Back to the classics wrap-up

Another year down! This year was unusual in that I had no problems getting all the books read quite early on in the year but I didn't do a good job writing about them in a timely manner. On well, I got it done in the end. This was actually a fabulous reading year for me so I'll be back with a full end of year wrap up soon that includes my favorite reads and the other challenges I've done but here are my Back to the Classic Reads. Overall, they were top notch. It's hard to believe I've been doing this Challenge for 7 years but its such a good one! Its flexible but definitely encourages me to try books I might not otherwise get to and I love getting ideas from everyone else. 

1. A 19th century classic.  Lilith 

2. A 20th century classic. Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris

3. A classic by a woman author. Ruth

4. A classic in translation.  The Way of the Pilgrim

5. A classic by BIPOC author. To Sir, with Love

6. Mystery/Detective/Crime classic. The Franchise Affair

7. A classic short story collection.  The Wild Muir

8. Pre-1800 classic. A Mid-summer Night's Dream

9. A nonfiction classic. Six Easy Pieces

10. Classic that's been on your TBR list the longest.  The Fellowship of the Ring

11. Classic set in a place you'd like to visit. The Enchanted April

12. Wild card classic. The Cutters by Bess Streeter Aldrich

Email contant: brcbanter [AT] googlegroups.com

Classics Challenge: The Francise Affair

This is a hard category for me. Not because I don't read a lot of mysteries but because I do. I read tons of mysteries, mostly the older classic style (although I have caught up on the Strike series this year which is about as hard boiled as I can go). Which one to write about? I went with this one because I think Josephine Tey is a bit under appreciated. This first one of hers I read was Daughter of Time and you do see that about in gift shops in basically every museum that has a connection to Richard III. It's very good but our libraries didn't have anything else by her so since then I'd just been on the lookout for whatever of hers I could spot in the used bookstores I perused. 

And of course, I found one at the mystery book stop in Hay-on-Wye. Well, I found several but I had to be selective and I think I picked a good one. It's not a murder but a case of kidnapping. Or a case of accused kidnapping. 

 I think Tey has such an interesting way of making you look at multiple sides of a situation and I really enjoyed it and will be looking for more Tey books to go on my shelf...perhaps another trip to Hay-on-Wye. Well, I basically think any excuse is a good one for that sort of thing!

The Francise Affair is my Back to the Classic Mystery/Detective selection 

Classics Challenge: The Fellowship of the Ring

I have a lot of books on my to be read pile but this really does have to be one of the longest lasting ones. I first experienced The Hobbit when I was about 10 when my mom read it aloud to us and I listened to an old BBC audiobook version so many times as a tween. And then when my younger brother hit the same age, we listened to it together. It was our regular car book when we went to my dad's house when we lived separately in Korea. So why had I never read The Lord of the Rings?

I don't know. I did try to listen to the KayRay audiobook version a few years ago but didn't get past Tom Bombadil part. Kay Ray is one of our family's favorite audiobook narrators so it definitely wasn't her that was the issue nor did I hold it against the book itself. I just struggle with audiobooks  (I have since learned to listen to audiobooks at 2-2.5X speed which helps a lot. Everyone sounds like a chipmunk for a minute but then my brain adjusts and compensates and its glorious!) 

But this year I actually picked up an (e)book and read it with my eyes and made it through the first one. It was good, not my typical genre and I still get confused when Lucy starts rattling off names (which one is he again?) but definitely worth reading. I might try and read the second this year and see  I can keep the streak going. Lucy has read them all and Jonah and Norah are about 50% of the way through the series so by the time I finish, they probably will have too and we can all watch the movies and complain about what's different together. 

The Fellowship of the Ring is my Classic That's Been on my TBR list the longest selection. 

Classics Challenge: The Daughter of the Commandant.

Yet again I turn to a Russian author for my Classic in Translation selection. These Russians, they grow on you. I was going to go with Eugene Onegin and was enjoying it at first but I got sick and found my brain couldn't handle the verse so I switched to the next one on my goodreads list. Sometimes translated, as The Captain's daughter, The Daughter of the Commandant was just delightful. 

Petr' is a great main character. Despite being kind of "a mess" at the beginning of the story, you still find yourself on his side as he grows up. Now there are an improbably number of coincidences but I don't even care, it was just fun with an interesting plot that keeps you guessing while not being too stressful (This was a thanksgiving read - I didn't want to be (and wasn't!) worried that anyone was going to jump in front of a train). And its not too long so if you haven't ventured into the world of Russian lit, I think it would be a good choice. 

Classics Challenge: Their Eyes Were Watching God

The kids and I are taking a short break from doing "the riches" with the Ambleside Online rotation and doing Picture Study and Composer Study with Heritage Mom's Harlem Renaissance Stomp study. We're about half way through and it's been really enjoyable so far. We just finished a read-aloud about a young girl who wants to be a writer. In the story she is mentored by Zora Neale Hurston so naturally when I was searching for a BIPOC Classic Challenge book, I thought of her and her works. Their Eyes Were Watching God is her best known work so I thought it was a pretty safe bet as it's almost December and I didn't have time to get half way through a book and give up for another. Time is ticking people!

But I'm glad I picked it! I enjoyed the plot a lot more than I thought I would. I was expecting it to be sadder, or more emotionally challenging and while it definitely had some challenging moments, I just ENJOYED reading it more than I was expecting. I really liked the main character Janie and I wasn't sure I would at the beginning so that was a really nice surprise. I really respected her choices throughout the story and I was really rooting for her. 

I did find the dialect really difficult. I often have to resort to reading dialect out loud but this was my Jude's bedtime read (as in, I read it on my phone while sitting with him waiting for him to fall asleep, not that I read it to my 3 year old :-) ) which made that difficult. I stumbled along and got better at it but I do think, if read well, this would be enjoyable as a audiobook. 

Their Eyes Were Watching God is my Classic by a BIPOC author selection in the Back to the Classics Challenge. 

Classics Challenge: That Hideous Strength

I'm not sure this is a the best book to read with a deadline looming as its pretty intense, but it IS definitely worth reading. This is my second time through. According to Goodreads (and not my memory because I had no clue!) the last time I read this was in the beginning of 2014 which meant I had a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Which might explain why I had very little memory of it. I do remember feeling lost through quite a bit of it and just being proud I finished. 

This time I did much better! I remembered the first 1/3 as I read and then it felt like a brand new book and not a re-read. I won't presume to say that I understood all of what C. S. Lewis was trying to say in it (I think that would take 10-100 more readings) but I did start to notice things and make connections and really ponder ideas. I'm going to be reading Abolition of Man (again) this spring and I'm exciting to make connections between the two. 

I'm putting as my Humor/Satire Back to the Classics selection which is making me laugh because I had planned to take that category in a much lighter direction originally but I guess I wasn't in a laughing mood because every other book I picked or even sometimes started for Humor was abandoned...don't over analyze that, I think I just needed the motivation to stick with this one! I'm very glad I did.  

My Cousin Rachel

Rebecca is Daphne du Maurier's most popular book. I really enjoyed it a few years back and meant to read more by her but got distracted. At least until Craig and I watched the Netflix adaptation. And as luck would have it, my favorite local bookstore had several du Maurier options for me to pick from so I went with My Cousin Rachel. 

Now, it's not classic literature - but it is fun. Daphne du Maurier can set a scene well, especially if its got a creepy slightly foggy setting. If you want a mysterious gothic page turner that has you trying to figure out what to think, this is it. Unless you really dislike open endings, then I'd skip this one. I think the ending fit the story pretty well - and I definitely have my opinion about what really happened! I do still think I prefer Rebecca to this so if you haven't read that, I'd start there but I won't hesitate to pick up any other Daphne du Maurier books I stumble upon in a used bookstore. 

My Cousin Rachel is Classic by a Women selection in the Back to the Classics Challenge. 

Classics Challenge: Antigone

I read Oedipus Rex in college. I won't say too much about that other than to say that I was never interested in reading another greek play after that. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas convinced me to try again last summer but last summer was a bit intense and I just couldn't make it through. So when I saw another greek play on the Literary Life List, I felt a bit bleh about it. I was WRONG! I should have trusted them. I really really enjoyed Antigone. 

I've done a lot of Greek myth stuff in the last two years so I'm sure that helped me feel less overwhelmed by the whole Greek world but overall, I felt like it was very approachable play even without a lot of that background. I had lots of thoughts and actually wanted to talk to my book buddy about it and how it related to some more modern books and ideas we've been pondering like the balance between fighting the wrongs you see around you in society and investing your time in political things and just keeping your head down and doing the next right thing. 

And then when I actually listened to the podcast episodes, I realized that I had done pretty well on my own. Some of their main points were the same things I had been thinking about! So I wasn't totally lost. That was very exciting for me. I might even try Oedipus at Colonus so I add "has read the Theban plays" to my resume which I think has quite a ring to it. Maybe next summer. 

So anyway, if you're feeling the desire to try something Greek, I'd definitely encourage you to try Antigone. 

Classic's Challenge: Celia's House

I had planned on reading a Gaskell book for this pick because Gaskell really is one of my top 5 authors but I just can't seem to get into the remaining books of hers I haven't read. I checked out Ruth twice and haven't passed the first chapter. I'm reading a lot this year but its an interesting selection - some of it is just lighter reads which is fine but I'm also skewing much more modern than usual (in this case "modern" meaning writen in 1943). Perhaps because I'm reading along with Lucy's history and she's hitting the 1900s so I'm gravitating towards that for my personal reading as well? I'm not sure but its not my usual fare and that's showing up in this classics challenge as well. 

So I went with D. E. Stevenson and Celia's house. Celia's House is my 5th D.E. Stevenson novel (at least according to goodreads. I think I've actually read more but can't remember the titles so I'm stuck relying on goodreads). She's one of my go-to authors when I need something light, sweet and fairly reliable. I think Miss. Buncle's Book is probably her most well known novel but The Four Graces might be my favorite. 

This one was not my favorite. It wasn't bad at first but I was about 1/2 way through when I realized that somewhere around the 1/3 mark (right when it shifted to the next generation), it became a retelling of Mansfield Park. Not a "subtle nod to Mansfield Park" but a straight up retelling with very little being changed. 

I'm not necessarily opposed to Jane Austen retellings on principle or anything but it felt a bit deceitful as nowhere on the cover or in the text was I informed that this would be a retelling. It just felt jarring and took my out of the story and world she had created around the house. And of course, even a good writer will have trouble retelling a Jane Austen better than Ms. Austen herself (even though Mansfield Park isn't my favorite Austen) so I'm sure the comparison didn't help. 

That said, I really didn't HATE it. In fact, I gave it three stars on Goodreads which honestly means pretty much next to nothing as my goodreads ratings are wildly inconsistent and I've yet to find a remedy for that. I just expected to enjoy it more than I did.  But I still won't hesitate to pick up a Stevenson novel in the future. 

Celia's House is my Back to the Classics Classic by a Favorite Author selection. 

Classics Challenge: Silas Marner

I had read Silas Marner before but it has been some years. It was interesting to re-read it because while I remembered the basic plot, so many of the details were fresh and surprising. I kept being surprised by what I  This was another book I read along with the Literary Life Podcast and I particularly enjoyed viewing it through the lens of fairy tale tropes and ideas. 

I think it would make a good book to pick up if you're struggling right now to get back into a reading routine or to read classics because its just a nice, easy to read but still really good book. It's full of really great characters, a bit of a mystery but nothing too crazy and less of the crazy, "why is that character being stupid?" moments that made me want to pull my hair out when I read Eliot's Middlemarch (plus - its a heck of a lot shorter).I'd read a section and then put the book down but keep thinking about everything from faith, community, and parenting to fate and decisions the rest of the day. 

Silas Marner was my Back to the Classics Challenge 19th Century selection. 

Classic Challenge: Death in a White Tie

I am a big mystery readers, especially detective novels from the "golden age" so I don't know why it took my so long to try a Ngaio Marsh novel. Maybe the fact that I couldn't pronounce her name? Hopefully not, as someone who has a hard to pronounce name, I would like to think I'm above that prejudice. 

But I finally did give her a try and it went well. Death in a White Tie is in the early middle part of the series so I might have had a slightly smoother start if I knew a few of the main characters to start with but overall, that didn't bother me. There were a lot of characters but I normally just keep going and try not to worry about who is who and my brain catches up eventually. It did take a while for the main crime to occur but it moves along quickly after that. It wasn't brilliant and amazing like a few of the Agatha Christie novels I've adored nor do I think I'll re-read it ever like I would a Sayers novel but it was a good solid detective novel and I won't hesitate to pick up another Marsh book in the future. 

Death in a White Tie is my New to You Author selection for the Back to the Classics Challenge

Classic Challenge: Phantastes

I've had Phantastes on my TBR list for a couple years now but didn't feel up to the challenges until the Literary Life Podcast tackled it. I didn't really even know what it was going to be about when I started and was quite excited to learn it was a questing story and would work as my travel/adventure classic. 

In Phantastes, Anodos goes on a journey to fairy land and back and on his journey he learns what it is to grow up and to be a man. Of course, there's a bit more to it than that but it definitely covers the travel part. He meets people and sees things (and doesn't see others) and makes mistake - after mistake after mistake and you start thinking, "is he EVER going to make a good decision?" I won't spoil it by answering that question. 

Full truth, I do not think I would have finished this without the handholding of the podcast. Or I might have pushed through to finished it out of stubbornness but not gotten much out of it. I don't dislike fantasy novels but they aren't what I normally gravitate to and I was out of my element in this one. It's a bit ramble-y and confusing at times but mostly, its just challenging. I didn't often see the metaphors and ideas that became pretty clear once pointed out to me. I don't blame MacDonalds for that though. I guess I'm just more on the Princess and the Goblin side of the MacDonald learning curve.  I started okay, struggled from 20% on to about 60%, then got really into one section and read quickly, then got confused again and then suddenly it was over and I wasn't sure what had just happened.  Once I listened to the rest of the podcast and realized I wasn't as far off with my later understanding as I expected, I felt a bit better. So I'm glad I gave it a try and learned something along the way; I just don't think I'll be moving on to Lilith anytime soon. 

Phantastes in my Back to the Classics Travel Book selection. 

Classics Challenge: Mrs. Mike

I found Mrs. Mike in my books while I was sorting for the move. I'm know it came from my mom was she passed a bunch of books on to me but I can't remember if I had read it before. I think I had because I knew it was about young girl marries a mountie and has to learn to adapt to a much harder life than she's accustomed to.. But I decided to read it again. 

 (Side note: After reading this, I did finally give in an watch When Calls the Heart after ignoring Netflix's suggestions for months. Apparently winter in quarantine made me long for Canadian and Alaska themed stories?)

 That was back in March. Today in December - I remember its about a young girl who marries a mountie and has to learn to adapt to a much harder life than she's accustomed to. That's it, that's all I've got. I did like it because I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads and even more importantly, lent it to a friend because I thought she would like it. So apparently I think its worth reading but not worth remembering? Or maybe its been a rough mental year. Probably that. 

Okay, with further time I do remember thinking that I wish it had handled her interactions with the local people with the same skill as Catherine Marshall did in Christy. I can't think of any examples to back that up because - memories. I guess I didn't really think Mrs. Mike was awful or I wouldn't have recommended it to others but I know Marshall did such a wonderful job balancing the truthfulness of someone's feelings coming into a new experience with her desire to know and love and care for people and get to know them and the Freedman's lacked that skill. Christy is probably in my top 10 books list thought so that might be too high of expectations and  I don't discount books because of issues like this because the author's viewpoint is as much a part of the story when reading historical fiction written in the past...but I can still wish it was done better! 

Mrs. Mike is my Back to the Classics "Classic with a Person's Name in the Title" pick for the 2020 challenge. 

Classics Challenge: Laddie

I did a lot of re-reads this year, a lot of Austen and cozy mysteries. If I did venture into new books they were typically 1) well vetted or 2) an author who was reliable. In other words, I wanted to know what I was getting. 

You definitely know what you're getting with a Gene Stratton-Porter book. They are sweet, old-fashioned (maybe a bit "dated" in some regards so keep that in mind) and sentimental novels focused on nature and relationships. They also have a bit of an mystical/romantic fairy tale land façade over top. I don't think I'm describing that well but its the best I can do.

 This one was very family centered. Laddie is narrated by a young girl but the main story focuses on her brother Laddie and his growing relationship with the neighbor's daughter "The Princess" (okay, side note, I find GSP's use of nicknames like this really annoying. She does it in other books too and it was just as annoying then. Maybe that adds to the other wordly feel I mentioned above but I still don't like it. Okay, end rant) I did think Laddie was funnier than many of her others, probably because it was family-centered so we get the kid hijinks along with seeing things from Little Sister's view. It wasn't my favorite GSP novel but definitely worth the read. 

Yes, GSP books are sometimes slow and a bit wordy with too many amazing coincidences and all the bows tied on all the happy endings. But underneath that, there are some great glimpses into life back then - the parenting, the values, the slow life. And sometimes, especially during a pandemic, its nice to read a well written book with a happy ending and some beautiful descriptions of nature and love along the way.

Laddie is my Back to the Classics "Classic by a woman author" selection.  

Classics Challenge - Adaption - 2 for 1 deal! Sanditon/Emma

My plan was to read and review Sanditon. I did read it. And I liked it. Of course, it's greatest flaw is that it is unfinished. I read it in the form of this  which was completed by another author. The Austen part was a great set-up and I have no doubt she would have finished it well. Some of the secondary characters like Parker siblings are just classic Austen figures. I loved them. So much potential, why did she had die so young!

And while for the purposes of this review, I'm pretty much sticking to the classic part, the ending which I believe was added in the 70s, was not horrific. Unlike the PBS series which started out promising with a few odd sections (like what is going on with those "siblings" and why does the heroine never wear her hair up!) and within a few episodes was cring worthy. Then the ending made a bad situation worse. Just don't. Don't. It was so bad I just couldn't even make it my Classics Challenge selection because I need to pretend that adaption doesn't exist.

So because that was so vile, I had to get the taste of bad Austen out of my mouth and started re-reading some of her other works. Some in written form, some in audio. While I often struggle with audiobooks for initial reads, I find them great for re-reading books I love and know well. Because I'm not totally lost if it gets loud for a second or I zone out and it prevents me from skimming and forces me to really take in the story at a slower pace. And with the quarentine, I went ahead and got Emma. so now I can at least have a good adaption to ponder for my real Classics Challenge selection.

Emma. My first Austen. My favorite Austen for many years . It might be surpassed by Persuasion now. But nostalgia comes back when I read or watch it so I'd actually have to say its a tie and whichever I'm currently reading is my favorite.

It really does hold up to repeated reads. It's so witty and funny. The characters are both amusing but also not dickensian. You can imaging actually meeting these people.  A lot of time you might not want to, but you can! I was struck by how different Emma feels from other Austen's works in that it was so very home centered. Emma didn't travel to Bath or London. It's all about her home and community which seemed very relevant right now.

I've heard others say it isn't the best introduction to Austen but I think for teens, it's great. At least it was for me. I totally felt like Emma as a teen. I wanted to do something, to be somebody and at times, I thought it all figured out. As does Emma. But as a teen (or 30-something) when you figure out that maybe the world still wouldn't be perfect if everybody just acted the way you want them to and you don't have all the answers, it's nice to have the idea of Emma and the family and community that still love her, faults and all, to depend on.

Now onto the movie. It was surprisingly good. I'll admit I was skeptical.

I knew it would be beautiful. And it was.

I knew the costumes would be aamzing. And (with a few oddball pieces as exceptions - Why was Frank Churchill wearing stretchy pants?), they were.

It was just so enjoyable to see onscreen. And hear, the music was delightful. It features a bit more prominently than I was expecting but I did like it.

 But my worries were that the previews had portrayed it almost farsical. And besides knowing Miranda Hart would make an excellent Ms. Bates, I wasn't so sure about some of the casting.

Johnny Flynn did not strike me as Mr. Knightley. But, it was kind of amusing but at the time I was watching it, I was also reading Mansfield Park and it struck me as similar - although I'm not sure that's a compliment to myself!

Her brother was not handsome: no, when they first saw him he was absolutely plain, black and plain; but still he was the gentleman, with a pleasing address. The second meeting proved him not so very plain: he was plain, to be sure, but then he had so much countenance, and his teeth were so good, and he was so well made, that one soon forgot he was plain; and after a third interview, after dining in company with him at the Parsonage, he was no longer allowed to be called so by anybody. He was, in fact, the most agreeable young man the sisters had ever known, and they were equally delighted with him. 

So he did grow on me. It's a very different sort of telling of Mr. Knightley's part of the story than Gwenyth Paltrow version that I am also fond on, I really liked him in the role. He played the line between showing his emotions and frustrations and being a bit more privately bumbling and still being the dignified gentleman in public. He might have been my favorite actor to play him which is saying a lot because Mr. Knightley is my favorite male book character. Yes, he beats Mr. Darcy. Now, I still really like the Jeremy Northam's Mr. Knightley a lot too. Neither is quite the book Knightley but there is room in my movie life for both versions.

Ms. Bates and Mr. Woodhouse were as expected, wonderful although they didn't get a lot of screen time. In fact, I can't say I disliked any of the cast. Emma herself wasn't my favorite part of the movie but she did a good job and Anya Taylor-Joy does a good job with her faces.

But my one disappointment was that it really did rely on the facial acting and the scenery and costume to tell a lot of the story. They did the job well but I found it didn't have the verbal wit I love about Austen's works. I am pretty flexible with my views on adaptations in that I don't mind them changing lines or scenes as long as they stay true to the book's ideas and don't stray towards obnoxiously anachronstic. I like both the the movie and the books endings of North and South for example. I didn't mind the nosebleed nor have a problem with Mr. Knightley's tuches making an appearance and I don't really fault this version for not having the verbal wit because it just went a different direction, I just missed it. On of my favorite scenes is when Emma and Mr. Knightley have there little verbal spat over Harriet and I think it is so because its on of the few where the words are really flying in a way that reminds me of the book.

Emma/Sandition is (are?) my Adaption Classics for the Back to the Classic's challenge. 

Classics Challenge: How the Heather Looks

Wrote this post in June and forgot to post it (hence the "going there soon" part - although soon wasn't as soon as we expected)

How the Heather Looks is a travel memoir about a family with two young kids who explores Britain by visiting places they know for children's literature. It's also an Ambleside Online book from Year 7.  I liked this but not as much as I expected too. It just felt uneven. Some chapters were lovely and some were a bit draggy, I did enjoy hearing about the way one traveled 50s. The lack of information and pre-planned stops would have given me a heart attack before we even got there! As much as I love books, I felt like they didn't really experience the best of Britain in their travels, or maybe the author just didn't record them. 

And part of it might just be personality. As much as I love books and Britain, I don't really focus on setting in the way the author does. I'm perfectly happy to imagine Toad Hall and leave it at that and while I am excited about traveling to specific spots to learn about certain authors but I wouldn't have thought to look for the Hundred Acre woods. Although perhaps that is a benefit of the book, thinking about how author's locations and the scenery of the life becomes a part of their stories. I do think reading this knowing I'm going there soon may have put me in a different frame of mind reading it than my kids will have when they reach year 7 so it will be interesting to discuss it with them.

(And for goodness sakes, don't read the afterward. Enjoy the slice of life of the family for what it is. And that's all I'll say about that!)

How the Heather Looks is my Back to the Classic Challenge selection for the Classic with Nature in the Title category. 

Classics Challenge: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

I'm sure I've read this in the past but I have no idea when that was. This time I read this to the two big kids (8 and 10 yrs old) and I know I enjoyed it more as a read-aloud than I would have by myself. For one, the dialogue is a lot of fun and I really like doing voices. 

 It's also fun to be able to read it and see the bigger pictures of what Twain is trying to say (less so in this than Huck Finn but he still has his points to make) while the kids are enjoying it on a more face-value, but no less enjoyable, level. They just fell apart laughing at the school-teacher episode or the playing pirates chapter and were wide-eyes when Tom and Becky were in the cave.

Also, boys have been boys from the beginning of time. Having my own boy who does not see the point in showers or full sets of clothing and who is kind hearted and hard working but also completely willing to trick his sibling into doing his work for him brought a motherly level of humor to this selection - especially read to said boy and watching him scoff at the same antics in others. 

Overall, it reminded me that before classics were "classics" they were just books that people liked. Ones kids read because they wanted to not because they were supposed to. I'd be a bit sad to leave it behind but we have A Christmas Carol and some Tolkien's Christmas letters to get to so I don't have time to miss it. But I'll put in back on the shelf to be read again to all the kids in a few years.

The Adventures of Tom Saywer is my Back to the Classics 19th Century Classic selection. 

Classics Challenge - Death on the Nile

I love a good mystery. And Agatha Christie does write good mysteries. I always feel the answer is within my grasp and I'm starting to figure it out but I can't get quite there. Which is really what I want my mysteries to do - find that perfect balance between too hard to solve and too easy. This one did exactly that. And she often has some deeper ideas in there to ponder which I enjoy from a mystery as well. Makes me feel better about using them as light/escape reading. In this specific novel, I also enjoyed several of her side characters quite a bit and found the set-up and setting intruguing. It was a great quick and fun mystery for quarenting times.

I only wish I liked her mystery solvers a little better. Poiret is not my favorite. I like Tommy and Tuppence a bit more but Poirot is much easier for me to get from the library so I keep returning to him. But I'm also re-reading Peter Wimsey and I just enjoy him so much more. I do find the mystery part of Dorothy Sayers a bit more convuleted than a Christie novel but liking the detective goes a long way to overcoming that obstacle.

Of course, there is room in my life for many mystery writers so it need not be a competition.

Death in the Nile is my Back to the Classics Place in the Title selection.

Classics Challenge - The Odyssey

So I just wrote a whole post about my experience reading The Odyssey only to get to the end and realize I didn't really talk about the actual poem at all. So that's this post's job.

It's not an easy job. I normally love talking about books and putting up my Back the the Classics mini-reviews. But it does feel a tad ridiculous at times when the book your are talking about is such a classic - like when I read a Shakespeare play or this poem and say "yep, it's good." The idea that my opinion of the quality of a piece of literature that has stood the test of time this long just makes me laugh. So I won't "review" it but I will talk about what I found surprising.

- The pacing was so different from what I expected! I knew some of the basics going in but it takes a while to even meet Odysseus. Then once we do, he gets home surprisingly quickly (in terms of pages of the book, not chronology of the poem!), then it slows down again. I actually loved this. I'm sure there were lots of deep reasons for it all and I will ponder that for a while but I just find it enjoyable when a book surprises me and I get to the point in the story where I'm expecting it to end but I know it can't because I'm holding it in my hand and I see there are more pages. It's a thrill. Like pulling up grubs in a cucumber patch!*

- The references to greek stuff that I'm starting to get because of my other readings. Understanding things that I know I wouldn't have recognized is another thrill. So anytime a name popped up that I recognized (mostly from the D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths I read the kids last summer and the Age of Fable Lucy and I are reading now), I got pretty excited. Don't get me wrong, I got lost a lot and tried not to get too bogged down with exactly who all the individuals were but I was also pretty surprised at how often I  recognized a name!

- How the repetion of certain phrases starts to stick in your brain. I read the Fagles version because I happened to find it on our library's free shelf (and tried to read it but gave up before trying again this spring - hence putting this one in my Abandoned Classic catagory) but I've heard really good things about Emily Wilson's translations and I'd like to try my hand at that one but I've heard that she doesn't use the same phrases over and over again as much as other translations and I think I would find that sad. Those repetative ones are the parts that stick. I was reading something that suddenly had the word Dawn and immedietely my mind when to "rose red fingers" and it made me smile. Smiling over poetry, me? Who knew!

*catch the reference? Anyone?

The Odyssey is my Back to the Classic Challenge - Abandoned Classic selection.

I did it! I did it!

I did it! What did I do? I finished The Odyssey! I'm not sure I've been more proud of myself for reading as much as this. I'll get to that in a minute but first I have to take a moment to thank the little guy in this sucess story - narration!

Narration! I love narration. My (school aged) kids have to narrate all their (school) books for every single reading. I'm just that mean of a mom ;-) But that doesn't mean I'm always quick to use it myself. Because it's kinda hard and I'm kinda lazy. True story.

However, I do believe in it's "power" so when I was really overwhelmed at the beginning of this book and  I was starting to just skim it and lose track of what story within a story I was at. So I stopped and got a notebook and started writting down my narrations. I had to stop a lot but suddenly I understood so much more! It was clicking and it was fun. Then my joint pain started up again so I switched a voice memo app I have on my phone for Lucy's narrations. That worked too. Funny thing though. When I stopped using the app and just tried to narrate to myself outloud, it didn't work. My brain knew I could fudge it too easily. So back to the memo app I went. Because it is work but fruitful work and reading something but not really understanding it feels like such a waste of time. I'd rather spend more time but get something out of it!

Lucy even "caught" me once and asked what I was doing. It was neat to share that I was choosing to do narrations because it was helping me understand. She asked who was listening to them and laughed when I said "No one! I delete them when I'm done reading for the day."  She kinda rolled her eyes a bit at her weird mom but secretly I thinks she liked that I'm willing to do the same thing I assign.

And slowly but surely, I made it through, I actually did stop narrating towards the end but not because I was lazy, but because I got into the story and I was excited to read it. Which is huge. Back when I started learning more about Charlotte Mason and Classical education, I stumbled upon this idea of Ordo Amoris or rightly ordered affections, loving what is lovely and true and how loving what should be loved is really what virtue is all about. That was pretty deep and while it stood out to me back then, it's also been a concept I've come back to again and again to think about what it really means for me as a parent/teacher and as a person.

But even that initial introduction to this idea caused me to change how I viewed my opinion of certain subjects. Poetry being one of them. I had all these reasons why Poetry was not for me. I'm analytical, I like things black and white. I want to know I have the right answers and its not always clear what a poem is about or trying to say and I don't like being confused. I don't like flowery writing. Excuses, lots of them. But I stopped looking at poetry as the thing that was wrong but rather that it was a flaw in me that caused me to dislike poetry. A failing even.  Don't worry, I didn't get out the cat o'nine tails and start whipping myself but it WAS a big shift in my view. (Good) Poetry is good. I don't like poetry. Therefore, I am wrong. And I set out, to change myself. To re-order my affections.

I started really small. I knew I didn't actually hate all poetry. I liked A.A. Milne. So I started there and we read lots of that. Luckily this was around the time Lucy started AO Year 1 so I've gotten to go through her poetry schedule for 4 years with her. That certainly helped. And then I just kept picking up more and more, trying to get more challenging as I went. Some I loved (Beowulf!) and some I stumbled through (Dante's Inferno).

 And because I am a type A person, I did have an end goal. And you might be guessing it right about now - The Odyssey! Which is what makes this upcoming point so special to me. I've wanted to reach the end of the Odyssey for 4-5 years now! And it's not that now that I've read it that I have arrived, no, scary books have this tendancy to not feel very scary or intimidating once you've read them. The books I haven't read always seems much more important than the ones I have in terms of literary achievement. So I've got a lot more poems to read. But it does mean that I can no longer call myself someone who doesn't like poetry.

It also means, this thing, it works. Just like I believed in narration but as still so surprised what I use it and get such good results. Similarly, I have believed in the idea of ordering of affections and cultivating tastes enough to have structured our homeschool lives around those concepts for going on 5 years now and have no plans to change that in the future.

And yet, its huge relief to see that it's worked in my own life. I've taught myself to love what is good and true and beautiful about poetry. Actually, poetry has taught me to love what is true and good and beautiful in it. I've just gotten out of the way (and put in some time). Which seems so simple and yet, it's so huge! Life confirming huge! It's confirmation of what I've been doing all this time!  If it has worked for me, how much more so for my little people with their slightly more flexible minds. Homeschooling is not about seeing fruit quickly. But it is really nice to see some blossoms popping.