A haunting work that manages to shake the reader to their core.

"It was the quiet tone of a person who didn't belong anywhere; someone who had passed into a border area between states of being."

I struggled to get through this book, mostly because I have lived in Nebraska and was not left with the best memories. Willa Cather did something spectacular by creating a landscape that in and of itself was a character in its own right in the novel, an antagonist that Alexandra had to pit herself against. Wonderfully written and painfully sentimental at points I regret taking so long to finish this work.

I listened to the audible edition, the narration was on point and the story line was amazing. Although I am not a huge fan of alternate universe fiction I found this to be very well done.

I decided if I am indeed to start blogging on a more personal note that I should probably revisit the idea of the informal essay. I am doing the great courses lecture series on becoming a better essayist and starting to read one of the recommended books.

#greatcourses #greatcoursesplus #essayist #writer #blogger #literature #blog #writing

There is nothing like this tv show, it's cute, it's quirky...and I'm surprised that I haven't come across more book lovers that like this show..so yeah binge watching this today..

Such a good book...I really enjoyed the narrator on the audiobook version.

Starting this book for @DeweysReadathon #deweys24hrreadathon #veryshortintroduction #classicalliterature

[Evolution] ...produces cobbled-together, unstable works in progress, and then discards them. ....evolution is more like a morally blind, fickle, tightly shackled tinkerer."

"So much of Western culture turns on centuries of exploration of the legacy of the classical works that it lies somewhere at the roots of pretty well all we say,see, or think."

I cannot say I was overly enthusiastic with this book, it seemed as it was a slow trudge to set up a frame of reference for someone who had no knowledge of the Greek and Roman classical impact on modern cultures.

"Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them"

I have never read this book but I stumbled across this quote elsewhere. Tbh I cannot explain how true this rings for myself. These days if I was to say it out loud it feels rather juvenile to whine that I'm lonely and disappointed.

To be interested in the classical word has often mane literally to go there, to embark on a voyage into the unknown.

"The principle sin...with which the tongue is particularly connected is lust,for,since the days of Eve and the serpent...seduction lies in talk, and the tongue is seduction's tool." Maria Warner

"...for he is another one who never worries, who does not give a damn, as he swims blithely between one stage of life and the next.."

"You might think you have defined me by some label, but you are wrong, for I am always a work in progress."

"One's perspective changes a good deal depending on whether one is a living part of the décor or simply a stroller, a flâneur--"

I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Tavia Gilbert, I do believe her performance is what made this book so wonderful. Her portrayal of Frank seemed to suit the character quite well. The story in itself is lovely and endearing due to the relationship between Alice and Frank.

"Existence precedes essence. What you are (your essence) is the result of your choices (your existence) rather than the reverse. Essence is not destiny. You are what you make yourself to be."

"For me, Autumn has never been a sad season. The dying leaves and the days that grow shorter and shorter have never evoked the end of something for me but instead brought with them anticipation for the future."

"Surrounded by lonely disorder, preparing to go out and begin his day."

Stoner is one of those books that cannot be explained, as it was explained to me "it's a good book but difficult to explain why." Stoner resonated for me through Williams' beautiful storytelling and I am sure this is a book I will revisit again.

She wanted (she said) a change in herself. She had too long been what she was; she spoke of her childhood, of her marriage. And from sources that she could speak of but vaguely and uncertainly, she fixed an image that she wishes to fulfill;

The love of literature, of language, of the mystery of the mind and heart showing themselves in the minute, strange, and unexpected combinations of letters and words, in the blackest and coldest print-the love which he had hidden as if it were illicit and dangerous, he began to display.

In the University library he wandered through the stacks, among the thousands of books, inhaling the musty odor of leather, cloth , and drying page as if it were an exotic incense.

"She spoke in a kind of shadow language..pausing,thinking, trying to remember ..."