Read Harder Challenge: Central or South American Author

Back in February, we posted about Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. Anyone still working on it? We've hit some stumbling blocks on a couple of the tasks - if you've checked out the discussions on the Goodreads challenge page, you'll see a lot of chatter, particularly on Task # 21 (read a book published by a micropress). We're still working on that one, so we'll concentrate on Task # 4 - Read a book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author.

We were slightly confused at first, as a couple of the links Book Riot posted to help with finding titles for this task listed Latin American authors, which includes authors from Mexico and Cuba - not, according to Wikipedia, considered part of Central or South America (except Mexico, in one UN geoscheme). We are going by the letter of the law, as it were, for the purposes of this task, and sticking to fiction by authors from South and Central America only. Researching the titles to make sure they are also set in South or Central America has added another wrinkle to the process, as some of the authors have relocated - to Spain or the United States, primarily - and also write based on experiences not in their country of origin.

We feel pretty confident that readers will be familiar with some of the most famous authors of Central and South America - Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Mario Vargas Llosa, Roberto Bolaño, Paulo Coelho spring to mind - but how about some you might not have heard of? Here's a list of some we hope might surprise you, from Nicaragua, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Titles are translated works unless otherwise noted.  


Thus Were Their Faces: Stories by Silvina Ocampo

Delirium by Laura Restrepo [Spanish]

El lugar sin límites by José Donoso [Spanish]

Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra 

The Scroll of Seduction by Gioconda Belli [Spanish]

Men of Maize by Miguel Ángel Asturias

El mañana by Luisa Valenzuela [Spanish]

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands: A Moral and Amorous Tale by Jorge Amado

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez  [Spanish]

Savage Theories by Pola Oloixarac 

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin [eBook]

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector 

A Crack in the Wall by Claudia Piñeiro [eBook]

El beso de la mujer araña by Manuel Puig [Spanish]
 

  

A Year of Reading Women Authors

While catching up on some of my internet reading, I stumbled across a blog post Kelly Jensen wrote on Book Riot, in which she talked about how reading books only written by women for a year changed her life. Initially, I wasn't sure how I felt about this idea, but after reading her post and her replies to some of the comments she received, I'm intrigued. For our reading themes, my sister and I read books written by women in January, but now I'm wondering if this is something I could do for a year (or if I even want to do it). I also wondered how my reading already looks in terms of books I've read that were written by men versus books I've read that were written by women. I've never made it a point to read books based on author's gender, but I did assume that I read more books by women, just because I read so much young adult and so much of young adult books are written by women.

So, I took a look at what I read in 2016. I keep track of the books I read using Excel, and what I found was that I read 102 books by 89 female authors (one of those authors is transgendered), and I read 39 books by 25 male authors. I also read one book that was co-authored by a male author and a female author. I was surprised by the number of books I read that were written by men.

Then, I talked to one of my friends about Kelly Jensen's blog post, and the more my friend and I talked and thought about it, the more interested we became in trying it for ourselves. I still haven't decided if I'm going to try reading only women authors for a year, but if I do, I'll need to have a couple exceptions:

• I'll still read a favorite male writers (Stephen King and Ted Kooser)
• I'll still read books written by men if the books are work-related (which would primarily be advanced reader copies, but also middle grade fiction and non-fiction that I might want to booktalk during class visits and outreach events)

If I want to try reading only women authors, I'll need to push myself out of my comfort zones and not just read young adult fiction (which I've been more selective about anyway). I can already think of several books I'd want to read for this that I probably wouldn't read otherwise, like Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, How to be a Woman,  and Eat, Pray, Love. I can't help but feel that if I don't read out of my comfort zone during an experiment like this, then there's no reason for me to try it.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you ever limit your reading in this way? Let me know in the comments!

Read Harder Challenge: Books About Books and Reading

We have really warmed up to Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge for 2017. 24 categories for the year (but you can use a book you read in more than one category), with category suggestions by 6 authors, Daniel José Older, Sarah MacLean, Roxane Gay, Celeste Ng, Ausma Zehanat Khan, and Jacqueline Koyanagi. Just challenging and varied enough to keep us on our reading toes for the rest of the year! Are you already participating? Let us know in the comments!

Task #3 is "Read a book about books." Book Riot has linked to a couple of their own articles and other resources for suggestions from the challenge article, but we've put together our own list of likely contenders here - though our list leans heavily towards non-fiction. What book have you chosen for this category? Give a shout out in the comments!


Booked to Die by John Dunning [eAudiobook]

The Christie Curse by Victoria Abbott

Phantoms on the Bookshelves by Jacques Bonnet

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

A Passion For Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists On Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring For, and Appreciating Books edited by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan

Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living With Books by Michael Dirda 

Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky 

The House of Twenty Thousand Books by Sasha Abramsky 

The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger's Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare's First Folio by Andrea E. Mays 

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book by Wendy Welch   

Living With Books by Roland Beaufre, Dominique Dupuich 

Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry 

Books For Living by Will Schwalbe 

Check These Out by Gina Sheridan 

The City at Three P.M.: Writing, Reading, and Traveling by Peter LaSalle 

Housekeeping vs. the Dirt by by Nick Hornby 

A History of Reading by by Alberto Manguel 

Books: A Living History by Martyn Lyons 

The Lady With the Borzoi: Blanche Knopf, Literary Tastemaker Extraordinaire by Laura Claridge

          

The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston

The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers On the Discovery of Reading and the Books That Inspired Them by edited by Antonia Fraser

How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard

Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

Patience & Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture by Nicholas A. Basbanes 

A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter 

Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins [Large Print] 

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett  

Speaking of Books: The Best Things Ever Said About Books and Book Collecting edited by Rob Kaplan and Harold Rabinowitz  

Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern 
 

Read Harder Challenge: Southern Asia

Last year some library staff participated in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. This is a fun way to get yourself to read books out of your comfort zone! It's also a fun challenge to participate in with friends - you can plan to read the same books, or compare the books you chose to read. But no pressure! The folks at Book Riot, who have been featuring this challenge for the past couple of years, want to reassure you that

We encourage you to push yourself, to take advantage of this challenge as a way to explore topics or formats or genres that you otherwise wouldn’t try. But this isn’t a test. No one is keeping score and there are no points to post. We like books because they allow us to see the world from a new perspective, and sometimes we all need help to even know which perspectives to try out. That’s what this is – a perspective shift – but one for which you’ll only be accountable to yourself.

There are 24 "tasks" for the year, but you can use one book to fulfill a couple of tasks or aim to read 24 books total. Tasks for 2017 include "Read a book about sports," "read a travel memoir," and "read a book you've read before." The task list for 2016 included "Read a book that is by an author from Southeast Asia," and in the spirit of better late than never, we'd like to suggest a few titles of note. Check out these books set in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and by members of the Southern Asia diaspora which were suggested by Book Riot - they will even work for a couple tasks from this year's challenge!

Enter Title Here by Rahul Kanakia [YA]

Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy 

The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad 

A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam 

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders: Connected Stories by Daniyal Mueenuddin 

Odysseus Abroad by by Amit Chaudhuri 

The Hope Factory by Lavanya Sankaran 

This Divided Island: Life, Death, and the Sri Lankan War by Samanth Subramanian  

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota 

She Weeps Each Time You're Born by Quan Barry

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng 


Here's staff member Alysa's 2016 challenge form - completed!

Download the PDF of this year's challenge from Book Riot! Take it to the next level - join the Read Harder group on Goodreads! Share your challenge on social media with the the hashtag #ReadHarder! Are you going to try to read harder in 2017? Let us know in the comments!

 

 

The Brilliant Brontës: Wide Sargasso Sea & The Brontë Cabinet

Anne Bronte (1820-1849), Emily Bronte (Thornton, 1818 - Haworth, 1848) and Charlotte Bronte (Thornton, 1816 - Haworth, 1855), English writers, Oil on canvas by Patrick Branwell Bronte (1817-1848), ca 1834. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 19 Dec 2015.

I've read and re-read "Jane Eyre" of course, and I am sure that the character must be "built up"... The Creole in Charlotte Brontë's novel is a lay figure - repulsive which does not matter, and not once alive which does. She's necessary  to the plot, but always she shrieks, howls, laughs horribly attacks all and sundry - off stage. For me (and for you I hope) she must be right on stage. She must be at least plausible with a past, the reason why Mr. Rochester treats her so abominably and feels justified, the reason why he thinks she is mad and why of course she goes mad, even the reason why she tries to set everything on fire, and eventually succeeds.
~Jean Rhys, in a letter to Selma Vas Dias, April 9, 1958

Something else has become clear, too: the novel has forever changed the way we read Jane Eyre. As author Danielle McLaughlin recently put it, writing for The Paris Review: “The novel didn’t just take inspiration from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, it illuminated and confronted it, challenged the narrative”. Or, to quote novelist Michele Roberts, “Rhys took one of the works of genius of the 19th Century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the 20th Century”.
~Hepzibah Anderson, "The book that changed Jane Eyre forever"

This year, in addition to celebrating the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë, another related book has an anniversary - Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, was published in 1966. Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of Bertha Mason, the "madwoman in the attic" of Charlotte's Jane Eyre. Though in three parts, it weighs in at a slight 112 pages in W.W. Norton & Company's 1999 edition - fulfilling the adage of quality over quantity.

Much of the narrative is told from Bertha's perspective, some from her unidentified husband's. The writing is poignant and evocative, sometimes reaching the pitch of a fever dream. Bertha was born Antoinette, her name changed by her husband because she shares it with her mother, who has been declared insane. Antoinette grows up on an estate in Jamaica, but she is not wealthy until her mother marries Mr. Mason - and, during her childhood, her Creole background is scorned with a particularly nasty epithet. The person who shows her the most kindness and understanding is the servant Christophine, but her influence, as a woman of color and a practitioner of voodoo, is viewed darkly by Antoinette's stepbrother and husband-to-be, among others. Young Antoinette's life is beset with mishaps and she seems prone to melancholy, but not necessarily madness.

Those who have read Jane Eyre will have some background knowledge of Bertha/Antoinette's story; Rhys here fleshes out the character, her atmospheric prose setting the scene firmly in the Caribbean milieu which Rhys, born in Dominica, hailed from, and bringing to life Charlotte Brontë's "poor ghost" and rather doing down any claims Mr. Rochester has to being a romantic hero. One of my favorite speeches of Antoinette's is when she is recounting her past to her husband and explains

'I was never sad in the morning...and every day was a fresh day for me. I remember the taste of milk and bread and the sound of the grandfather clocking ticking slowly and the first time I had my hair tied with string because there was no ribbon left and no money to buy any. All the flowers in the world were in our garden and sometimes when I was thirsty I licked raindrops from the Jasmine leaves after a shower. If I could make you see it, because they destroyed it and it is only here now.' She struck her forehead.

Most of the story takes place in the Caribbean, amidst the Sargasso Sea, which, as the "Backgrounds" section of this edition helpfully explains (courtesy of Rachel L. Carson), "...lies all about Bermuda and extends more than halfway across the Atlantic...with all its legendary terrors for sailing ships, [the sea] is a creation of the great currents of the North Atlantic that encircle it and bring into it the millions of tons of floating sargassum weed from which the place derives its name, and all the weird assemblage of animals that live in the weed." The "Backgrounds" section also helpfully includes excerpts from Jane Eyre that feature Bertha, selected letters of Jean Rhys, and more of interest for the scholar.

Jean Rhys was a protégée of Ford Madox Ford and wrote several other books, but Wide Sargasso Sea, written towards the end of her life, was considered her masterwork, and is still widely taught today.  Bertha/Antoinette seems to speak for all the women written out of history when she says, "Then I turned round and saw the sky. It was red and all my life was in it."


The other Brontë book I read to wrap up our Brontë challenge this month was The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects. The "objects" discussed are items such as letters, what we would call lap desks, memento mori jewelry, and pets, with each item getting about 30 pages of discussion. I had worried it might be a dry and academic tome, but in fact each chapter has proved to be a lively discussion of not just the object in question and its use by the Brontës, but also the history of the era, local folklore, and more - the chapter called "The Alchemy of Desks" veers into Charlotte and Emily's difficult adult relationship, and also into a discussion of Emily's pen use (apparently she found them "troublesome").

Some of the most fascinating tidbits I discovered from The Brontë Cabinet included the fact that, in that time period, "the receiver, rather than the sender, paid the postage to the letter carrier who came to the house door"  and "[m]ost personal  letters of the early nineteenth century...consisted of one page folded and sealed so that the address could be written directly on the letter." Correspondents often "cross-wrote" - "...instead of using a second page to continue a letter, turned the first sheet horizontally, and wrote over ("crossed") the original text at a right angle." The penny post (stamps!) came into use in 1840. Later, in "Death Made Material," there are some interesting anecdotes about "grave goods" - "belongings included with the corpse in case they might be needed on the other side" - including a story of Dante Gabriel Rossetti interring unpublished poetry in his wife's coffin, and then regretting his decision, and an unnamed Victorian who, forgetting to put her friend's son's letters in her friend's grave, instead put them in the grave of a mailman who died soon afterward - so the mailman could deliver them to her friend in the afterlife.

Both these books have been great reads! This ends our Brontë challenge for the year - thanks for taking an interest.

The Brilliant Brontës: Juvenilia

Anne Bronte (1820-1849), Emily Bronte (Thornton, 1818 - Haworth, 1848) and Charlotte Bronte (Thornton, 1816 - Haworth, 1855), English writers, Oil on canvas by Patrick Branwell Bronte (1817-1848), ca 1834. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 19 Dec 2015.

We have one collection of  Brontë juvenilia in the library catalog: Tales of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal: Selected Writings. Why should you read the early writings of the Brontës?  "The writings of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal are youthful experiments in imitation and parody, wild romance and realistic recording; they demonstrate the playful literary world that provided a 'myth kitty' for their early - and later - work," the book's blurb proclaims. We had already heard a little about these early writings in recent stories about discovered manuscripts. When we read Worlds of Ink and Shadow for this challenge during the summer, one of the most interesting aspects of that novelization was the recreation of the Brontë siblings writing together - in Lena Coakley's book, their collaboration had a fantastical bent, but the idea of them working together despite differing viewpoints and shifting alliances was nevertheless compelling.

It's quite the story - their father gave Branwell a set of toy soldiers for his twelfth birthday (Charlotte would have been thirteen, Emily eleven, and Anne nine), and each sibling claimed a soldier for their own "character". These soldiers were the beginning of the Glass Town stories, which evolved into Angria (primarily Charlotte and Branwell's domain) and splintered off into Gondal (a special project of Emily and Anne). Charlotte started out with a character based on the Duke of Wellington; Branwell chose Napoleon; their sisters favored naming their characters for the explorers Parry and Ross. These stories were inspired by those the children had been reading in Blackwood's Magazine, and colored by their readings of classics such as The Arabian Nights (possibly the reason the siblings referred to themselves as "Genii" in their stories?) and Romantic poetry.  

The book is split into sections, so you can read writings by each Brontë - there are 300 pages of Charlotte to only 72 of Branwell, and even less of the younger sisters' output. Though only the poetry about Gondal survives, scholars have ruled it especially important link in the creation of Wuthering Heights. Charlotte's section includes two full-fledged novelettes, Mina Laury and Caroline Vernon, which both show her increasingly mature authorial voice, while Branwell's features both prose and poetry. Stories of Glass Town and Angria are actually set in a wildly inaccurate imagining of Africa and are studded with wars and political maneuvering and a complicated social structure, while the Gondal narrative, what can be reconstructed, appears more confined (literally, as dungeons are much mentioned) and harsh, with its main characters being dour and severe, a Yorkshireman and a Scot.

Ultimately, the siblings grew apart. Branwell and Emily still composed their sagas as adults, while Anne and Charlotte moved away from the juvenilia that sparked their earliest literary creations. But the juvenilia collected in these selected writings remain a fascinating glimpse into collaboration and process, if you have the inclination to immerse yourself in their world. This edition also features a glossary of characters and places, copious explanatory notes, and Emily and Anne's six "diary papers", which reveal both life at Haworth and more about Gondal, including this touching passage from Anne on the occasion of Emily's twenty-third birthday: "We are now all separate and not like likely to meet again for many a weary week but we are none of us ill that I know of and are all doing something for our own livelihood except Emily [the only sibling still at home] who however is as busy as any of us and in reality earns her food and raiment as much as we do." Eight years later, both sisters and their brother Branwell would be dead, predeceasing Charlotte by only 6 years.


Links

Brontë juvenilia : The History of Angria  & Combining fantasy and fact - video [British Library]

Childhood Writings [University of Missouri] 

A Teenaged Charlotte Brontë's Tiny Little Romance [Slate]

The genesis of genius [Harvard Gazette]

Check out the Brontë Sisters' Early Science Fiction [Flavorwire] 

The Brontës invented imaginary realms, and created some of the first fan-fiction [io9]

The Brilliant Brontes: Agnes Grey: Governing the Heart

 Anne Bronte (1820-1849), Emily Bronte (Thornton, 1818 - Haworth, 1848) and Charlotte Bronte (Thornton, 1816 - Haworth, 1855), English writers, Oil on canvas by Patrick Branwell Bronte (1817-1848), ca 1834. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 19 Dec 2015.

"I am miserable when I allow myself to dwell on the necessity of spending my life as a governess." 
- Charlotte Bronte

Jean Paul-Sarte is known for his declaration: "Hell is other people." Charlotte Bronte would have gone further and said, "Hell is other people's children." Anne Bronte, the youngest of her literary family, persevered as a governess far longer than Charlotte did. Her novel Agnes Grey, published in 1847 chronicles the  fictitious trials of a mild-mannered governess. Anne's novel was overshadowed by her elder sister Charlotte's dramatic, Gothic novel Jane Eyre, but Anne's novel paints a realistic portrait of the drudgery, disrespect, and powerlessness of being a governess in Victorian times.

According to Kathryn Hughes author of The Victorian Governess, 25,000 women earned their living as governesses, during a period of English economic instability owing to the Napoleonic wars. Middle class families coped with the financial meltdown by having their daughters work as governesses. As daughters of a poor clergyman, the Bronte sisters sought out work as governesses and also dreamed of opening their own school at the Haworth parsonage.

The life of a governess was friendless and isolated. Governesses taught and raised children, but were not a member of the family and also a source of resentment among the servants who couldn't absorb governesses into their own domestic pecking order. Governesses could move on through suitable marriages, but families were so afraid of having their sons wanting to marry the governess, that they were urged to only hire the plainest possible governesses.

Governesses were only needed for a few years to care for and instruct her employer's children, so these women were constantly having to look for a new job. Salaries were so low, there was nothing left to save for health care or retirement, especially if governesses were working to support their own families back at home. The specter of poverty always loomed, so in 1841 the Governesses' Benevolent Institution was created to help them with pensions. In addition to the lack of a living wage, governesses were in the bind of being unable to discipline their charges and being undermined by the parents they worked for. In a letter Charlotte sent to a mutual friend, she wrote, "Anne is not to return - Mrs. Ingham is a placid, mild woman - but as for the children it was one struggle of life-wearing exertion to keep them in anything like decent order."

Agnes, the daughter of a destitute clergyman, desires to prove herself and help her family earn money, as a governess. Her first job is at Wellwood house to work for the Bloomfield family. Mrs. Bloomfield spoils her children while Mr. Bloomfield openly disapproves of Agnes's work. The children are out of control and Agnes is blamed for their antics. Tom, the oldest Bloomfield child, enjoys torturing small animals, especially birds. Children in the Victorian era were considered to be wild animals to be brought to heel. Agnes Grey is a shocking novel that makes corporal punishment look like a reasonable option, because the children Agnes governs are sadistic, soulless, little monsters. In less than a year, Agnes is fired, since Mrs. Bloomfield thinks that her precious children aren't making the academic progress she expects.

Agnes refuses to give up and finds a position with the wealthy Murray family. The two boys, John and Charles, are both sent to school, but Agnes is left with the girls Rosalie and Matilda. Mathilda is a foul-mouthed, compulsive liar and tomboy. Rosalie is a vapid, two-faced flirt. Both girls enjoy bullying Agnes and using her as a social prop.

Agnes begins to visit Nancy Brown, an old woman with poor eyesight who needs help reading the Bible; there Agnes meets the new parson, Mr. Edward Weston. The novel begins to take an uplifting spiritual and romantic turn.  Agnes is surprised during a walk by Mr. Weston, who picks some wild violets for her, which she saves in her Bible. Their friendship is noticed by Rosalie Murray, who has entered into society and enjoys torturing her own suitors through malicious flirtation. Mr. Weston becomes Rosalie's latest target, which causes Agnes great internal anguish, although Rosalie marries and becomes Lady Ashby. As a proper Victorian governess, Agnes is unable to profess her love for Mr. Weston openly, but takes comfort in the Sunday services he presides over.

Agnes receives a note from her married sister Mary, that their father is dying and begs Agnes to come home. Agnes arrives too late to see her father alive. After his funeral, Agnes opens a small school with her mother, leaving behind the Murrays and Mr. Weston.

Agnes receives a letter from Rosalie who is miserable in her marriage and asks Agnes to come for a visit. Agnes is shocked by Rosalie's transformation into a trapped, miserable married woman. Rosalie admits that she loathes Lord Ashby and her mother-in-law, and claims he only left London because he was jealous of all the gentlemen she was attracting. Agnes also hears that Mr. Weston has left the area, and she grieves, believing she will not be able to see him again. Rosalie is not even happy with her own newborn baby, since she considers only a boy and potential heir to be of any value. Rosalie's failures as a wife and mother trouble Agnes. In keeping with Agnes's spiritual inner light brought out by her family and friendships with Nancy Brown and Mr. Weston, advises Rosalie:

"The best way to enjoy yourself is to do what is right, and hate nobody. The end of Religion is not to
teach us how to die, but how to live; and the earlier you become wise and good, the more of happiness you secure. And now, Lady Ashby, I have one more piece of advice to offer you, which is that you will not make an enemy of your mother-in-law. Don't get into the way of holding her at arm's length, and regarding her with jealous distrust. I never saw her, but I have heard good as well as evil respecting her, and I imagine that, though cold and haughty in her general demeanour, and even exacting in her requirements, she has strong affections for those who can reach them; and, though so blindly attached to her son, she is not without good principles, or incapable of hearing reason; and if you would but conciliate her a little, and adopt a friendly, open manner–and even confide your grievances to her ... real grievances, such as you have a right to complain of ... it is my firm belief that she would, in time, become your faithful friend, and a comfort and support to you, instead of the incubus you describe her."

Agnes leaves Ashby Park and gratefully returns home to her mother and their humble school. The day after she arrives, she goes for a walk on the sea shore and encounters Mr. Weston, who had been looking for her since he moved to the nearby parsonage. A respectful courtship ensures and they marry and have three children together, a much happier ending than Anne Bronte enjoyed in her own short life.

Of all of the Bronte sisters, Anne showed the most resilience in seeking and maintaining employment outside of the family circle. Anne first worked for the Ingham family at Blake Hall, in Mirfield, which is located in West Yorkshire. The children she taught were consistently disobedient and enjoyed tormenting her, knowing that their parents would do nothing to stop them and insist on treating their governess with any respect or cooperation.

Anne's second job as a governess was to the children of the Reverend Edmund Robinson and his wife Lydia, at Thorp Green Hall, located in York, and she worked for them from 1840 to 1845. The house appeared as Horton Lodge in her novel Agnes Grey. Anne had four pupils: Lydia, aged 15, Elizabeth, aged 13, Mary, aged 12, and Edmund, aged 8. This time Anne succeed in her job and was treated well by her employers. The Robinson daughters became her lifelong friends. Anne accompanied the family to the vacations to the coastal town of Scarborough, where she ultimately chose to die during her final illness due to tuberculosis. 

Anne made the mistake of getting a job for her unstable brother Branwell, who worked as a tutor for the  Robinsons' son, Edmund. Branwell returned the favor by instigating a disastrous affair with the lady of the house, Lydia Robinson. Anne had resigned and returned to Haworth with a clean nose, before Branwell was fired for his shameless misconduct.

Agnes Grey is a bold novel in terms of accentuating class tensions and snobbery with employers aimed at Agnes and Agnes herself judging her employers and the children under her care even more harshly. Women were barred from most professions and being a governess was considered the most respectable and realistic option to pursue. The Bronte sisters can be forgiven for their frustrations and superiority complexes. The misery of being a governess was so pronounced with the Bronte sisters, that they couldn't persevere in this profession, and fortunately for the world, they turned to writing and turned their struggles into outstanding literature, although their employers probably never thought they would generate such shocking material.

Readcation

So I did something wild recently: I took a vacation and did nothing but read. I didn’t leave my house, except for some groceries and to donate a bag of clothes to Goodwill. I didn’t plan to go anywhere with my time off except to the library (twice). I dedicated more than one paid day off work to do little more than make a dent into my to-be-read list. This wasn’t a reader’s retreat — though that dream will happen in the future — but rather, it was a staycation with books. A readcation. My readcation was one of the best decisions I’ve made, and I highly suggest scheduling one for yourself as soon as possible.
~Kelly Jensen, "How To Take a Readcation"

Before

I have been thinking of taking some time off in the fall, but am not able to travel. A staycation is doable - there are plenty of local spots I haven't seen. But then I was reading the Book Riot article about taking a readcation, and I thought - that it's it! That's the one for me. I have been amassing an impressive TBR pile, and a lovely October day seems like a great time to curl up with a good book. And tea. And cats. After all, October just feels literary, ever since I read Anne of Green Gables and Anne said "I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

Pick a time that works for you, stock the pantry, hit the library, unplug, get comfy, host a reading party - those are Book Riot's recommendations. (Somebody else suggested trying to plan a book club readcation, if you like the party idea.) There seem to be a lot of book bloggers talking about taking a readcation after the Book Riot post - and certainly lots of hashtag action on Instagram and Twitter - and someone even posited the question If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go for a ‘readcation’? I can't imagine leaving my house, since that's where the books, food, and pajamas are, but maybe you'd like to read on the beach. Or by the Seine. Or in a cabin in the woods. It might actually be easier to unplug in a cabin in the woods, now that I think about it, but I'll stay home for the moment.

I'm hoping that immersing myself in reading will engender a reaction similar to this blogger's:

There’s something about reading that makes you feel more conscious. ...after a few hours of reading every day I feel like the world is drawn in darker outlines and richer colors. It’s definitely the opposite feeling I get from a Netflix marathon. Nothing against Netflix but I can understand what Frank Lloyd Wright meant when he referred to television as chewing gum for the eyes.

Being able to write about my reading adventure here on the blog is definitely a gift, akin to Eleanor Catton's grant to give writers time to read and then write a non-fiction piece about their reading. Shall we begin?

After

I took a whole week off, and I started with plans of choosing what days I would be reading and logging my reading hours each day. Those plans soon fell by the wayside as I entered vacation mode! I do know I read an average of four hours a day the first couple of days. The picture that accompanies this post is of the books from my TBR which I chose to read, and I got through five of them, plus a couple of library books when I discovered my original choices were a bit too memoir-heavy. Here are the books I read:

Abba Gold by Elisabeth Vincentelli
The library catalog only features one title from the fascinating 33 1/3 series, Fear of Music by Jonathan Lethem. Consider checking it out if you are a music geek - each book is focused on one album, with some of the books being fictional, some non-fiction, explorations of the music. I got Abba Gold for Christmas a few years ago and it did not let me down - I love Abba, and after each chapter I had to go to YouTube and watch the videos. Did you know early Abba videos were directed by Lasse Hallström, who later directed The Cider House Rules and Chocolat?

Chew, Vol. 10: Blood Puddin' by John Layman
Another great entry in this series! These graphic novels are at the edge of my comfort zone, and don't read them while you're eating, but they are fast-paced and imaginative.

My Misspent Youth: Essays by Meghan Daum
This is the book that kickstarted Daum's career back in the 2001, only recently back in print. I particularly enjoyed the piece "Music Is My Bag" and the one about flight attendants, "Inside the Tube." She is also the author of  The Unspeakable And Other Subjects of Discussion. You can also see some of her more recent pieces on her website.

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
This one has a good buzz, positive reviews, and a decent-sized hold list, but somehow I couldn't engage with the action.

The Moth Catcher by Ann Cleeves
I am a huge fan of the Vera Stanhope mysteries, though I know many prefer Cleeves' Shetland series. This one was a solid mystery, with just a few too many mentions of Vera's unprepossessing physical appearance. Have you watched the Vera series on DVD? That came out first in the U.S., and the books have trickled into publication following the show's success.

Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations by Peter Evans
I found this a little lurid for my taste, though I am a huge Ava Gardner fan - I even went to her museum in North Carolina! This makes an interesting companion to the ultimately more satisfying Ava Gardner: "Love Is Nothing."

Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
This charming book does for parlourmaids what Mary Poppins does for nannies - both are outsize characters, though Cluny is more whimsical than magical. Margery Sharp is also the author of the Miss Bianca children's book series, which inspired the Disney film The Rescuers.

Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith
Another whimsical character, this one modern-day, living in Oregon, and working at a library! This is a slim novel, a fast read, but so very rewarding. Very lyrically written, not a word out of place - it might be my favorite of my readcation books.

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
Not my favorite by Allende, and in fact it took me a while to get into it, but in the end I found it enormously affecting. Did you catch her A Word With Writers event at the KiMo last November?

Ultimately, my readcation experience was a lot of fun! I curled up on my couch with my cats and took naps around reading. Because I had the whole week, I did get a little restless and ended up doing some other things that took me out of the house - and at one point got caught out by a friend with no physical book on hand! (I did have a library book on the Kindle app on my phone, though.) If you have a few days off owed to you, or a long weekend coming up, I highly recommended a therapeutic readcation. It does a mind good!

The Brilliant Brontës: Non-Fiction

Anne Bronte (1820-1849), Emily Bronte (Thornton, 1818 - Haworth, 1848) and Charlotte Bronte (Thornton, 1816 - Haworth, 1855), English writers, Oil on canvas by Patrick Branwell Bronte (1817-1848), ca 1834. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 19 Dec 2015.

The Brontë family, despite the brevity of their lives, their limited output as writers, and their cramped, confined lifestyle, have inspired many books to be written about them, at least one running up to over 800 pages. In addition to books specifically about the siblings, the dedicated Brontë fan can also read about Emily's relationship with her dog Keeper in Shaggy Muses: The Dogs Who Inspired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Emily Brontë, a book which discusses the ways in which dogs can be "a constant support for...creative life;" about the sisters' decision to use pen names in Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms; enjoy a conversation between the author A. S. Byatt and psychoanalyst Ignês Sodré about Charlotte Brontë's Villette in Imagining Characters: Conversations About Women Writers - Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Willa Cather, Iris Murdoch, and Toni Morrison, a lively discussion that touches on the lies we tell ourselves, enabling, fashion, the importance of needlework, and beyond; those looking for book recommendations can check out Daphne Merkin's essay "Moping on the Moors" in her collection The Fame Lunches: On Wounded Icons, Money, Sex, the Brontes, and the Importance of Handbags - both a rumination on the Brontës and on the books written about them; and, from the book The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons From Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder, be inspired by literary heroine Jane Eyre in an essay entitled "Steadfastness."

For those looking for meatier tomes, the library catalog has a decent sampling of full-on Brontë biographies, too! Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte is purported to be the source of much of the traditional Brontë family mythos; Juliet Barker's family biography is the aforementioned 830-pager, and well worth the read; we also very much enjoyed Lucasta Miller's book. As devoted members of Team Anne, we are still waiting for a standalone biography of our favorite Brontë, but for the moment, her inclusion in family biographies will have to do.


Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart by Claire Harman

Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life by Lyndall Gordon

The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects by Deborah Lutz

Reading the Brontë Body: Disease, Desire, and the Constraints of Culture by Beth Torgerson [eBook]

A Brontë Family Chronology by Edward Chitham [eBook]

The Brontë Myth by Lucasta Miller 

Brontë by Glyn Hughes 

The Brontës by Juliet Barker 

The Brontës: Branwell, Anne, Emily, Charlotte by Bettina L. Knapp 

A Chainless Soul: A Life of Emily Brontë by Katherine Frank 

The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell [eBook]

   

The Brilliant Brontës: Brontës for Kids & Teens

Anne Bronte (1820-1849), Emily Bronte (Thornton, 1818 - Haworth, 1848) and Charlotte Bronte (Thornton, 1816 - Haworth, 1855), English writers, Oil on canvas by Patrick Branwell Bronte (1817-1848), ca 1834. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 19 Dec 2015.

You might be surprised to hear that there are Brontë-inspired books aimed at kids and teens. Not a huge amount, as you might imagine, since bleak moors and unrequited passion might be a slightly hard sell for the younger set, but there are a few available, and they are not all biographies of the sisters, though some of the fiction has a "based-on-a-true-story" slant.

We chose a young adult eBook, Worlds of Ink and Shadow by Lena Coakley, for our Brontë read this month., and we were not disappointed. From the very first page we were hooked! The story drops readers into the lives of  the Brontës themselves, albeit with a supernatural twist. This could have gone either way - sometimes real people presented fictionally feel stiff or one-dimensional - but Lena Coakley appears to have done her research, and, apart from perhaps slightly modern turn of phrase at times, she presents what could be an entertaining portrait of the Brontë siblings in their mid-to-late teens, including Branwell. They squabble, they are lectured by their father, they worry their Aunt, and they have a lot of angst about their childhood pact with a character called Old Tom, which allows them to slip between the real world and the imagined worlds of their writings.

This paranormal thread could have toppled a storyline that presents the Brontë family with warts-and-all realism - each sibling has a distinct and recognizable character, and even their somewhat claustrophobic existence in Haworth Parsonage is vividly drawn. But the fantastical element provides a glimpse of the fictional worlds of Glass Town and Gondal that draws the reader in, and drama to bring out the best and worst of the siblings and keep the reader spellbound.

We highly recommend Worlds of Ink and Shadow! Here are some other Brontë titles from the library catalog to introduce kids and teens to their world:

Fiction

Jane, The Fox & Me by Fanny Britt [graphic novel]

The House of Dead Maids by Clare B. Dunkle [J Fiction]

Always Emily: A Novel of Intrigue and Romance by Michaela MacColl [YA eBook]

Catherine by April Lindner [YA eBook] 

 

Non-Fiction 

The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne by Catherine Reef 

The World of the Brontes: The Lives, Times and Works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte by Jane O'Neill 

A Family Called Brontë by Paula Guzzetti