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by Katherine Mansfield
What is it about some short stories that they can put you in your place and make you feel like a complete heel without ever directly pointing a finger? "Miss Brill" is a three page vignette of a woman people-watching at a public band performance in a park. She goes there every week and enjoys the miniature "performances" unfolding around her, listening in on snippets of the lives of others, smiling and envisioning wonderful things for those she sees. We've all done that. And we've all passed our snarky little judgments on those we've deemed unworthy for no reason other than we didn't like the way they looked. But guess what? Life is not a private performance. The others we're watching are watching us, too. How many kind-hearted Miss Brill's would I have made cry if they could have heard my thoughtless remarks?
I closed the book on this gorgeous story feeling thoroughly chastised. Once again I am reminded of all the work I have ahead of me if I really want to be the kind of person I would admire.
Lezlie
Read the story for free on line! Click here.
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Jack Cousteau, Adventure Kitty, reading The Faerie Queene - In Memory of Jack - 1992-August 2, 2011
Disclosures
Unless specifically stated otherwise in the individual post, beginning Nov. 1, 2009, every book read and "reviewed" on Books 'N Border Collies was purchased for my private collection or came from the public library system.
I am an Amazon Associate and some of the links in posts do lead to Amazon.
I am an Amazon Associate and some of the links in posts do lead to Amazon.
Thoughts On What I've Read:
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Books Read In 2009:
Goals:
Bronze Level: 100 Books - Goal Achieved Sept. 13, 2009
Silver Level: 125 Books - Goal Achieved Nov. 22, 2009
Gold Level: 150 Books
January:
1. The Book of Samson by David Maine
2. Poems From Guantanamo edited by Marc Falkoff
3. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
4. Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy
5. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
6. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
7. The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears
8. Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
9. Dawn by Elie Wiesel
10. What Is The What by Dave Eggers
11. How To Think About The Great Ideas by Mortimer J. Adler
12. Indignation by Philip Roth
February:
13. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
14. Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
15. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
17. Native Son by Richard Wright
18. The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Louis Gates & Hollis Robbins
19. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
20. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
21. The Woman In The Dunes by Kobo Abe
March:
22. The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
23. Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman
24. Skeletons At The Feast by Chris Bohjalian
25. The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester
26. The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
27. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
28. Catherine Carmier by Ernest J. Gaines
29. Day by Elie Wiesel
30. Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
31. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
32. Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi
33. Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield
34. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
April:
35. Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
36. The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber
37. Revelation by C.J. Sansom
38. Writing To Learn by William Zinsser
39. Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
40. American Pastoral by Philip Roth
41. Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin
42. Divine Justice by David Baldacci
43. How To Read A Poem and Fall In Love With Poetry by Edward Hirsch
44. The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius
45. Everyman by Philip Roth
46. Waiting For The Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
May:
47. The Bridge Over The River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
48. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
49. A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
50. Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
51. The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
52. When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
53. The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
54. An Iliad by Alessandro Baricco
55. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
56. Dave Barry's Money Secrets by Dave Barry
57. The Penguin State of the World Atlas by Dan Smith
58. Ulysses by James Joyce
59. The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis
60. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace by Gore Vidal
June:
61. Bedlam by Greg Hollingshead
62. Wicked Prey by John Sandford
63. Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass
64. The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips
65. Renegade by Richard Wolffe
66. Madonna of the Seven Hills by Jean Plaidy
67. Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
68. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
July:
69. Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
70. The Borgias and Their Enemies by Christopher Hibbert
71. The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
72. The Great Stink by Clare Clark
73. Killer Summer by Ridley Pearson
74. The Anatomy of Deception by Lawrence Goldstone
75. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
76. All Other Nights by Dara Horn
77. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
78. This Land is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich
79. The Devil's Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis
August:
80. Idiot America by Charles P. Pierce
81. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
82. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
83. Roadside Crosses by Jeffery Deaver
84. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
85. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster
86. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
87. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
88. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
89. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
90. Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk
91. Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
92. Finn by Jon Clinch
93. Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
September:
94. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
95. The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots by Carolly Erickson
96. The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. II by The Paris Review
97. Methland by Nick Reding
98. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
99. Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
100. Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
101. Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
102. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
103. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
104. Can I Keep My Jersey? by Paul Shirley
105. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
106. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
October:
107. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
108. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King
109. Girl In Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
110. Dr. Haggard's Disease by Patrick McGrath
111. Rough County by John Sandford
112. Junky by William S. Burroughs
113. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
114. The Grotesque edited by Harold Bloom
115. The Praise Singer by Mary Renault
116. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
117. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
November:
118. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
119. The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd
120. The Humbling by Philip Roth
121. Frankenstein: Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz
122. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 edited by Elizabeth Kolbert
123. Burn This Book edited by Toni Morrison
124. Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
125. Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
126. The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
127. Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
128. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
December:
129. Angel Time by Anne Rice
130. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
131. Waiter Rant by The Waiter, Steve Dublanica
132. The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer
133. The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe
134. Evidence by Jonathan Kellerman
135. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
136. Beowulf by Anonymous
137. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
138. Grendel by John Gardner
139. Invisible by Paul Auster
140. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative by H. Porter Abbott
Bronze Level: 100 Books - Goal Achieved Sept. 13, 2009
Silver Level: 125 Books - Goal Achieved Nov. 22, 2009
Gold Level: 150 Books
January:
1. The Book of Samson by David Maine
2. Poems From Guantanamo edited by Marc Falkoff
3. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
4. Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy
5. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
6. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
7. The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears
8. Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
9. Dawn by Elie Wiesel
10. What Is The What by Dave Eggers
11. How To Think About The Great Ideas by Mortimer J. Adler
12. Indignation by Philip Roth
February:
13. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
14. Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
15. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
17. Native Son by Richard Wright
18. The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Louis Gates & Hollis Robbins
19. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
20. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
21. The Woman In The Dunes by Kobo Abe
March:
22. The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
23. Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman
24. Skeletons At The Feast by Chris Bohjalian
25. The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester
26. The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
27. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
28. Catherine Carmier by Ernest J. Gaines
29. Day by Elie Wiesel
30. Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
31. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
32. Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi
33. Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield
34. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
April:
35. Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
36. The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber
37. Revelation by C.J. Sansom
38. Writing To Learn by William Zinsser
39. Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
40. American Pastoral by Philip Roth
41. Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin
42. Divine Justice by David Baldacci
43. How To Read A Poem and Fall In Love With Poetry by Edward Hirsch
44. The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius
45. Everyman by Philip Roth
46. Waiting For The Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
May:
47. The Bridge Over The River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
48. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
49. A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
50. Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
51. The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
52. When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
53. The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
54. An Iliad by Alessandro Baricco
55. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
56. Dave Barry's Money Secrets by Dave Barry
57. The Penguin State of the World Atlas by Dan Smith
58. Ulysses by James Joyce
59. The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis
60. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace by Gore Vidal
June:
61. Bedlam by Greg Hollingshead
62. Wicked Prey by John Sandford
63. Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass
64. The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips
65. Renegade by Richard Wolffe
66. Madonna of the Seven Hills by Jean Plaidy
67. Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
68. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
July:
69. Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
70. The Borgias and Their Enemies by Christopher Hibbert
71. The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
72. The Great Stink by Clare Clark
73. Killer Summer by Ridley Pearson
74. The Anatomy of Deception by Lawrence Goldstone
75. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
76. All Other Nights by Dara Horn
77. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
78. This Land is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich
79. The Devil's Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis
August:
80. Idiot America by Charles P. Pierce
81. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
82. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
83. Roadside Crosses by Jeffery Deaver
84. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
85. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster
86. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
87. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
88. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
89. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
90. Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk
91. Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
92. Finn by Jon Clinch
93. Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
September:
94. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
95. The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots by Carolly Erickson
96. The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. II by The Paris Review
97. Methland by Nick Reding
98. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
99. Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
100. Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
101. Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
102. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
103. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
104. Can I Keep My Jersey? by Paul Shirley
105. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
106. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
October:
107. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
108. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King
109. Girl In Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
110. Dr. Haggard's Disease by Patrick McGrath
111. Rough County by John Sandford
112. Junky by William S. Burroughs
113. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
114. The Grotesque edited by Harold Bloom
115. The Praise Singer by Mary Renault
116. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
117. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
November:
118. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
119. The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd
120. The Humbling by Philip Roth
121. Frankenstein: Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz
122. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 edited by Elizabeth Kolbert
123. Burn This Book edited by Toni Morrison
124. Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
125. Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
126. The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
127. Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
128. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
December:
129. Angel Time by Anne Rice
130. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
131. Waiter Rant by The Waiter, Steve Dublanica
132. The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer
133. The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe
134. Evidence by Jonathan Kellerman
135. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
136. Beowulf by Anonymous
137. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
138. Grendel by John Gardner
139. Invisible by Paul Auster
140. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative by H. Porter Abbott
Short Works Read In 2009
This will include short stories, essays and poetry. I will mostly likely not post thoughts on every piece listed here, especially individual poems, but the ones I do write about will be linked. If you have any questions about any of them, feel free to ask! Every group of 10 short stories/essays will be counted as a single "book" in my final book count at the end of the year. However, none of these "books" will qualify for the initial 100 books in the 100+ Reading Challenge. I'm not yet sure how to count single poems. Let's see if I read enough of them to merit counting. If not, they're just good reading!
Short Stories:
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates (Read Online)
"Hansel and Gretel" by The Brothers Grimm (Read Online)
"A Report to an Academy" by Franz Kafka (Read Online)
Essays:
"Werner" by Jo Ann Beard
"The Freedom To Offend" by Ian Buruma
"Why I Am Not A Christian" by Bertrand Russell
"Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell
Poetry:
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning
Short Stories:
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates (Read Online)
"Hansel and Gretel" by The Brothers Grimm (Read Online)
"A Report to an Academy" by Franz Kafka (Read Online)
Essays:
"Werner" by Jo Ann Beard
"The Freedom To Offend" by Ian Buruma
"Why I Am Not A Christian" by Bertrand Russell
"Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell
Poetry:
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
In an effort to clean things up and make room for the massive list of books I will read this year (if all these Challenges have anything to say about it!), this list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and my progress can now be found from the link on my sidebar under "Ongoing Reading Projects". Or just click here! :-)
5 comments:
I've never read any Katherine Mansfield (bad, considering she's kind of a national icon...) but that sounds worth a look. I shock myself with how quickly I judge people sometimes but it's so easy to do!
Sounds intruiging, even though I have never been a fan of the short story... I'll have a look!
Jennifer ~ I think I read "The Garden Party" a long time ago, but that was all. I really liked this one, though, and will most likely look for more by her. Hopefully they won't all make me feel like I've been told to go to bed without supper. :-)
Joanna ~ Me neither, but I'm trying to learn. That's why I joined the Short Story Challenge. I'm just beginning to develop an appreciation. And they're great for when you're really tired, but still want to read just a little before you go to sleep! :-)
Lezlie
I love "Miss Brill" - maybe my favorite Katherine Mansfield story.
JenClair ~ Thanks for stopping by! I will definitely be reading more of hers in the future.
Lezlie
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