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20/4/07 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minervasoloTechnically, I'm still having lunch, sincve I haven't finished drinking my tea yet. So, memesage.
Recommend one of each of the following: A pre-1900 book, a post-1900 book, a non-fiction book, a children's book and a book of poetry.
pre-1900: Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
I foresee a slightly gothic theme in all of these recs. I guess this is a slightly obvious one, but it is one of my favourites. It's wonderfully descriptive, very unusual, and often underrated. Good for a winter evening.
post-1900: Rebecca, Daphne DuMarier
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
There are few words for how wonderful this novel is. It's beautifully written, it's eerie, it's emotive... Though the first sentence clues you into the end, by the time you get there you're so engrossed you've forgotten it.
Non-fiction: James Tiptree Junior, the Double life of Alice B Sledon, Julie Phillips
I don't often read biographies, which is a shame, because when I do I almost always enjoy them. Alice Sheldon is a fascinating women with a deep and varied life. Bisexual, feminist, African explorer, WAAF, CIA agent, Chicken farmer, SciFi author under two names, painter, psychology PHD... Conflicted, disturbed, depressed. A feminist who didn't like other women. An author who could only write well as another person. A highly sexed women with frquent lesbian crushes in a platonic marriage. Her mother. I've not actually finished it yet (which isn't good, since i'm using it to write an essay from next week), but I find that as well as having a really interesting life to talk about, the biography is very well written.
Children's: I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."
Normally, I'd rec The Dark is Rising Sequence, or Milly-Molly-Mandy here, especially since this is only a children's book by dint of who's it's read not, not who it was written for but I've just read this recently, and it's absolutely beautiful. Reminiscent of Rebecca, in someways. It also depicts a step-mother/daughter relationship where they actually get one reasonably well (I've gotten more than a little bored of novels where they don't, partly because I think it encourages kids to find fault in relationships that are hard to create anyway). Our narrator is described as 'consciously naive' by a visitor, though in some ways she is very 'unconsciously naive'. And they really do live in a castle: unfortunately they're dirt poor by the beginning of the novel, and having an egg between them to go with their bread and butter for tea is a cause for celebration.
Poetry: Propertius's Carmina
Carmina just means poetry in latin; they weren't much for naming their collections. Propertius is one of the favourite poets I've done, partly because the beauty of his work translates well, and also because he's one of the few to actually give his fickle, unattainable woman (a lot of the poets have one, and though most are adulteresses, Cynthia is actually a courtesan) a voice. Cynthia talks back to him within his own poems, and is portrayed with a personality, unlike Lesbia and co.
Why am I incapable of making tea that doesn't taste sweet? It's not the tea bags, and it's not the milk. Is there sugar in the kettle? In the washing up liquid? All I want is a normal, non-sweet cup of tea!
ETA: Success on the tea! We are blaimg the rice milk for the aberrant sweetness (though the same was happening with the unsweetened soya milk).
ETA2: And success on the latin! I need to write it up in neat, but at least it's translated. Now, onto the third part of the original submission.
Recommend one of each of the following: A pre-1900 book, a post-1900 book, a non-fiction book, a children's book and a book of poetry.
pre-1900: Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
I foresee a slightly gothic theme in all of these recs. I guess this is a slightly obvious one, but it is one of my favourites. It's wonderfully descriptive, very unusual, and often underrated. Good for a winter evening.
post-1900: Rebecca, Daphne DuMarier
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
There are few words for how wonderful this novel is. It's beautifully written, it's eerie, it's emotive... Though the first sentence clues you into the end, by the time you get there you're so engrossed you've forgotten it.
Non-fiction: James Tiptree Junior, the Double life of Alice B Sledon, Julie Phillips
I don't often read biographies, which is a shame, because when I do I almost always enjoy them. Alice Sheldon is a fascinating women with a deep and varied life. Bisexual, feminist, African explorer, WAAF, CIA agent, Chicken farmer, SciFi author under two names, painter, psychology PHD... Conflicted, disturbed, depressed. A feminist who didn't like other women. An author who could only write well as another person. A highly sexed women with frquent lesbian crushes in a platonic marriage. Her mother. I've not actually finished it yet (which isn't good, since i'm using it to write an essay from next week), but I find that as well as having a really interesting life to talk about, the biography is very well written.
Children's: I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."
Normally, I'd rec The Dark is Rising Sequence, or Milly-Molly-Mandy here, especially since this is only a children's book by dint of who's it's read not, not who it was written for but I've just read this recently, and it's absolutely beautiful. Reminiscent of Rebecca, in someways. It also depicts a step-mother/daughter relationship where they actually get one reasonably well (I've gotten more than a little bored of novels where they don't, partly because I think it encourages kids to find fault in relationships that are hard to create anyway). Our narrator is described as 'consciously naive' by a visitor, though in some ways she is very 'unconsciously naive'. And they really do live in a castle: unfortunately they're dirt poor by the beginning of the novel, and having an egg between them to go with their bread and butter for tea is a cause for celebration.
Poetry: Propertius's Carmina
Carmina just means poetry in latin; they weren't much for naming their collections. Propertius is one of the favourite poets I've done, partly because the beauty of his work translates well, and also because he's one of the few to actually give his fickle, unattainable woman (a lot of the poets have one, and though most are adulteresses, Cynthia is actually a courtesan) a voice. Cynthia talks back to him within his own poems, and is portrayed with a personality, unlike Lesbia and co.
Why am I incapable of making tea that doesn't taste sweet? It's not the tea bags, and it's not the milk. Is there sugar in the kettle? In the washing up liquid? All I want is a normal, non-sweet cup of tea!
ETA: Success on the tea! We are blaimg the rice milk for the aberrant sweetness (though the same was happening with the unsweetened soya milk).
ETA2: And success on the latin! I need to write it up in neat, but at least it's translated. Now, onto the third part of the original submission.
