Updated reading list for 52 books in 52 weeks

Updated reading list for '52 books in 52 weeks' (2013)

•                The Family Fang: A Novel by Kevin Wilson

•                The Convalescent by Jessica Anthony

•                Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (YA)

•                Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick (YA)

•                Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick (YA)

•                Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick (YA)

•                Becoming Jane Eyre by Shelia Kohler (fiction)

•                The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

•                David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 

•                Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood 

•                City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (YA)

•                City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (YA)

•                City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare (YA)

•                City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (YA)

•                Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (YA)

•               Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (YA)

•                Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (YA)

•                The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry 

•                The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

•                Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

•                Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

•                A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz 

•                Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

•                Lady Susan by Jane Austen

•                Jane Austen by Carol Shields (biography)

•                The Dark Angel by Meredith Ann Pierce

•                Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman

•                The Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories edited by William Trevor

•                The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

•                The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

•                A Dangerous Mourning by Anne Perry

•                Defend and Betray by Anne Perry

•                Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

•                Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (YA)

•                 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (reread)

•                Villette by Charlotte Bronte

•                The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
•                Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

In the thick of things

My Mobile  Thesis Station

My last Sewanee summer ended in July, a blurred frenzy of Shakespeare (with the great Ann Cook), and Classical literature in translation (a.k.a. ancient Greek literature). I became a Shakespearean actress for 6 weeks, watched more plays than any person should have to endure in a lifetime, travelled with my classmates into the depths of Solomon's Temple cave on the Domain (convinced I wouldn't survive the ascent back up the mountain), and visited Athena at her temple in Nashville. Like I said, a blurred frenzy.

Now that summer has passed, I'm deep in the bowels of the thesis beast, trying to find my way back out. While I prepared a year in advance for my research, I find that it hasn't set me ahead by much. My first chapter is due in the middle of December, and I'm praying I can make the deadline.

Meanwhile, I'm also participating in NaNoWriMo 2013, which I probably shouldn't be doing, but it's only for the month and I need something to keep me sane, right? Last year's NaNoWriMo was awesome, and I'm finally getting around to editing the novel I wrote for it. It seems if I'm not super busy, I'm bored to death, which forces me to have many irons in the fire. In fact, if I had a Native American name, the English translation would probably be "Many Irons in the Fire".

The Convalescent by Jessica Anthony

I ran across this strange work of fiction last week. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down--as unusual as it was. Rovar, the main character, was raised to be a butcher, yet detests the idea of butchering the meat he sells from his truck. So, he steals it from the local market instead, reselling it to his faithful customers at a discounted price. This would seem a deplorable act, except that the reader gets a terrible glimpse into Rovar's childhood, therefore bringing an understanding of his actions as an adult. This tale shifts between Rovar's story and the story of the early Hungarians, making it both entertaining and educational. 


The Convalescent is the story of a small, bearded man selling meat out of a bus parked next to a stream in suburban Virginia . . . and also, somehow, the story of ten thousand years of Hungarian history. Jessica Anthony, the inaugural winner of the Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, makes an unforgettable debut with an unforgettable hero: Rovar Ákos Pfliegman—unlikely bandit, unloved lover, and historian of the unimportant. --Amazon.com

Letter Writing Blog

FInd my new blog about letter writing here.

Back in the saddle again?

Three weeks ago I started having cluster migraines. If you've had these headaches, you know how awful they are. If you haven't had them, I hope you never do. It started out as eyestrain. I thought I had done too much reading, but then I started waking up with eyestrain, and then headaches that wouldn't go away. I confined myself to my bedroom (windows covered so no light could get in) for three days or so, hoping that they would go away if I rested my eyes. I couldn't read books or look at a computer screen. I still wrote my 750+ words a day, but only by typing with my eyes closed. I'm getting better now (wearing sunglasses in the house helped), and I'll probably get some tinted reading glasses to help with the light sensitivity that I'm still experiencing, but for the most part, I'm back to normal.

All of that to say this: I'm seriously behind with my reading, and writing for Camp NaNoWriMo. I've decided that none of this could be helped, however, and I'm not going to risk straining my eyes too much in order to catch up.

My graduate school session in Sewanee is coming up in June, so I'm slowly making my way through assigned reading. I'm currently reading Homer's Iliad (from The Essential Homer). I have six other texts to read for this course (Classical Literature in Translation, taught by Christopher McDonough), including Hesiod's Theogony, and works by Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle and Aeschylus. So, I have my reading cut out for me in that department. My other course is Shakespeare with Ann Cook, and luckily, she puts more emphasis on watching the plays than reading them. This is fortunate for me, because I'm not a Shakespeare fan (as blasphemous as that sounds coming from a grad student of English lit).

Books I'm currently reading:

• Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff that Made Me Famous by Kathryn Williams (a Sewanee SOL classmate of mine).
• The Family Fang: A Novel by Kevin Wilson (professor at Sewanee)
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
• Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (trying to finish this series up)

Updated Reading List for 2013

My updated reading list for '52 books in 52 weeks' (2013)

• The Family Fang: A Novel by Kevin Wilson (currently reading)
• Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff that Made Me Famous by Kathryn Williams (YA)  (currently reading)
• The Bronte Myth by Lucasta Miller (Nonfiction read recommended by professor Jenn Lewin)
• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 
• Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (recommended by author Susan Mccallum Smith)
• City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (YA)
• City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (YA)
• City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare (YA)
• City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (YA)
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (YA)
• Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (YA)
• Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (YA)
• The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry (recommended by author Susan Mccallum Smith)
• Me Funny by Drew Hayden Taylor (essays)
• The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz (Nonfiction read recommended by professor Jenn Lewin)
• The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• Lady Susan by Jane Austen
• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (YA)
• Jane Austen by Carol Shields (biography)
• The Running Sky by Tim Dee
• The Dark Angel by Meredith Ann Pierce
• Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman
• The Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories edited by William Trevor
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
• The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
• What the Robin Knows by Jon Young
• Bird Sense: What It's Like to be a Bird by Tim Birkhead
• A Dangerous Mourning by Anne Perry
• Defend and Betray by Anne Perry
• Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• The Odyssey by Home
• The Iliad by Homer
• The Aeneid by Virgil
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (YA)

New Books from Daedalus

Just wanted to share a pic of my new books that arrived today from daedalusbooks.com. I bought 8 books for $34 and paid $5.95 for shipping. I love this store!