Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 109

"Anne's House of Dreams" by L.M. Montgomery

I remember not liking this one much when I was a teen.  It was too... mushy, too sentimental, too sad, too sweet, too happy, too boring.  Too grown-up.

This is why I re-read books.  Because this time through, I really liked this book.  Yes, there was a serendipitously happy coincidence that only the Victorians could ever think was a good idea for a plot.  But there was so much genuine feeling in this book -- real sorrow, real joy, deep friendships, abiding love, and so...

Jane Eyre Read-Along: Chapter 2

Well that turned Gothic in a hurry, didn't it?  I'm always disappointed that Mr. Reed's ghost doesn't return to punish his family for maltreating his niece.  He disappoints me, that uncle of Jane's.

But anyway, wow, so much going on in this chapter.  Jane resists her captors as they drag her to the Red Room, which she says is "a new thing for me" (p. 17).  We can tell she's been inwardly resisting people and ideas for a while already, but this is the first time she put up a...

"The Murder of Mary Russell" by Laurie R. King

You may recall that I was so excited/concerned/thrilled/worried about the title of the latest novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes that I actually posted about it last year when King revealed the title and cover art.  Well, it finally came in for me at the library, and I devoured this book in two days.  One night, I stayed up until almost midnight reading it, without realizing how time was flying.  I finished it the next day.  Although I've only rea...

Jane Eyre Read-Along: Chapter 1

The first copy of JE I owned
myself had this cover.  My friend 
Julie gave it to me for my 18th 
birthday, and I took it to college.Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd I just lost everything I'd written about this chapter.  ARGH!  A whole, beautiful, completely finished post down the tube because I got interrupted by a little mouse who should have been asleep an hour ago, come to complain that he was lonely.  Sigh.


Okay, well, I will try to reconstruct my t...

Jane Eyre Read-Along: Preface to the Second Edition

Welcome to my Jane Eyre Read-Along!  I've been looking forward to this all year :-)  Jane Eyre is my absolute favorite novel.  I've read it all the way through five or six times, beginning when I was about sixteen, so twenty years or so ago.  But I've been known to read my favorite parts over and over and over, so some sections I'm very familiar with indeed.  I also studied it in college, and I'll be using some of the notes I made then for this.  If I g...

"Much Ado About Anne" by Heather Vogel Frederick

Since I'm reading all the Anne books this year, I figured this was a good time to pull out Much Ado About Anne and read it too!  Like the other two books I've read in this series, it was an enjoyable read.  I like the girls in this club better and better with every book, and even though I hadn't read one in over a year, I was able to slip right back into the series with no hitches at all.  

I don't have a lot to say about this book -- it's a fun, fast read, but digs into so...

What My Kids are Reading #6

Man, it's been a long time since I posted one of these.  We finished school a little over a week ago, so now I finally have a bit more time for posts again.  (We usually finish off mid-May and then start again mid-July because May and June are lovely weather here, but by mid-July it's so hot and sticky outside we're all just staying inside most of the day anyway, so might as well be doing school.)

Here are some of the books my kids have been enjoying lately!  My mother-in-law br...

"And Now Tomorrow" by Rachel Field

I can't believe I hadn't read this before now.

I mean, I spent like 20 years trying to find the 1944 movie version after seeing part of it on TV when I was a teen.  I knew it was an adaptation of a book.  But I never tried to find the book until after they'd released the movie to DVD and I'd finally seen the whole thing.  Silly me.  All the years I've spent without this enriching experience!

Because wow, did I love this book.  I also love the movie, but the book is...

Would You Rather, LOTR Edition

Cordy is hosting a LOTR Week on her blog, Write On, Cordy!  For the event, she's posted this tag, which I thought looked fun, so here are my answers...


1. You have been tasked with your own quest, your own fellowship has been gathered, and you have the pick of one last member, would you rather choose Eomer or Imrahil to join you on your journey? 

Eomer.  I mean, I do love Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth, but he's only my like 7th favorite character, and Eomer ties with Gandalf for m...

"Lost Lake House" by Elisabeth Grace Foley

I sometimes hate reading books on my Kindle app because if I don't blog about them right when I finish them, I forget to review them because I don't have a physical book sitting on the desk to remind me to write up a review.  Sigh.  Such is what happened with Elisabeth Grace Foley's latest novella.

This doesn't mean I didn't like this book!  Because I did.  It's set during Prohibition, an era I find fascinating.  There's almost a little bit of a Gatsby feel to it,...