as long as we never let go of the little kid inside us! I want to try and remember that as I trudge on this semester, and just thought I'd share it with all of you <3.
Okay, so once I got over my temper tatrum at my professor's effrontery to make me read for class, I actually liked this book! Now, that's saying something, because usually I grade classics just like I would any other book - none of this: "Ohhh, gee, Author Person! You're book is all kinds of wonderful just because IT'S OLD and lots of people have to write term papers over it!" Nope. The funny thing that I can't get over is that I absolutely HATE books like this one: not a whole lot of action, really indecisive characters, circumstances that are not overcome, etc. And yet Ethan Frome really got to me. I read the whole thing kicking and screaming, saying "No! I WILL NOT like this book! You can't make me!" but it was no use. Here's the scoop (and it's a pretty easy scoop): A poor farmer with an ultra-whiny hypochondriac wife (or at least that's my professor's interpretation) live with the ultra-whiny wife's pretty and vivacious cousin, and the poor downtrodden farmer falls in love with the enchanting cousin (Mattie) but can't seem to escape his circumstances. That's it. And yet, there's so much more. I don't like Ethan, I certainly don't like Zeena...Mattie's really the only character I truly liked...and yet I cared about them all and was rooting for Ethan even though he's such a dadgum loser! Maybe my parents were a little too into the whole "pull yourself up by your bootstraps, kids!!!" growing up but I really felt like circumstances weren't near as bleak as Ethan made them out to be. We talked about that a lot in class today: psychological realism novels are really big into the whole "appearances vs. reality" scenario, and I just found that so intriguing. I hate to admit it, but I found myself wishing Ethan and Mattie would just elope and get it over with, and a pox on that scurvy Zeena! Maybe that's why this book is a classic: it's so incredibly simple, and yet by the time you're finished, you feel emotionally exhausted. This book doesn't make you feel better about yourself or life (unless you thank God you're not operating a sawmill in Starkfield, MA in the winter!) and I'm still not entirely sure what message (if any) Edith Wharton was trying to send, but the story just captivated me. Now granted, this is NOT the type of thing I look for in outside fun-reading, but I'm glad I had the experience. It's like when you're in a bookstore or a library and you pass a classic, you can beam with pride and point and declare, "I READ THAT!" So thank you, Dr. Bruce, and thank you to my mom who is an English teacher/principal who let me use her teaching copy - the one with all the notes and unlined passages. :D - Definitely recommended to Classics Lovers. And if you're a student and you find Ethan Frome on your "Required Reading" syllabus, don't fret, for this is an easy read. It could be a heck of a lot worse. 
What the award says:
Accept the award, and post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link. Pass the award to 5 other blogs that you've newly discovered.
Since I can count every blog I follow as “new,” I’m passing the love on to…
- Jess @ Tangled Up in Blue
- Natalie @ Mindful Musings
- Melissa @ I Swim for Oceans
- Stephanie @ StephtheBookworm
- Lilly @ Reading Extravaganza
Once again, thank you so much to Lucy! Now go check out these awesome sites! :))
Last week I read a grand total of 2 books - The Spook's Curse (part II in the Wardstone Chronicles) and Aurelia - a YA fiction debut novel
Here is for The Spook's Curse:
And for Aurelia:
Books ReviewedYou are seen as a threat to unity and conformity. Make sure you keep your thoughts inside, otherwise you might die.
What are your chances of survival in a Dystopia?
Take More Quizzes
Like a lot of people in the world, I have a tendency to set unrealistic goals: not unrealistic as in trying to lasso the moon or anything, but unrealistic in a "lack of time" sort of way.
Inspired by the setting of the current series I'm reading (The Wardstone Chronicles), my first Explore Your World will spotlight the county of Lancashire, England. Author Joseph Delaney modeled his "County" on the real-life places in the area, and the scenery, history, and customs of Lancashire can be glimpsed in the stories. 
area. 
Have you ever been interested in a book or series but wasn't quite sure enough to actually start reading it? I guess it's a bit like everybody's TBR shelf, but in this case, I find a difference between definitely going to read - at some point and maybe going to read... 
How many books did you read last week?
Cold indeed is the heart not made warm by this bubbly fairy-rale romance...Kirkus Reviews
I finished the book late last night, and I still haven't entirely gathered my thoughts about it. While I really liked Jean Ferris' writing style, and while I found a lot of the things she had to say cute and uplifting, this book just really didn't measure up to the first. Both books are supposed to be light and fluffy and over-the-top, but somehow this one seemed (at times) almost shallow. I liked the idea of having a sequel (the cutie-patootie ending of Once Upon a Marigold certainly allowed for a second installment) so it's not like I was against the idea of continuing the story. The story that she crafted, however, didnt quite work for me. For example, the two main characters - Christian and Marigold - are practically in the background until about the second half of the book, and the perspective follows the main villain, Olympia, almost exclusively in the beginning. That got real old, real fast. And also: her characterizations seem a bit wackier here...as in, these are the same characters from her original story and yet they're not quite the same. Christian and Marigold have suddenly become crabby, and Olympia goes from being a cold-and-calculating kind of evil villain to a spazzy, hyperactive banshee evil villain in the second novel - stuff like that. It just made me frown. And a lot of her conversations seemed really forced - like she was poking her characters with a stick in order to get a reaction out of them! And above all, this book was not NEAR as readable as the first one. Ironically, there's a quote on pg 111 that reads "The next few days passed very, very s-l-o-w-l-y..." and that about sums up my reading experience for the most part. I literally had to *force* myself to keep chugging along, and that annoyed me. I've got to force myself as it is to read class assignments, and I don't particularly like having to do it in my spare reading. The first book flowed so simply; this book was a much rockier ride. - So why am I still giving this 4 stars instead of 3? It has to do with Jean Ferris' quality of writing. There were several flecks of gold in the rocky boulders of this story and some really cute messages to be learned as well. Often nowadays, books are really superficial: there's no lesson to be learned and nothing to be gained once the story ends, but in keeping with fairytale fashion, there are lessons in Twice Upon a Marigold and you just have to admire that. Her characters grew on me - the old ones and the new ones - and by the end of the book, I had my warm, fuzzy feeling again. I would NOT discourage ANYONE from reading Twice Upon a Marigold, but rather I would caution not to expect the same level of superb storytelling found in the first book.
Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! I have a very, very good feeling about the rest of the books in the Wardstone Chronicles after completing this book (it's called Revenge of the Witch in the US)... - First of all, a very, very engaging and rather original plot! It's similar to HARRY POTTER in this: both take place in England, and both have a lot to do with folkoric creatures and legends: witches, boggarts, and the like. But there's where the similarities end. You can read the synopsis up at the top and know that this will be the story of Thomas J. Ward, the seventh son of a seventh son (hey Angie Sage--that's like your story!) who becomes the apprentice of the County's Spook (hold your horses - fellow Americans! That's the dude's title) and through all sorts of adventures learns the lessons of the trade. - Second, I am a new, big fan of Joseph Delaney's writing style. His prose is simple (not highfalutin' like some other authors out there!) and yet incredibly descriptive; he draws you fully into the world of his story. Every word is engaging, every word flows with ease to create an image in your mind. - With that in mind, I do want to make a declaration: I READ THIS BOOK AFTER DARK! The book warns readers specifically not to do that. And I huffed and I puffed and I said, "this book won't be scary! I'm 21 years old now!" and within a few minutes I was opening up my rommmate's door just to make sure I wasn't alone. So this book isn't really *scary* so much as it's incredibly eerie in some sections. There are parts that read like a good'ol fashion ghost story. In my opinion, Delaney doesnt overdo himself and really hammer home what's going on - rather he paces everything so that you are drawn in to the suspicion and the intensity of the story and you can't put the book down! - Now here's my fine-print: I think this book would be enjoyed best by the +13 crowd. I got the number 13 just because that's the age of the main character and I personally think that anyone lower than maybe 7th-8th grade might potentially have a hard time with some details of the story. However, I didnt find anything "inappropriate" per see, and if there are any fellow religious people out there, this info is for you: there are a couple parts where characters speak critically of priests. Not God, priests. It all seems reasonable within the story, and if it didnt bother an ultra-sensitive person like me, it probably won't bother you, either. :) So CHECK OUT this book!!!! Again, in America, it's called Revenge of the Witch and it's part of the Last Apprentice series.
A lot of blogs have those "Mailbox Monday" things, and this is going to be kind of similar to that... I usually don't get have that many books routinely delivered to my house, and since I'm away at school in another state, I really don't get that many books delivered. However, I always have several titles waiting in the wings to be read next, and so I think I will showcase those titles with my Shimmy Down the Shelf section.
Shimmying Down the Shelf for the rest of this month 7 eager titles, most of them Christmas or early birthday presents and a few of them the result of random "judge a book by its cover" shopping!
- The Warrior Heir (The Heir Trilogy, 1), Cinda Williams Chima
- The Spook's Apprentice (Wardstone Chronicles, 1), Joseph Delaney
- The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, 1), Suzanne Collins
- Wildwood Dancing, Juliet Marillier
- Heart's Blood, Juliet Marillier
- Daughter of the Forest, Juliet Marillier
- Aurelia, Anne Osterlund
I most definitely will not get to all 7 (these titles don't include required reading for school), and the ones that are left over will be shimmied for February. I will try and showcase the two most likely books to be read in the current timespan, and will include the basic information (title, author, pub year, type of edition, number of pages) along with a brief summary and a preview (I'll flip open to a random section and type 3-5 lines...ideally without stumbling across a spoiler...
FIRST UP:
I have been dancing around this series for a few months now, trying to get enough basic information about it to know if I would want to read it. Then I went home for break a few months ago and my youngest brother (17) raved and raved about. I snatched the first few books out of his room, and they've been hanging out on my shelves ever since!
The Wardstone Chronicles: Joseph Delaney
The Spook's Apprentice is the first in a 7-series by English author Joseph Delaney, and was originally published in 2004. In the United States, The Wardstone Chronicles have been ren
amed The Last Apprentice, so if you are in a bookstore, the book will look like the
<---THIS (for some reason, we own the original British editions, which is featured next to the American one) Of The Last Apprentice, Goodreads says: "A wonderful and terrifying series by a new writer (Joseph Delaney) about a young boy training to be an exorcist. Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and has been apprenticed to the local Spook. The job is hard, and the Spook is distant and many apprentices have failed before Thomas. Somehow Thomas must learn how to exorcise ghosts, contain witches, and bind boggarts. But when he is tricked into freeing Mother Malkin, the most evil witch in the County, the horror begins..."
Seventh son of a seventh son? Hey Angie Sage, isnt that YOUR concept? Oh well. This series sounds awesome, and according to my brother (who is pickier than I am), this book sets the stage nicely for a series that delivers on originality, quality writing, lovable characters, and ultimate excitement.
Preview!
"I snatched up the candle and shrank into the furthest corner. Thump, thump, nearer and nearer, came the sound of heavy boots. Who could have been digging down there in the darkness? Who could be climbing the stairs now?
But maybe it wasn't a question of who was climbing the stairs. Maybe it was a question of what..."
- The Spook's Apprentice, pg 42
The Spook's Apprentice (The Wardstone Chronicles, Book 1)
- Joseph Delaney
- (my edition) published June 30, 2005 by Red Fox (first published in 2004)
- paperback, 336 pages
* Goodreads reviews: 532 (5 stars), 598 (4 stars), 326 (3 stars), 63 (2 stars), 15 (1 star)
My review for Once Upon a Marigold can be found here. This book was a genuine pleasure to read - why can't all books be this happy?! I'm moving on to the sequel next, and I hope the author doesn't mess around with the plot too much...
One of my resolutions for this year is to actually keep up with this blog and make it fun! What I plan to do each weekend is showcase a film, give an overview, maybe even a review, but basically give a recommendation for a fun weekend film. Hopefully I'll have them out on Friday, but maybe Saturday too... we'll see. 
