Let's Bust a Recap : Watership Down

Watership Down was the last book I read in 2022, and it was a fun one to end the year. It wasn't on my 2022 book list, but I was determined to read it after seeing Sheree's post over at Keeping Up With the Penguins which informed me it would be turning 50. My copy had been sitting on my shelf for a couple years, but hadn't made it onto my book lists so I loosely slated it for November (which is the month it was originally published in 1972) and ended up reading it in December. (I also made this my choice for my book club, but I think I was the only one who read it. Holidays are a hard time to be reading a book for book club. I get it.)

Watership Down came from a story that English author Richard Adams made up on a road trip to entertain his daughters. After complaining about a particularly poor book he was reading aloud to them and emphatically stating he could do better, his daughter laid down the gauntlet saying, "Well, I only wish you would, Daddy, instead of keeping on talking about it." Challenge accepted. After a somewhat rocky road to get published, Watership Down rocketed to success and has become a rather popular enduring work. A modern classic I'd say.

And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In the story, we follow along with rabbit brothers Hazel and Fiver as they decide they must leave their warren because of some unknown impending danger (Fiver's got the second sight, it seems), and undertake a journey to find a new safe place to start their own warren. Naturally, they try to warn their Chief Rabbit, but he's having none of it and only a few other rabbits decide to take the risk with them and leave. What follows is one close call after another as these bunnies set off to make a new home for themselves. It turns out, shortly after they left their warren, it was razed by evil humans and only two rabbits escaped with their lives. When they finally find a place to build their new warren, they realize if its ever going to be a success, they're going to need to find some female rabbits to do what bunnies do and keep their warren alive and well, so they set off on yet another dangerous mission to find them some honeys. 

Despite seemingly every reader's attempt to cull a deeper meaning out of Watership Down, Adams has insisted that he never meant for it to be some sort of allegory or parable. In his words, "it is simply the story about rabbits made up and told in the car." How Mark Twain-ish of him. This (anti)defense of his hit novel is in an introduction written by him in one of my editions of the book. So having read that, I took Adams at his word and just read it as an adventure story, and I loved it. Interestingly, both my parents remember being assigned this book in school at which time it would have been a brand new release, and listening to their teachers go on ad nauseam about all the themes and symbolism and what-not. Personally, my main takeaway is that it's cruel and unusual to keep rabbits as pets. 

However you decide to approach it, I'd say Watership Down is one worth giving a read at some point in your life. (And if you do read it: don't miss the Lapine Glossary in the back of the book to interpret the unfamiliar rabbit words!) It was exciting and entertaining, and it kept me turning the pages (despite taking nearly the entire month of December to read because World Cup and then Christmas). I could see myself picking it up again one day, and as far as I'm concerned: that's a good book.

Have you read Watership Down?

Let's Bust a Recap : Polk

Well, we're still trudging along on this journey to read a biography of each American president. And I'm in what is arguably the black hole of the office: the stretch between #7 Andrew Jackson and #16 Abraham Lincoln. Those eight presidents are largely regarded as some of the worst and most ineffective presidents we've had. Except for #11, Mr. James K. Polk. Though his name has fallen into obscurity, he was not only the most effective out of that group of eight, he's also one of our greatest presidents of all time. And that's not just me talking: historians consistently rank him at #8 or #9 overall.

James Knox Polk was born in 1795 in North Carolina, the first of ten children in a family of farmers. By the time he was 10 years old, his family had moved to Tennessee where James grew up. He attended UNC and after graduating with honors in 1818, he returned to Nashville to study law under his mentor Felix Grundy. He had a short career in law before becoming more heavily involved in state politics. He served in the Tennessee state legislature before being elected to represent his state in Congress in the House of Representatives where he served seven terms, including two terms as Speaker of the House. He then returned home to Tennessee to serve as the state governor where he led a largely ineffectual term. He then fell out of the political limelight, losing the following two elections for governor. 

So how did he ever end up as president? As it turns out, one of Polk's closest friends and mentors was Andrew Jackson, the ever popular 7th president of the United States. At the Democratic Convention of 1844, Martin van Buren was back as the front runner for the Democratic nomination after having lost the last election to William Henry Harrison. However, the question of annexing Texas was the hot topic of the day and Martin van Buren came down on the other side of the question as Jackson: namely, he was against annexing Texas, and Jackson was for it. Polk showed up at the convention ready to throw in his hat for the vice presidential nomination, and ended up walking away the Democratic candidate for the top job in the country instead. After barely eking out a narrow victory over three-time loser Henry Clay, James K. Polk was sworn in as the United States' 11th president. 

Polk set out with four objectives in mind: resolve the joint occupation of Oregon, acquire California, reduce the tariff, and establish an independent treasury. He accomplished all four of these objectives within his four-year term and then resolutely refused to run for president again, a promise he had made when he received the nomination. He was the first president that chose of his own will not to run again, and he seemed relieved to leave the presidency behind. He was a workaholic and a micromanager and he threw his entire life into his work. Unfortunately, it took a harsh toll and he died a mere 103 days after leaving office. 

As for his personal life, it seems that not very much is really known. He suffered from ill health pretty much his entire life, starting when he was a teenager. He actually had to have an unmedicated surgery to have urinary stones removed when he was just 16 which likely caused his sterility later in life. He married Sarah Childress on January 1, 1824 and they were rarely separated during the course of their marriage. They seemed to truly love one another, and after her husband died at the age of 53, Sarah remained a widow the rest of her 42 years. 

This biography of Polk's life by Walter R. Borneman was published in 2008, and I thought it was a pretty good one. Borneman does a great job of setting Polk's life in context with his contemporaries, and I felt that while Polk was the main subject of this biography, I was getting little mini-biographies of a lot of his political contemporaries. Sometimes, that information seemed like Borneman was trying to fill out his book, but ultimately it helped me as the reader understand Polk's life and decisions. It was interesting to me as I build toward the Civil War to see names like Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and P.G.T. Beauregard dropped into a presidential biography for the first time as all these young men served in Polk's somewhat controversial Mexican-American War. I didn't care for Borneman's tendency to use nicknames for most of the men he was writing about, but that's just a personal preference, I guess. I also wish he would have spent a little more time on Sarah who seemed to be an interesting character in her own right and is considered the greatest First Lady between Dolley Madison and Edith Wilson. 

All things considered, I went into this biography of Polk not really knowing what to expect (remember, he kindof fell out of politics for a minute there), and I've walked away from it now placing Polk in my top three presidents so far alongside Jackson and Washington. He did what he set out to do, and he loved his wife. He practically doubled the size of our country, and he extended the reach of America from sea to shining sea. He was a man who stuck to his guns, and I admire the heck out of that. I even sort of admire his tendency to micromanage and throw his all into his work. That's the kind of dedication I want to see serving our country, especially in that highest political office. If you, like I was, are unfamiliar with James K. Polk, I'd recommend reading this biography on him. He was an exceptional politician. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Well, we've kicked off our 2023 reading strong...by finishing up the two books in progress I started last year. Ha! The first one was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by French author Jules Verne. Cody and I started this one together back in September, and although we started well, our reading aloud time took a backseat when the holidays hit, and we were only reading a chapter or two (of the 47 chapter book) per week. 

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was originally published in French in 1871. Like many novels being written around that time period, it was first serialized between 1869 and 1870. It was translated into English a couple of years later by Reverend Lewis Page Mercier. Even though it's pretty widely recognized that Mercier's translation isn't very good, it is somehow still the standard English translation with later translations recycling a lot of Mercier's mistakes. Since the 1960s, there have been several new and complete translations published, but the basic English copy you'd find in most bookstores is going to be some form of Mercier's translation which is what we have. (You gotta love those gorgeous Barnes & Noble special editions though, right?)

In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the year is 1866 and ships from many different countries are sighting what they believe to be some incredible sea monster all over the oceans. The United States government puts together an expedition to find and destroy this monster, and Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist, is invited to go along. He is the narrator of our story which is written in the style of his personal journal and account of their ensuing adventures. His faithful assistant Conseil, and a Canadian harpooner named Ned Land are our other two principal characters. When the expedition finds the monster and attacks it, these three find themselves hurled off the ship and save themselves by climbing onto the monster itself which they are surprised to discover is no monster, but a futuristic submarine. They are eventually taken aboard and meet the inventor and commander of the vessel, the mysterious Captain Nemo who informs them that to maintain the all-important secrecy of his watercraft, they will remain as permanent inmates on the Nautilus. 

What follows is a detailed account of their time on board and the many adventures they encounter. While Verne has a dry sense of humor that had me laughing out loud at times, and the actual adventures are thrilling, the in-between bits were just boring. There were chapters where all Aronnax was doing was describing the various sea life, explaining the mechanics of the Nautilus, or chronicling their travel from place to place. There was a lot of math and a lot of scientific names that I twisted my tongue trying to pronounce as I read this aloud to Cody, and frankly, I'm more of a lit/history lover than a maths and sciences nerd. But overall, I'd say the exciting parts outweighed the boring parts making this classic one worth reading. However, my enthusiasm for our other Jules Verne books has been tempered accordingly. (We also have Around the World in Eighty Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth.) Being that I don't speak French, I'm not sure what all was lost in translation, but Cody and I both enjoyed the humor in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and every so often, I'd come across a simple line that stopped me in my tracks and I'd look up at Cody and say, "What a great line!"

So do Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned Land ever escape the Nautilus? For that, you'll have to read this one for yourself. 

2023 Book List

Happy New Year!

And we're off on another trip around the sun. You know how they say the days are slow but the years are fast? Over here it all just feels fast. I was looking forward to a slow Christmas this year, but it seems like I blinked and it was over. *sigh* A brand new year means a fresh new book list though, and that's always exciting. The possibilities are endless, and 2023 is boasting the most ambitious book list I've ever made for myself. 

Forty titles. Ever since I made my first book list in 2015 and totally bombed, I've tried to keep my lists pretty small. I usually aim for around twenty-four books on the official list. But this year, as I pulled books off my shelf, I figured I'd try to keep it under thirty. When I finally counted up what I'd pulled and realized I was well on my way to fifty titles, I decided I couldn't possibly narrow it down to any fewer than forty so that's where we landed. On last year's list of twenty-eight books, there were four I didn't get to. So trying to stick to the forty on this year's list ought to be real interesting. I'm already halfway through my biography of Polk, and Cody and I are over halfway through our read aloud of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The four books I didn't get to from my 2022 list carried over onto this year's list, and I am resolutely determined to read David Copperfield this year (this is the fourth time I've put it on my book list for the year). Having said all that, here's my book list for 2023.

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency : Walter R. Borneman

Zachary Taylor : John S.D. Eisenhower

Millard Fillmore : Robert J. Rayback

Franklin Pierce : Michael F. Holt

The Devil in the White City : Erik Larson

Keep A Quiet Heart : Elisabeth Elliot

A Woman After God's Own Heart : Elizabeth George

It's Not Supposed To Be This Way : Lysa Terkeurst

The Case for a Creator : Lee Strobel

A Praying Life : Paul E. Miller

Miracles : C.S. Lewis

The Tempest : William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet : William Shakespeare

David Copperfield : Charles Dickens

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea : Jules Verne

The Scarlet Pimpernel : Baroness Orczy

As I Lay Dying : William Faulkner

A Gentleman in Moscow : Amor Towles

Housekeeping : Marilynne Robinson

Cold Sassy Tree : Olive Ann Burns

Carry On, Jeeves : P.G. Wodehouse

The Chosen : Chaim Potok

The Starless Sea : Erin Morgenstern

If You Want To Make God Laugh : Bianca Marais

What Alice Forgot : Liane Moriarty

The Secret History : Donna Tartt

Skating Shoes : Noel Streatfeild

Emily of New Moon : L.M. Montgomery

Emily Climbs : L.M. Montgomery

Emily's Quest : L.M. Montgomery

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness : Andrew Peterson

North! Or Be Eaten : Andrew Peterson

The Monster in the Hollows : Andrew Peterson

The Warden and the Wolf King : Andrew Peterson

James and the Giant Peach : Roald Dahl

The BFG : Roald Dahl

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd : Agatha Christie

Messenger of Truth : Jacqueline Winspear

A Red Herring Without Mustard : Alan Bradley

The Mysterious Benedict Society : Trenton Lee Stewart

Phew! We'll see how it goes. As you can see, I put four presidential biographies on this year's list. I mentioned I'm already about halfway through the Polk biography and the biographies I have for Taylor and Pierce are small so I feel confident that I may be able to finish all four. I'm still plugging away at Maisie Dobbs and Flavia de Luce, and I'm going to start The Mysterious Benedict Society this year so I'll have a lot of fun mysteries to solve. 

All in all, I'm really excited to get into my book list this year. I've been wanting to read The Starless Sea since its release, and I'm looking forward to my next Bianca Marais and Liane Moriarty books. Cody wants us to read The Wingfeather Saga aloud together so we'll get into that as soon as we finish up Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It's going to be a great reading year!

Do you make yourself a book list each year? How about New Years resolutions? I'd love to hear about it in those comments, and I hope 2023 is our best year yet. 

Let's Bust a Recap : 2022

Well, the good news is: we've made it through another year. Can you even believe it? I didn't clear the To Be Blogged stack, and I only finished one book in December (yesterday!), but it was a great reading year and I'm looking forward to making a fresh new book list for 2023 today. 

But before we do that, let's take stock of 2022. I read a lot of really great books this year and, quantitatively, this was my best reading year yet with my tally adding up to 46 books. I got re-acquainted with the library system this year thanks to my book club, and I've finally read The Lord of the Rings which felt like a major literary milestone for me. I discovered a series I never dreamed I'd enjoy but ended up loving (also thanks to book club), and I finally read and consequently unearthed some new favorite authors I've been meaning to get to for years. I still haven't tackled David Copperfield despite this being the third year I've put it on my book list, and I only managed to complete one presidential biography this year though I am well on my way through my biography of Polk. C'est la vie. Tomorrow is another day, or, as it happens, another year. Here's what I read in 2022.

January

Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions & Advice to Young Converts : completed 1/8

Great way to start the year. Highly recommend reading this in January.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (re-read) : completed 1/20

The Proposal by Lori Wick (re-read) : completed 1/23

I love a good re-read, especially near the beginning of the year, and I did a lot of comfort reading in January. This English Garden series by Lori Wick is a familiar favorite for me. 

The Rescue by Lori Wick (re-read) : completed 1/24

The Visitor by Lori Wick (re-read) : completed 1/27

February

The Selection by Kiera Cass (library book) : completed 2/1

Not my favorite, but the book club decreed this would be the book for January so to the library I went.

The Elite by Kiera Cass (library book): completed 2/2

The One by Kiera Cass (library book) : completed 2/5

The Lady's Mine by Francine Rivers : completed 2/15

So excited to get a new release from one of my favorite authors!

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare : completed 2/25

Ye ole Bard's most maddening comedy yet.

Church Membership by Jonathan Leeman : completed 2/28

 

I Am A Church Member by Thom S. Rainer : completed 2/28

The MVP of the three church membership books I read this year.

March

What Is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti M. Anyabwile : completed 3/11

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (re-read) : completed 3/29

Wasn't planning to re-read Jane Eyre this year, but this was the book club book for February. Haven't decided if I should recap this for the blog or not. Any thoughts on that?

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (re-read) : completed 3/31

Wasn't planning to re-read this EVER, but this was the book club book for March. Just as depressing as the first time around with an added sense of dread knowing what was coming. 

April

Summer Promise by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 4/10

Decided to go back to the very beginning and visit with Christy this year for my Robin Jones Gunn selections.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (library book) : completed 4/18

Easily my least favorite book of the year. 

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : completed 4/27

May

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (read aloud) : completed 5/20

Such a good idea reading these aloud with my husband. We loved them.

Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear : completed 5/21

June

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse : completed 6/1

One of those newly discovered favorite authors I'd been meaning to get to.

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien (read aloud) : completed 6/3

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty : completed 6/17

Another new favorite author.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (library book) : completed 6/23

That series I didn't expect to love.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (library book) : completed 6/28

July

Cress by Marissa Meyer (library book) : completed 7/8

Winter by Marissa Meyer (library book) : completed 7/14

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (read aloud) : completed 7/24

That ending. 

August

President Without a Party: The Life of John Tyler by Christopher J. Leahy : 

completed 8/6

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne : completed 8/15

Not a summertime book!

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman : completed 8/24

One of my favorites this year. So much laughing and crying.

Present Concerns by C.S. Lewis : completed 8/30

September

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare : completed 9/8

Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais : completed 9/15

Could not put it down. Looking forward to her next book.

In His Image by Jen Wilkin : completed 9/21

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie : completed 9/30

Read the book; skip the movie.

October

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (re-read; read aloud) : completed 10/2

Got to read the whole book to my niece when we brought her home with us for a week. Love that.

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (re-read) : completed 10/6

Thinking I'll end up recapping this one.

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : completed 10/15

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl : completed 10/20

So fun.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl : completed 10/26

But I liked this one even better.

November

A Whisper and a Wish by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 11/5

Yours Forever by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 11/6

The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer : completed 11/27

My BFF Christina read this one with me. 

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley : completed 11/28

Flavia is so fun. Looking forward to more of her adventures.

December

Watership Down by Richard Adams : completed 12/30

Recap coming soon. This one was so good.

I'd love to hear what you read this year or if you kept any resolutions you made for yourself. I hope you made some memories in 2022 you'll treasure, and I hope you're looking forward to a brand new year. Thanks for visiting this little corner of cyberspace, and have a safe time bringing in the new year tonight! Don't forget to check back soon for my 2023 book list. 

From me and mine, peace and love to you and yours. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Hum If You Don't Know the Words

We're chipping away at the To Be Blogged stack and today's feature is Bianca Marais' 2017 debut Hum If You Don't Know the Words. This book first hit my radar in 2019 when I was trying out the Instagram and Marais' second book If You Want to Make God Laugh was coming out as a new release. I was immediately intrigued by both titles, and when I realized that Marais is a native South African and both books are historical fiction set in South Africa during the apartheid era, I immediately added them to my Must-Read list. My sister-in-law got them for me for Christmas that year (thanks, Dakota!), and I promptly put Hum If You Don't Know the Words on my 2020 book list, but didn't manage to get to it that year. It went back on my list again this year, and in September my friend Amanda chose it for our book club to read. It ended up being the most unputdownable standalone I read this year.

In Hum If You Don't Know the Words, we're introduced to Robin Conrad, a ten year old white girl living in Johannesburg with her parents in the 1970s, and Beauty Mbali, a widowed Xhosa woman raising her children in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei. During the Soweto uprising, Robin's parents are brutally murdered and Beauty's daughter goes missing. Through a series of events, Beauty is hired to care for Robin and this unlikely pair forge an unexpected and complicated bond. The book alternates between their perspectives, and even though there were absolutely devastating elements to this story, the overall tone held hope high. I didn't want to stop reading about these characters, and If You Want to Make God Laugh instantly earned a spot on next year's book list. While it's not a sequel to Hum If You Don't Know the Words, I hear that Beauty and/or Robin may make a cameo in its pages. (I really try to go into the books I read as blind as possible, so I don't know all that much about Marais' follow up novel and please no spoilers in the comments if you've read it!)

I can't say enough good things about Hum If You Don't Know the Words. I enjoyed the South African setting and language (having lived in Joburg for a short time myself in 2009 and 2010), I appreciated the historical context (which was a vital aspect of the novel and written well), and I especially loved the characters' stories (Robin's abrupt coming-of-age and attempts to understand the scary, ever-changing world around her; and Beauty's struggles to find her daughter in a world that's entirely against her because of her black skin color juxtaposed with her mothering of a frightened little girl who can't even understand the benefits she's been given simply because of her white skin color). I wasn't ready for the book to end when it did, and I seriously considered starting Marais' next book immediately. 

All in all, this is a novel I'd recommend to just about anyone. While there are very difficult—potentially triggering—situations and some strong language sprinkled throughout, Hum If You Don't Know the Words will ultimately make you consider the sanctity of human life and—I would hope—cause you to recognize that every person deserves to be treated with dignity. 

Ten out of ten; would recommend.

What's the most unputdownable book you've read this year?

Let's Bust a Recap : Gone With the Wind

Alright, well since I admitted yesterday that I still had Gone With the Wind hanging around on my shelf, waiting since last year to be blogged about, I figured I'd go ahead and just tackle it today. According to Goodreads, I began reading Gone With the Wind on October 2nd last year and finished it on November 14th. However, I vividly remember wishing I could just devote all my time to reading it until I finished instead of, you know, going to work and handling my adult responsibilities. If it wasn't for all that, I'm pretty sure I'd have devoured this one in about a week. I read some real gems last year, but if push came to absolute shove, I might have to say that Gone With the Wind was my favorite book of 2021, and it's definitely on my list of All Time Favorites now.

Gone With the Wind is one of those Southern classics I was always a little ashamed I hadn't read, but because of its sheer length (and maybe also due in part to the sheer length of the film as well), I just never picked it up. I've had that tattered hardcover edition sitting on my shelf for years. Now that I've read it, it's one of those books I'm chagrined I didn't pick up sooner. I couldn't put it down, and I'll forever be indebted to my sister-in-law for agreeing to buddy read it with me and giving me that final nudge I needed to start it. Literally days before we began reading it, I found that mass market paperback in a Little Free Library and boy am I ever glad because it went everywhere with me.

If you're somehow unfamiliar with this iconic saga, it's the coming-of-age story of Scarlett O'Hara, a spoiled sixteen year old Southern belle living in Clayton County, Georgia when the South is on the brink of seceding from the Union and entering the Civil War. Throughout the course of the novel, Scarlett grows up, ends up being widowed twice and married three times, successfully preserves her family plantation Tara through the Reconstruction Era, births three children (and has one awful miscarriage), loses one of her children, and ends separated from the man she loves but with the determination to get him back. 

When I say I experienced just about every human emotion imaginable while reading this book, I am not exaggerating even a little. Margaret Mitchell produced a masterpiece of a novel and I totally get why it's still one of the most popular books in the world. Despite its 1936 publication date, in a poll as recent as 2014 it's still considered the second most popular book in America behind only the Holy Bible itself. More than 30 million copies have been printed worldwide and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. The thing that won me over and made me a lifelong fan was Mitchell's ability to write such human characters. While Scarlett and Rhett Butler do some absolutely reprehensible things, you completely understand what led them to their actions. It's hard to hate Scarlett (or Rhett for that matter) when I'm sitting in my cozy armchair at home wondering what I would have done in the same situation. While I aspire to be the kind of Southern woman Scarlett's mother Ellen or the indomitable Melanie Hamilton are, I can sympathize with young Scarlett's desperation and her overwhelming determination to "make it". While reading Gone With the Wind, I flip-flopped between despising Scarlett and pitying her. That's excellent writing. I've said before that my favorite books tend to be ones that present me with moral dilemmas and ethical tension that's hard to stomach, and Mitchell produces that tension in spades in Gone With the Wind. 

There have been several sequels and prequels to Gone With the Wind (some authorized, some not), but none by Margaret Mitchell herself. And even though a couple of these have come highly recommended to me by trusted sources, I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to read any of them. Gone With the Wind stands on its own and despite its heartbreaking and unresolved ending, it needs no sequel. There's something so fitting about Scarlett's closing lines: "I'll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day." Throughout all of Gone With the Wind, Scarlett copes with her own impossible choices by not thinking of them today, but putting off the hard thoughts for another day. What better way to end her story than with her personal maxim?

The 1939 movie adaptation starring Vivien Leigh is considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time, and it won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1939. I personally have only seen it in its entirety maybe twice in my life, the last time being at the beginning of 2010 so I'd be hard pressed to comment on the book versus the movie. But now having read the novel, I have the vague idea that I'd prefer to just sit down with it again over watching the film, something akin to my disgust with the Pride and Prejudice adaptations floating about in the world. But I'll hold my final judgment on this until I rewatch the movie with my sister-in-law. (She loves the movie.)

Gone With the Wind is not without its problems, and if you want to come at me with how problematic Gone With the Wind is, go right ahead. It will not change how I feel about the book, or the fact that I have every intention of reading it again. It is frequently the center of controversy and has been challenged and banned in multiple places, and I definitely get how it could be extremely triggering for some readers. Gone With the Wind may not be the book for everyone, but it will have a home in my library until I'm gone from this earth. 

Have you read it?