#Eliotalong Week 4 - Chapters 43-56

Ssh, let's just ignore that I'm late. Which is quite funny, because this is the first week I've had all the chapters read well in advance of Monday, thanks to the 24in48 readathon. I took part completely on the DL, with no online presence whatsoever, mostly because I didn't expect to read much- I was working two night shifts and spend most of Sunday with my girlfriend- but I actually managed a very respectable 592 pages in just short of seven hours. It was nice to just sit down and read a massive chunk of Middlemarch- I'll have to try it again with this week's reading!

Dorothea/Casaubon

Ding dong, the witch is dead! I don't think any of us were sad to see Casaubon go. But the condition of his will is just gross on so many levels that I don't think I even appreciated the first time I read this. It's not just essentially forbidding her to marry Will (because Dorothea doesn't see him that way... well, yet anyway...;) ) but the fact that it's motivated by his ridiculous jealousy that has the result of making her the talk of the town when absolutely nothing was going on between them. Ugh. Even dead, Casaubon continues to ruin everything. 

Lydgate

Lots of stuff about the hospital and Lydgate's medical methods in this section. I actually found it pretty interesting! It's really not something I think one would expect going into this book. Eliot's like, I'll give you small town gossip and relationships between people BUT ALSO historical context and politics, and I'm liking this approach a lot. 

But oh, that furniture bill he couldn't pay. I can't watch, this is just too much. Especially now Rosamond's pregnant too!

Bulstrode/Raffles

Well, that took an interesting turn this week. It would appear even more people in this town are related than we first thought! Things seem to be going pretty badly for Bulstrode. I'm wondering what effect this will have on the town, and of course on Will as well.

Fred/Mary

On the contrast, things seem to be looking up slightly for these two! I think Fred's learned his lesson and is prepared to do what needs to be done to grow up and marry Mary. I hope it works out for him, I really do.

Railways!

We also had the first (I think.. first major, anyway) reference to the railways, which is one of the things I remember most about this book. It seems ridiculous to us now of course, but I can kind of understand how mad people though they were back in the day. Cutting up the countryside to send people whizzing about the place in boxes on metal rails? So weird. 

Narrative

Like some of you have said, it's pretty startling the way Eliot skips over seemingly major events like pregnancies/Bulstrode's purchase of Stone Court, but I quite like it. She directs our attention where it needs to be, and this book is long enough as it is (just kidding- honestly, I wouldn't mind an extra few hundred pages at this point!)

So that's this week in the bag! Things are definitely developing as we enter the final third of the book. I can't wait for more :)

#Eliotalong Week 3 - Chapters 29-42

I'm a little late this week- I'd like to say it's because I've been out enjoying the good weather, but sadly no! I've mostly just been working and then coming home exhausted and going to bed early, rinse repeat. 

Anyway. I can't believe we're halfway through! There's still lots to go down... Most of my strong memories come from the second half so I'm looking forward to getting into that stuff. 

• Casaubon/Dorothea/Will Ladislaw- I think this week's chapters really just emphasised what a disaster this marriage is. Poor Dorothea, she seems totally crushed. The jealousy thing is just incredibly gross. Jealousy issues are kind of a deal breaker in a relationship for me- if you can't trust someone not to cheat on you, why are you with them in the first place?!- so that's incredibly irritating, especially as Dorothea needs someone to support her. I liked how Eliot dedicated some time to Casaubon's point of view- it didn't make me feel any sympathy for him, but it gave a little insight into his head and his motives which was interesting. 

• Featherstone's death and will business- Such drama with the second will! I think Mary should have just burned the will like Featherstone told her to. Sure, there's the legality of it but surely a dying man's wishes trump that to some extent? I suppose it would have looked awfully suspicious though. Especially if her relationship with Fred was more widely known. Still, it's pretty painful for the two of them. Hopefully it'll work out. In the mean time though, who is Joshua Rigg? It's pretty startling to have a mysterious newcomer thrown into the mix. I'll keep my eye on him.

• Lydgate/Rosamond- I feel like I'm watching a car crash in slow motion. And that's all I have to say about that.

• Brooke/political drama- It's nice to have some local politics thrown into the mix- it's interesting from an historical point of view and it just makes the whole book seem wonderfully rounded. This is another thing I'll be sure to keep an eye on.

#Eliotalong Week 2- Chapters 15-28

I think this week I finally got properly settled into the book and remembered why I love it so much. It's just so engrossing! I'm caught up in the lives of the characters and the fact that I've got more than 600 pages left with them isn't a bit disheartening. I'm starting to remember certain plot points a bit more, so I'll have to bite my tongue a bit for spoilers here... ;)

• Lydgate- I'm liking Lydgate a lot so far. It's hard not to sympathise with him as an outsider to Middlemarch. Small towns are weird. Anyone else need a diagram for who's related to who? I feel like everyone's related by marriage... Anyway. I'm less sure about Rosamund's schemes for him and how completely oblivious he is to them- she's planning the furniture in their drawing room, he barely even considers her a love interest. This will not end well.

• Religion- I'm starting to see a thing with zealousness/puritanism versus a more laidback approach in this book. Dorothea's super pious, but it does her no good; Farebrother is probably a terrible clergyman but seems like a nice guy; Tyke is super strictly religious and not a particularly nice guy. It's interesting in regard to GE's experiences with religion- she was brought up pretty strict but relaxed later in life, what with her relationship with a married man and all. So it's interesting to see her explore those ideas here.

• Dorothea- oh man, I feel bad for her. It's like she's finally woke up and realised what a horrible mistake she's made. Casaubon is such an ass. Meanwhile, Will Ladislaw is going up in my estimation, and I just wish Dorothea could have married him instead.

• Fred- I'm torn with Fred. I kind of can't stand people who are terrible with money, being an obsessive budgeter myself. And Fred is the worst when it comes to money and it's starting to mess up other people's lives too, which is Not Cool. Still, he's not malicious or anything about it. I think he's just genuinely naive and stupid. Hopefully he learns from his mistakes... but let's face it, he probably won't. Oh, and Mary Garth is an absolute angel.

So that's this week! Next week I'm hoping to see more of Dorothea and see if Fred really can get himself sorted out. 

Summer mini-reviews, #1

Because why dedicate myself to reading all summer if I'm not going to talk about what I'm reading? Here's the first (hopefully) batch of mini-reviews of my summer reading!

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Ooh, this was good. I kept hearing about Helen Oyeyemi so I picked this up at the library for a try, and I think it'll easily make my 2016 top ten. For such a short book, there's so many layers- a shifting point of view, a creepy house that may or may not be trying to kill people, family issues and pica and going to university and magical realism... it's creepy without really being able to pinpoint why, and I'd like to read it again soon as I think I'd be able to pick up on even more. Highly recommended.

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han 

This isn't really my usual fare, but I believe it's always good to branch out! So Belly (not her real name, obvs) and her brother spend every summer with her mum's friend and her two sons at her beach house, and this is probably the last summer they'll do that before the older boys leave for college. Belly kind of has a thing with both brothers, so this is about their last summer and which boy she picks. This really isn't the sort of thing I normally read, but I liked it all the same. It's a quick read and super summery, really the ideal beach thing. It's also somehow not as fluffy/inconsequential as it sounds. Also, I may think she picked the wrong boy in the end, but anyway... ;) 

Possession by A S Byatt

  I'd heard a lot of hype about this book, so I think it's inevitable that I was a little... underwhelmed? Don't get me wrong, it's a good book- really good even. It's about two Victorian literature academics who discover a letter which leads them to find out things about their two favourite authors that have been buried in the past. I'm an English lit Master's student, specialising in the Victorian period and probably going into academia, so this was super relevant for me! I liked this a lot- it didn't, like, change my life or anything, but not every book has to, and I need to stop paying attention to hype, basically.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz 

Once upon a time, as a baby queer, I would pick up literally anything which even remotely involved a gay character. I'm a bit pickier now (and LGBTQ YA is much more popular now than it was when I was a teen, which wasn't even that long ago!) but it still gives me so much pleasure when I find a really decent, unique LGBT-themed story. So, Aristotle (Ari) is a teen boy who is kind of angsty and has a brother in prison who his parents refuse to talk about, and he meets Dante who is a slightly quirky teen boy who turns out to be gay, and this is about their friendship and their relationship. This was such a refreshing read in so many ways- it's set in the 80s, no-one gets kicked out of their parents' house for being gay, no-one kills themselves, and the main characters are both Mexican-American. I loved this.




The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff

I've talked a little before about how I happened to be researching an essay about the Danish Girl, Lili Elbe, around the time the movie came out (well, it was actually about Virginia Woolf's Orlando, but somehow I ended up talking about Lili Elbe a lot) and therefore, despite my deep love of Eddie Redmayne and LGBT-related things, I didn't go see the movie as I was sick of her, haha. Months later, I've recovered enough to read the book. So this is loosely based on the life of Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo medical gender transition way back in the 1920s. Mostly this book deals with Lili's marriage, how her wife Greta (as she's called in the book) encouraged Lili's birth and then had to deal with losing her husband to her. I liked this. It's a quiet, beautifully written, fairly quick read, kind of a romance with a twist which was nice.

#Eliotalong Week 1: Ch 1-14

I'm a bit late on this as I always am with readalong posts, but nevertheless, I'm here!

1. Is this your first encounter with George Eliot? How are your finding it? Did you have any preconceptions about the Eliot or the book before you started?

This is actually my second read of Middlemarch! I read and loved it back in 2012, though I actually don't remember it all that well. Since then I've read The Lifted Veil, which was so weird I still don't know what to make of it, and earlier this year I read The Mill on the Floss which was great although highly depressing. 

2. How do you feel about Dorothea?

See, one of the few things I remember about this book from my first time round is really liking/having sympathy for Dorothea. This time around, I'm... not entirely sure. She is very pious and has some weird beliefs (wanting her husband to be a father figure, ick) but I still can't help but root for her a bit. She's a weirdo, and I like weirdo characters. Besides, her motivations for wanting the sort of marriage she wants comes from her intellectual longings, and I understand her from that point of view, because really, what other options are available to her?

3. Who is your favourite character so far and why?

I basically already answered this above, so... yeah, it's Dorothea. She's kind of quirky and I have vague memories of loving her last time.

4. The place of women is mentioned a lot in the first few chapters. Discuss.

Like Bex says, it's kind of early to tell. I know more opportunities/education for women was a big preoccupation of Eliot's and this comes up a lot in her writing. The thing about George Eliot's life that always sticks out to me was that she was crazy educated and her father basically let her learn anything she wanted- but this was only because she was considered plain and ugly and would probably never get married. Seriously. Of course, she ended up in an almost-marriage of 20 years, so, shows what they knew.

Anyway. I know this comes up some more, especially in the Dorothea bits, so we'll wait and see...


Bonus note: kind of loving how the names Lovegood and Bulstrode both came up this week. I love finding names from Harry Potter in literature; it's like following a secret trail J K Rowling has left :)

#20 Books of Summer Book Pile

I like lists, especially book lists, so I thought I'd make one for the #20BooksOfSummer challenge! Ideally I'd like to read a lot more than 20 books this summer, but this is my starting point anyway.

Middlemarch for Bex's read-along!

1. First and foremost, George Eliot's Middlemarch! If I read one book this summer, it has to be this, right? I picked up the cute Penguin English Library edition at my local library, because while I have it on my kindle I needed something prettier to get excited about, and discovered that it has 920 pages which is at least 200 pages more than I remember it having. Oh well, I also remember it being awesome, so it's all good :)

Books I've read already/am in the middle of

   

2. White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
I've already read this, but since the challenge started at the start of the month it totally counts, woo! Anyway, I loved this. Sort of neo-gothic not-quite-sure-what's-going-on house-might-be-trying-to-kill-you stuff.

3. Possession by A S Byatt
I've been reading this for what seems like forever, and I'm very near the end. I'm enjoying it, but perhaps a little underwhelmed after all the rave reviews that built my expectations so high. Still, it's about Victorian academics and that's a win for me. I'm looking forward to seeing how things end up.

4. The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
Fun fact: when this movie was in the cinemas I was in the middle of a complicated essay about gender transgressions in the 1920s including talking about Lili Elbe. So that's why I didn't see it, as I was sick to my back teeth with her by the time I was done, lol. I'm better now. This is a fictionalised account of the life of Lili Elbe, who is generally considered the first person to medically transition gender. After this I can finally watch the movie, yay!

5. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
I'm going into this more or less blind, as I'm being guided purely by positive reviews and because it kept appearing in recommended lists. It's about Chechnya, and that's about all I know. I've only just started this.



Library books
(some of which are due back at the library soon and are non-renewable and therefore must be read ASAP!)

6. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach- Another one I'm going into blind. Library books are good for that! Something about college baseball and coming of age. I've heard good things about it!

7. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson- Really looking forward to this one. It's about twins and there's LGBT themes and apparently it will make me cry.

8. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven- YA about mental illness is my crack. Will possibly also make me cry.

9. Ghost Story by Peter Straub- I'm trying to read more horror, as it was my favourite genre once upon a time. This is supposed to be a classic of the genre and I'm hoping it'll scare my pants off.

10. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins- Unashamedly jumping on the bandwagon. I'm not sure what to expect with this- I've heard very mixed things. My girlfriend recently read it and loved it though. So we'll see!

Books I own, some of which have been on my shelves, unread, for an embarrassingly long time:

 

11. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James- I just picked this up on a whim in my university's book swap- it's one of those classics I've always been meaning to read. Allegedly there's England vs. America stuff and ladies doing their own things and that's basically all I know. I love Turn of the Screw, but I have no idea how this will compare.

12. The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica by various- Look, I'm a pervert. I read porn! I admit it! I actually started this a couple of years ago and kind of forgot I was reading it. But I'm going to finally finish it off. As with most compilations, the stories vary a lot in quality. I'm hoping there's a few good ones left.

13. Oranges are not the Only Fruit by Jeannette Winterson- In this case not unread but unreread. I haven't read this since I was in school. I keep saying I need to reread it soon but I never do! So this time, it's serious.

14. Nimona by Noelle Stevenson- I read Lumberjanes recently and absolutely loved it, so I'm excited to read more Noelle Stevenson. This is a fantasy graphic novel that has wonderful reviews- definitely need to get to this soon!

15. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd- This is another book my girlfriend loves. It's about 1960s and the Black civil rights movement, which I'm into, so I'm hoping this will be a good read.

16. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton- I have literally been on the verge of starting this book so many times when I get distracted by something shinier. I have no idea why! This is about high society New York at the turn of the century, which sounds intriguing.

17. Armada by Ernest Cline- I got this for my birthday not long after it came out (hardback and everything!) but I've been a little alarmed by some scathing reviews I've read- having loved Ready Player One, I'm worried this won't live up to expectations. Only one way to find out!

18. Valencia by Michelle Tea- I'm somewhat embarrassed that I've never read any Michelle Tea. So, this is my attempt to remedy that! This is her quasi-memoir about being a punk queer sex worker in San Francisco. So, pretty much ticking all my boxes there.

19. Brick Lane by Monica Ali- I know this was huge when it came out (um, about a decade ago...) so it'll be good to finally read it! It's about a Bangladeshi girl who comes to London through an arranged marriage in the 1980s and 1990s.

20. Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill- I mostly picked this up because the blurb on the cover describes it as 'Mean Girls meets The Handmaid's Tale.' Come on, who could resist?! This looks to be a dystopia with a feminist slant, so that's right up my street.


So that's my list! I may not get to all of these. I may have already deviated from the list quite a bit. Have you read any of these? Which ones should I definitely get to? :)

On summer plans and how to get out of a reading slump

Why, hello there. Things have been a bit quiet around here lately, mostly because my reading has really fallen by the wayside! I had such a good start to the year, and then by March things just sort of... stopped.

I'm blaming my Master's. It's pretty common for literature students to find themselves stop reading during term time because when you spend all day every day reading books for your course, you're much less likely to want to do it in your free time. I managed to avoid this for three years of a degree... but I think it's hitting me hard at Master's level. I have so much less free time as well, so when I do manage to scrape an hour or thirty minutes or less at the end of the day... well, a book isn't the first thing I grab.

But! Last Tuesday was my last day of uni and now I'm free until the end of September! Summer is here! I'm free!

Well, relatively. As I keep joking to everyone, it's so good to be only be working a full-time job! (As opposed to a full time job and 20-30 hours of studying a week). Said job is the reason that I've been stuck inside for the past week or so of good weather. I never thought I'd actually be jealous of people with sunburn, but there I am.

Anyway. When I'm not working, I've got big plans, like every summer. But this summer I'm determined to get some of this done!

So here's what I'm planning:

1. Moving out on my own
Yep, I'm finally going to be living on my own. No family, no roommates, just me. I can't wait to have my own space! I've had the keys for just under a week now and don't have to move in until my current lease ends at the end of the month, so in theory this should be plenty of time to gradually move stuff over, redecorate and basically make the place a home before I have to move in. In theory.

2. Read. Read. Read
Yep, this is a big one. I'm gradually reading my way out of the slump that I've been in for the past few months. I already had vague plans to go for twelve books a month until I go back to uni (which is my usual/former reading pace) but then I heard about the 20 Books of Summer challenge and I guess that's a good place to start! Plus with the added motivation of it being a group activity and that. I'd still love to hit my twelve books a month goal but we'll see how it goes! I might make a separate post with my big massive book pile, because those are always good.

3. Participate in Bex's Middlemarch read-along
I read Middlemarch about... four years ago? And I loved it and have been meaning to read it again, so it's so good that Bex is hosting this! Read-alongs are always great fun, and I can't wait for this.

4. Write more
Yeah, that's a bit vague, but purposely so. More blogging! More fiction writing! More poetry and songwriting!

5. Play more music
Vague again, but same idea. I want to spend more time playing the various musical instruments I have lying around. And maaaaaybe edge myself closer to finally getting the courage to busk?

6. Go somewhere
Haha, totally realising I fail in the idea of goal-setting as something that should be specific (Anyone else talk about SMART goals in uni? Specific, Measured, Achievable... I totally forget the rest. No wonder I suck at making goals.) I have very vague plans to maybe go over to England or Wales or take a roadtrip around Ireland or even just spend a night in Dublin. You know, something I can consider a holiday. It all depends on who I can get to come with me and what time I can get off work and that, but I really want it to happen!

7. Run/do yoga more
Look, I'm a nerdy girl. And like many nerdy girls, I've been exercise-phobic for pretty much my entire life. We were ranked in PE at my school as with every subject, and I was literally bottom of the year group due to my inability to run or catch a ball or understand netball. But I started running a few months back, and then I did a little yoga from tutorials online, and to my great surprise, I actually really enjoy it. I've been neglecting it a bit lately due to assignment craziness, but hopefully I should have more time now! (And I just bought a yoga mat, so, added incentive.)

8. Keep a bullet journal
I'm a massive time management/organisation freak. I kind of have to be, otherwise I'd never fit everything into my crazy life! I use Google Calendar and Habitica religiously, but I've got sucked into bullet journaling and I've actually found it more useful than I thought I would. My journal is nowhere near as pretty as the ones you see on tumblr, but I'm enjoying decorating my pages and getting a wee bit more in touch with my visual side.

9. Watch more Doctor Who
Remember that 50 years 50 stories project I have? The one I haven't updated in bloody forever? It's still very much a thing, even though I've stalled a bit. So I want to push ahead and keep watching, continuing my ongoing terrifying project of watching every single episode of Doctor Who since 1963. (For the uninitiated, there are currently 826 episodes of Doctor Who. I've watched maybe half.)

10. Be more social!
Last but definitely not least. Being a big introvert with lots of interests and hobbies and studying and working hours... my social life has really, really took a beating in the past few months. I want to use my new found freedom to hang out with friends even if it's just for a quick coffee once a week or so.

Bonus:
Dye my hair. I haven't done it in six months, since I shaved my head and let my natural colour grow back in. Teenage me is appalled. But never fear, I've got some purple dye ready to go ;)

So those are my summer plans! Hopefully I'll at least attempt some of these. What are your summer goals? :)