The Classics Club: Antony and Cleopatra

Fanda is hosting one of the greatest "challenges" for the end of the year:  aptly named "Let's read plays", it offers one classic play per month to enrich our knowledge of this great genre.  It starts now in November and goes on for a yearlong celebration! 

November is Shakespeare Tragedy month, and I chose to read Antony and Cleopatra.  I've seen the Hollywood version of it, with E. Taylor and R. Burton (I assume this is also the more famous interpretation), but I've always wondered how much the excitement and ups and downs in the film were because of this couple, or whether they were depicted in the play as well...

The Classics Club: To kill a mockingbird

This being my mother's favourite book, I've heard about To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee ever since I was a child. So, when I received it as a present, I was really looking forward to this treat.   

I wanted to see how deep into the social circumstances of that era I would dive in, and I was also interested to see whether I would understand why this had been Lee's only published work so far...

Challenge ahead: 2013 TBR Pile challenge

Adam at RoofBeamReader is hosting the fourth annual “TBR Pile Challenge.” Like many bibliophiles, I have an immense stack of books that remain in my bookshelves, waiting patiently for their turn - only to realise that yet another "new" book has cut in and taken their place in the reading order...

The Goal: To finally read 12 books from my “to be read” pile - within 12 months.

My intentions:

Travels with my aunt - Graham Greene

By Nightfall - Michael Cunningham  

The Upright Piano Player  - David Abbot

My TBR pile for this challenge
(there are more, obviously...)

The Breaking of Eggs - Jim Powell

(I bought these two after watching a BBC programme on new writers in March 2011 - I wonder where the authors are now...)

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde

The Hare with Amber Eyes - Edmund De Waal 

(and these two were because of rave reviews from other bloggers - it's high time I recorded MY thoughts!)

The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula Le Guin

The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë - Daphne Du Maurier

The Yacoubian Building - Alaa Al Aswany

L’élégance du hérisson - Muriel Barbery

A literature of their own - Elaine Showalter

The vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell

Alternates

Sophie's world -  J. Gaarder (in Greek)

The Taste of Sorrow - Jude Morgan

Recipe: Pumpkin cookies

While we may not officially celebrate Thanksgiving in Belgium, I could not but help my (American) friend Jessi celebrate a proper Thankgiving dinner here!  She undertook the ueber-major task of cooking (and carving) the turkey, and I contributed ... with cookies!  Pumpkin cookies that is, and they turned excellent (in my humble opinion!).  So easy to make, and I got to use the remaining pumpkin puree from Halloween!!!

2013 Challenges ahead!

Believe it or not, the blogosphere is already buzzing with challenges for next year. As this has proved to be an excellent way to get me to read unusual (to say the least) works of literature, I'm signing up for Beth Fish Reads' What's in a Name 6 book challenge. These are my intended reads so far:

1. A book with up or down in the title:  Down and out in Paris and London, by G. Orwell

2. A book with something you'd find in your kitchen in the title:  Unleavened bread, by Robert Grant

3. A book with party or celebration in the title:  Doctor Fischer of Geneva, or, The Bomb Party, by Graham Greene

4. A book with fire (or equivalent) in the title:  The fire people, by Ray Cummings

5. A book with an emotion in the title: The Taste of Sorrow, by Jude Morgan

6. A book with lost or found in the title:  The Lost world, by Arthur Conan Doyle

Sign up and join us!

Dracula's guest, by Bram Stoker

Having read Dracula by Bram Stoker, I was really looking forward to reading what I thought was a sequel, Dracula's guest.  It featured in a series of short stories and was published post-humously.

In it, we follow the adventures of the main character in Munich. It is Walpurgis Night and he decides to leave his carriage to wander off and see an abandoned village (which the driver has refused to drive to).

Obviously, there is a horrible storm and our character manages to seek refuge in a tomb.  Several minutes and many, many supernatural instances later, he is found lying with a wolf on top of him ready to kill him (drink his blood?), but not before military men discover and save him. The search had been ordered because of a demand from his host Dracula that he may have been lost.

Having read this short story, I have to admit I still preferred Bram Stoker’s original novel, Dracula, because the plot has a lot more complexity and offers material for every taste.  What I really liked about this story, however, is the rumour that this main character (who is never named) actually Jonathan Harker is before his first visit with the count (but that cannot be confirmed).  Meaning that this could really be the prequel, with which we are smoothly introduced into one of the best classics...

Read for the Ireland Reading and Mystery and Suspense Reading challenges