Boredom? And Bibliomania: Reading Jane Austen

Footnotes can have one of two effects: to cause a reader to flip eagerly to the back of the book to uncover the historical trivia... or to cause a reader to groan internally as she looks forwards to more scholarly notes taking away from the story. If you've ever read a Penguin Classics book, you'll know that footnotes are certainly a big part of them. To be honest, for some of the drier classic stories, I feel about the stories the same way I feel about footnotes: mildly interesting in a trivia sense, but maybe not worth the time.

Last year I was given three of Jane Austen's most classic books: Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and of course Pride and Prejudice. Though I guess I like the concept of Jane Austen--smart female characters, historic yet eternal virtues, sweet and modest romance, a hint of satire--I'll be the first to admit the language of Austen requires some self-determination to slog through. I've found one of the best sources of motivation is bibliophile friends (yes, yes, exactly like you, Willow) who gift you books! Classics are great to get as a gift because you're of course going to keep them forever and because you have someone to ask you if you've read them! (Did you read it yet? How far are you? Only four pages since I asked you last? What's your favorite part so far? Oooh, just wait until--actually, no, it'll spoil it for you. Nope, you're going to have to read it. Uh, yeah! You can read a fanfiction in a week, you can finish one Jane Austen. Come on.)

Another way I found is helpful specifically for Pride and Prejudice is an amazing YouTube channel known as The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. It's a modern-day remix of the classic: Lizzie is a "twenty year old grad student with a mountain of student loans" and a YouTube vlog featuring herself, her sisters, and her best friend Charlotte Lu. Similarly, I have friends who have never read Pride and Prejudice who eagerly follow Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the new movie.

I have the utmost admiration for any diehard Janeites able to settle down comfily in an armchair with a Penguin Classic, a bookmark, a mug of warm tea, and supreme happiness. However, I'll have to resort to peer pressure and remixes for myself! I'd definitely recommend this method, though. After all, though books offer nothing to sneeze at, having a friend and a laptop at your side can't hurt!

Happy reading!
~Citali

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige: Villains Week

Dorothy Must Die is an amazing book by Danielle Paige and is my first post for Villains Week!

This book is one of the weirder classics remixes that I've read: the concept is that Dorothy, instead of going happily home to Kansas, returned to Oz, hungry for power. Becoming princess, she's changed Oz for the worse... the Good are now wicked, and the Wicked are good. Or are they?

Amy Gumm is the Other Girl from Kansas, arriving in Oz also via tornado. As she moves towards the Emerald City, she learns terrifying things about Dorothy's new regime and is recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked on a mission: kill Dorothy. But who's really Good? Who's really Wicked? Where should Amy stand?

Definitely a teen book with some unpleasantly graphic descriptions of the violence, magical and otherwise, of the evils of Dorothy and her sidekicks, plus some unnecessarily inappropriate references.

However, I do kind of like the plot twists and worldbuilding here. I've read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and while I can't say I think L. Frank Baum would agree with this book, he might chuckle at it or at least be interested. With the total reversal of Good and Wicked, you never know who the villains are. The characters, too, are interesting, definitely dynamic. Indigo with her tattoos, Jellia, Maude and Ollie, and the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked too, they all are people I want to know better, to find out what happens to them.

I'd say three stars for the excellence with characters and plot, although the theme is definitely not my style. It's certainly memorable in that I will never see Dorothy or Oz the same way again!

Three stars

Happy reading!

~Citali

Emily of New Moon: Classics Week

Less ardent fans might not recognize Emily of New Moon, but many probably recognize Anne of Green Gables. Emily is the raven-haired, authoress, proud, calm and cool, and striking L. M. Montgomery heroine: almost diametrically opposite to blazing redhead, mischievous, caring Anne.

Emily Byrd Starr belongs to the clan of the Murrays of New Moon, a clan known for their pride, "clannishness", and old-fashioned ways. When her loving father dies, the proud Murrays draw lots to take in the child of whom they disapprove, fearing she has the rebellious nature of her Murray mother, Juliet, who eloped. Growing up at New Moon, the most ancestral of all the Murray homes, Emily continues her imagination of sprites like the Wind Woman, writes letters to her father in heaven, and writes poems and stories. But she also develops a small part of that Murray pride as well as friends with whom she will go far and wide.

Emily (the books as well as the character) is a little more dark (no hair-color pun intended) and, romantically, less "fairy-tale perfect" and more agonized than perfectly domestic Anne. However, Emily resounds with me more because of her thoughfulness, imagination, maturity, and love life: love for books and writing and nature.

Emily of New Moon is followed by Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest. Similar to Anne, most of the actual plot happens in the sequels, but they refer to many incidents from Emily of New Moon. Personally, I think the sequels are better, with more character development and more interesting events (although the first is amazing!) so you should definitely read those. Also better cover art, haha.

Five stars!

Happy reading,

~Citali