This week's reading

I hope you don't mind me harping on about the books I read?  I really want to share them with you when they're good or bad and as so many of you are voracious readers anyway I thought you might be interested.  So as they say on the news, if you don't want to know what I've been reading this week, look away now!

First the pleasure bit, although I was supposed to be keeping Dead in the Family (Southern Vampire Mysteries 10) until I went on holiday, I couldn't resist.  My excuse is I need to read some Jane Austen on the plane & I'll probably (read for that definitely) pick up some books whilst in Boston.  It's getting very dark in Sookie's world, we're post Hurricane Katrina and some real trauma for her.  I won't say much more about the plot for people who haven't read it yet but it definitely is a good one.  I have (it's not easy for hardbacks to travel) started the final (for now) one, Dead Reckoning, and, if anything, that's even darker.  Here's the link to author Charlaine Harris's website for anyone interested.  She blogs a bit about her thoughts and there's a community board although I haven't ventured onto that  ... yet. 

We're reading Ceremony in my Modern American Novel course.  I'd never read any Native American literature before and was really unsure how I'd get on with it but I absolutely loved it.  It's the story of a part Native American, part Mexican, part White man, Tayo, who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his experiences in the Second World War (he was taken prisoner by the Japanese).  Of course no-one knows what PTSD is just after the war so he is ineffectively treated by the white doctors and needs help from the medicine men on the Peublo on which he lives.  This provides Silko with a good opportunity to look at identity and issues of heritage and story telling plays a massive part in this.  I'd really recommend it to all of you and if you're in a book group it would be great for that.

This weekend I've been re-reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.  I love it and had forgotten quite how awful the behaviour of some of the characters is.  It's a parody of the Gothic and readers of Gothic novels but if you're not an expert in the genre the Oxford World Classics edition has great notes in the back to help you understand exactly what Austen is doing.  I find this book laugh out loud and would recommend it to everyone even those who don't like Jane Austen normally - yes there is love and marriage in it but read carefully, I don't wholly buy that she writes fairty tale romantic endings.  I've also noticed this time that in the same way Elizabeth dates her love of Darcy from seeing Pemberly for the first time, Catherine Morland, the heroine here, is really rather taken with Northanger Abbey itself.  These Austen heroines had their heads screwed on all right!

I'm debating whether to try and get a week ahead on my courses or cope with catching up when I get back - not sure yet but it's Pride and Prejudice on the Austen course and Beloved on the Modern American Novel so I'm really looking forward to working through them whatever I decide.

I've also learnt this weekend that I'm not very good at finding people on Facebook so if you do want to connect please invite me - not sure if there are many Sandra Perkins on there but this is my avatar - isn't he adorable.  He doesn't actually have a name because I didn't want to favour any of the players (well I was torn between Stevie, which doesn't sound right for a bird, and Fernando, which probably doesn't either and just as well I didn't pick that) but I think he's OK with it!

See you soon, I hope

Sandra