First Impressions/Brain Dump

It wasn't Mrs. Dalloway.  Which is not fair at all, because Mrs. Dalloway is one of my most favorite of books.

I did like seeing how Woolf used the same stream of consciousness frame in the two stories.  I love the juxtaposition between the perfect English house (though in the Hebrides quite a way from England!) and the inner turmoil of Mrs. Ramsay

I didn't think I was making much of a connection with the characters, but I kept reading.  And then I hit the second section.  And when I read "[Mr. Ramsay, stumbling along a passage one dark morning, stretched his arms out, but Mrs. Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, his arms, though stretched out, remained empty]" I felt like I had been punched in the chest.  So I guess I was wrong about not connecting.

I finished it a few weeks ago (which is like dog years to me in terms of past books).  So now that the kids are in bed, I'm going to do some reading online about this book.  I'm excited to hear your thoughts!

November 4!

Hi all,

It is 9:30pm on November 4 and I just got home from work. I would love to post but my mind is mush. I'll talk to you tomorrow when I've revived! Miss you two.

Sarah

Just started but...

...I couldn't resist sharing this passage on the house being shabby:  “for they were gifted, her children, but all in quite different ways.  And the result of it was, she sighed, taking in the whole room from floor to ceiling…that things got shabbier and got shabbier summer after summer.”

Love it!  Blame the brilliance of my children for the mess of my house!  Yeah, that’s the ticket!

It Has Been Decreed

(By me.  Just now.)  To the Lighthouse, November 4th.  Yay us!

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?

She looks pretty harmless. I think I've only ever read A Room of One's Own. I am up for trying To The Lighthouse. Besides, how could I pass up reading"one of the greatest elegies in the English language, a book which transcends time,” a book considered to be "one of the two or three finest novels of the twentieth century?!" I can't. To The Lighthouse!

game plan?

To quote the Jungle Book vultures: "I don't know; What do you want to do?" I would be happy to start a new book. But it sounded like Never Let Me Go had been on your reading list for a bit and I don't want to skip over your pick. How about this: we'll move on with Natalie's pick and but whenever you do read it, we can circle back and talk about it then? What do you two think?

Natalie, did you post about Gabby and then delete it? I'm sorry she had that experience. And that the point of the anti-bullying curriculum was lost on her classmates. Blech. But the photo of you all in your Dolphins gear was terrific! Go Team Emiliani!

Another Deadline Blows By

Well, the suggestion of finishing by August 22 has come and gone.  Anyone read it?  I've tried, but I'm not having much luck.  I've been on vacation and have had plenty of reading time, but it just wasn't compelling enough for me to stick with it.  I can't really put my finger on what it is that I don't particularly like.  I intend to keep trying, though.  Unless, of course, you both tell me otherwise.