2018 Reading Challenges: Victober

Victober
Hosted by Ange, Kate, Katie, and Lucy. (All BookTubers) GoodReads Group page.
When: October 2018
# of books: I'm aiming for 4 (I'd be surprised if I finish that many).


Books Completed:
Great Expectations. Charles Dickens. 1860. Read for LibriVox by Mil Nicholson. 20 hours, 13 minutes. [Source: Librivox]
Dracula. Bram Stoker. 1897/2005. 448 pages. [Source: Bought]
Sylvia's Lovers. Elizabeth Gaskell. 1863/1997. Everyman Paperbacks. 560 pages. [Source: Bought]
 Agnes Grey. Anne Bronte. 1847. 224 pages. [Source: Bought]

Ange's challenge: Read a book by one of the hosts' favourite Victorian authors: Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, or Thomas Hardy. 

I will be reading Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell (maybe)
I might also be reading something else by Elizabeth Gaskell. (Like Wives and Daughters or Ruth or Cranford)
Great Expectations. Charles Dickens. 1860. Read for LibriVox by Mil Nicholson. 20 hours, 13 minutes. [Source: Librivox]

Kate's Challenge: Read A Victorian book with a proper noun (place name or personal name) in the title.

I will be reading The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope. I might also be reading Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell. Or Romola by George Eliot.

Sylvia's Lovers. Elizabeth Gaskell. 1863/1997. Everyman Paperbacks. 560 pages. [Source: Bought]

Katie's Challenge: Read a book from the first ten years of the Victorian period (1837-1847) and/or a book from the last ten years of the Victorian period. (1891-1901)

I will be reading The Three Musketeers (1844) OR The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens.

I will be reading Cyrano de Bergerac published in 1897.

I will be trying to find a book by a British or Irish author that fulfills the challenge.

Dracula. Bram Stoker. 1897/2005. 448 pages. [Source: Bought]

Lucy's Challenge: Read a Victorian book written by a woman anonymously or under a pseudonym.

I will be reading Romola by George Eliot. Maybe. This one is on another challenge list. So if it's going to be done in 2018, October seems a logical choice.

 Agnes Grey. Anne Bronte. 1847. 224 pages. [Source: Bought]

General challenge: Read a Victorian book and watch a screen adaptation of it:

I'm not sure yet.

Bonus Group Readalong: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.

© 2018 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Currently #35

Something Old

Small House at Allington. Anthony Trollope. 1864. 695 pages. [Source: Bought]

Little Men. Louisa May Alcott. 1871. 329 pages. [Source: Bought]

Dear and Glorious Physician. Taylor Caldwell. 1958. 560 pages. [Source: Bought]

Something New

The Romanov Empress. C.W. Gortner. 2018. 431 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Al Capone Shines My Shoes. Gennifer Choldenko. 2009. 274 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Something Borrowed

The Grave's A Fine and Private Place. Flavia de Luce #9. Alan Bradley. 2018. 365 pages. [Source: Library]

So B. It. Sarah Weeks. 2004. 288 pages. [Source: Library]

Something True

NIV Rainbow Study Bible. 2015. Holman Bible Publishers. 1632 pages. [Source: Review copy]

The Hand of God. Alistair Begg. 1999/2018. 204 pages. [Source: Review copy] 

The Soul's Quest for God. R.C. Sproul. 1992. 266 pages. [Source: Bought]

The Quotable Tozer. A.W. Tozer. Compiled by James L. Snyder. 2018. Bethany House. 369 pages. [Source: Review copy]

© 2018 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Keep It Short #30 Me? Listen to Audio?! #34

I can't say that I've missed my Keep It Short feature as much as I've missed My Victorian Year. But. I did manage to listen to Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market at Librivox. I haven't listened to the rest of the poems from Goblin Market and Other Poems yet. But this poem--it's about twenty minutes in length--is a gem. I LOVE this poem so much.

You may read the poem in its entirety at Poetry Foundation.   It is about two sisters, Laura and Lizzie. And, of course, it features goblins selling forbidden fruit and other goodies. One sister is tempted beyond what she can stand, and, well, you should read it for yourself!

Morning and evening

Maids heard the goblins cry:

“Come buy our orchard fruits,

Come buy, come buy:

Apples and quinces,

Lemons and oranges,

Plump unpeck’d cherries,

Melons and raspberries,

Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,

Swart-headed mulberries,

Wild free-born cranberries,

Crab-apples, dewberries,

Pine-apples, blackberries,

Apricots, strawberries;—

All ripe together

In summer weather,—

Morns that pass by,

Fair eves that fly;

Come buy, come buy:

Our grapes fresh from the vine,

Pomegranates full and fine,

Dates and sharp bullaces,

Rare pears and greengages,

Damsons and bilberries,

Taste them and try:

Currants and gooseberries,

Bright-fire-like barberries,

Figs to fill your mouth,

Citrons from the South,

Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;

Come buy, come buy.”

I enjoyed LISTENING to this one. I think poetry benefits from being read aloud. 

© 2018 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

My Victorian Year #31

I have really missed posting My Victorian Year. But. When you don't read anything Victorian during the week, you can't invent a reason to post on the weekend!

There are three Victorian novels on my 2018 TBR Pile Reading Challenge list. I need to finish these three Victorian chunksters before December 31, 2018. I may need a little cheerleading. I wouldn't mind your help in picking which one to read first. The three books are: Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell, Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, and Romola by George Eliot.

I haven't decided-decided, but I may abandon The Three Musketeers. I didn't pick it up once in the month of August.

I am currently reading Anthony Trollope's The Small House at Allington. I think I'm six possibly seven chapters into this one--it is a reread. This one is starting slow. But I remember liking it and really loving a few of the characters in it. So far--at least--it is not proving quotable.

I would have women, and men also, young as long as they can be young. It is not that a woman should call herself in years younger than her father’s family Bible will have her to be. Let her who is forty call herself forty; but if she can be young in spirit at forty, let her show that she is so.

 I am also currently reading Louisa May Alcott's Little Men. Of the three books in the series, it is my mom's favorite. I have never read it before. I am excited to see if it is as wonderful as my mom says it is!

A holiday isn't a holiday without plenty of freedom and fun;

Latin, Greek, and mathematics were all very well, but in Professor Bhaer's opinion, self knowledge, self-help, and self-control were more important, and he tried to teach them carefully.

"Yes, I know many people think boys are a nuisance, but that is because they don't understand them. I do; and I never saw the boy yet whom I could not get on capitally with after I had once found the soft spot in his heart. Bless me, I couldn't get on at all without my flock of dear, noisy, naughty, harum-scarum little lads, could I, my Teddy?" and Mrs. Bhaer hugged the young rogue, just in time to save the big inkstand from going into his pocket. Nat, who had never heard anything like this before, really did not know whether Mother Bhaer was a trifle crazy, or the most delightful woman he had ever met. He rather inclined to the latter opinion, in spite of her peculiar tastes, for she had a way of filling up a fellow's plate before he asked, of laughing at his jokes, gently tweaking him by the ear, or clapping him on the shoulder, that Nat found very engaging.

"The big dog is Emil's. His name is Christopher Columbus. Mrs. Bhaer named him because she likes to say Christopher Columbus, and no one minds it if she means the dog," answered Tommy, in the tone of a show-man displaying his menagerie.

Sympathy is a sweet thing, and it worked wonders here, for each boy knew that Father Bhaer was interested in him, and some were readier to open their hearts to him than to a woman, especially the older ones, who liked to talk over their hopes and plans, man to man.

"I shall devote the whole of my plot to the largest crop of patience I can get, for that is what I need most," said Mrs. Jo, so soberly that the lads fell to thinking in good earnest what they should say when their turns came, and some among them felt a twinge of remorse, that they had helped to use up Mother Bhaer's stock of patience so fast.

"We will plant self-denial, and hoe it and water it, and make it grow so well that next Christmas no one will get ill by eating too much dinner. If you exercise your mind, George, it will get hungry just as your body does, and you will love books almost as much as my philosopher here," said Mr. Bhaer;      

© 2018 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Me? Listen to Audio?! #33

The Pilgrim's Progress. John Bunyan. 1678/1899. Read by MaryAnn for Librivox. 13 hours. 


The version of The Pilgrim's Progress that I listened to had three parts. The first part was a Life of Bunyan. (I believe the reader mentioned it was condensed?) The second and third parts were The Pilgrim's Progress. Though some might think of The Pilgrim's Progress being all about Christian's pilgrim journey, the book almost always, always includes his wife's journey as well. Her name is Christiana.

I have read the book quite a few times in my life--most recently in 2017. One thing that is hard to ignore when you're listening to it are all the Scripture references. When you're reading the text and you see all the cross references to Scripture, it is super-easy to ignore. Like a foot note notation is easy to ignore. When you're listening to it, however, it makes you stop and pause. Bunyan's book is packed with theology. Impossible to ignore theology. His allegory may be a "dream" but it's a dream of someone who inhaled and exhaled Scripture like it was oxygen. This is good to keep in mind for several reasons. One being that any person can claim to have a vision and have that vision published. But how often do modern day visionaries have Scripture proofs like Bunyan?!?!

I do like Christian's journey better. I can't help it.


 

© 2018 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews