Welcome to Litsy!

It hasn't been a great reading month, but I did finish this beast! I've spent the better part of the year in Middlemarch. Some days it was delightful, and others it was frustrating. The characters were achingly human: I was deeply invested in their fates. The book was well worth the challenge. I've rarely seen such deep understanding of human relationships and emotions.

This was my March #bookspin selection.

3✨We follow about three pairs of people with several side characters in this chunkster. I found that it focused on women in different walks of life, and for the men it looked at how they could make their way in the word. Obviously, a lot happened throughout the lives of these characters. It was a nice slow read.

#AboutABook
#OneWordTitle
@Eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I loved this one.

Nothing like a classic and way too much sugar after dinner. 🤤😅🥰💛

#CoverLove #yellow #day6

I was reviewing extracts of Middlemarch.What makes it such a great book is the layers on every character.Dodo for example,choses Casaubon because she appreciates his intelligence and wants to better herself,but also almost out of certain vanity,like she wants to show the world how different she is,how little she cares about appearances.Her character develops through suffering the consequences of her choices,but there's vanity in her martyrdom. ⬇️

July #TBR

Lots of oldies, trying to clear the shelves!

After almost six months of visiting Middlemarch, how strange that it‘s over. There were many parts of this #tome that I didn‘t love, but I did love Dorothea, and also the final sentence of the book, and I‘m still thinking about all of it. I understand why it‘s considered one of the greatest English novels, and I also feel like this didn‘t quite hit five stars for me personally, although I am so glad I read it.

Another Middlemarch-accompanied puzzle! #audiopuzzling

“But what the deuce was the name?”- 🤣

Trying to figure out what I just read with course hero. 😅

#20in4 #Readathon @Andrew65

I finished my puzzle and reached the 75% mark in Middlemarch, so I'm happy with my weekend of reading!

#audiopuzzling

#20in4 #Readathon I've been getting some good reading in this weekend, amidst work and social commitments! A little bit of time with Cross-Stitch, and tons of lovely time listening to Middlemarch while starting a new puzzle. 🥰🧩
@Andrew65

25 April-6 May 24 (audiobook)
Long and complex but a classic worth investing some time in. I feel I cheated a little by listening to the audiobook but I really love Juliet Stevenson as a narrator and I found I was able to focus quite well. Unlike many of her contemporary female authors, Eliot did not exactly write romance and her work is more akin to Dickens than Austen or Brontë. But she does give many interesting depictions of marriage. And fate

I absolutely loved this one. It's long and it starts a bit slow, but after about 1/3 of the book I felt resentful towards my other reads because I only wanted to read this. You see where everyone is going to end and it's a bit Dickensian in the sense that everyone is connected to someone else, but it's the countryside so very believable. Didn't know how to feel initially about Dorothea, that mix of religion, devotion and wanting ⬇️

Here's my list for April's #bookspin and #doublespin. I've decided to use it to work through my (very long) list of essential women writers.

Is this the perfect novel as some describe it? Not in my humble opinion, but there are some really insightful observations about human nature and relationships. Some had me guffawing out loud!

One of my favorites:

“He took a wife, as we have seen, to adorn the remaining quadrant of his course, and be a little moon that would cause hardly a calculable perturbation.” 😂

It‘s a beautiful night for an audiowalk. I‘m listening to the very weird Strange Bedfellows Death-march Through Middlemarch podcast. Members of the #hashtagbrigade might get a kick out of it.

https://open.spotify.com/show/3qhQK56wn0mbTmXGgEnKgX

#FreebieFriday
#LitsyLove
#favoritechunkster

I truly enjoyed MIDDLEMARCH by George Eliot; it remains my favorite chunkster that I actually loved and finished! 😃

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Read4life @TieDieDude

“He took a wife, as we have seen, to adorn the remaining quadrant of his course, and be a little moon that could cause hardly a calculable perturbation.” Perfection!!

Oh Lordy! No wonder Casaubon feels nary a whisper of passion for Dorothy. No good can come from this union.

Perhaps the well runs deep with Casaubon, but on the surface he has the personality of a doorknob.

My reward for peopling and course prep this week. ☺️ I am going to reread Middlemarch this year and savor it. I didn‘t want to suffer thru the tiny print of my mass market edition, so this is my treat.

I have I mentioned how much I love deckled edges?

Pulled this off my pile of partially finished books and so happy I did. This story was an absolute delight. The many trials and small victories of the residents of Middlemarch, it is a perfect window into early 19th century England with all its contradictions.

#OnThisDay #Nov22

I read four more chapters of Middlemarch after reading Frankenstein and I can honestly say after reading a good, enjoyable read that Middlemarch is unduly long winded and a bore with no rationale to be so except for the authors own self conceit and pride to prove herself and her mastery of the English language which is an unnecessary feat when writing a novel for personal enjoyment. She should have wrote a text book at this point.

I‘ve read up to chapter 19, page 167 of this early 19th century provincial plot and could no longer push through another page. I found the premise behind provincial life dull and could not beat any further interest. I am going to start giving a book about 50 pages before I toss it. If it hasn‘t hooked me in that time and the reality is, if the author hasn‘t hooked me at that length, he or she really hasn‘t done their job.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/10/george-eliot-biography-marr...

Here‘s an interesting article for all the #PemberLittens who struggled through…er…read…Middlemarch earlier this year. It‘s about George Eliot‘s view of marriage and how it differs from Jane Austen‘s, and compares to her own relationship.

Any other Jeopardy watchers who nailed the Middlemarch category tonight?? #pemberlittens

My goodness, this book was a real project! I put it down for periods of time, but did manage to finish it through a combination of listening and print formats. I did like it, although truthfully I enjoyed Adam Bede much more. And now I feel like I‘ve had the George Eliot experience, and I‘m none to anxious to pick up any more books by her.

#14books14weeks halfway point update …
As I suspected I got distracted reading book club and Camp Litsy selections. Not only have I let Middlemarch slide, but I only finished 3 of these books in the first 7 weeks 😳

I‘m going to have to step it up if I want to get close to finishing!

#14books14weeks
Week 1 progress report: made it to chapter 6 of Middlemarch, yay

For those of your following along at home, some (maybe) bad news for my final total … my best-paying client just offered me a news feature due the first week of August, so I‘m going to be a lot busier this summer than I expected 😬

This topped my list of books I was intimidated to read. I‘m sure I would have really disliked reading it if by myself but I came to quite enjoy my nightly ritual of reading a chapter and checking @BarkingMadRead ‘s post, hashtag, and comments. The pretty edition helped too 😊. While I would have needed to read this in an English course to be convinced of its merits, there were some little gems sprinkled in, like this last sentence that I loved.

So close to finishing Middlemarch, and this last sentence describes quite well how I‘ve read half of this book… 🫥. But #hashtagskeepmegoing

I feel like a lone reed, buffeted by the wind but rooted firm in my conviction that – like Anna Karenina – it‘s just okay. I‘m sure studying the novel would illuminate more of it, make it feel richer and more engaging, but as a casual reader… *shrug*. I didn‘t hate it, but I‘m glad to have put it behind me. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/middlemarch-george-eliot/

“If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think it‘s emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new. We are told that the eldest inhabitants of Peru do not cease to be agitated by the earthquakes, but they probably see beyond each shock and reflect that there are plenty more to come.”

Oops, just realized I never posted a review after the #pemberlittens read. The prose is clever and often subtly funny, but I really had to slog through the first 2/3 of this book before I cared about ANYBODY, so it doesn't get a pick. Plus the misogyny, and I don't mean the times, I mean how Eliot describes women. The character development of Dori is my favorite part even though I despised her at first.

I learned a while ago that George Eliot was a pen name for Mary Ann Evans Cross. Because of that it immediately went into my tbr pile. I'm finally getting around to starting it.

I loved this brilliant examination of small-town English life in the 1800's, and reading it was made especially enjoyable with the chapter-a-day read-along with the #pemberlittens. Thank you @BarkingMadRead for hosting!

Wow what a ride this was. For such a long book, there's really not much plot 😅 I can honestly say that if I tried to read this on my own I probably wouldn't have gotten through it, but reading a chapter a day with the #pemberlittens made it enjoyable and something I looked forward to each morning! It felt like a soap opera with all the small town drama and the characters were not really loveable but I was invested in their lives
@BarkingMadRead

I didn't exactly like Middlemarch but I did appreciate the author's observations about life in a small town, people's expectations and especially marriages. In many books, the plot ends with a marriage, and we consider that a happy ending, but we don't get to see what happens after the wedding. It was interesting here to look at some of the ways marriages may fall apart or at least prove to be very different from what the husband and wife expected

My word, what a book! I can see why this one has never been as popular as Austen's novels. The characters here were not particularly likable or relatable, almost nothing happens, and I didn't particularly hold out any hope for the long-term happiness of anyone haha I am glad to have read this classic, but it is way too long for the amount of story it contains. Never would have made it through without snarky hashtags from @BarkingMadRead !! ⬇️

Finale: #wrappingupthelooseends #wedidit #wearedone #itdidntkillus #itmayhavecomeclose #welldone #mythoughtsinthecomments #pemberlittens

Chapter 86: #FRED #thatisallihavetosayaboutthat #pemberlittens

Chapter 85: Bulstrode tries to make things right #hiswifeislookingoutforthevincys #FRED #stonecourtwillgotoFred #moreweddingbellsmaybecoming #shortchapter #timetowrapitallup #pemberlittens

I finished the last few fairly short chapters this morning. I just couldn‘t stick to the #ChapterADay any longer. I didn‘t love this book, but I also think it might have been better if I‘d read it more straight through. It‘s still a light pick because I think it was an interesting story of several characters, and I was always curious to know what would happen to them.

#PemberLittens #audiobook #1001books

Chapter 84: #blahblahblahpolitics wedding bells will ring #brookeisokwithit #sirjamesisnot #celiatriestochangehermind #dodoisnthavingit #pemberlittens

Well, I am pretty proud of myself. Read this a chapter a day with @BarkingMadRead whose hashtags could get me through any book at all. What a fun experience this was, and thank you soooo much, my friend. ❤️
@BarkingMadRead
#pemberlittens #whatsnext #whatsafterthat #youcanneverstop #justkiddingsortof