Dana Swier Huff's Blog, page 92
January 16, 2010
Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde was in Atlanta last night for a reading, Q & A, and book signing, and I had the opportunity to purchase his latest novel, Shades of Grey, which is a departure from his "books about books"—the Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series. I brought my daughter with me, and she found the premise of his new book intriguing. It is set in the distant future after some catastrophic event, and the people who inhabit this post-apocalyptic society can only see one color. Accordingly, they...
January 9, 2010
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë
I have just completed Syrie James's novel The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë. Depending on your knowledge of the Brontës' biographies, this review may be a bit spoilery. As an English teacher, I knew a fair amount, but I learned a great deal more than I previously knew about the Brontës from this book.
First and foremost, Syrie James has carefully and lovingly researched the Brontës in order to write this book: a fact which shines from every page. I have often said I wished I could sit...
January 2, 2010
Reading and Changing
The New York Times reviews Stanislas Dehaene's new book Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of Human Invention. The review discusses some interesting insights regarding our brains and reading. I thought the insights regarding how we read differently now in the Internet age were especially intriguing given my task as an English teacher.
NPR examines how e-books are changing reading as well. Some folks considered it a big shocker when more e-books than paper books were sold this...
January 1, 2010
Shelfari and Reading Updates
Before I curl up with my books, I wanted to mention two things. First, I joined Shelfari today. I resisted joining another network because I am very happy at Goodreads. I am a member of LibraryThing, but unless you agree to pay for a membership, you are limited to only 200 books, so I am not at all active at LibraryThing. You might not remember this, but back in 2007 a controversy over the fact that Shelfari did not used to allow users to easily uncheck the names of contacts they did not...
December 31, 2009
Reading Year in Review
Last year, I reflected on my year in reading, and I felt it appropriate to do so this year as well. If I were feeling really ambitious, I would reflect on the decade, but I'm frankly not feeling that ambitious—well, other than to say my favorite reads of the decade are J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
This year I read or listened to 29 books (six more than last year), the first of which was The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, my favorite new author discovery of the year. I read the following ...
Outlander
[image error]I first read Diana Gabaldon's novel Outlander in about 1998 or 1999. I remember loving it. In fact, I liked it so much that my first early forays into creating websites were focused on a Diana Gabaldon fan site. For the uninitiated, the Outlander series is the story of Claire, who takes an early morning walk to the standing stones at Craigh na Dun near Inverness while on her second honeymoon with her husband Frank Randall and finds herself nearly 200 years in the past. She is captured by...
December 30, 2009
The Fourth Bear
Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear is the second in his Nursery Crime series. Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt, head of the Nursery Crime Division, is investigating the disappearance and possible murder of Goldilocks. She was last seen alive by three bears, and things just don't add up. To top it off, deranged psychopathic murderer the Gingerbreadman has escaped from the mental hospital where he's been confined since Jack collared him twenty years ago, and he's on a murderous rampage.
OK...
HarperTeen's Appeal to Twilight Fans
The Wall Street Journal blog Speakeasy reports that the covers of the new HarperTeen editions of classics Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and Romeo and Juliet are designed to appeal to the Twilight audience. It's easy to see why:
The books resemble Twilight right down to the fonts, as the WSJ blog notes. My husband was aghast, but I say, hey, if it gets Twilight fans to pick up these books, I'm all for it. I do think it's a little misleading, though. These books are not exactly...
December 28, 2009
Typically British Reading Challenge
Yes! I found a new book challenge that's right up my alley. I'm an Anglophile, I teach British literature, and most of the reading I've done lately is British authors, so the Typically British Reading Challenge is perfect for me. I can't yet tell what books I will read for this challenge (I need to think about it and peruse my shelves), but I do intend to commit to "Gordon Bennett" Level and read four "typically British" books this upcoming year.
Some early contenders for this challenge are...
