Genius Siobhán

Well, as it turns out Siobhán has read practically every book on the list already! There are several overlaps and cases where other members of our entourage can say “Hey! I read that! One less book for me!” But Siobhán has really got us trumped!


After Cúileann posted “The Glass Castle” on her list of books, Siobhán commented that she did in fact own that but hadn’t read it. Caomhóg very quickly began to sing praises for the book and within 24 hours, Siobhán had come back to us saying she had indeed read the book.

I won’t begrudge her the time and energy she has to read so much, but my goodness, leave some showing off for the rest of us! Which is a completely unfair statement as Siobhán is one of the kindest and sweetest women on the planet who would never dream of belittling another human being.

She does (however unintentionally) leave the rest of us feeling completely illiterate at having barely heard of most of these books- let alone having read them.

But that is the purpose of our journey- to broaden our literary horizons. And really, we can’t hold her literary scope against her. After all, what do you expect from a girl whose majors include English, and Book & Media Studies?

Congratulations Siobhán on being the first to report back with a finished book -  I haven't even made it 1/2 way  through my Pride and Prejudice - then again, I think I'll save that one to share with someone special ;)

P & P Part 2

Well Jane Austen has been busy.

While I normally breeze through novels quickly, having too little time to read lately has left me with having barely made a dent into Pride and Prejudice. That happens to have worked in my favor. Finding myself alone with my boyfriend from who I recently separated (see former blog) I found myself alone with him in a friendly setting.
Having nothing else to occupy his mind he picked up my copy of P & P and before you know it he was reading aloud to me. One thing let to another and there we were, reading back and forth the parts of Darcy and Bingley, Elizabeth and Jane in all the appropriate tones and English accents to boot. Before long we found ourselves head first in quality, enjoyable, bonding, friend time.
Something we were hard pressed to find when dating. It never occurred to either of us that the other might like something like reading aloud together.
It sparked something that had been lacking in our relationship as of late - a spark so bright that it inspired my former boyfriend to shortly after, retrace his steps and suggest that we revert not to a relationship, but to the pre-relationship dating status and try building our relationship anew.
It was a lovely idea. Even lovelier when I thought of it immediately upon our breakup.

I suppose I must learn to be a bit more like Elizabeth- pick and choose my battles.

Pride and Prejudice

I must say, going in I was prejudiced against P&P... this is what happens when ten year olds try reading Jane Austen... it just doesn't end well - it can turn you off for life. However I was willing to give her another shot as my BF loved her and he though I would enjoy her books. I thought we needed more things to talk about so I picked up P& P and Sense and Sensibility lol. Shortly thereafter a book club formed where P&P made the list.


As it turns out, my BF and I really didn't have enough to talk about and so he has moved back into the friend sphere. But I still had to read Pride and Prejudice. I will admit, when I took the book on the subway with me it was less of accomplishing our literary task and more of just wanting to try and win my boy back. But I soon found myself forgetting about both as I dived headfirst into the lives of the Bennetts. It was with the first chapter that I realized that P&P was not the book from my youth which had made me run away from Austen for years. In fact it was quite enjoyable.

I’ll be honest. I did not go 12 years without giving Austen another shot. I did purchase Persuasion a few years ago and mildly enjoyed it on my daily treks to work, unfortunately before I could get well into the book it mysteriously disappeared due to a change of address.

Regardless of my short journey through persuasion I find myself desperately wanting to go further into P&P - even though I know exactly what happens thanks to one Miss Kiera Knightly.
Unfortunately I will never know now if it is Jane Austen's writing that keeps me reading the book or my previous obsession with the story brought on by one Mr. Matthew Macfadyen.
Either way, I foresee a lovely evening of romance awaiting me on my subway ride home- and hopefully for the remainder of the evening.

Book list :)

-Phantom Tollbooth
- Alice in wonderland/ alice through the looking glass
- Looking Glass Wars
- Fall On Your Knees - Ann-Marie Macdonald
- The Way the Crow Flies - Ann-Marie Macdonald
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
- Luna - Julie Ann Peters
- Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
- Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
- We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
-Speak - Laurie Halse...
-Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
-Crown Duel/Court Duel : Sherwood Smith
-Fire and Hemlock: Dianna Wynne Jones
-Tigana : Guy Gavriel Kay
- How to Buy a Love of Reading: Tanya Egan Gibson
-The Giver : Lois Lowry
-The Borrible Trilogy : Michael De Larrabeiti
- Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit : J.R.R. Tolkien
-Oran Trilogy : Midori Snyder
-Tam Lin: P...
-Ireland - Frank Delaney
-The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell
-American Gods - Neil Gaiman
-Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
-Thud! - Terry Pratchett
-The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
- Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevenmacker
-Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCaffery
-Atonement by Ian McEwan
-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
-A Room with a View by E.M Forrester
-North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
-Feeling Sorry for Ceilia – Jaclyn Moriarty
-Daughter of the Forest- Juliet Marillier
-The picture of Dorian Grey – Oscar Wilde
-Honeymoon in Purda: An Iranian Journey
-Hunter's Moon
-No Great Mischief
-Ireland a Bicycle and a Tin Whistle
-Solar Storms
-Crime and Punishment
- The Lovely Bones
-The Glass Castle
- Valley of the Dolls
- White Oleander
- She's Come Undone
- Last Summer at Barebones
- Lullabies for Little Criminals
- Icy Sparks
-I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales from a Jehova's Witness Upbringing by Kyria Abrahams

The Contenders

And we have a preliminary list of contenders!
Caomhóg, Cúilleann, Fionnabhair, Cáit, Sosaidh, Tríona, Siobhán and me, Sinéad! Book list to follow :)

And so it begins...

After finally watching Julie & Julia,  I (Sinead) began discussing the film on MSN with Siobhan. One thing led to another and soon we were planning a book club, and a mission similar to Mrs. Julie Powell. We've made a Facebook group, and invited a few of our friends, and invited them to do the same. In a few days we will all submit our favorite books, and we'll each have one year to read through them all.

It's a chance to meet new people, explore new literary genres and tastes and generally have a good time with one of God's greatest inventions - the written word.

Sinead