My Computer...

lies in little bits on our bedroom floor. We are having some technical difficulties while upgrading our hard drive. I am writing this post on a borrowed computer and will check in whenever I get access.

In the meantime, I have not started Hard Times yet because I started a new crochet project. Not sure if this Dickens will be set on the back burner just like Pickwick...I have an order from Book Depository coming in of five of his other books as well as a book on Churchill.

So, I put up the third read-along post for Oliver Twist early but am crossing my fingers the computer issues will be resolved soon.

Oliver Twist Read-along: Post Three (Spoilers)

An early read-along posting due to computer issues...

Negative criticism abounds when it comes to Dickens...to each his own...a couple I hear often have to do with the way Dickens ends a story: there are too many coincidences that tie up the loose threads a little too neatly and his happy endings are unrealistic. These criticisms have some truth to them but as a reader they don't bother me. I like my books that way because so much of life is void of happy endings or dreams coming true or discovered unexpected riches. Besides Dickens gives the characters, and the readers, what they deserve because they have endured and suffered so much. So Oliver Twist could not have ended any better for me because every one did get what they deserved and I like myself a little justice at the end of my books. I read the last third of this book with a great sense of urgency. Practically every page was gripping reading with all the revelations and the implosion of the devious and evil.

I have been fascinated by how different my two readings of this book have been. Nancy became so real to me as opposed to the very superficial character I found her to be previously. Her struggle and hopelessness and how blinded by love(?) she was, her death was haunting and Sikes deserved to be haunted as well.

I will read Oliver Twist again as well as Dickens' other works. So much detail is lost over time, so much not observed nor absorbed in a first reading, that each subsequent reading is that much richer and more fulfilling to the reader.

Thank you, Allie, for hosting. To think that I am almost didn't participate...

Oliver Twist Read-along: Post Two (Spoilers)

So rereading Oliver Twist is further proof that pretty much all I retain from a first reading is an impression while the details are lost. I can't believe I forgot so much of the story that this feels like a first reading of Oliver Twist. I don't remember Oliver being shot (from the first book) and I certainly did not remember him being left in a ditch to die. I also don't remember being less than patient with Dickens as he took his time coming back to that part of the story but I must have been (or else I forgave him his carelessness in return for that perfect chapter on Mr. Bumble's proposal to Mrs. Corney).

I also didn't recall Oliver spending so much time with the people he was set to rob but have quite enjoyed my time among them...except for that sense of foreboding because I know Fagin and Sikes won't stay hidden for long. I think at this point I want them to make themselves known, for even I am beginning to think Oliver might be making them up even though I have been a witness to his history all along.

Throughout this second book, I had to keep telling myself to slow down. The curse of rereading and not remembering what happened the first time around has me rushing to get to the end. I can't wait to get to the third book...and so I am off.

Me and the Pickwickians...

...just don't get on. This was my third go and, once again, I cannot get into the club's adventures. The Pickwick Papers remind me of a lot of Sketches with Boz which, although I enjoyed the few sketches I read, I just didn't like them enough to continue. This seems to be the case with the papers as well. I am not completely giving up, the book will be waiting on the shelf for another time, but I am moving on to Dickens' Hard Times.

Kind of Yummy Cupcakes

Last summer, my sister and I bought Martha Stewart's Cupcakes with the intent to cook our way through the book. Really it was this recipe for Boston Cream Pie cupcakes that sold me but, eight reasons why later, have only just made them. Out of the nine recipes we have tried, only one... only one... has been a to-die-for- we-must-make-those-again-right-away recipe.
They sound yummy and they look yummy but they are only kind of yummy. And the thing about these recipes is they are pretty time consuming. Don't get me wrong...I don't have a problem putting a lot of time into my cooking but the result has to be worth that time, and the expense, and the dirty dishes, and the other cleaning up.
They aren't horrible and, with company coming over, they will be eaten up but I am about ready to copy out the one winning recipe for red velvet cupcakes and give up on this cookbook.

On a positive note...after buying a humongous bag of potatoes from Costco, my husband brought home a 5 pound bag of Yukons given to him by a vendor, and needless to say, we have been eating a lot of potatoes...potato soup, potatoes with kielbasa and sauerkraut, chicken and veggies with Nan's herb potatoes. These potatoes were yummy and my family thanks her for supplying me a recipe for oven-roasted potatoes instead of creating my own:)

Happy Valentine's Day...may it be filled with lots of lovely reading!

Cold Comfort Farm Giveaway - The Winner is...

Names were thrown into a bowl this morning and the winner is...Karenlibrarian. Thank you for your comments and to those who entered:)

I am a little cut-throat when it comes to cleaning out my house as well as my bookshelves, and this pretty little number didn't pass the keep test whilst culling the volumes. It is a beautiful Folio Society copy of Stella Gibbons' classic with illustrations by Quentin Blake but I can't keep it just because it's a gem. I have tried several times to read it but can't get into the story, and I hate to see it languishing on the shelves. If you would like a chance to give it a better home, leave a comment below to throw your name into the draw that will take place Monday, February 14. (Due to the cost, this giveaway is limited to the States.)

Oliver Twist Read-along: Post One

Two years ago, I chose Oliver Twist as my initiation into the world of Dickens. I loved it then and I am loving it more the second time around because there is a distance now between me and the movie musical which so colored my first reading. I am pretty sure this distance is due to getting to know Dickens through a few of his other works. I am grateful for it; I did not want to spend this reading of OT singing 'consider yourself at home' and 'oom-pa-pa, oom-pa-pa, that's how it goes', nor experiencing the characters at the same superficial level portrayed on-screen. I do admit to singing 'consider yourself at home' but after my reading and not during...that, my friends, is progress...and the characters are so much more alive to me. I am seeing Nancy in a whole new light, just as tortured and torn as Oliver, and some characters I feel as if I am truly seeing for the first time, like Mr. Brownlow, Mrs. Bedwin and Mr. Grimwig (what a fantastic name!).

So, this is Dickens at 25, and I feel that youth in his writing, in his narrating which feels so intimate when he addresses the reader directly. He writes about this stuff that would be downright depressing on its own except he keeps it light with sarcasm and humor, and keeps it hopeful with small gestures of kindness exhibited by his characters.

He has to because he places you on this roller coaster right from the start: the death of his mother to the small kindness extended by Mrs. Thingummy, the lows of living with Mrs. Mann to the little windows of goodness displayed by Mr. Sowerberry, and currently in the throes hoping Oliver can escape the evil of Fagin and Sikes and find his way back to Mr. Brownlow. One thing that remains the same between my two readings is the suspense; I am still anxious to know what will come next.

During my reading of Little Dorrit, I pretty much loved any part that skewered bureaucracy and politics as seen through the prism of the circumlocution office. I didn't notice this so much during my first reading of OT but am definitely appreciating the chance to see it right off in the second chapter regarding "Oliver's growth, education and board". Dickens is so, so good at this. I need to start a list, Dickens on Society, so I can go back and read these passages when in need of some levity looking at today's world.

This is my first time participating in a read-along and I can't wait to share the experience with other readers. But you don't have to be a part of the read-along to share your thoughts if you have read OT in the past. Thank you to Allie for hosting this event.

Completely Empty...

...redundant, I know, but I can't spend three weeks with a book and not feel completely empty at the end. And it is hard to leave Amy Dorrit and Arthur Clennam but I have found an answer to my impulse to open to page one and begin rereading this Dickens right away. Watching the recent BBC adaptation has allowed me to stay in this world of poverty and riches and society and singular characters while moving on to the Oliver Twist readalong. I am ambivalent about the adaptation, loving it one moment and not so loving it the next, but I can't stop watching. Claire Foy and Matthew Macfayden are excellent in their roles and Eddie Marsan as Mr. Pancks (although missing the hair Dickens gave him) is stealing the show. James Fleet as Frederick Dorrit and Pam Ferris as Mrs. General are not the characters I drew in my head but I love them so much from The Vicar of Dibley and Rosemary and Thyme, respectively, I have adjusted my vision.

Little Dorrit (the book) has all the qualities I have loved from my other readings of his work but they seem magnified here. His characters are richer. His social commentary is pitch perfect satire transcending his own time period. He is at his funniest and spookiest and the settings he creates never fail in their originality. And the emptiness I feel derives from how much I came to love so many of the characters...Amy, Arthur, Frederick, Lion, Mr. Meagles, Daniel Doyce, Pancks, John Chivery, Maggy...even Tattycoram and Flora.

I have picked up the habit of rereading Susan Hill's chapter on Dickens from Howards End is on the Landing during and after reading his works. I become overwhelmed by this need to see my feelings about Dickens reinforced by her words. She writes "He is mighty." Yes! She writes "...his literary imagination was the greatest ever..." Yes! She writes "After that, it is time I went back to Little Dorrit. Is it the best? I sometimes think so." At this moment, I know so.