The results are in for the ladies in for round two.
We may have had a few surprises here (look at the first selection for Emma) but over all not too surprising.
Now things get a little harder as we choose are top favorite for each book in the male category. Are you a Brandon fan or do you pledge your heart to Edward?
Get your picks to me by Sunday at 6:00 pm EST to be counted in the tally.
[Wondering why I picked Austen 13? Brownie points to any one who can guess.)
After an exciting first round in the men’s division it is time to turn our attention to the ladies. Same deal, pick your favorite character from the pairings (you’ll come up with two characters from each book).
Below you’ll find the revised bracket showing the winners for the first round.
[Frankly, we didn’t have a lot of participation on this, but I’m committed to going all the way to the final buzzer on this, so get those votes in. Jane — and I — are counting on you!]
Lastly… Maggie reminded me that Mansfield Park’s Pug was probably a female dog, but, as she had puppies and one of them was surely a male, the bracket stands.
Bam! I’m throwin’ down a little Regency on y’all. Get your court face on… it’s time for some Jane Ball.
The other night I was watching some TV and a came across a commercial for March Madness Basketball. In it the announcer shouted into the living room reminding the world at large that “You’ve got your team!!!” And I thought, uh, no, no I don’t. I don’t really watch college hoops, and I couldn’t tell you who was favored to win or even be in the sweet sixteen.
That announcer made me feel kind of bad. Was I missing out on some major bit of Americana that EVERYONE else was enjoying?
Then I thought… wait a minute… I DO have my team. I’m on TEAM AUSTEN.
That pretty much spiraled into this fantasy basketball bracket thingie and I thought my fellow Janeites might like to play along.
So here’s one more bracket for you to fill out this March Madness season. Lets see how you do!
Simply pick your favorite character from each pairing and get back to me by 6 pm MONDAY, March 30th. I’ll tabulate the results and post selections for the next round. The characters with the most votes go on to the next round.
There are no right or wrong answers. If you aren’t familiar with one of the books just skip it.
There is just one rule… don’t play ahead.
Round One… The Men. Pick your favorite from each pair (there are two pairings for each book).
Last August was a hot one. Many, many people bemoaned about how miserable the weather was… how they couldn’t wait for winter because they couldn’t take one more hot, sticky day of summer. (You know who you are, don’t make me go back on your FaceBook feed for evidence.) Now that we’ve been slogging through some serious snow every one is complaining about winter and longing for the beach again.
Dear friends, I say to you… don’t fritter your days away pining for “better” weather. Find something to enjoy about the NOW.
In the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein classic My Favorite Things Maria finds lots of lovely wintery things to help her keep positive. So we’ll start there…
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/497321629
1. Warm Woolen Mittens
English: By Richard Wheeler (Zephyris) 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
2. Sleigh Bells
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3. Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
4. (Thanks Maria, I’ll take it from here) Fluffy Dogs who want to curl up on your lap
5. Hand knit socks
6. Hot chocolate
7. Baking days
8. Reading by the fire
9. Snow men
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/177665908
10. (back to Favorite Things) Silver white winters that melt into Spring.
Because a little patience yields some beautiful things.
While you are shoveling off the drive (again) send the kids into the yard to collect a big bowl of fresh snow (making a snow man is optional, but will get some of their energy out as well.)
Inside split the bowl of snow into two separate bowls. In the first bowl slowly add the Almond Milk (regular milk will do if you don’t Almond Milk) until you get it to a smooth Ice Cream consistency.
Add Maple Syrup and Almond Flavoring to taste.
Add more snow if you necessary.
Divide into serving bowls and enjoy.
Dear Reader, if you recall I came down pretty hard on #9 TTFN a few reviews ago. I thought the way it was written — in faux text messages — made it difficult to read and showed a complete lack of regard for the English language. Fast forward a few books to #17 on the ALA’s Top Banned/Challenged books of 2000-2009 and we find The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
The Color Purple (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I was really flummoxed on what to write about The Color Purple, because I really liked the novel.
Am I a hypocrite for liking Purple but not liking TTFN? Both:
The difference is that Alice Walker gives her book and engaging story and well drawn characters. Even the characters that start off one dimensional slowly evolve over the course of the book. And in the end I think Walter’s choice to use dialect adds to Celie’s character, it’s more than just a gimmick to appeal to a segment of the book buying demographic.
The book was challenged almost as soon as it hit the bookshelves. Racislm, Sexism, Nudity, Offensive Language, Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited for Age Group and Violence.
In 1985 the novel was turned into a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg. Twenty years later a musical adaptation opened on Broadway.
The Color Purple (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Cover for the original Broadway cast recording (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Here’s a clip from the 2005 Tony Award’s showing a scene between Celie and Sophia.
Please, dear reader, DO NOT mistake the grim made-for-tv-esque Go Ask Alice by Anonymous for an entry in the Alice Series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor that I wrote about in my last post.
This “Alice” starts out as sensitive, insecure 15-year-old who keeps a diary and winds up addicted to drugs. After a few on again, off again rides of the drug roller coaster, and some pretty awful experiences she finally starts to get her life together, but her old druggie friends wont let her escape.
Sadly, this book reads like a “This is your brain on drugs” PSA penned by Jan Brady from the Brady Bunch.
The Brady Bunch opening grid, season one (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It is ham-fisted as it details all the horrible stuff that happens to “Alice” but it is written in a bizarrely syrupy-sweet style that has the diarist ping-ponging between love, love, loving her family (because they are really the very best people in the world) and wondering if she should give her unsuspecting little brother, Tim, a hit of acid so he knows just how hard her life is.
Allegedly a found diary of a young girl, Go Ask Alice is really a book of fiction. It is listed as as such on the copyright page. It was probably written by its editor Beatrice Sparks. Sparks went on to “edit” other diaries
The books deal with topical issues such as drug abuse, Satanism, teenage pregnancy or AIDS, and are presented as cautionary tales. [Goodreads]
but I have a hard time believing that anyone could read this book and take it as cautionary. I suspect that young readers would think the book is a joke. It is so very, very square and clearly written to try to frighten the reader not to do drugs. The VERY dated writing style doesn’t help this book. It is just bad, bad, bad. (And way over the top.) John Green’s Looking For Alaska is a MUCH better written book that covers some of the same material in a contemporary manner.
A book about a teenager who takes drugs and has sex is sure to score high on the banned book matrix and it does.
but my guess is that you wouldn’t HAVE to ban it, who’d want to read it?
The title of the book is based on a the Jefferson Airplane song of the same name. So if you want trippy look at drug culture in the late Sixties here you go…
And, ah yeah… They DID make the book into a TV movie of the week. Starring none other than William Shatner as Alice’s father. Now THAT’S trippy.
English: William Shatner photographed by Jerry Avenaim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Happy 202nd anniversary Pride and Prejudice! For your present, dear readers, I’m giving you a reblog of my character study of the first RomCom couple… Lizzie and Darcy!
With a special shout out to my friends in JASNA MD, especially Joyce (who sent me a special P&P birthday greeting)!
Is there anything more delightful than a well written story of personal growth and discovery? Pride and Prejudice, Austen‘s “own darling child,” is a story of first mis-impressions that eventually resolve into true understanding, appreciation and love. The journey to that self discovery is the juiciest part of the novel. And that means that both Darcy and Lizzie must be willing to change the way they look at the world and at each other.
![Jennifer Ehle is beautiful as Elizabeth in the 1995 series [Image courtesy BBC Home.]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/lizzie396_396x222.jpg)
Jennifer Ehle is beautiful as Elizabeth in the 1995 series [Image courtesy BBC Home.] Elizabeth Bennet is a pretty, charming, intelligent, self-assured 20-year-old. She is the second eldest daughter of the Bennet family. She takes second place to sister Jane in beauty as well, but she bares it well. She has a lively, playful disposition and a good-natured impertinence that is the delight of her father and the bane of her mother.
Cropped screenshot…
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We are in the home stretch with these character bios… Here are Jane and Bingley
Ahhh. Jane and Bingley. Of all the characters in Pride and Prejudice these two deserve to be together — and deserve a happy ending — the most. If Austen had been a lesser writer I think Jane and Bingley would have been the main characters in the novel. Pride and Prejudice would have been a more straightforward romance of two beautiful nice people meeting, falling in love, being separated by circumstance and malevolent people, but coming together at the end and, against all odds, getting that happy ending. Not a bad story. A charming story, no doubt, but not one, perhaps, that we’d still be re-reading 200 years later. (And one, no doubt, that would have had a different title.)
Suzannah Harker in the 1995 series.
I have absolutely nothing critical to say about Jane. And I am sure she would have absolutely nothing bad to say about me…
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Another pair of character profiles reblogged from 2013 in anticipation of the Pride and Prejudice anniversary…
For a woman who came from a family of clergymen — her father, two brothers and four cousins wore a collar — Jane Austen certainly enjoys poking fun at them in her novels. And Pride and Prejudice’s Mr. Collins is her most ridiculous clerical caricature. How on earth does sensible Charlotte wind up with such a buffoon?
A clergyman was a professional, just like a lawyer or doctor. He made his living in the pulpit, not at the bar or in the examining room, but he still needed to be a well educated man. Add to that a vicar needed have a high moral standard, be a good speaker and have compassion for the poor and needy.
![David Bamber is Mr. Collins in the 1995 series [Image courtesy BBC Home.]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/mr_collins_396_396x222.jpg)
David Bamber is Mr. Collins in the 1995 series [Image courtesy BBC Home.] Instead we get conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly, self important Mr. Collins. He is a mixture of pride and obsequiousness…
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