These Books Among Us

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (180 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 24 October 2016 Synopsis: "Now we have an American masterpiece in its final form: the original crystal has shaped itself into the true diamond. This is the novel as Fitzgerald wished it to be, and so it is what we have dreamed of, sleeping and waking."--James Dickey This is the definitive, textually accurate edition of a classic of twentieth-century literature, The Great Gatsby. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan has been acclaimed by generations of readers. But the first edition contained a number of errors resulting from Fitzgerald's extensive revisions and a rushed production schedule. Subsequent printings introduced further departures from the author's words. This edition, based on the Cambridge critical text, restores all the language of Fitzgerald's masterpiece. Drawing on the manuscript and surviving proofs o...

Hey guys! I did it! I finally have read enough books for a queue again! Woo hoo! So, yes, three of the books I have scheduled for reviews are for class, but it's fine! I finally finished Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, so that review will be coming up soon! I have been doing a lot of baking as well, so I may post some reviews of those recipes and some of the pictures I took, but I'll have to think about it some. I am taking a slight break from baking because it is getting quite expensive, which is not kind to my wallet. In school, I am about half way done with my last fall quarter! It just hit me recently that I am going to be graduating and going out into the real world! (Slightly freaking out, but it's okay, just breathe, right?) I have a midterm coming up on Wednesday, so, again, deep breaths. Life has been going pretty well in general. I'm having fun at school, work is going well, I get to read and (hopefully) write more. Oh! Speaking of writing! So inst...

Mrs Dalloway by Virgina Woolf (197 pages) My Rating: 2.5 Stars Date Read: 19 October 2016 Synopsis: In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with far-away remembrances. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices she has made, hesitantly looking ahead to growing old. Undeniably triumphant, this is the inspired novelistic outline of human consciousness. My Review: I am going to start off by saying that I normally enjoy the Modernist literature. This being said, however, I did not really enjoy this book. It was long winded and very dense. It just wasn't my cup of tea. Following many different characters with no chapter breaks and no real breaks in the stream of consciousness was difficult to handle. I thought it was clever how the na...

Hey Y'all! Sorry I didn't get out an update on time today or on Friday. Unfortunately, I don't have a book review again this week. I have been super busy with my classes and work! I'm almost done with reading Crooked Kingdom, so hopefully, I'll have a review up for that on either this Monday or the next. It depends on if I finish my book for class first or not! So this weekend, I got to go home for a short visit with my family! It was so much fun! I got to get a new book case and try making pretzels for a third time! This time, they were much better too!!! If you couldn't tell, I'm in a good mood this week. Hopefully it will stick for the rest of the week! I am planning on reading a book called The Cellar by Natasha Preston after I finish Crooked Kingdom! It looks really creepy, so it's a perfect read for October since it's getting closer to Halloween! So for an update on the blog itself: I still plan on doing at least one post a week some ...

Hey Y'all!! So, I didn't finish the book I was planning on reading this weekend, so  I thought I would give you a recipe and a review of how it turned out instead! Hopefully this is an okay substitute!! So yesterday (Sunday) I decided to try to make some soft pretzels from scratch because it's fall and pretzels are a pretty fall food! This was my first time making soft pretzels on my own, so that being said, it turned out a lot better than I  had actually expected! I'll post the recipe and some pictures below! Ingredients: 4 teaspoons active dry yeast 1 teaspoon white sugar 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) 5 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup white sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1/2 cup baking soda 4 cups hot water Kosher Salt for Toppings Method: Prep 2 h Cook 10 m Ready In 2 h 20 m In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. In...

Hello All!! So I thought I would update you on what I'm reading, watching, and just generally doing with my spare time at the moment! Right now for fun reading, I am reading Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. I finally got it in the mail, but I didn't really have (or make) much time to read it! But now, I am just about finished with part two and oh my goodness, if I didn't have to work today, I would have stayed up all night to finish the whole book! For my classes, I am reading Hamlet (again) as well as a bunch of modernist literature and poetry, and elegies. Sounds fun, right? It actually kind of is, to be completely honest. I love getting to take these English courses and learning little hidden things in each of the works we read! Wow, I am sounding like such a book nerd right now! That's about it for what I'm reading at the moment. Now onto shows and movies! My new roommates and I have been re-watching a bunch of the Studio Ghibli films each night, so t...

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (398 pages) My Rating: 4.5 Stars Date Read: 25 September 2016 Synopsis: This Norton Critical Edition of Hamlet features a newly edited text based on the Second Quarto (1604–05). It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and appendices providing important passages from both the First Quarto Hamlet (1603) and the Folio Hamlet (1623). Robert S. Miola’s thought-provoking introduction, “Imagining Hamlet,” considers this tragedy as it has taken shape in the theater, in criticism, and in various cultures. “The Actors’ Gallery” presents famous actors and actresses—among them Sarah Bernhardt, Ellen Terry, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Kenneth Branagh, and Jude Law—reflecting on their roles in major productions of Hamlet for stage and screen. “Contexts” includes generous selections from the Bible, Greek (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides) and Roman (Seneca) tragedies, Saxo Grammaticus, Dante, Thomas More, and Thomas Kyd. ...

Hey guys! So I have almost officially caught up with the reviews of the books I have read this year, so I am going to be changing up the formatting of how I publish on the blog. From now on, I will be doing a review published on Mondays and an update of what I am doing on Fridays. I may post little updates throughout the week, but as of right now, there are going to be only posts on Mondays and Fridays! Classes started this last week, so I will be having less time to do fun readings, but I will try my best to read about 12 fun books this quarter! Also, I am going to start baking more soon, so I will post some pictures when I actually finish some of the recipes! I am really excited to experiment with new recipes that are a lot more challenging than what I'm used to! Okay, so  that does it for this update for now! I hope you all have an amazing month!! XO Dana