January, February, March: Books, Books, Books!

One thing I wanted to do this year is to read lots of books. Some to learn more about photography, some to learn more about the world and cultures and history, but mostly just to relax and get caught up in a good story :)

January, I sent Adam a list of books from the Bronte sisters for him to retreive from the UCR library. The Bronte sisters were all teachers in private homes and/or small bording schools (three of the five heroines are governesses), they were poor and had to work for a living (so their characters are sympathetic to the working class) and wrote with ambiguous pennames (could be male or female)(they are sympathetic to the socialital treatment of women without being in your face about it). All the books below were written when the sisters were in their twenties (Anne and Emily died before the age of thirty. Charollote died just shy of forty.) The novels are all coming of age stories spanning many years, as the characters deal with the hand they've been dealt and suffer or delight in the consequences...did I mention that they're all romances :)
Here's my take on each book:
Weithering Heights by Emily Bronte(actually, I got this one from Michelle and read it on the plane ride home) (It was interesting, but a little dark for my taste. Emily was a malcontent according to Charlotte, whose personality is mirrored in the writting style of this novel. It features Heathcliff and Catherine, who supposedly have one of the greatest loves of all time-on par with Romeo and Juliet...except that they go down in a pile of flames and make each other and everyone connected to them miserable. They happen to be mentioned in book 3 of Twilight, so I read this one first.)
Angus Grey by Anne Bronte (I loved this one. Anne is the youngest of the sisters, but as simple as the story line is, it is touching and heartwarming. Anne apparently had a great relationship with Jesus and it shows in her writing: it's full of beautiful Christian truths and served as a reminder that Christ is always there to carry your burdens if you ask)
Jane Ayre by Charlotte Bronte (This is a great story! There's a ton of character development before the leading man is introduced, but it's so captivatingly heartbreaking that I didn't mind. This is a story of an amazingly steadfast girl/woman who does what is morally right even though it costs her love, safety and every earthly comfort and who loves so selflessly and so righteously that you can only hope that she gets her happy ending.)

According to Charlotte's intro to a later addition of Angus Grey, the sisters discovered one afternoon that they were all home from their various vocational places that they all wrote poetry! They challenged each other to write a novel (which turned out to be the three listed above) for their own entertainment...they ended up sending them to many publishing houses and after a couple years and countless rejection notices, Angus Grey and Wethering Heights were accepted. Charlotte was happy for her sisters, but devistated. Six months later, Jane Ayre was accepted and was actually published before her sisters' works. The public loved Jane Ayre and Agnus Grey, but went so far as to say that Wethering Heights was such a horrific book that even the author was embarassed to put his real name on it! It was only after her sisters' deaths that Charlotte came forward to clear up rumours that there was only one author (they had the same last name) and that they were in fact female. Emily died first (actually the second of the six siblings to pass away). Anne wrote The Tenant at Wildfell Hall before her death and Charlotte went on to write 3 or 4 other novels.

The Tenant at Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (This is my favorite out of the bunch. It's a simple story told in a complex way (unlike Jane Ayre which is a complexly detailed story told in a simple straight forward way), the story of the summer twenty years ago that he fell in love for the first time retold by the main love interest to his brother in law in the forms of letters. At one point, he just passes over an entire diary to fill in the part of the life of the Tenant (his love interest) before she moved to Wildfell Hall. It's an amazingly crafted, easy to read story that so realistically tells of a woman who made a bad choice when she was young and is suffering the consequences. It's one that I want all my daughters to read before they start dating!)

February, we went to the public library and I got a ton of photography books. I didn't get to read all that I took out, but these ones I did...

This one was great for me. I didn't like the author's photographic style, but she had a lot of good tips for getting the best out of yourself and the kids.





I really learned alot for this one, especially how to find good light. I'd recommend this book in a heartbeat!



March...I've been bumming books from my friends, who have great taste (I must say!).
The Host by Stephenie Meyer (yup, the Twilight phenom). (I read this one twice, back to back. Its "sci-fi for people who don't like sci-fi." A more complicated concept than Twilight, it's the story of a strong-willed young woman who gets (ok, stay with me here, this is the complicated part) an alien inserted into her...the alien should take over, body and mind, but the human refuses to leave. While trying to find her human family, the human and alien develop a selflessly based love relationship that will force one of them to make the ulitimate sacrifice.)
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picout (I just finished this today. As a mother of a toddler and sister to by best friend, this one had me in tears. It's the story of two sisters and their family as they struggle with the empending certainty of one sister/daughter's death due to lukemia. The 13 year old, younger sister, conceived to be donor for her sister, must decide how far she'll go to give her sister/her best friend what she wants.)

I'm about halfway thru The Screwtape Letters by C S Lewis. I was waiting for some friends to who want to discuss it, but I think I'll just continue on my own. Next up, I've got The Red Tent, Memoirs of a Gaisha, Atonement, Every Fixed Star, and The Great Divorce. So many books, so little time...to do dishes and laundry, that is :)