All About JARS
I could spend all day describing my book club, how there’s no deadlines, how we like to pair things up in fiction and nonfiction, how its laid back and fun, and educational but not in a boring way. I could tell you to click on my avatar to the right over there until I’m blue in the face (it used to take you directly to the JARS site, now just go here: http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/about), but you don’t really get it until you see what we’ve already done. So here’s our “Been There Done That” list.
First Set Ever:
Arlington Park – Rachel Cusk (general fiction)
Seduction of Place – Joseph Rykwert (urban studies/ architecture)
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/88773/Set-One-Arlington-Park-and-Seduction-of-Place
Our Fall/Winter in France
Hermit in Paris – Italo Calvino (traveling memoir)
Suite Francaise – Irene Nemirovsky (general fiction)
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/89357/Hermit-in-Paris-chit-chat
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/91447/Suite-Francaise-Chatter–
A Bit of Steinbeck
East of Eden – John Steinbeck (general fiction)
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters – John Steinbeck (journals/letters/lit.crit.)
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/99301/East-of-Eden
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/109921/Journal-of-a-Novel-the-East-of-Eden-Letters
A Coffee Break
Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East (history/sociology)
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/130275/Coffee-Coffee-Coffee–
French Pressed: A Coffeehouse Mystery – Cleo Coyle (fiction/mystery) 
Bibliomania
Time Was Soft There – Jeremy Mercer (traveling memoir/bookstores)
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/133408/Books-on-Books
City of Dreaming Books – Walter Moers (young adult/fantasy)
A Summer in Egypt
The Search for Nefertiti – Dr. Joann Fletcher (archeology/egyptology)
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/127726/Nefertiti-by-Michelle-Moran
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/130486/The-Search-for-Nefertiti—Dr-Joann-Fletcher
Nefertiti – Michelle Moran (historical fiction)
And a lot more…
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/110494/Egypt-Books–
Some Time in the Baroque
*Choose your own Baroque history piece*
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/111173/Hungers-Brides-by-Paul-Anderson
Hunger’s Brides – Paul Anderson (historical fiction)
Architecture, Humanity and Life
On Art and Life – John Ruskin (essays)
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/158757/Architecture-Art-Humanity-Life
The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand (fiction/literature)
Fall in With the Knights Templar
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/136727/Knights-Templar-Books–
Celts and Druids
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/166123/The-Celts-and-The-Druids
Darwin in the Spring
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/170529/Darwin-Study
Партии в России
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/182887/A-Russian-Study
A Walk in the Woods with Bill Bryson
A Walk in the Woods makes me desperately want to go hiking. This was my first Bryson, I find the author surprisingly witty and fun, although perhaps a bit truthfully cruel in the beginning. I have to admit, prior to reading this I knew very little about the Appalachian Trail – it was a trail I had heard of but didn’t really have a clue about its length (Georgia to Maine, 2200 miles), its fame, or its history. This is the perfect blend of traveling memoir and a true survival/ adventure story, and I was completely captured by the weather conditions, the terrain, the fellow hikers, and the long nights in cold shelters. It’s definitely an adventure I’d like to take, even if it means I only finish 39% of the trail like Bryson himself.
Rosalind Miles’ Guenevere
Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country:
The First of the Guenevere Novels by Rosalind Miles
Though racier than I would have liked, Rosalind Miles portrays the Arthurian Romance of Guenevere, Arthur, and Lancelot exactly how I should think someone going for historical and religious accuracy should. Miles captures the thoughts and rituals of the pagans well and interweaves the young Christian societies the way they must have seemed to the Druids of the time. This first chapter of Guenevere’s life shows the gradual change from pagan feminism to the changing views of the times that brought women to more submissive roles, as she is caught between a husband trying to be a Christian King and an upbringing where royalty was passed down through the female line with sexual freedoms to boot. Can’t wait to read the second and third parts.
A Russian Study
Have I invited my fellow bloggers and blog-readers to my Russian study?
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/182887/A-Russian-Study
Welcome to the Russian Study! We hope that everyone interested in Russia, its culture and history, and its literature, will enjoy perusing through and adding to this discussion. Feel free to add your own books to the list or read along with the ones already here below…
* Crime and Punishment – Dosoyevsky (fiction)
* Anna Karenina – Tolstoy (fiction)
* War and Peace – Tolstoy (fiction)
* The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzheinitsyn – Volkov (literary criticism, history)
* The Axe and the Icon – Billington (history)
* The Vision Unfulfilled – Thompson (history)
* Fathers and Sons – Turgenev (fiction)
* The Captain’s Daughter & Other Stories – Pushkin (fiction)
* One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Solzhenitsyn’s (fiction)
* Sofia Petrovna – Lydia Chukovskaya (fiction)
* I think some Robert Alexander historical fiction titles would do well at the end. One is called Rasputin’s Daughter, but he has many.
I have already completed Crime and Punishment, below is my official review:
Good book, well written, yet I could have gone my whole life without having read it and not felt like I missed out much. The final confession felt like the final moment in Moby Dick when the whale actually shows – all I could think was: “its about time.” Its on Bauer’s list of books to read before you die, which I plan to use as curriculum for my kid when I home school, but I’m not sure that I’ll make them read this, unless they are utterly captivated by it and want to – especially with Tolstoy next on the list. I was hoping to be more captivated myself.
All this Easter business
This is an ode to Interested, as this post is actually a comment I made on her blog. I wanted to share it with my personal readers.
As a Christian who some people would call “religious” I have to say: I don’t think Easter should be the most celebrated Christian holiday.
Celebrating the Resurrection is quite different (in my book) from celebrating Easter. Easter, by name, is a celebration of the Spring Equinox.
The ancient Saxons in Northern Europe worshiped the Goddess Oestre at the time of the Spring Equinox. The Goddess Easter represents the sunrise, spring-time and fertility, the renewal of life. Pagan Anglo-Saxons made offerings of colored eggs to her at the Vernal Equinox, putting them at graves. Some people believe that the Egyptians and Greeks did this as well.
“Christians” used the name later and morphed their religion onto a pagan celebration so that new converts wouldn’t find the transition intimidating… and/or new “converts” kept celebrating their old traditions because rather than actually converting they added Jesus to one of the many gods they already worshiped. (I’ve seen the history written both ways, and both is equally believable.)
I would never prohibit a child from attending an Easter Egg hunt, because its now a fun tradition that many people participate in – but I also will never tell my kid that its an important Christian holiday or make up any kind of “Christian” symbolism about the eggs. In my book, the Resurrection celebration and the Easter celebration should be considered separate holidays, but they have been merged for so long people can’t remember the difference
Long, Long Month
Its been a long, long month. I’m grateful for April, but realize that as busy as I was in March I accomplished nothing. I’ve been too tired and sick to even read, and too preoccupied with my promotion at work to think of anything else. So hello, internet, I’ve missed you. I’ll be visiting more often again soon.
Anakalian Whims 
The Girl from the Fiction Department
April 8, 2010 at 9:53 pm (JARS, Reviews) (1984, biography, book, hilary spurling, literary commentary, orwell, review, social commentary, sonia orwell, the girl from the fiction department)
A Portrait of Sonia Orwell by Hilary Spurling
I was baffled and surprised by Sonia’s many love affairs, saddened and elated by Sonia and George’s short-lived union, and angered by the notion that other biographers have so readily misunderstood her. I found Sonia interesting and bold, yet I also found myself so relieved to have not lived her life. She truly must have been someone to behold, respect, and possibly hate at some moments – though I think I might have liked her most of the time.
I loved that Sonia’s biography was so linked to her role in Orwell’s writing the character of Julia in 1984, the girl from the fiction department. Its such a quick and concise biography that manages to branch out and cover personalities of so many of those of Orwell’s time, I believe if I were a high school English teacher I would either require the reading of The Girl from the Fiction Department directly after assigning 1984 (or at least offering it up as an extra credit assignment).
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=anakawhims-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B000C4SNOO
Permalink Leave a Comment