Cover Art Part II

Sorry for the extended absense loyal followers. I should've mentioned it (and if you follow me on Twitter you probably saw) but I was out of town. But now I'm back! Woohoo!

I know you missed me and my witty greatness, am I right? So I didn't get to post my review last week so now this week I owe you two reviews. I promise I'll try to get to them as soon as I can. I swear!

For today's post I figured I post some more classic book cover art, since it got such a great response last time.

Let's take a look this time around at my favorite book Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte:

Going left to right from the top to bottom...this is the one I've seen the most actually. Very simple.

Next, I think this is the Penguin Deluxe Edition that's come out. Interesting and I like how it makes it feel eerie, as it should. However, there is no winding peak tower hill thingy in Jane Eyre...

Now the next is the cover I own. Very Victorian I think. A tad boring though.

The last in the top row is very different. I don't know about the smoke, is that supposed to be a face? Not sure.

First on the second row is obviously the movie tie-in. I always avoid these covers like the plague. I don't know why they just bother me.

Next...I have no idea. This I think is supposed to be like those Twilight books in here and why I do not know. It has nothing to do with the book at all.

Second to last is just a simple outline of Jane which I actually find very interesting. Kind of a good methaphor for the book.

And lastly we have this weird cover that kind of looks like any modern romance novel. I don't like it. And again, what do roses have to do with Jane Eyre?

So what is your favorite? Least favorite? Discsus!

And don't forget you still have a couple days to enter my GIVEAWAY where you could win this book and Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey...don't waste another minute :)

100 Follower Giveaway!!!

Hooray! It’s finally time! That’s right, my 100 Follower Giveaway is here :) Is anyone else doing a happy dance? No? Just me?

Anyway, if you’re a follower of this blog, the most awesomest blog in the whole wide world, now is your chance to win The Bronte Sisters, a collection of the three great classic novels: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. That’s 3 books in 1! Who wouldn’t want to win this?

So do you want to be well read just like me? Just enter my giveaway!

Requirements:

• Be a follower of this blog
• Have a US mailing address (I wish I could make this giveaway international but I’m sorry, I’m poor!)

What You Need To Do To Enter:

Simply leave a comment in this post stating:

• The email address with which to contact you if you win
• Your blog link (I’ll post it here if you win)
• If you follow me on Twitter, please say so and state what your Twitter name is (because sometimes it’s different you know) because if you do you’ll get an EXTRA ENTRY!

The Giveaway will run from RIGHT NOW April 8 – April 20, 2011 until precisely 9:00 CST. The winner will be picked at random and I’ll announce the lucky winner of the 3 in 1 prize on Sunday, April 24, 2011. So be ready!

Now go forth and enter my lovely giveaway. And be sure to spread the word as well :)

***P.S. I won't be responding to any comments in this post so if you have a specific question, please email me at llevinso.bookreader@gmail.com***

100 Followers Giveaway - It's Happening!

Alright, as the title states: it's happening. I went to the bookstore today and picked out the book I'll be sending to the lucky winner of my 100 Followers Giveaway. Are you all excited? Well you should be because I picked an AWESOME book! You ready?

It's The Bronte Sisters, a collection of three books, one from each sister: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte.

How great is that? Now the whoever wins can be just like me and read something from each sister! And really, who doesn't want to be just like me, right? And I figure this book is great for anyone because everyone likes at least ONE of the Bronte sisters.

The only thing I have to do now is actually get to 100 followers. I'm 11 away at the moment (damn you #89!). So help spread the word about my blog because the sooner I get to #100 the sooner I'll open up this giveaway and the sooner you'll have a chance to win win win (I say it 3 times because it's really winning 3 books, see?)!!

The day I hit 100 I'll post the rules for entering the giveaway, so be prepared and stay alert...it could happen at any moment...

Review for You - Agnes Grey

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
3 stars

This was the story of a young woman named Agnes Grey who, in order to help her family when they come under some hard financial trouble, decides to become a governess. She’s the youngest of two daughters in her family and has always somewhat been babied. They never let her help out much in any way so when she tells them that it is in her mind to become a governess they believe she will be in over her head. But Agnes believes she will be a great success and goes to work for her first family.

She quickly learns that this family, with all their wealth, is basically horrid. The boy likes to torture animals and won’t listen to anything Agnes says and the other children follow suit. They have not one redeemable characteristic. Try as she might she cannot get the children to learn almost anything and the family decides to go another way with their education after not too long. But Agnes is determined not to fail so she advertises for another situation and lands at another house. This family believes in instilling the idea that nothing should be too hard for anyone and the children (who are older than her first charges) should never struggle to find any answers. This results in them not really learning anything…again.

But Agnes sticks with this family for a few years and manages to find some nice aspects residing in the eldest daughter, Miss Murray, but very few indeed. And during that time she tries to correct the children’s horrible ideas when it comes to morality and basic goodness. However it does not really work because Miss Murray spends most of her time trying to trick men into loving her and then basically laughing in their faces, including the object of Agnes’ affection.

Agnes Grey was Anne Bronte’s first novel and also the first one of hers that I read. And I must say that makes me quite happy because I’ve now read something by every Bronte sister! While I did like this book for the most part I could certainly tell that this was her first novel. It had the feeling in many parts like that of a rough draft. It just wasn’t as well crafted as I would expect a full drawn out novel to be. I did notice that in comparing her to her other more famous sisters, Emily and Charlotte, she is much less dark and moody. This had a much lighter heart. It was also much more direct and to the point. Probably why the book was so much shorter than Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Anne Bronte did not seem to go on and on in the details of little things as they did. The one part she did get a bit carried away was talking about religion, but that was it.

However, I didn’t like the main character very much. I didn’t dislike her either but it seemed that she had a negative opinion of everyone aside from the members of her own family. It seemed as if she felt she was entirely too great and the rest were entirely too awful. The moralizing got a tad ridiculous and too much for me at times. It kind of seemed like a rich versus poor set up where all the people with money turned out to be wicked and that’s just not the reality and I don’t like it when authors portray things as such. I need shades of gray.

But for a first novel I would say it was pretty good. I didn’t hate it but I definitely didn’t love it. It was a very quick read though, so I definitely didn't feel like it was a waste of my time in any way. I’ve heard much better things about her second (and last) novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, so I’m excited to read that sometime in the future.

Bechdel Test Tuesday!

It's a kind of special week for the Bechdel Test here at the Sarcastic Female Literary Circle. How? I'm highlighting more than one book! For a quick overview of how the test works, check here. Oh, and for those of you that didn't catch my meme last week, it was on Kazuo Ishiguro's haunting tale: Never Let Me Go.

Alright, well I was considering making today's test an All Bronte Test (since I have now read something by all three Bronte sisters) but I have been struggling all day to remember exactly how Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte would apply to these questions and I'm at a loss. I know it had more than one woman but I cannot honestly remember what they talked about. So if you all have better memories than I do and can help me with the grade on that one, let me know in the comments!


But on to the other two sisters...


Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
1. Does it have at least 2 women in it?
It most certainly does. May I also just say this is my favorite book of all time so I'm REALLY pulling for this to pass...
2. Do they talk to each other?
Yes they do! Okay, two questions down. Just one to go. Can it make it?
3. About something besides a man?
YES! While Mr. Rochester and St. John are frenquent topics of conversation among the women in the book that is definitely not ALL they discuss. Morals, education, and their own thoughts and dreams are some of the other things the women talk about amongst themselves. So...

I'm so happy! :)


Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
1. Does it have at least 2 women in it?
This also has many women in it.
2. Do they talk to each other?
The book is actually mostly women talking to each other. Very few men.
3. About something besides a man?
Another yes! Again while men are certainly discussed it is just one of the topics. You'll hear about some of the others when I post my review later this week...

Well books are just passing left and right today!


So, this was a good day then huh? Let me know about Wuthering Heights in the comments if you can. What do you think of the Bronte sisters?

To Read Before Death...dun dun dun!

Okay, I've decided to start to try and participate in some of the weekend blog hops that are always floating around. It just makes things easier on the weekends when I don't have to use my brain as much, you know?

So today, I jumped on over to The Blue Bookcase and I've decided to hop into their Literary Blog Hop. The question for the weekend?

What one literary work must you read before you die?

Now this is a daunting question (and morbid!). It can be answered in two ways: 1) what I would recommend to you all to read before you die; and 2) what I want to make sure I read before I pass. I've decided to answer both.

1) Well let's take a gander at the old shelf. Oh, I guess I should be hurrying since you're near death's door, huh? This is a tough one. On the one hand I want to say a book that had a really great impact on me and really made me think about the world. That would be 1984 by George Orwell. It was just fantastic. It was also terrifying. On the other hand I want to say a book that brought out nearly every emotion in me from happiness and laughter to sadness and shock and horror. That would be Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, my all-time favorite book. And for some reason I know a lot of people don't appreciate Jane the way I do. I get her. We're like this *fingers crossed* But since many are not...I'd say go with 1984. Seriously one of the best books ever.

2) Okay hmm. There are so many! And lately I serioulsy have been reading the ones I've really wanted to get off of my plate. I think the only ones I really have to set a goal to finish before I die are the really incredibly long ones. Those intimidate me (yikes!). But at the same time I actually don't really have a desire to read things like Moby Dick or Ulysses. Just never appealed to me. One of the books I REALLY want to get around to soon but I keep pushing it off is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I've heard great things and it's in my Kindle but it's long. One day!

Have any suggestions for me? What must I read? Do you agree with my assessment of 1984? Shout it out in the comments :)

Fantastic Five Friday!

Okay so I guess it’s time to introduce a meme of sorts into this blogging thing, huh? Everyone’s got one, why don’t I? Well I’ve seen a lot of people do Top Ten Tuesdays but I’m not going to do that for a couple reasons. Number one because thinking of ten new things every week is a bit daunting at this point in time, and number two because I don’t like to rank things. I know what you’re saying “but you don’t have to rank them in order Llevinso!” I know, I know. So I came up with a compromise meme. Introducing: Fantastic Five Fridays!

Basically each Friday I’m going to list five new fantastic things (Fantastic Five Fridays means listing 5 things? Get out of town!). Maybe they’ll be, like today, five fantastic female authors I’ve had the pleasure of reading in my lifetime. Or my five favorite books of all time…or of the year…five fantastic events in literary history…the possibilities are endless (I know you’re obviously all as excited as I am, right?)!

So, to kick off this awesome meme, please get ready for: Fantastic Five Friday: Fantastic Female Authors I’ve Read.

So now I’m going back over the many many books I’ve read over the years to compile this list and I have to say, I’ve read some great stuff. This list is in no particular order but here goes:

TANA FRENCH

So far she has only written three novels and I’ve read each of them: In the Woods, The Likeness and Faithful Place (in order of publication). Let me tell you that Tana French is just getting better and better. Faithful Place was my favorite yet and I cannot wait for what she has in store for her next novel. The way she is able to fully develop such complex, sympathetic and yet still aggravatingly real characters is beyond me. I wish I had such a talent. I rarely buy new books, but when I see her next one out in hardcover, I’ll be first in line at the bookstore.

CHARLOTTE BRONTE

 

Now, I have only read one book of hers so far, this is true, but it moved me so much and I loved it so dearly that I have come to call it my favorite book of all time. That is Jane Eyre. A heroine that is complex, intelligent, determined, thoughtful and feminist? Back in those days? Love it. And she writes in such in an interesting gothic romantic mixture. It’s gripping. Villette is next…

HARPER LEE



She only wrote one book, To Kill a Mockingbird, and yet it had such an impact on American history and literature that her impact cannot be overlooked nor forgotten. Her style was beautiful and so simple: written through the eyes of a child. I would have loved to see her other works but at the same time it’s nice to see her legacy as this one story.

ALICE SEBOLD



The two books that I have read of Sebold were very difficult to read, but well worth the effort. Lucky was a personal memoir of her own rape and recovery. Gosh, was that grim at times, but at the same time hopeful and redeeming. The Lovely Bones had a similar idea behind it. Recovering from something horrible. It was incredibly moving and I think in a way helped Sebold herself by writing it. Now, I have not read her third book, Almost Moon, and I heard not-too-great reviews of the same, but from the stuff I’ve read of her I’m more than impressed.

JUDY BLUME



It has been a long long time since I’ve read any Blume books, seeing as how I’m no where near a child anymore and I have no children of my own. But I have to give credit where credit is due. This woman helped me grow up. I can’t even remember all the books I read of hers when I was younger, but there were lots! And they were amazing! She really could relate to young girls. I felt like she was in my head sometimes. And (bonus!) she’s also a great advocate of women’s rights!

So there it is, my first meme (by the way, posting today has been EXTREMELY difficult, so if I throw my computer out the window today and you never hear from me again you know why). Why'd you think? Who are your Fantastic Five Female Authors? Which ones should I pick up and read right away? Also, if you have any idea for future Fantastic Five topics, send them my way!