lunabee34 | So, it's April

It's come to my attention that I've posted six times this year, and five of those were in January. So, ah, hi! :)

I've had some very good news in the last couple of weeks. I've been promoted to Professor. *takes a bow*

And last night I won the Excellence in Service Award for my institution. For those of you not in academia, this award recognizes service to the institution (things like serving on committees), service to the community (community outreach and projects, etc.), and service to the profession (leadership positions in professional organizations, editorial positions on journals, etc.)--and I am highly active in all three areas. Super, super prestigious thing at our institution; I am very honored. I also exceeded expectations on all areas of my annual evaluation. So, hurray, me!

In other good news, I got an email from a guy in California whose mother had died and left behind a shelf of books by Ouida. He'd been googling to figure out who might want them and came upon my name. So, Frank in California gifted me a box of books by Ouida that his mother bought in Bury St. Edmunds, Ouida's birthplace, in the 80s. They arrived earlier this week. What an unexpected and deeply kind act of generosity. I am so grateful.

Here's what I've reading since we last spoke:

Seven Women: And the Secret of Their Greatness by Eric Metaxas

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Not for me.

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The Language of Gender and Class: Transformation in the Victorian Novel by Patricia Ingham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some very good commentary on North and South.

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Fictions Of Resolution In Three Victorian Novels: North And South, Our Mutual Friend, Daniel Deronda by Deirdre David

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this is a solid book of criticism. I read it for the chapters on North and South but appreciated the chapters on Our Mutual Friend just as much. Could have done entirely without the Freudian reading of Daniel Deronda, but I gather that psychoanalyzing Gwendolyn was rather a pastime of the late twentieth century.

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Hidden Rivalries in Victorian Fiction: Dickens, Realism, and Revaluation by Jerome Meckier

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is that kind of literary criticism that ascribes motives to an author without any proof and also is more about what the critic personally thinks is better written. I mean I know all criticism is subjective, but this is a whole heck of a lot of "and yea verily my blorbo writes better than thy blorbo" for my tastes.

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Are you there God? It's me, Margaret by Judy Blume

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My 9-year-old is reading this for the first time, and I thought I would reread it with her.

I read this book for the first time at about her age, maybe a bit older. My friends and I loved this book. At that age, the puberty and friend group dynamics plot lines were so important and rang so true to me, but the parts about religion were nothing I could personally relate to. They were interesting but outside my realm of personal experience. Everyone I knew was Southern Baptist plus a couple of Methodists. I didn't go to school with anyone who was Jewish or Muslim; by the time I was in high school, I would go to school with one student who was Catholic. I did not know anyone who belonged to an interfaith family. I was far from my own break with my religion of origin. That part of the plot did not resonate with me as a child in the way that it does as a middle-aged woman.

Judy Blume is such a good writer. Her ability to capture the fears and joys of childhood is almost unparalleled. The tech changes and the slang changes, but kids themselves do not, and her ability to write convincingly about kids has stood the test of time.

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Blubber by Judy Blume

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I hadn't read this one as a kid.

It's really sad. The bullying is portrayed very well, I think--cruel, relentless, traumatic, senseless, and ultimately without a good resolution. Just as soon as Linda stops being the one bullied, she allies with the bullies to hold on to a little bit of peace. Wendy doesn't learn any lessons about not bullying; she isn't punished for being a bully. Jill manages to carve out some breathing room when the bullying turns on her, but that breathing room could easily be taken from her.

Very well written.

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Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (Fudge #1)

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is very silly and reminds me strongly of the Ramona Quimby books.

Nothing very profound going on here except a boy's profound irritation with his little brother. :)

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Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great by Judy Blume

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I somehow missed reading this one as a kiddo, too, but it's aces. I genuinely LOLed multiple times. Sheila is very silly, and she cracks me up. This doesn't contain the heavy-hitting themes of Margaret or Blubber, but it's lot of fun and much more amusing to this grown-up reader than Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing.

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Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I never read this book as a kid either. I missed out on a lot of Judy Blume books that I would have really liked as a kid.

This one definitely deals with the most mature themes of the set I just read; the junior-high-aged protagonist worries about getting an erection during class and whether or not he'll ever have wet dreams, and he spies on his teenage next door neighbor through her window. His older brother was killed in Vietnam, his grandmother is mute because her larynx was removed after having throat cancer, and his family is newly wealthy. The upward social mobility is fascinating here; that aspect of the book reminds me very much of a 19th-century novel and the parvenu desperate to fit in and missing the mark terribly. There's a moment where Tony's mother reveals that their new (more wealthy, and long wealthy) neighbor calls her Carol because she can't possibly pronounce Carmella, and she laughs like it's this funny joke, but Tony knows that's exactly what she says about their Spanish housekeeper's name, and he sees it for exactly the commentary on his family's position that the neighbor intends.

Really powerful writing.

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Historic Rural Churches of Georgia by Sonny Seals

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This begins with an essay that describes the history of Christianity in Georgia. Each church is beautifully photographed and accompanied by a short history. The authors maintain a more detailed website and have filmed a currently airing TV program called Steeple that can be watched on GPB.

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The Bitch Is Back: Older, Wiser, and (Getting) Happier by Cathi Hanauer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoy essay collections like this one. I like hearing from a variety of writers, and I am particularly interested in the theme of this collection as I am also middle-aged and hopefully wiser. LOL

I like that many different ways of being are represented here and many different ways of being happy and fulfilled.

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ursula

Congratulations on the award!

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So, it's April

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