Random Musings of a Bibliophile

It's that time of year again! School starts here in Tennessee next week. Our homeschool co-op, where I teach two high school English classes, begins on Monday. Here in my house, the Painter children have already started with their non co-op studies. As always, I enjoy sharing what I'm going to be teaching (and therefore rereading) through the year. For my Elegant Essay class: First Semester  Second Semester For my Literary Analysis Class (my oldest who will be a Sophomore is in this): First Semester Second Semester In addition to these, they will be reading a whole bunch of classic short stories we all remember fondly and not so fondly from our own time in school. They will also have one more novel I'm still deciding on. For my 5th Grader is doing an Ancient Based writing curriculum: He will obviously be reading way more books than this, but those will be of his own choosing from a list. What was your favorite required reading in schoo...

Hello Again! I took some unexpected time off from blogging when my kids were at camp and we were on a family vacation. I truly meant to get some posts scheduled, but it just never happened. Anyway. I am back and school is about to begin again in the Painter house. Every year I like to feature the books I'm requiring my kids to read and discuss with me. (They also get plenty of choice books in between these to just read and enjoy.) With Bit (8th Grade) I'm doing a genre study over the next two years where we will look at classic examples and tropes in several different genres. These will be supplemented by current titles she gets to choose herself.  What we are tackling this year: Poisoned Apples  is part of a larger unit we're doing on Fairy Tales with a focus on feminism. (I have my fingers crossed she will want to read Bone Gap  for her novel for this. I want to talk about it with her so much!!!!) And yes, my son will also get this when he's in 8th grade ...

Top Ten Tuesday  is a Meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish This week's TTT topic: Favorite Classics or Classics You Want to Read I did a favorite things list on my favorite classics once before so today I will focus on the classics I haven't read but probably should. I am not saying that I particularly "want" to read most of these. I've read most of the classics I really WANT to read.  As fun as I'm sure  these ridiculously long works of great literature are, I just want to curl in a ball and cry whenever I contemplate reading them. Can't imagine why. I'm sure they're not at all depressing.   Death on the Nile  is one of Christie's most famous, and a classic mystery novel but I can't be made to care much. I'v always preferred Sayers.  I've read A Farewell to Arms  and The Old Man and the Sea  so I figure my Hemingway quota has been met. I don't dislike Hemingway but there is really only so mu...

When I wrote my Literary Moms post last month I said that I would tackle the fathers next. I thought this might be a little easier (even though, as with my mom, no fictional father can come close to the awesomeness that is my dad). It wasn't though. Again I thought of several that were good "types", but again not very many that actually stirred me enough to place the label favorite on them. (Charles Ingalls and Mr. Quimby fall into this category for me.) Here are the ones that I have grown attached to enough to truly care about: The Minister of War Funny that a character who doesn't even have a name, just a title, was the first to pop into my head. He is, of course, written by Megan Whalen Turner who can make you want to know every detail of a character she mentions in one paragraph. As this is the father of her amazingly awesome hero he doesn't actually need a name to make him well loved. The MoW gets awesome points for being Gen's father and surviving to...

I was inspired to write this by the series of posts Redeemed Reader did a couple of weeks ago on making movies from books. It got me thinking and my thoughts led me to decide that it would make a wonderful installment of My Favorite Things . Turning books into movies is a tricky business because there is already a loyal fan base that will have firm opinions on what is being done. Most of the time my reaction is somewhere along the lines of "that was good but the book is better". Sometimes I become enraged by what they have done to a beloved book. (See the  most recent The Count of Monte Cristo and Les Miserables . Actually don't see them, but those are examples.) There are times when I actually like the movie better than the book, where the movie becomes what I want to experience again. These are my absolute favorite adaptations. How to Train Your Dragon, also one of my favorite animated movies in recent memory, is just wonderful. The writing is top notch and rhythm...

I have been thinking a lot about stories with strong sets of siblings lately. I have been reading The Penderwicks to Bit, rereading Harry Potter, and we recently checked out the Ramona and Beezus movie to watch so it is not hard to see why it has been coming to my mind. I love stories where the siblings are different yet incredibly close. I only have one sibling myself, my sister (who is awesome ). She is my best friend yet we are very different. She is the extroverted, sensitive, artistic, flighty, dramatic one. I am the introverted, practical, nerdy, sensible, bossy and controlling one. And if I just made us sound like Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, that is not too far off the mark. I am enjoying watching my children's sibling relationship evolve too. It is fascinating to think about the bonds brothers and sisters share. My sister and I can fight like cats and dogs one minute and be laughing together like mad women the next. My husband, an only child, was completely f...

A review featuring Bit (Bibliophile in Training), age 6 It has been a while since we finished reading The Enchanted Forest Chronicles .  It has taken us quite some time to finish The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit because Bit was not enchanted by it, and things have been rather busy.  You can see Bit's short yet descriptive opinion below.  This was definitely not her thing.   The Story The Ancient  and Noble House of Bastable has fallen on hard times.  Things are not as they used to be.  There is no more silver, nice dinners, pocket money, or even school.  The six Bastable children decide that is it  up to them to restore the family fortunes and become treasure seekers.  They come up with a variety of ways to seek treasure from digging in the back yard to selling poetry to using a divining rod.  Bit's Thoughts I didn't like it because it was boring.  I only liked a couple things.  The e...

Originally posted on my livejournal March 7, 2011 "You are only as good as your opening line."  Richard Peck came up with that little gem of authorial advice.  In a way he's right.  The first sentence of a book is like a pick-up line.  The bad ones might totally turn you off.  The ones that seem like they are trying too hard to grab your attention, likewise.  Some are just okay but you are willing to give them more time to convince you.  Then there are those that are perfect in every way and make you want to take them home with you.  With Peck's quote in mind, beth_shulman  wrote this post  in which she looked at the first lines of several of her favorite books to test the validity of the hypothesis.  This in turn got  me thinking about all of those first lines of books that grabbed my attention.  The ones that made me want to devour whatever came next.  The ones that have stuck with me....

I love romance.  I freely admit it, there is no shame.  I do not like shallow romance however.  I enjoy reading love stories that have depth and are complex (if not downright complicated).  This is probably because I prefer character driven stories so the characters whose stories I love are complex people.  I prefer for the love stories I read to end well but if tragedy is necessary, I can deal with that too.  It being Valentine's Day and all I decided, today of all days, it was okay to be a little cutesy and do a new favorites list, this time focusing on my favorite love stories Gen and Irene I said I liked complicated.  These two are the very definition of complicated.  They are also the very definition of wonderful.  I love that their relationship isn't easy and it is obvious they work hard for it.  I love the way they flirt with each other and how everyone else is oblivious as to what they are do...

 It has been a while since I've done one of these.  I know I said there would be less time in between this one and the last but...the best of intentions and all that.  After doing the post on heroes , I said I would do villains next.  I don't feel like I can apply the word "favorite" to them.  They are, after all, unfavorable characters.  I am labeling them "most disturbing" instead. This time I put them in the order in which I was exposed to them in my literary life: Madame Therese Defarge I read A Tale of Two Cities  for the first time when I was seven.  It was this version .  Each page has an illustration.  The illustration that went with the climatic confrontation at the end of the book between Therese Defarge and Lucy is forever burned in my brain.  It was scary for a little kid to look at.  A deranged crazy lady attacking with a knife.  I loved the book and read it over and over and ...

This was originally posted on my livejournal in November 2010. Two months ago I wrote a post on my favorite heroines and I said at the end I would do heroes next.  Here I am, just getting around to it.  I really meant to do it sooner but every time I gave it any thought it seemed like a Herculean task.  Why?  I tend to develop crushes on boys in books.  And no, I am not ashamed to admit it.   I was concerned this would get out of control or be difficult to narrow down as a result.  It was.  And if you poll me again in six months my choices will probably be different in some way, at least in the honorable mentions.   Ron Weasley “We’ll be there, Harry…At your aunt and uncle’s house.  And then we’ll go with you wherever you’re going…We’re with you whatever happens.” I know some will think it horribly cliché that I’ve included an HP character, especially after including Hermione in my list of heroines.  I don...