Sunday, June 29, 2014

BW27: The Trial by Franz Kafka



The 21st novel in Susan Wise Bauer's list of fiction reads from her book The Well-Educated Mind is The Trial by  Franz Kafka. Kafka started working on The Trial in 1914 and the book didn't get published until after his death in 1925.  Before he died in 1924, he bequested all his papers and unfinished stories to his best friend and translator, Max Brod and requested all his unpublished works be destroyed.  Brod ignored his wishes and went on to publish The Trial in 1925, The Castle in 1926, Amerika in 1927 and The Great Wall of China in 1931.   The Trial was never completed but the last chapter does bring the story to a close.  


Synopsis:  A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.

Chapter One:

Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested. Every day at eight in the morning he was brought his breakfast by Mrs. Grubach's cook - Mrs. Grubach was his landlady - but today she didn't come. That had never happened before. K. waited a little while, looked from his pillow at the old woman who lived opposite and who was watching him with an inquisitiveness quite unusual for her, and finally, both hungry and disconcerted, rang the bell. 

There was immediately a knock at the door and a man entered. He had never seen the man in this house before. He was slim but firmly built, his clothes were black and close-fitting, with many folds and pockets, buckles and buttons and a belt, all of which gave the impression of being very practical but without making it very clear what they were actually for. 

 "Who are you?" asked K., sitting half upright in his bed. 

The man, however, ignored the question as if his arrival simply had to be accepted, and merely replied, "You rang?" 

"Anna should have brought me my breakfast," said K. 

 He tried to work out who the man actually was, first in silence, just through observation and by thinking about it, but the man didn't stay still to be looked at for very long. Instead he went over to the door, opened it slightly, and said to someone who was clearly standing immediately behind it, "He wants Anna to bring him his breakfast." 

There was a little laughter in the neighbouring room, it was not clear from the sound of it whether there were several people laughing. The strange man could not have learned anything from it that he hadn't known already, but now he said to K., as if making his report "It is not possible."

"It would be the first time that's happened," said K., as he jumped out of bed and quickly pulled on his trousers. "I want to see who that is in the next room, and why it is that Mrs. Grubach has let me be disturbed in this way." It immediately occurred to him that he needn't have said this out loud, and that he must to some extent have acknowledged their authority by doing so, but that didn't seem important to him at the time. 

That, at least, is how the stranger took it, as he said, "Don't you think you'd better stay where you are?" 

"I want neither to stay here nor to be spoken to by you until you've introduced yourself." 

 "I meant it for your own good," said the stranger and opened the door, this time without being asked. 

The next room, which K. entered more slowly than he had intended, looked at first glance exactly the same as it had the previous evening. It was Mrs. Grubach's living room, over-filled with furniture, tablecloths, porcelain and photographs.

Continue reading here

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Sunday, June 22, 2014

BW26: Summertime reading

Josephine Wall's Summer Breeze
Hey, we are halfway through the year and hallelujah for summertime. For me, it is a well needed break from lessons, although planning never ends. Time to indulge in those books,   you know the ones - those chunky and dusty ones sitting on your shelves - that you haven't had time to read during the busyness of the year. 

Tell me what you think of when you hear the word summer?  Besides freedom, that is. *grin*   Summer brings thoughts of lightness and frivolity, fireflies and gnats, pools and pool parties, golden sunshine, and moonbeams, birds singing and the growl of lawnmowers.   Blue, green and yellow;  daffodils and daisies; ice cream and sweet tea; bbq and beer.  Or wine, depending on your preference. ~clink~

My stacks have a few summery reads so I won't have to resort to sifting through 1000's of choices from goodreads for summer light, blue, or daffodils to name a few.  Currently in my stacks is Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun, Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, Bradley's Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and Lehane's Moonlight Mile.  Not exactly cozy beach reads, but I'm sure to find a few along the way.  

Join me in reading books with summer or summer related words in the title for the season for summer.


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Sunday, June 15, 2014

BW25: Happy Father's Day



Happy Father's Day!   Let's celebrate the dad, papa, pop, daddy, father, old man, poppa, sir, or pa or whatever you call him.  My dad is 83 years young and still going strong. He's out today at Six Flags with another one of my sisters having fun riding the roller coasters.  I found this great poem entitled What Makes a Dad  and just had to share:


What Makes a Dad
God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it ... Dad


In honor of Father's Day, let's read a book with Father or any derivative in the title.  One of my favorite is


Then you can't go wrong with Father Brown





Check out Goodreads humongous list of books with father in the title and have fun picking out a book to read.  It is interesting that if you do a search for literary dads, the common denominator is King Lear, Atticus Finch, and Prospero.    One of my favorite dads in literature is Arthur Weasley. Who is yours? 


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Sunday, June 8, 2014

BW24: Armchair traveling through the 17th Century




The seventeenth Century, which ran from 1601 to 1700 was the early modern period in Europe and dominated by the scientific revolution, the beginning of the Baroque period, and the Pilgrims sailed the Mayflower to colonize America. 

In 17th century France, we had the birth of the literary academy for the purpose of literary criticism and analytical debate.  By mid 1600, Literary salons flourished, started by Madame de Rambouillet and her rival, Madeleine de Scudéry,  for the purposes of discussing literature and amusing and intellectual  conversation.  The salons flourished during the 17th and 18th century as the women of that period used the salons to pursue their own education, hear the works and ideas of other intellectuals as well as read their own works.

Literature wise, authors born and buried during that period of time including John Bunyan who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, Daniel Defoe introduced Robinson Crusoe, John Milton brought us Paradise Lost and William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes both passed away in 1616.

Currently in my backpack is The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips as well as Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland.  

Be sure to check out Historical Novels which has a huge list of Novels of the 17th Century as well as  Goodreads popular 17th Century reads.  I'm sure I'll be adding a few more books to my want list and tbr pile soon.

Join me in exploring the 17th Century!

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Sunday, June 1, 2014

BW23: Welcome to Steampunk Month

Steampunk Bible

Are you ready to let your hair down, metaphorically speaking and relax for the summer?  Me too!    James is officially done with the 8th grade and we are free, sort of.  Since it looks like we will be continuing to home school through the high school years (*gulp*),  I've been researching curriculum and figuring out the plan for the next 4 years.  But first, it's break time and what better way to spend it than diving into some science fiction, a bit of fantasy, wondering back in history with a futuristic bent, and delving into the philosophical ideals of steampunk.  

And since the majority of stories seem to take place in Europe, we'll continue our armchair travelcation in England for one more month before moving on to.....     I haven't yet decided. Maybe the middle east???

H.G. Wells and Jules Verne were considered the forefathers of steampunk and writers created worlds in the 19th century Victorian era which were driven technologically by steam rather than electricity. The term steampunk was a variation of cyberpunk and coined by K.W. Jeter in 1987. 

I've read quite a few including Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, which is full of werewolves, vampires and proper Victorian ladies, and is amusing and entertaining.  Currently in my backpack are  Jay Lake's Mainspring, Lillith Saintcrow's Iron Wrym Affair, Mark Hodder's Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel.   Find these and more listed on Goodread's humongous list of Best Steampunk Books.

Join me in reading Steampunk for the month of June.


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