Read-A-Thon: Final post October 24, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.23 comments
We’ve done it! She and I have decided to call it quits for the evening. We’re both exhausted and laughitng inappropriately at our novels. Good night everyone and thanks for cheering us on! I’ll be around for at least part of the day tomorrow night to cheer.
Read-A-Thon: Relevant cat picture October 24, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.Tags: readathon
add a comment
Read-A-Thon: Post Cuatro – The Silenced by James DeVita October 23, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.Tags: readathon
4 comments
Currently reading:
On page 222: so far = awesome
TSS – 18 October 2009 October 18, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.Tags: thesis, TSS
12 comments
I have two things to say to you this Sunday:
1) READING SLUMP.
2) MASTER’S THESIS.
At the moment I’m working on a paper for my survey course on the poem “Entrada a la madera/Entrance to wood” by Pablo Neruda. It’s a delightfully odd poem that questions nature and substance and the union of humanity with nature. I love it and wanted to share it with you, but there doesn’t seem to be a decent translation of it online. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to say about it. It’s one of the most argued-over poems in academia. No one really seems to know what Neruda is getting at and I think that’s why I’m drawn to it.
I bring this up because whenever I write one of these papers I get to thinking about my Master’s thesis. We have to decide on a topic NEXT SEMESTER. Which is equal parts terrifying and exciting. So I thought I would ask you! Many of you are familiar with Latin American fiction and poetry and I’d like to bounce around some ideas.
- 2666. YEAAAAAAAAAH. I’m seriously thinking about this one. There’s a class on the modern novel next semester and I think you technically have to have taken a class to write a thesis about something. It would be a MAJOR project. I’d have to read the book in Spanish (help, Richard!) and I would most likely have to focus on one very small aspect of the book, because my thesis is a minimum of 60 pages. I don’t know if there’s a maximum, but I’d like to be realistic!
- Virgin Mary poetry. This is inspired by a class I took on the Virgin of Guadalupe and about her transformation from religious symbol to a symbol of rebellion and finally of Mexican identity. It’s a really fascinating topic and I know that I would enjoy doing the research.
- Neruda. I love Neruda. He’s why I began studying Spanish in the first place. He’s also one of the more studied poets.
- Elena Poniatowska. She’s just such an interesting woman and everything I’ve read of hers I’ve loved. It would be great to explore her work more.
- Gabriela Mistral. She was the first Latin American to win the Nobel prize and I really like her work. Plus, she just looks like a no-nonsense kind of woman:
She was also bffs with Neruda.
Do you have any suggestions? This is just what I’m thinking about now. 2666 would be so much fun, and also somewhat unconventional as it was just published. Mistral and Neruda are safe choices. Virgin Mary poetry is something that I’m interested, but it would also involve a lot of reading across many centuries to get a good scope of what I’m dealing with. I’m sure I’ll come up with some more topics over the next few weeks. Christmas break is going to be spent reading and deciding on a topic.
Review – The Host by Stephenie Meyer October 10, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.8 comments
Hey. You remember that time, not too long ago, when you read Twilight and you secretly, kind of, pretty much loved it? But then you felt like a bad feminist because Bella is a wimp and Edward is kind of creepy? Yeah. Me too.
So I know it’s not fair to compare the two, just because Stephenie Meyer wrote both of them, but I’m going to anyway.
The Host is so much better! It’s a more well thought-out, complete novel that does not feature whiny heroines or men who watch you while you sleep.
It’s a mature science fiction novel that, yeah, I’ll admit it, has its plot holes. (How did the first soul get into the first spider? How did they get into the first human?) But it was still a 100% enjoyable read (that could have been 100 pages shorter) that was not only entertaining, but thought-provoking. The other planets were imaginative and a throw-back, in my opinion, to A Wrinkle In Time.
I didn’t save quotes for this one, though I wish I had. It was mostly because I was so engrossed in the story that I didn’t stop to write anything down.
Recommended!
TSS – 4 October 2009: Monthly Round-up! October 4, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.Tags: monthy round up, TSS
7 comments
Hello, October! Easily my favorite month of the year, because Halloween is awesome and because the first week of November is my birthday! So October is just one long month of anticipation. September was a decent reading month, especially considering it was my first week of classes. I’m fairly certain that I’m going to finish my year-long reading goal for 2009 of 100 books, but some of these challenges are out of the picture. And I’m okay with that! They were fun to participate in and if I don’t finish them all, I had fun trying.
- The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons 84%
- Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury 98%
- Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 85%
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson 90%
- The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker 70%
- After Dark by Haruki Murakami 88%
- Losing My Mind: An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer’s by Thomas DeBaggio 90%
- Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer 92%
- Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie 88%
- Lazarillo de Tormes by Anónimo 85%
My favorites this month were definitely Something Wicked This Way Comes and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
This week I’m reading:
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Guzmán de Alfarache by Mateo Alemán
Post of the week:
What are you reading? Have a wonderful week!
Review – Losing My Mind: An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer’s by Thomas DeBaggio September 28, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.Tags: alzheimer's, nonfiction
1 comment so far
“Every day is new now, with little remembrance of the day before, but with enough memory retained to know there was a yesterday. This is a new way to live and it takes getting used to.
Words, even unfamiliar ones, are more helpful now than ever before because they sometimes remind me of the past. I now lack enough mental security to be sure I remember memories of actual events; they might belong to someone else and I have stolen them for the moment, unknowingly.
I am less certain of everything, but I do not feel like a child with no history. I have a clear sense of history, I just don’t know whether it is mine. (85)
Review – Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer September 24, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.Tags: apocalyptic fiction, diary, YA
8 comments
“It seemed like everyone on the road was out tonight. Some of the people were on their decks having late barbecues, but most everyone else was in front of their houses, like we were. The only one I didn’t see was Mr. Hopkins, but you could tell from the glow in his living room that he was watching on TV.
It was like a big block party. The houses are so widespread on our road, you couldn’t really hear anything, just a general happy buzz.
When it got closer to 9:30, things got really quiet. You could sense how we were all craning our necks, looking toward the sky. Jonny was at the telescope, and he was the first one who shouted that the asteroid was coming. He could see it in the night sky, and then we all could, the biggest shooting star you could imagine. It was a lot smaller than the moon, but bigger than anything else I’d ever seen in the sky. It looked like it was blazing and we all cheered when we saw it.
For a moment I thought about all the people throughout history who saw Halley’s Comet and didn’t know what it was, just that it was there and frightening and awe inspiring. For the briefest flick of a second, I could have been a 16-year-old in the Middle Ages looking up at the sky, marveling at its mysteries, or an Aztec or an Apache. For that tiny instant, I was every 16-year-old in history, not knowing what the skies foretold about my future.
And then it hit. Even though we knew it was going to, we were still shocked when the asteroid actually made contact with the moon. With our moon. At that second, we all realized that it was Our Moon and if it was attacked, then we were attacked.
Or maybe nobody thought that. I know most of the people on the road cheered, but then we all stopped cheering and a woman a few houses down screamed and then a man screamed, “Oh, my God!” and people were yelling, “What? What?” like one of us knew the answer. (pg 18-19)
Review – After Dark by Haruki Murakami September 21, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.Tags: Murakami
22 comments
“You know what I think?” she says. “That people’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn’t matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They’re all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed ‘em to the fire, they’re all just paper. The fire isn’t thinking ‘Oh, this is Kant,’ or ‘Oh, this is the Yomiuri evening edition,’ or ‘Nice tits,’ while it burns. To the fire, they’re nothing but scraps of paper. It’s the exact same thing. Important memories, not-so-important memories, totally useless memories: there’s no distinction–they’re all just fuel.”(After Dark)
TSS – 13 Sept 2009 September 13, 2009
Posted by Lu in Uncategorized.Tags: TSS
2 comments
Hi, everyone! It’s Sunday again, and I’m horribly busy. In a good way? I suppose. It’s making time go really fast. I can’t believe that it’s going to be the third week of the semester. I have over 200 pages a week of reading to do, but it’s okay, most of it is pretty interesting. La Celestina, a 15th century Spanish play, is really kicking my butt, but it’s good to be challenged, right? Speaking of challenges…
I joined a new challenge! Really, I’m crazy, but the Countdown Challenge starts on 9/9/09 and ends on 10/10/10, so that gives me plenty of time, right? It’s such a cool challenge and I’m excited to participate!
Read this week:
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Reading this week:
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas
Have a great week everyone!
