Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen My rating: 5 of 5 stars Swooped in for the reread and longed and thinned (sighed) as to howandwhy the arrangement of figurines so pleases me. In order to form a more perfect union and secure the blessings of liberty. Times four I have read pride and prejudice and …
Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton My rating: 3 of 5 stars Another downer from Edith Wharton, but this one struck me as more interesting than Ethan Frome (probably an unpopular opinion, but…), it was less of a stretch into literary-ness and more character-based. The slow prose suited the slow spinsters. There was room to breath, …
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was thinking while reading this that reading this is so natural. I can’t believe I haven’t read it before. I’m reading like I’m re-reading: I know everything and then she points it out and there’s the lighthouse. There’s the situation about the …
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton My rating: 3 of 5 stars A swift little book without being that nimble. But sort of endearing in parts. Wharton’s got a thing for people’s cousin’s, doesn’t she? I did enjoy the categorical *hush* that comes over characters when they talk about important things. View all my reviews
Middlemarch by George Eliot My rating: 4 of 5 stars Henry James said “Middlemarch is a treasure-house of details, but it is an indifferent whole.” And while I had a blast reading this and want to duke it out with him, I can’t exactly remark on the whole of it without, well, indifference. There’s no …
Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf My rating: 4 of 5 stars Time is issued to spinster ladies of wealth in long white ribbons. These they wind round and round, round and round, assisted by five female servants, a butler, a fine Mexican parrot, regular meals, Mudie’s library, and friends dropping in. What a difficult book …
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence: 5 of 5 stars So exasper/exhilar/ated. Mostly ‘ated’ trying to put together what’s what in the extended monologue of this book. Methinks two Lawrence(s) in a row was a mistake. The drama gnaws at you after a while. The thinking just grinds away. Where The Rainbow is a romp, …
Silas Marner by George Eliot My rating: 3 of 5 stars I’m trying to come up with synonyms for ‘quaint’ to describe this little tale. Because it is a tale and it is sweet and it whips the ending in a blink and you are left to contemplate words for “quaint,” like mushroom or turtle …
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence My rating: 5 of 5 stars When we’re gone we will be both D and H and H and D, simpering and stead. I’ll be a stake in the feild and you’ll be crap tumbling around. When we’re gone I’ll say this is just like Sons and Lovers. It …
Bid Me to Live by H.D. My rating: 4 of 5 stars Bid me to Live on an airplane to San Diego to get my mind off the fact that I didn’t want to die amidst the buildings you land on and on the beach with Paul’s cousins, great aunts and uncles, mom and sister. …
The Waves by Virginia Woolf My rating: 5 of 5 stars How tired I am of stories, how tired I am of phrases that come down beautifully with all their feet on the ground! Also, how I distrust neat designs of life that are drawn upon half sheets of notepaper. I begin to long for …
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde My rating: 4 of 5 stars I thought about you while reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. Not because the book has anything to do with you. Or because there’s a certain moral fabric that makes me think of what happened. Not even the shadows reminded me …