Words of Wisdom

When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they?

-Virginia Woolf 

Poet's Love

"My mind has been the most discontented and restless one that was ever was put into a body too small for it. I never felt my mind repose upon anything with complete and undistracted enjoyment- upon no person but you. When you are in the room my thoughts never fly out of window; you always concentrate my whole senses."

John Keats to Fanny Brawne  

Self-Reliance

And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not pinched in a corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but redeemers and benefactors, pious aspirants to be noble clay; under the almighty effort let us advance on Chaos and the Dark.

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Summer Reading List

Summer is my favorite time to tackle a huge list of books I have dying to read all school year. Here's some of my list for the 2013 summer.

Currently Reading The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl- This is a literary mystery that takes place after the death of Charles Dickens. He dies in the midst of writing his last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The novel is being published in monthly installments in a magazine, and the story is left unfinished by Dickens. His publishing house sends a young clerk to receive the final pages of what is finished of the story, when the clerk is murdered and the pages are missing a search ensues for the missing pages of the manuscript. I enjoy literary fiction, and I am enjoying this novel so far.

Now for a few books off my summer reading list, click the tittle of the book for a link to the books!

The World's Greatest Love Letters complied by Michael Kelahan- includes letters from Napoleon, Henry the VIII, John Keats, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen- I have yet to read this classic, and this summer feels like the perfect time for a little Jane Austen.

The Beautiful and the Dammed by F. Scott Fitzgerald- I have previously mentioned my love of Fitzgerald, this is the last novel of his that I have yet to read, I'm excited to dive in.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon- another literary mystery

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran

There is just a sampling of the unread books currently residing on my book shelf. Happy reading!

Recently Read: This Side of Paradise

Ever since discovering F. Scott Fitzgerald in my Junior year of high school's American Literature class, he has become one of my favorite authors. I have read most of his books, and a few of his short stories. Most recently, I have read This Side of Paradise. I enjoyed it, although it is not my favorite book of his.

The novel's main character Amory is intelligent, rebellious, and a little unsure of what he wants out of life. The novel follows him through his years at a university and shortly after he graduates. The book is said to be semi-autobiographical of Fitzgerald, some characters are based on people from his life, and some events based on events from his life, which adds an interest factor to the novel.

 

 

As always, Fitzgerald's characters are marvelous, over the top, and extremely complicated and deep. The reader begins to learn the habits and flaws of Amory at the start of the book and sees them continuing throughout Amory's university years. I find Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda to be fascinating people, and I believe Fitzgerald to be a truly fantastic novelist. I would recommend this book as well as Fitzgerald's other works.