Publisher and Publication Date: Penguin Books. 2014. First published in 1813. Genre: Fiction. Classic literature. British literature. Format and Pages: Paperback.
Source: Self-purchase.
Vivien Jones edited and wrote the intro and notes sections.
“The Novels of Jane Austen” was written by Claire Lamont.
This drawing is based on Cassandra’s (sister of Jane) previous drawing of Jane, and it is included as Jane’s portrait in a book their nephew wrote, A Memoir of Jane Austen, 1871. This watercolor was done by Jane’s sister Cassandra in 1804.
Both of the above illustrations are from Wikipedia.
Further links on Jane Austen.
2025 is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth.
Prelude:
Jane Austen began writing Pride and Prejudice in 1796-1797. It was first titled, First Impressions. It was successfully published in 1813 under the name Pride and Prejudice.
The Napoleonic Wars were between 1800 and 1815. I see various years are depicted as the start. According to Briannica the campaigns began in 1800.
The Regency Period was 1811-1820.
The Georgian Era was 1714-1837. William the IV’s death ended the Georgian Era.
You do not have to read the above online articles on the history of the period when Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, but they will help you to understand the culture, society, and history of that period.
Pride and Prejudice is the story of Elizabeth Bennet and her family. Elizabeth or Eliza is the second daughter. She has an older sister named Jane. She has younger sisters named: Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. Lydia is mentioned to be 16 in the later part of the story. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have been married 23 years. So, I assume Jane is about 22. Eliza is about 20 or 21. Mary is probably 18 or 19. Kitty is 17ish. And Lydia is 15ish when the story begins.
Mrs. Bennet has a goal of her daughter’s marrying well.
Mr. Bennet is content to remain in his study.
Early in the story, the family finds out that Netherfield has been “taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England.” The man’s name is Mr. Bingley. He is unmarried.
At the next ball the family is able to meet Mr. Charles Bingley and his friend Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Mr. Darcy is a “fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mein;” Page 12.
Mr. Bingley and Jane are smitten with one another. But Mr. Darcy and Eliza Bennet are put off with one another. What could have been polite conversation is instead “disagreeable.”
The Lucas family live near the Bennet family and the older daughter Charlotte is close friends with Eliza. Later when a relative of Mr. Bennet’s came to visit the Longbourn home that maybe his someday, Eliza does not like him. Mrs. Bennet is angry with Eliza but Eliza stands her ground.
One of the things I love about this story is Eliza’s determination. She will not do something she cannot believe as the right thing to do.
This leads me to the My Thoughts section.
My Thoughts:
When I think about the Georgian Era, I imagine females who did exactly as they were told to do by their parents or guardians. They married men who were chosen for them. They lived a life of obedience. They lived a life as if they did not have a choice, which in reality there were few choices for women to be independent, even in their feelings and expressions. It is depressing. But here is Elizabeth Bennet who in the early part of the story, the first half, tells two men, no. No, I will not marry you.
Elizabeth is a thinker. She ponders and wrestles deep thoughts. She is a person of character. She is responsible, dependable, intelligent, quick with her mind and her voice, she stands her ground in the things she believes are the right thing to do and does not veer away. She has the ability to observe keenly those around her and she is not impressed with those who try to impress. She keeps her cool among those who come across and prideful and rude. She is a very impressive and formidable character. She is a true heroine.
On the other end of the sphere from Elizabeth is her mother, Mrs. Bennet, and the youngest sister, Lydia, whom I refer to as flibbertigibbets. I believe these women are emphasized because they are so polar from one another. This is an example of contrasts and comparisons in the story.
The story’s strengths are in the characterization of the people and their dialogue.
I learn so much by letting the story gently reveal itself as to how the characters really are and what kind of choices they make that reveal their inner persons. Sometimes I am surprised in who I thought they were but later my mind is changed. I love it that some of them have the ability to learn from what they had believed and imagined about a person. This helps give the story depth. A depth much more than a mere romance tale.
The dialogue often made me listen in a bit closer. As words said had deeper meaning. I certainly reread many pages in trying to decipher what was happening.
Pride and Prejudice is a story that is much more than a romance. It has several themes running through it. It shares believable situations and people. People that no matter how much money they have are still just people who are trying to navigate in life. And in the case of this story, they are trying to navigate inside the perimeters of expected social customs.
The book is in three volumes. Volume three is my favorite. It is when things come together.
Pride and Prejudice has contrasts and comparisons in the marriages. Charlotte, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner. And later Lydia.
Themes in Pride and Prejudice: love, family relationships, money, inheritance, pride, prejudice, guilt, impropriety, female roles, and honesty.
I love everything about this story. It is a book that I will read and again and again, and each time find a new morsel I’d not realized before.
Pride and Prejudice can be misjudged as only a romance or a young person’s story. Nope. It is several things all tied neatly in an unpretentious bow.
Favorite quotes:
“We must not be so ready to fancy ourselves intentionally injured. We must not expect a lively young man to be always so guarded and circumspect. It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does.” Jane speaking to Elizabeth or Lizzy. Page 133-134.
“Elizabeth felt that they had entirely mistaken his character, but said nothing.” Page 247.
“Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high flutter…Elizabeth’s mind was too full for conversation, but she saw and admired every remarkable spot and point of view.” Page 235.
Excellent. Bravo. I highly recommend.
Publisher and Publication Date: Vintage Books, a Division of Penguin Random House. 2015. First published in 2008. Genre: Fiction. Women and literature, and relationships are the subcategories.
Format and pages: Paperback. 365 pages with print.
I do not find a website for Jo Baker. She has a presence on Facebook and X.
I bought this book and My Life in Middle March by Rebecca Mead recently from Thriftbooks.
I read another of Jo Baker’s books, Longbourn, in 2016. I also rated it two stars for okay.
Prelude:
The setting is England.
The modern time period main character is Rachel or Rache. She has a husband named Mark and a young daughter named Cate. Rachel needs to clean out and sort through a house where her mother had lived near Storrs Hall in a rural village.
Meanwhile, a secondary story has a young woman named Lizzy. Lizzy lives in a previous time period. Lizzy is a part of the Chartist Movement. Lizzy lives in the same house that was later owned by Rachel’s mother.
Rachel is grieving her mother’s death. She must clean-out her mother’s home.
Lizzy will be faced with a choice she doesn’t want to make.
The story will go back and forth with Rachel and Lizzy.
My Thoughts which contain spoilers:
The Telling is defined as fiction and a haunted house setting. The haunting is electrical charges and the character Rachel feeling chills and uncomfortable. There is not much beyond that. What is the most definable point of the story is both women are suffering from grief. It is grief of different types. But both suffer from grief; and they must move past that and continue on with life.
Rachel is a weak character. I don’t feel she is developed enough. There is a disconnection between me and her, and between her and the rest of the characters. Her poor husband is left at home with the young daughter believing Rachel will be gone a short time, but days turn into weeks. Rachel doesn’t want to let go and move on. She is stuck in the past. She has a problem, but the ending of the story doesn’t reveal if that is truly solved.
Grief is a huge theme, and I wish it had been developed more. What I’m saying is let that be the focus of the entire story, grief. Instead, it is a theme that is present, but it feels more like it is the ghost part of the story-the oppression of grief.
Stories have inner or outward conflicts and sometimes both. The conflicts I see are Rachel needs to sort through her mother’s things in the house, but it takes her much longer to do this. Another inner conflict is dealing with grief, at the loss of her mother. For the other character who lives in another time period, Lizzy. She has conflict with her father, the loss of her bedroom to a stranger, and a romantic relationship. But all these conflicts are not significantly resolved. None of the conflicts keep me reading, even though I did finish the book, I had a hard time feeling any investment in the outcome.
I rate this book okay. I don’t recommend.
Publisher and Publication Date: Lily Poetry Review Books. March 21, 2024. Genre: Poetry. Format and Pages: Paperback. 92 pages.
Source: I received a complimentary copy from Poetic Book Tours and Amanda Shaw. I am not required to write a positive review.
Poetic Book Tours is the host for this book of poetry.
About the Author:
From the time she learned to read her first word — “Boom!” — Amanda Shaw has been in love with literature and language. She earned a BA in English from Smith College and has advanced degrees in education and writing. Equally at ease in a high school classroom and a World Bank boardroom, she is an expert teacher who continues to share her belief in the power of words with students of all ages.
Amanda began her career at a public high school in Brooklyn, where she was committed to student-centered curriculum and staff development as part of NYC’s small schools movement. After nine years in the city, she moved on to teaching ESL internationally and domestically, first in Rome and now in Washington DC. Witnessing poetry’s unique impact on students’ intellectual and emotional development galvanized her own writing. In 2020, she received her MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers.
In addition to actively participating in local and online writing communities, Amanda is the book review editor for Lily Poetry Review Books, where she supports emerging writers. Lily Poetry Review Books will publish her debut collection, It Will Have Been So Beautiful, in March 2024. The poems, written over 15 years, explore love and loss in personal and global contexts. For the past four years, Amanda has divided her time between New Hampshire, where she was born, and Washington, DC. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Prelude:
With urgency and compassion, humor and wonder, Amanda Shaw’s It Will Have Been So Beautiful examines the many dimensions of what it means to call anything “home,” including the earth as we know it. In a manner reminiscent of Eugène Atget, who wrote “will disappear” on his photographs of turn-of-the-century Paris, Shaw captures the unique melancholy of living in a time of unknowable change.
As she explores the line between love and loss, Shaw implores us to find a more profound commitment to life in all its forms. At times playful and ironic, the poems celebrate language’s sonic capacities, probing art’s potential to move us from mourning to joy.
My Thoughts:
I have three favorite poems in It Will Have Been So Beautiful.
- Page 29. “Spring, Room 210.” It speaks to me of patience and possibly wanting to be somewhere else or thinking of something else. Instead, a test must be taken.
- Page 30-32. “For the Bright Choir.” I love Tolkien stories. This poem is busy with Tolkien’s characters. It is a physical poem. It shares her emotions about it and about current events that have her on edge.
- Page 37. “Felis Felix.” A poem about her cat. I’m a cat person. This poem resonates with me because I’ve had the same type of experiences relayed in the poem. I too watch my cats. I watch their little ears perk up at noises-noises that I cannot hear.
Overall, a good volume of poems. I recommend.
Publisher and Publication Date: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2007Genre: Historical fiction. Pages and Format: 338. Hardcover.
Source: Fort Worth Public Library.
Link for the book @ Goodreads.
Link @ Thriftbooks.
Prelude:
Three main characters in one book. 1. The characters are Rotherham who is a German working for the British government in intelligence. He is given the task of interviewing Rudolf Hess. 2. Esther is the daughter of a sheep farmer in Wales. She works in a pub. She is a young woman of 17.
3. Karsten who is in the German naval infantry. He is arrested and taken for incarceration in Wales.
The time period is D-day 1944 to just after World War II.
The place or setting for most of the story is a village in north Wales.
My Thoughts:
I dislike having three main characters because it creates a busy story that prevents me from becoming attached to no one. This prevents me from becoming invested in the story and the outcome of its characters.
I often wondered while reading The Welsh Girl. What if the story was centered on Rotherham and his quest to observe and interview Rudolph Hess? It could have a strong theme of psychology and mental health. What if the story was about Esther only? An examination of her relationship with her father, whom she calls by his name, Arthur. How has she been impacted by her mother’s death? Is this why she is so apt to fall in love easily and not be prepared for men who only want sex only from her? What if the story is only about Karsten? A story about a young man who is Nazi and is arrested.
I tried to like Esther. I tried to remind myself that she has not been taught about romantic relationships and the enticement of men who want only sex. Later, she wonders if she was raped or maybe she wanted this. This is also something that could have been developed in The Welsh Girl.
A strong theme in the story is truth-with all the characters. What is truth? How do people define truth? Do they see it as a lie and how do they reconstruct it to make it a truth? Do people want to know the truth?
Other themes are family relationships, justice, injustice, coming of age, war, peace, memory, love, and hospitality.
Overall, the story is okay. I hate to say that I don’t recommend it because another reader might love having more than one main character. But for me, no.
Publisher and Publication Date: South Dakota Historical Society Press. 2014. Genre: Autobiography. Pages and Format: Hardcover. 465 pages with print to read. Several maps and illustrations.
Source: Fort Worth Public Library.
Link for the book @ Goodreads.
Link @ Thriftbooks.
Laura Ingalls Wilder Home.
Pioneer Girl is a publication of the Pioneer Girl Project.
Pamela Smith Hill is the Editor. Nancy Tystad Koupal is the Director. Rodger Hartley is the Associate Editor.
Jeanne Kilen Ode is the Associate Editor.
Prelude:
Pioneer Girl is the autobiography Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote and handed over to her daughter for editing in 1930. Then the book was placed away, and a historical fiction series was written using the autobiography as a starting point.
Pioneer Girl shares how the publishers felt about her books (plural) and those who refused to publish them unless heavy editing was done. I also understand the differences in opinion between Wilder and Lane (the daughter of Wilder) on what to edit out of the manuscript and what to add.
Pioneer Girl is a remarkable book because of the research and study that has been done by the “Pioneer Girl Project.” The characters who are mentioned by Wilder are researched through historical documents. For example: the U. S. Census Bureau, Ancestry.com, licenses, newspapers, and land records.
In Pioneer Girl, the writing team of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane are examined, especially in regard to Lane’s experience as a published writer.
The hardcover book is big. The dimensions are 9.84 x 1.29 x 10.14 inches.
My Thoughts:
My first thought is I wish I’d read this book sooner. I enjoy the writings of Wilder and have read the Little House series several times in childhood and as an adult. I think I’d heard of the book, Pioneer Girl, but had not read it until recent.
I am amazed at the careful research on all the people Wilder wrote about in her story. The teachers, pastors, childhood friends, neighbors, a doctor, family, and the people who purchased their properties. In the story The Long Winter, the weather of that time is studied for accuracy in her book. I appreciate knowing what caused Mary’s blindness.
I enjoyed reading the true story of Wilder and in understanding the differences in the autobiography versus the fiction books. The truth is what I’d prefer to read. But what publishers wanted in order to sell the book, and what Lane wanted, and what Wilder wanted were all different.
Through Pioneer Girl, I understand the struggles and hardships they all had whether it was financial, traveling to another place, or the sicknesses they endured.
Wilder and Lane had a complicated relationship. They depended on one another, but they seemed to resent this. Their opinions got the best of them, and they argued. What I find interesting is Almanzo Wilder is silent. I don’t know what he thought. I don’t know his detailed life story. It is centered on Laura, her sisters, her parents, Rose Wilder Lane, and the people who Wilder wrote about in her books. Almanzo is a character, but I don’t know what he thought. I don’t know about his likes and dislikes. He seems obscure. I wonder if this has been done purposefully. I am curious about him.
Do you remember the locusts and grasshoppers that attacked and ate at Pa’s beautiful wheat? They were called the Rocky Mountain locust. They were prominent in 1873-1877. They are now considered extinct. How they behaved and how they “walked west” is all fascinating.
I enjoyed reading several substories. One is about an Indigenous baby that is found dead. The body is found in a basket hanging from a tree. A white man took the baby with the intention of sending it to Chicago for study. There is trouble when the baby’s people want the baby returned.
I love the magazine layout of the book. The book has several maps and illustrations-all in black and white interspersed with the writing. The annotated writing is on the side margins of the book.
I feel this is a wonderful study of the 19th century and the heartland of America through the eyes and perspective of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Illustration examples of the handwritten copy of the book are included.
I highly recommend and love.
April 15, 2025
Impressions In Ink | Book Reviews by Annette
maximios Review
Publisher and Publication Date: Penguin Books. 2014. First published in 1813. Genre: Fiction. Classic literature. British literature. Format and Pages: Paperback.
Source: Self-purchase.
Vivien Jones edited and wrote the intro and notes sections.
“The Novels of Jane Austen” was written by Claire Lamont.
This drawing is based on Cassandra’s (sister of Jane) previous drawing of Jane, and it is included as Jane’s portrait in a book their nephew wrote, A Memoir of Jane Austen, 1871. This watercolor was done by Jane’s sister Cassandra in 1804.
Both of the above illustrations are from Wikipedia.
Further links on Jane Austen.
2025 is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth.
Prelude:
Jane Austen began writing Pride and Prejudice in 1796-1797. It was first titled, First Impressions. It was successfully published in 1813 under the name Pride and Prejudice.
The Napoleonic Wars were between 1800 and 1815. I see various years are depicted as the start. According to Briannica the campaigns began in 1800.
The Regency Period was 1811-1820.
The Georgian Era was 1714-1837. William the IV’s death ended the Georgian Era.
You do not have to read the above online articles on the history of the period when Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, but they will help you to understand the culture, society, and history of that period.
Pride and Prejudice is the story of Elizabeth Bennet and her family. Elizabeth or Eliza is the second daughter. She has an older sister named Jane. She has younger sisters named: Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. Lydia is mentioned to be 16 in the later part of the story. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have been married 23 years. So, I assume Jane is about 22. Eliza is about 20 or 21. Mary is probably 18 or 19. Kitty is 17ish. And Lydia is 15ish when the story begins.
Mrs. Bennet has a goal of her daughter’s marrying well.
Mr. Bennet is content to remain in his study.
Early in the story, the family finds out that Netherfield has been “taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England.” The man’s name is Mr. Bingley. He is unmarried.
At the next ball the family is able to meet Mr. Charles Bingley and his friend Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Mr. Darcy is a “fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mein;” Page 12.
Mr. Bingley and Jane are smitten with one another. But Mr. Darcy and Eliza Bennet are put off with one another. What could have been polite conversation is instead “disagreeable.”
The Lucas family live near the Bennet family and the older daughter Charlotte is close friends with Eliza. Later when a relative of Mr. Bennet’s came to visit the Longbourn home that maybe his someday, Eliza does not like him. Mrs. Bennet is angry with Eliza but Eliza stands her ground.
One of the things I love about this story is Eliza’s determination. She will not do something she cannot believe as the right thing to do.
This leads me to the My Thoughts section.
My Thoughts:
When I think about the Georgian Era, I imagine females who did exactly as they were told to do by their parents or guardians. They married men who were chosen for them. They lived a life of obedience. They lived a life as if they did not have a choice, which in reality there were few choices for women to be independent, even in their feelings and expressions. It is depressing. But here is Elizabeth Bennet who in the early part of the story, the first half, tells two men, no. No, I will not marry you.
Elizabeth is a thinker. She ponders and wrestles deep thoughts. She is a person of character. She is responsible, dependable, intelligent, quick with her mind and her voice, she stands her ground in the things she believes are the right thing to do and does not veer away. She has the ability to observe keenly those around her and she is not impressed with those who try to impress. She keeps her cool among those who come across and prideful and rude. She is a very impressive and formidable character. She is a true heroine.
On the other end of the sphere from Elizabeth is her mother, Mrs. Bennet, and the youngest sister, Lydia, whom I refer to as flibbertigibbets. I believe these women are emphasized because they are so polar from one another. This is an example of contrasts and comparisons in the story.
The story’s strengths are in the characterization of the people and their dialogue.
I learn so much by letting the story gently reveal itself as to how the characters really are and what kind of choices they make that reveal their inner persons. Sometimes I am surprised in who I thought they were but later my mind is changed. I love it that some of them have the ability to learn from what they had believed and imagined about a person. This helps give the story depth. A depth much more than a mere romance tale.
The dialogue often made me listen in a bit closer. As words said had deeper meaning. I certainly reread many pages in trying to decipher what was happening.
Pride and Prejudice is a story that is much more than a romance. It has several themes running through it. It shares believable situations and people. People that no matter how much money they have are still just people who are trying to navigate in life. And in the case of this story, they are trying to navigate inside the perimeters of expected social customs.
The book is in three volumes. Volume three is my favorite. It is when things come together.
Pride and Prejudice has contrasts and comparisons in the marriages. Charlotte, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner. And later Lydia.
Themes in Pride and Prejudice: love, family relationships, money, inheritance, pride, prejudice, guilt, impropriety, female roles, and honesty.
I love everything about this story. It is a book that I will read and again and again, and each time find a new morsel I’d not realized before.
Pride and Prejudice can be misjudged as only a romance or a young person’s story. Nope. It is several things all tied neatly in an unpretentious bow.
Favorite quotes:
“We must not be so ready to fancy ourselves intentionally injured. We must not expect a lively young man to be always so guarded and circumspect. It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does.” Jane speaking to Elizabeth or Lizzy. Page 133-134.
“Elizabeth felt that they had entirely mistaken his character, but said nothing.” Page 247.
“Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high flutter…Elizabeth’s mind was too full for conversation, but she saw and admired every remarkable spot and point of view.” Page 235.
Excellent. Bravo. I highly recommend.
Publisher and Publication Date: Vintage Books, a Division of Penguin Random House. 2015. First published in 2008. Genre: Fiction. Women and literature, and relationships are the subcategories.
Format and pages: Paperback. 365 pages with print.
I do not find a website for Jo Baker. She has a presence on Facebook and X.
I bought this book and My Life in Middle March by Rebecca Mead recently from Thriftbooks.
I read another of Jo Baker’s books, Longbourn, in 2016. I also rated it two stars for okay.
Prelude:
The setting is England.
The modern time period main character is Rachel or Rache. She has a husband named Mark and a young daughter named Cate. Rachel needs to clean out and sort through a house where her mother had lived near Storrs Hall in a rural village.
Meanwhile, a secondary story has a young woman named Lizzy. Lizzy lives in a previous time period. Lizzy is a part of the Chartist Movement. Lizzy lives in the same house that was later owned by Rachel’s mother.
Rachel is grieving her mother’s death. She must clean-out her mother’s home.
Lizzy will be faced with a choice she doesn’t want to make.
The story will go back and forth with Rachel and Lizzy.
My Thoughts which contain spoilers:
The Telling is defined as fiction and a haunted house setting. The haunting is electrical charges and the character Rachel feeling chills and uncomfortable. There is not much beyond that. What is the most definable point of the story is both women are suffering from grief. It is grief of different types. But both suffer from grief; and they must move past that and continue on with life.
Rachel is a weak character. I don’t feel she is developed enough. There is a disconnection between me and her, and between her and the rest of the characters. Her poor husband is left at home with the young daughter believing Rachel will be gone a short time, but days turn into weeks. Rachel doesn’t want to let go and move on. She is stuck in the past. She has a problem, but the ending of the story doesn’t reveal if that is truly solved.
Grief is a huge theme, and I wish it had been developed more. What I’m saying is let that be the focus of the entire story, grief. Instead, it is a theme that is present, but it feels more like it is the ghost part of the story-the oppression of grief.
Stories have inner or outward conflicts and sometimes both. The conflicts I see are Rachel needs to sort through her mother’s things in the house, but it takes her much longer to do this. Another inner conflict is dealing with grief, at the loss of her mother. For the other character who lives in another time period, Lizzy. She has conflict with her father, the loss of her bedroom to a stranger, and a romantic relationship. But all these conflicts are not significantly resolved. None of the conflicts keep me reading, even though I did finish the book, I had a hard time feeling any investment in the outcome.
I rate this book okay. I don’t recommend.
Publisher and Publication Date: Lily Poetry Review Books. March 21, 2024. Genre: Poetry. Format and Pages: Paperback. 92 pages.
Source: I received a complimentary copy from Poetic Book Tours and Amanda Shaw. I am not required to write a positive review.
Poetic Book Tours is the host for this book of poetry.
About the Author:
From the time she learned to read her first word — “Boom!” — Amanda Shaw has been in love with literature and language. She earned a BA in English from Smith College and has advanced degrees in education and writing. Equally at ease in a high school classroom and a World Bank boardroom, she is an expert teacher who continues to share her belief in the power of words with students of all ages.
Amanda began her career at a public high school in Brooklyn, where she was committed to student-centered curriculum and staff development as part of NYC’s small schools movement. After nine years in the city, she moved on to teaching ESL internationally and domestically, first in Rome and now in Washington DC. Witnessing poetry’s unique impact on students’ intellectual and emotional development galvanized her own writing. In 2020, she received her MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers.
In addition to actively participating in local and online writing communities, Amanda is the book review editor for Lily Poetry Review Books, where she supports emerging writers. Lily Poetry Review Books will publish her debut collection, It Will Have Been So Beautiful, in March 2024. The poems, written over 15 years, explore love and loss in personal and global contexts. For the past four years, Amanda has divided her time between New Hampshire, where she was born, and Washington, DC. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Prelude:
With urgency and compassion, humor and wonder, Amanda Shaw’s It Will Have Been So Beautiful examines the many dimensions of what it means to call anything “home,” including the earth as we know it. In a manner reminiscent of Eugène Atget, who wrote “will disappear” on his photographs of turn-of-the-century Paris, Shaw captures the unique melancholy of living in a time of unknowable change.
As she explores the line between love and loss, Shaw implores us to find a more profound commitment to life in all its forms. At times playful and ironic, the poems celebrate language’s sonic capacities, probing art’s potential to move us from mourning to joy.
My Thoughts:
I have three favorite poems in It Will Have Been So Beautiful.
Overall, a good volume of poems. I recommend.
Publisher and Publication Date: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2007Genre: Historical fiction. Pages and Format: 338. Hardcover.
Source: Fort Worth Public Library.
Link for the book @ Goodreads.
Link @ Thriftbooks.
Prelude:
Three main characters in one book. 1. The characters are Rotherham who is a German working for the British government in intelligence. He is given the task of interviewing Rudolf Hess. 2. Esther is the daughter of a sheep farmer in Wales. She works in a pub. She is a young woman of 17.
3. Karsten who is in the German naval infantry. He is arrested and taken for incarceration in Wales.
The time period is D-day 1944 to just after World War II.
The place or setting for most of the story is a village in north Wales.
My Thoughts:
I dislike having three main characters because it creates a busy story that prevents me from becoming attached to no one. This prevents me from becoming invested in the story and the outcome of its characters.
I often wondered while reading The Welsh Girl. What if the story was centered on Rotherham and his quest to observe and interview Rudolph Hess? It could have a strong theme of psychology and mental health. What if the story was about Esther only? An examination of her relationship with her father, whom she calls by his name, Arthur. How has she been impacted by her mother’s death? Is this why she is so apt to fall in love easily and not be prepared for men who only want sex only from her? What if the story is only about Karsten? A story about a young man who is Nazi and is arrested.
I tried to like Esther. I tried to remind myself that she has not been taught about romantic relationships and the enticement of men who want only sex. Later, she wonders if she was raped or maybe she wanted this. This is also something that could have been developed in The Welsh Girl.
A strong theme in the story is truth-with all the characters. What is truth? How do people define truth? Do they see it as a lie and how do they reconstruct it to make it a truth? Do people want to know the truth?
Other themes are family relationships, justice, injustice, coming of age, war, peace, memory, love, and hospitality.
Overall, the story is okay. I hate to say that I don’t recommend it because another reader might love having more than one main character. But for me, no.
Publisher and Publication Date: South Dakota Historical Society Press. 2014. Genre: Autobiography. Pages and Format: Hardcover. 465 pages with print to read. Several maps and illustrations.
Source: Fort Worth Public Library.
Link for the book @ Goodreads.
Link @ Thriftbooks.
Laura Ingalls Wilder Home.
Pioneer Girl is a publication of the Pioneer Girl Project.
Pamela Smith Hill is the Editor. Nancy Tystad Koupal is the Director. Rodger Hartley is the Associate Editor.
Jeanne Kilen Ode is the Associate Editor.
Prelude:
Pioneer Girl is the autobiography Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote and handed over to her daughter for editing in 1930. Then the book was placed away, and a historical fiction series was written using the autobiography as a starting point.
Pioneer Girl shares how the publishers felt about her books (plural) and those who refused to publish them unless heavy editing was done. I also understand the differences in opinion between Wilder and Lane (the daughter of Wilder) on what to edit out of the manuscript and what to add.
Pioneer Girl is a remarkable book because of the research and study that has been done by the “Pioneer Girl Project.” The characters who are mentioned by Wilder are researched through historical documents. For example: the U. S. Census Bureau, Ancestry.com, licenses, newspapers, and land records.
In Pioneer Girl, the writing team of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane are examined, especially in regard to Lane’s experience as a published writer.
The hardcover book is big. The dimensions are 9.84 x 1.29 x 10.14 inches.
My Thoughts:
My first thought is I wish I’d read this book sooner. I enjoy the writings of Wilder and have read the Little House series several times in childhood and as an adult. I think I’d heard of the book, Pioneer Girl, but had not read it until recent.
I am amazed at the careful research on all the people Wilder wrote about in her story. The teachers, pastors, childhood friends, neighbors, a doctor, family, and the people who purchased their properties. In the story The Long Winter, the weather of that time is studied for accuracy in her book. I appreciate knowing what caused Mary’s blindness.
I enjoyed reading the true story of Wilder and in understanding the differences in the autobiography versus the fiction books. The truth is what I’d prefer to read. But what publishers wanted in order to sell the book, and what Lane wanted, and what Wilder wanted were all different.
Through Pioneer Girl, I understand the struggles and hardships they all had whether it was financial, traveling to another place, or the sicknesses they endured.
Wilder and Lane had a complicated relationship. They depended on one another, but they seemed to resent this. Their opinions got the best of them, and they argued. What I find interesting is Almanzo Wilder is silent. I don’t know what he thought. I don’t know his detailed life story. It is centered on Laura, her sisters, her parents, Rose Wilder Lane, and the people who Wilder wrote about in her books. Almanzo is a character, but I don’t know what he thought. I don’t know about his likes and dislikes. He seems obscure. I wonder if this has been done purposefully. I am curious about him.
Do you remember the locusts and grasshoppers that attacked and ate at Pa’s beautiful wheat? They were called the Rocky Mountain locust. They were prominent in 1873-1877. They are now considered extinct. How they behaved and how they “walked west” is all fascinating.
I enjoyed reading several substories. One is about an Indigenous baby that is found dead. The body is found in a basket hanging from a tree. A white man took the baby with the intention of sending it to Chicago for study. There is trouble when the baby’s people want the baby returned.
I love the magazine layout of the book. The book has several maps and illustrations-all in black and white interspersed with the writing. The annotated writing is on the side margins of the book.
I feel this is a wonderful study of the 19th century and the heartland of America through the eyes and perspective of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Illustration examples of the handwritten copy of the book are included.
I highly recommend and love.