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May 16

harper_lee
33 Comments

Harper Lee Lays The Smack Down

I’ve always been shocked to find out that some school districts and libraries have actually banned To Kill A Mockingbird. How ridiculous is that?

I’ve expressed my opinions about banned books on the blog before, so I won’t go back into all that. But, today, I’ll let Harper Lee give her opinion on the matter.

In 1966, the Hanover County School Board in Virginia removed all copies of To Kill A Mockingbird from their libraries. They believed the book to be “immoral.”

Harper Lee responded by writing the following letter to the Richmond News Leader, which, in turn, published it. The fund she mentions at the bottom of this letter gave away free copies of the book to any child who wanted one. That’s awesome.

I love this letter! (source: Letters of Note and Understanding To Kill A Mockingbird):

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May 15

jane-eyre-book-cover
22 Comments

Comparing Wide Sargasso Sea To Jane Eyre

As I mentioned in my preview of Wide Sargasso Sea, this novel by Jean Rhys is written as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s classic, Jane Eyre.

Now, here’s a sad admission: I’ve never read Jane Eyre. Can you believe that insanity?

Most of you guys thought that my lameness in not having read Jane Eyre wouldn’t affect my understanding of Wide Sargasso Sea–especially with the stories being written by two different authors. Would it help to know a little more background on these characters? Probably. But a good story is a good story, right?

All that said, and fully admitting that I haven’t read Jane Eyre, I thought I’d do my best to compare the two books today, using my initial thoughts about Wide Sargasso Sea as my guide.

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May 14

101books_03
3 Comments

The Winner of Two Free Novels Is…

The point of today’s post is simple.

A hearty congratulations to Terri Nestel–the winner of the 101 Books giveaway over the weekend. I randomly chose her name (using the number generator on random.org) from the comments on Friday’s post.

Terri, now it’s up to you. You can choose two books from any of the first 42 I’ve read or am reading on the Time list. Any two! You can go to my rankings page and click on the links to see all of my reviews.

List your selections in the comments below, and email me at rbrucewriting@yahoo.com with your shipping address. I’ll try and get the books out to you this week.

Thanks again to everyone for participating. We had over 90 comments, so hopefully that will give you some ideas for books to add to your to-read list. I’ll do this again sometime in the fall.

May 11

first 40
99 Comments

The 101 Books Spring Giveaway!

In the last year or so, I’ve given away several books on this blog, as a way of saying thank you to 101 Books readers.

Today, let’s do it again!

Last time, I gave away one book to two different winners. This time, I thought I’d give away TWO books to ONE reader!

Which books? You can choose from any of the first 42 books I’ve read on the Time list. Any of them—even the big ones, like Infinite Jest. It’s your choice.

I’ll assign each comment a number, randomly select (using this website) one winner, and ship the books, at my cost. I’ve shipped to Edinburgh before so I’m happy to ship overseas.

How do you enter?

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May 10

Wide-Sargasso-Sea
28 Comments

Next Up: Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea is a postcolonial novel written by Jean Rhys as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

The story follows Antoinnette Cosway (Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre) from her younger years in the Caribbean, to marrying Mr. Rochester, to her relocation to an attic in England. If you’ve read Jane Eyre, you know her as the “madwoman in the attic,” but Wide Sargasso Sea shows her as a healthy young woman who is living in an oppressive and patriarchal society.

This novel appears to be a nice break from the heaviness of Under The Volcano, plus it’s much shorter, so I’m looking forward to it.

Some quick facts about Wide Sargasso Sea and Jean Rhys:

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May 9

undervolcano4
15 Comments

Book #41: Under The Volcano

What a depressing book.

When this adventure is over, I might start a kickstarter campaign to raise money for my weekly therapy. ‘Cause, man, I’ve read some depressing books.

It’s not that depressing books are a bad thing. I’ve defended them before. It’s just that, when you read sad book after sad book, it begins to, well, make you long for a Disney movie about puppies or something.

When it comes to sad, Under The Volcano might take the cake, at least in terms of the first 41 books I’ve read on this list. And that’s saying a lot because the list to this point includes books like Never Let Me Go, Rabbit Run, and Revolutionary Road.

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May 8

kurt_vonnegut
10 Comments

Famous Authors Who Pimped Products

Look, if I ever make it big, like commercial-worthy big, I’ll be totally fine with endorsing a product that I actually use–that is after I poop myself for being commercial-worthy big. I doubt that will ever happen. 

There’s a certain temptation with a lot of writers/artists to “stay true” to themselves by not turning their art into something commercial. It’s kind of like the indie band who refuses to sign with a major label. Anyway, The Awl put together this eye-opening list (with videos) of famous authors who appeared in commercials to endorse product. Some are quite surprising.

For instance, did you know that…

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May 7

548px-Francis_Scott_Fitzgerald_1937_June_4_(1)_(photo_by_Carl_van_Vechten)
9 Comments

Gatsby’s Final Passage: As Written by F. Scott

I don’t have a lot to say today, so I’ll let the photo below explain today’s post.

I’ve mentioned before that The Great Gatsby is my favorite book. Though I’ve yet to re-read it as part of this list, I’ll occasionally post about it. When I saw this photo, I knew I had to write about it here.

The following is the final passage of The Great Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s handwriting (credit to Roger Ebert’s blog).  I’ve also included it in plain type below the photo in case you haven’t read the book.

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May 4

google
14 Comments

Your Search Questions Answered: The Greatest Hits

So it’s been almost a year since I started the “Your Search Questions Answered” series of posts. In that time, I’ve written 9 posts in the series with well over 100 unique search terms.

The beauty about this series is that the well never dries up. Every day, I’ll log away one or two search terms/phrases/questions that led to my blog. And, if the search terms are any indication, about 20% of this blog’s traffic comes to Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret related posts. At least it seems that way. Thanks Judy Blume.

While I’ve got a ton of search terms still waiting on me to poke fun at, I thought today we could take a look back at some of the best ones from the first 9 posts. Remember, these are actual, unedited search terms that came to 101 Books.

Here’s the Greatest Hits edition of Your Search Questions Answered:

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May 3

11_Malcolm Lowry_in_1946
10 Comments

Malcolm Lowry: Another Tortured Genius

If you thought Hemingway had issues, then you should read about the life of Malcolm Lowry.

During my routine research, I discovered this brilliant, in-depth New Yorker article about Lowry’s life, marriage, brutal alcoholism and drug addictions—and his genius mind that eventually succumbed to an early death.

After meeting Lowry at a party in which he was severely inebriated in New York, Dawn Powell said this: “He is the original Consul in [Under The Volcano], a curious kind of person—handsome, vigorous, drunk—with an aura of genius about him and a personal electricity almost dangerous, sense of demon-possessed.”

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