Jane Austen, Eyes, Quotes from Bees

I've been doing a lot of reading since school is out for me. And so it's SUMMER!!!

Since I love Jane Austen, I do one "sequel" a month here on my blog. This month's "sequel" was called I was Jane Austen's Best Friend by Cora Harrison (Cora is an interesting name). It's a journal written by Jenny Cooper, Jane's cousin. I found it really amusing and I was glad it had a happy ending. I found the characters to be really fun and Jenny seemed like a normal 16-year-old-girl in England at the time--obsessed with the balls and gowns and needing to get married, like so many of Austen's own characters. A satisfying and quirky read.

The last book I read in English class was Their Eyes were watching God (see below for notes). I've decided to write some more on the novel. First off, it is by Zora Neale Hurston, a Harlem Renaissance writer. The novel is a buildingsroman and modernist work of the life of Janie, set in Florida. She marries as she matures. Her first marriage to Logan, an old farmer who does not treat her very well, is when she is 16 years old. She marries him due to her grandmother's wishes for her to have a secure marriage. But Janie is unsatisfied with it and wants to be in love, which is what this novel is ultimately about--her search for love. Janie runs off and marries Jody and they go to a town of all African Americans (There is little interaction of races). Jody keeps Janie from her true self, by making her cover her hair and working in the store doing events. Their relationship is best symbolized by the mule; the mule represents Janie--to Jody she is a symbol of his wealth and power. The store is ultimately Janie's prison.

When Jody dies, ten-something years later, Janie is set free. Her third marriage is her true one, where she has achieved love. The pear tree represents Janie's sexual awakening, where as the honey bee and honeysuckle represent her marriage to Tea Cake. Tea Cake is a younger commoner whom Janie falls in love with, even though he has no money. They go to the Muck--the Everglades--where Janie and Tea Cake work picking beans. The Muck represents the ideal life Janie has with Tea Cake. Then there's the hurricane. They are warned to get out by those going east, but they remain, with others who don't want to leave. Ultimately, all of Janie's marriages end (by death) and at the end Janie returns to the town and to the house she lived with Jody. Janie is telling this tale to her best friend Phoebe, the bearer of the tale. This is a modernist novel, if you look closely. At the end of it, Janie has found peace despite the storm and difficulties, love for herself despite society's judgments, and her voice to tell her story. Fabulously recommended.

I also read the Secret Life of Bees (see below) and I've also decided to post some quotes: 
Putting black cloths on the hives is for us. I do it to remind us that life gives way into death, and then death turns around and gives way into life.” -August, p.206
Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about” -August, p.148
"Some things don't matter much. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart--now, that matters. The whole problem with people is...they know what matters, but they don't choose it...The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."   (This one stuck with me)
And you can read more of her quotes here: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4711.Sue_Monk_Kidd
There are a lot of great ones, this is just a sample.  I'm so glad I read this book...I wish I owned it now!

Summer and Bees

HAPPY SUMMER!!!!!!!!!

I'm really glad that it's summer. Glad to be done with school, until next year. My latest read was the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

It's the story of Lily Owens, a fourteen-year-old girl who lives with her father, T.Ray, and sells peaches by the road. Lily's mother is dead, and Lily wants to know the secrets, needs to figure out the mystery of the things her mother left behind. And there is Rosaleen, the Negro stand-in mother for Lily. When Rosaleen insults three racists, Lily knows they both have to get out of there.

Tiburon, South Carolina, two hours away for where they live, has three Negro women--August, the leader, June the hard-hearted one, and May, the burdened spring-sister. Rosaleen and Lily spend the summer there with the three beekeepers. Lily keeps her own secrets until she is ready to tell August, who loves her. Lily learns that skin color doesn't matter--it's the heart that does. And with help, she learns how to fix her own heart.

I loved Bees; this was one of my favorite reads of the year--and a great way to begin the summer. Bees is ultimately about mothers and daughters and sisters and friends, and just relationships in general. How we are, how we act, and what matters in life. Lots of lessons in this book. It's about faith and carrying faith and hope inside and how real it is. It's about the secrets and pain and hurt that humans carried. That we all carry. Burdens. Lily learns about womanhood and standing up for herself and not being afraid.

Some summers stay with us forever. Floating in the air, like a breath. Memories that surround our lives and make us real, make us who we are. Or change us. Let us forget that we are mere humans. Nature consumes, loves, gives, takes away. Nature is a part of summer. Nature. Bees. And the summer is the time to learn the secrets, secrets of the heart, and the secrets of Nature--the secrets of bees.

Buildingsroman and Their Eyes were watching God

Buildingsroman: a coming of age novel
psychological, moral, and social maturity
protagonist grows from child to adult (maturity)
innocent to knowledgeable in ways of the world
told in connection to a journey
journey to maturity-impetos (reason)
example: loss, discontent, struggle
process is long, arduous (hard), repeated classes with society/societal expectations
protagonist moves away from conformity and ultimately accepts their role as an outsider within the society
lives in society, but remain individuals

Their Eyes were watching God
Themes:
resilience, especially in the face of loss and disaster
equality-little interaction between whites and blacks, race and gender
acceptance and value of self, despite being judged by society
experiencing life-not being a bystander
spirituality and its value, connection to the universe and earth, respect, (not religion)
Language:
dialect, followed by figurative language
Symbols:
Janie's hair-identity as a woman, individuality
clothing-overalls
the horizon-faith
the muck-love, Tea Cake
the pear tree-sexual awakening
Figurative language:
metaphor and imagery

Keeping Corner, Survival in the Storm, Out of the Dust

I feel a bit behind on blog posts. After this post, I need to do one on Farewell to Arms and The Great Gatsby, which we are reading or have read in English class.



My application at Booksneeze was accepted and I am awaiting the arrival of MacArthur America's General by Mitchel Yockelson and Stephen Mansfield. For my creative writing class, I am reading Angela's Ashes, the first fifty pages for Monday's discussion. I've been busy with ACT studying, hanging out at the park, and of course, reading.

Anyways, A few weeks ago I read Keeping Corner by Rashmira Sheth. It's the story of Leela, a widow, who has to shave her head and give up her bangles according to Indian custom. She must stay in her house for one year and mourn. She is encouraged to learn all she can and is taught by Saviben. She is also helped by her brother and cousin, Jaya, and Shani. Leela struggles to break free from her life as a widow forever, but accepts it for the year. It is a year where she learns much about herself and what she  wants for life, now that her life has changed. This novel is set during the Ghandi-era of India, and I found it quite interesting. The idea of satyagraha and how the outside world affects Leela, even though she cannot go out. But when she is is done, will she be able to, with the blessings of her family? I don't want to spoil this, but I encourage all of you to read it. Lots of good quotes like this one:
"Your inner self is an onion: you keep peeling it, and a new layer is always there."

I had to write a paper on the Dust Bowl for my history class, so I read Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards. I liked it, and it seemed really realistic of that time period. It's a little bit sad, since friends come and go, but ultimately Grace and her family survive the storm. (which refers to the Black Sunday duster).

I also read Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse for the paper. Here the book jacket summary:
At fourteen, Billie Jo has a great deal to forgive. Her father, for causing the accident that killed her mother. Her mother, for leaving when Billie Jo needed her mots. And she must forgive herself, for being the cause of her own sorrow. Daddy's too wrung out to help Billie Jo much, and there's no one else to care. So Billie Jo must heal herself--even if it means tearing up her roots, and leaving behind everything she's ever known. Set in the Oklahoma dust bowl during the Great Depression, Karen Hesse's spare and moving novel explores both the ecology of the land and the topography of the heart.
Written in poems by Billie Jo, this novel is raw and reveals the horrors of the dust, and the brokenness it caused in people and families.. And ultimately, how the land keeps us in one place, and the struggle to play the piano with burned hands--to overcome the dust. She learns that she cannot leave the land, but can escape the dust.

I also watched the Royal Wedding, or at least part of it. I'm really happy for William and Catherine. Best of Luck to them!

April Afternoons (4)

April Afternoons is happening here at MJAO every Tuesday (or Wednesday).

I've been really busy the past couple of weeks working on a historical fiction paper for class. Other than that I've also been working on a One-Act play, when I'm not doing math or chemistry even. Gosh I hate homework.

I joined Book Mooch so if any of you readers are on there you can friend request me if you like.

I also signed up to be review for Book Sneeze. I'm quite excited about that.

Last week on Amazon I ordered Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell and it came this week. It's 600 pages. I did not see that coming.

I'm saving it for summer reading, along with Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and the Three Books (below).

I'm also signing up for a Aussie Reading Challenge. I'm not an Aussie, by the way.

This is the button. It's suppose to go on the sidebar but I don't know how to put it there.

The Challenge is as following: Read at least 6 young adult books by Australian authors from 1^st January, 2011 to 31^st December, 2011.They can be old or new titles, however no re-reads.
 Books for the Challenge: (my picks)

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta
Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar
Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

I've already read (not for the challenge) The Book Thief (which I also own, too) and Jellicoe Road (which I don't own but would like to. Loved it.)

Wish me luck on this challenge and have a good April Afternoon! (it's raining where I'm at!)

April Afternoons (3)

April Afternoons happens here at MJAO every Tuesday for the month of April.
(Gosh, it's been a tough week!)
Did you know that April is National Poetry Month?
for famous poems by famous poets go to: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/top_poems.html

Anyways I don't really know what this blog post is on. (if you look at the date it's Wednesday, because I forgot.)

Oh yes, I finished reading Northanger Abbey!!!!!!!!!!!!

I understand why the Which Jane Austen character are you? why I was Catherine Morland. We are a lot alike her and I.
So I'm glad to have finished MJAO book for the month of April--and also for March and February.

I also read a book called Keeping Corner, based on a true story. Highly recommended. It is about a child widow in Gandhi-era India who studies to go to school in the city. When women become widows they had to shave their heads, give up their bangles and jewelry, wear only solemn colors (like black and brown) and have to keep corner--stay in their house for one year.

I also read Farewell to Arms by Hemingway in English Class, but that's for another post.

In my finance class we watched Confessions of a Shopaholic with the red-head. Highly recommended also.
And the movie was based off a book, and there's a series, and the author writes other books too...I'm psyched.

I don't have much to write--or time--so I guess this concludes my April Afternoons post!

Have a good Tuesday (oh, it's really Wednesday, by the way). Have a good one, readers!

April Afternoons (2)

Hey Yall, welcome back to April Afternoons, happening here at MJAO on Tuesdays. Today's post isn't on anything on history. It's just about my FABULOUS day!

At my school, we paired up with Special Olympics Athletes for a special track meet. Our class walked over to the football field where we waited for them to arrive.  I was with a guy named Ted and we shared a athlete named Anthony. I wanted my own athlete, but Anthony was a lot of work for both of us and I don't think I could have handled it. We sat in the bleachers while some other athletes ran for opening ceremony. We were assigned to the Star group where our camper got to run, jump, and catch at Star. He also got his forehead painted with the batman symbol by one of my friends at the face painting booth. He was really hungry and thirsty and crabby in the beginning, but after he got something to drink it got better. I saw some of my friends when we weren't with Star and some of them gave me tootsie rolls. Anthony really like an orange-haired girl who is one of my friends at the Bubble station. He loved the bubbles and the sponge game. He liked winning tickets so he could get silly bands at the prize table. He always asked everybody for tickets. He wasn't hungry until the very end at the relays but he ate a lot throughout the day. I had two hot dogs with ketchup and mustard which were tasty.

After walking Anthony back to his bus, I hung out with my friends and then we walked back to school. I saw a lot of my friends with their athletes. Our class even got our photo taken together--but I didn't smile, although I did get to sit next to one of my friends. Pretty good day.

And I have this new blue t-shirt--with stickers Anthony gave me.

Have a great April Afternoon today!