These Books Among Us

The Tempest by William Shakespeare ( pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 4 November 2016 Synopsis: “Sources and Contexts” offers a rich collection of documents on the play’s central themes—magic and witchcraft, politics and religion, geography and travel. Writers include Ovid, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Gabriel Naudé, Michel de Montaigne, and William Strachey. “Criticism” collects eighteen responses to The Tempest, from John Dryden and Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Stephen Orgel and Leah Marcus. “Rewritings and Appropriations” includes creative reactions to The Tempest, by playwrights, filmmakers, and poets, among them H.D., Peter Greenaway, and Ted Hughes. A Selected Bibliography is also included. My Review: I had to read this play  for my Shakespeare class in college and it was the first time I had ever read it. This was an interesting play, and I'm not sure where it will fit on my scale for my favorite Shakespearean plays. While the plot was pretty straight

Nox by Anne Carson (184 pages) My Rating: 3 Stars Date Read: 4 November 2016 Synopsis: Nox is an epitaph in the form of a book, a facsimile of a handmade book Anne Carson wrote and created after the death of her brother. The poem describes coming to terms with his loss through the lens of her translation of Poem 101 by Catullus “for his brother who died in the Troad.” Nox is a work of poetry, but arrives as a fascinating and unique physical object. Carson pasted old letters, family photos, collages and sketches on pages. The poems, typed on a computer, were added to this illustrated “book” creating a visual and reading experience so amazing as to open up our concept of poetry. My Review: I had to read this book of poetry for my Modern Elegy English course at my school and I found it very interesting. This was the first elegy we had read by a female author, even though we are well over half way through our quarter. I found the poems themselves very convoluted, but they we

Hello Everyone! I hope you have all had a great week! I have been super productive in everything but what I really want to be, to be honest. I have gotten a lot of my classwork done, but I haven't started typing up my edits. Oh yeah!! I finished the written edits for my book! Woo! Super exciting, right?! I also finished Cress by Marissa Meyer, so the review for that will be coming up soon-ish! Ugh, it was so good! I highly recommend her Lunar Chronicles Series! The biggest thing that happened this week was about a sale. So on Target.com, there was a sale for the exact KitchenAid mixer that I wanted: a great 5 Quart, Professional 5 Mixer, which is normally $449.99. Now, I know what you're thinking. That's so expensive Dana! But hold on, here comes the sale part! I got it, with tax and shipping, for about half the price! I know right? Super great deal! So it came in the mail on Wednesday, but I can't actually open it until after Cyber Monday just in case that slim

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (536 pages) My Rating: 5 stars Date Read: 27 October 2016 Synopsis When you can’t beat the odds, change the game. Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world. My Review: This post will 100% be full of spoilers for both the first book and this book, so if you have not read either, please leave the post now, because you need to read this series

Hey everyone, So, even though the election happened this week, I do not think I will be able to rationally explain myself and my thoughts on it, so I am going to let this be the only acknowledgement to it in this post. If you are a friend or family member, you probably already know what my thoughts are. I do not want to get into any political debates with people because I just don't need that negativity in my life. So, moving on. I have a queue again for the posts! And they will keep coming! I plan on reading about three books this weekend, two for class and one for fun, so I will be set, hopefully, until the end of the year! I am still currently reading Cress by Marissa Meyer. I know, I should have been finished up with it a while ago, and I wanted to, but I have been really busy with classes and editing that I haven't really had the time. Speaking of, I have almost finished my written edits for the book I wrote for last NaNoWriMo!!!! Woo!! It's only taken me 11 mo

Twelfth Night, Or What You Will by William Shakespeare (430 pages) My Rating: 3.5 Stars Date Read: 25 October 2016 Synopsis: This edition of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night reprints the Bevington edition of the play along with 7 sets of thematically arranged primary documents and illustrations designed to facilitate many different approaches to Shakespeare's play and the early modern culture out of which the play emerges. The texts include facsimiles of period documents, maps, woodcuts, descriptions of the popular customs associated with Twelfth Night, anti-theatrical tracts, royal proclamations concerning dress, laws prohibiting certain sexual acts, poems fantasizing those very acts, early modern texts on household economies, passages from Puritan conduct books, excerpts from Ovid and Montaigne, a representative range of early modern opinions about boy actors, and theories of laughter. Besides contextualizing the audience for Shakespeare's play and shedding light on

Hey Guys!! So, I meant to get this out a lot earlier than I did today, but I was super busy all day! Even though I din't have work, I was hanging out with my Aunt who came to visit for about four or so hours, doing homework, and having bonding time with my roommates for about 10 or so hours after that! This week has been crazy! I have been reading a lot for my classes, but I have also finally started a new book! I am currently reading Cress by Marissa Meyer for fun, along with The Tempest (Shakespeare), Nox (Anne Carson), and Tender Buttons (Gertrude Stein) for my classes. On top of those readings, I am also taking part in my own version of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month for those of you who may not have known. Instead of writing a new novel, I am finally getting around to actually editing the one I wrote last year! I'm trying to do about 15 or so pages a day for the handwritten portion which will hopefully take me to about the 18th of the month. After that, I wi