Top Ten Tuesday: Rewind (Books at the Top of my TBR).

It's Top Ten Tuesday! Today's topic was to do a "rewind" of a past topic, and I'm very excited about that. Just a couple of weeks ago, the folks at The Broke and the Bookish had a topic for books on our Spring TBR. This was in the midst of my absence, and I was bummed I missed it. To be honest, the TBR posts are my favorites to read and write!

So, I thought it would be fitting to talk about the ten books at the top of my TBR pile for the coming months. A couple I have started and need to return to, but all are titles I want to read as soon as I can. :)

Let me know what books you're planning to read!

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: I started this WAY back in January. I've picked it up here and there, but I'm still only 200 or so pages into it (I know I finished the first and second part). I really like it, but I have a hard time diving into it. This is definitely one I want to finish!
2. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Another one I have started and need to finish. This is a good one (very different from Gatsby, which I LOVE).
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: I've been craving a really thick, American novel. I've never read this (!) and I think it would be the perfect fit right now. I do love some Steinbeck...
4. The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather: This will be the 6th book for my Willa Cather Project! I read the first few pages a month ago, but I set it aside and haven't touched it. I really want to finish my Cather exploration by the end of the year, so I need to kick it up a notch.
5. Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien: We're approaching the Vietnam unit in my history classes, so I think this would be the perfect fit for me as I teach that unit. I loved The Things They Carried, so I have high hopes. This will also count for my TBR Pile Challenge!
6. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott: I just got a pretty new Penguin English Library (PEL) edition of this last week and boy, the pretty cover makes me want to dive in! It seems like such a fun story, so perhaps I'll grab this one soon! And again, another title for my TBR Challenge!
7. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: I put this one on my nightstand in February, but its been lingering there ever since. I think it's one I need to read sooner rather than later, so hopefully I get to this one soon. This will count towards my Back to the Classics Challenge!
8. Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: I adore Hardy, and since I know this one is a favorite of many, I keep meaning to read it. I just got this in the PEL edition, so the pretty cover is sucking me in, just like Ivanhoe. This is another for the Back to the Classics Challenge!
9. Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore: I flew through Graceling and Fire, so I know I'll feel the same way about this one. Cashore is talented and can write an EPIC fantasy. But this is one I need to sink into in one long sitting (perhaps for the readathon coming up?).
10. On the Road by Jack Kerouac: This is another one that I can't believe I haven't read yet. I had Kerouac as an extra credit MVP for my history classes a week ago, and since then, I've been eying this on my bookshelf. :) Yet another for my TBR Challenge!

This Side of Paradise Winner!

I'm here to announce the winner of This Side of Paradise! The publisher has donated a copy and will be sending it to my lucky winner...

Congrats to Lori of The Coffee Girl!

I will be e-mailing you shortly to get your mailing information.

Thank you to everyone for entering!

Weekly Wrap-up for April 14, 2013: Musings and Chores.

It was a crazy first week back from vacation, but I was productive and things are going well. My sophomores are in the midst of their American Author research project and my history classes are finishing up the Great Society with LBJ (we start the Civil Rights Movement on Wednesday). Now that we are on the other side of Spring Break, there is an end in sight. :)

This weekend was filled with a lot of chores, so I'm just sitting down to get a few things set for the week. I spent yesterday relaxing and taking care of a few things around the apartment (my knees/hips/ankles have been killing me this week, so minimal walking) until Matt got home. We went out to dinner and decided to go see Jurassic Park in 3D at the theater. :) It was a lot of fun. I'm still a bit amazed at how good the special effects are 20 years later. I jumped in a few parts-dinosaurs in 3D are a bit frightening!

Today we slept in, went to get brunch, then I went grocery shopping. I hate grocery shopping on Sundays, but we had nothing in the fridge and I'm sick of quick meals. I stocked up on pantry staples and came home to a scrubbed out fridge (thanks Matt!) and a clean apartment. I've been cooking and prepping things for the week since then, including doing a few more loads of laundry. Chili is bubbling in the crockpot and I have chicken marinating in the fridge (with plans to grill it up tonight for salads throughout the week).

All in all, it has been a very relaxing weekend after a stressful week. I am looking forward to this week, especially since I will have a bit more time IN school to grade and prep. With my English kids researching throughout the week, I have some time to grade their projects!

I'm also hoping to get in some reading at night. I was planning on finishing This Side of Paradise this weekend, but I seem to have run out of time. I'm sure I'll read a bit tonight, but not enough to finish. :)

Alright, time to change the load of laundry, stir the chili, and get that chicken cooked. Hope you all have a great week!

The Classics Club April Meme.

Every month, The Classics Club asked members to respond to a question for the Monthly Meme. Surprisingly, I don't participate in the meme that often, and I'm a moderator! Shame on me! ;)

In any case, I've loved the last few questions, so I'm making it a point to participate.

For the month of April, the club asks,

"“Who is hands-down the best literary hero, in your opinion? Likewise, who is the best heroine?”

I immediately thought of 3 names-1 hero and 2 heroines.

The hero that jumped into my mind is actually one of the characters that inspired my blog. Dear old Odysseus from Homer's The Odyssey is a phenomenal hero. He went off to war to support his countrymen and left his family behind. Then, he struggled home and battled monsters, men, and creatures. And, once home, he had to battle the leeching men who had moved into his home and abused his wife's kindness. But what I most love about Odysseus is his imperfections. He is not a perfect hero-he is an adulterer, he is quick to violence, and sometimes he just makes the gods angry. But he fought and survived to find a place at home. He never gave up and continued to battle each challenge that came his way. I can admire that and attempt to emulate it.

In terms of heroines, there are two women that immediately jumped to mind, and since both are similar in nature, I can talk about them at once. I'm thinking of Lily Bart from Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth and Isabel Archer from Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady. Both women are victims of their circumstances. Both have been abused by society and have to suffer under society's expectations, but both women maintain a strength and a dignity that I would love to have. They survive through their intelligence and challenge where it is necessary. And the ends of both of their stories leave my heart aching a bit. The fact that I hold them so close to my heart shows how much I love, respect, and honor the power of their stories.

So there you have it, my idea for the best literary hero/heroines. Please let me know who you would pick!

Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather (The Willa Cather Project).

Alexander's Bridge was Cather's first published novel, debuting in 1912, one year before O Pioneers! I knew that this one wasn't part of the "pioneer" series, so I was curious what early Cather would look like.

The novel is about Bartley Alexander, a world renowned bridge builder and his wife. The Alexanders live a wonderful life in America, supported by the success of Bartley and his constructions. And while Bartley has been successful and his wife supportive, he still finds the need to engage in an affair with Hilda, his old flame who lives in London.

As he continues to live his life, its obvious that Bartley has struggled to keep tabs on exactly who he is and what he wants from life. In conversations with his wife, it becomes apparent that Bartley has become a man of inaction. That seems surprising. I'm sure that anyone who is successful at their craft will vouch for the fact that they had to take action and make decisions to get to that level of success. Bartley, at the point in which the reader meets him, doesn't take action. He goes with the flow-he allows his wife to dictate their home life, he agrees to poor materials being used for his new construction. He doesn't make an effort.

This is where Cather's whole metaphor comes into play and the title of the novella. Hilda and Bartley's affair in London is his bridge to the past and his decisions to take action. To make something of himself and change his fortune. His relationship with his wife is the bridge to the man he has become. A man of inaction and poor decision. Then, of course, there is the bridge itself. The bridge is a product of who Bartley has become-a man of weak constitution, a man impacted by the elements around him, and a man who is ready to crumble at any moment.

So of course there is the ultimate climax where Bartley is tested as a man and the results of these bridges and their connections to Bartley come to a head.

And while I loved the concept of this, I didn't love the end result. I actually found the book to be too short and too obvious. It was clear after only the first 20 pages what the end result would be, and what kind of a man Bartley would turn out to be. But, I also found that Bartley wasn't developed enough. I didn't care enough about him to worry about his decisions, or to wonder why he changed to being a man of inaction and poor decision making. And the bridge metaphor? It was just...obvious.

After reading some other reviews online and insights from the Willa Cather archives, it's clear that this novel was more plot driven than character driven. From my own experiences with two of Cather's other novels (My Antonia and O Pioneers!), Cather eventually shifts more attention to her characters, and personally, I find that to be more successful. And, generally speaking, I love character driven novels more than plot driven anyway.

In all, I enjoyed the novella and the concept behind it. I just found Cather's inexperience as a novelist to be a bit too apparent. I know her next novel was O Pioneers! so I am looking forward to seeing that transition in action.

*This title was read as a part of The Willa Cather Project-my focused attempt to read Cather's complete works in chronological order. Click on the link for more information about the project and my goals.*