#EliotAlong: Chapters 15 - 28 and Link Up!

So I've had a pretty excellent week, to be honest, both in terms of life and in readalong terms. Last weekend I was in Leeds with blogger friends and then this week we had my sister and her boyfriend staying and my other sister and her fiance visited and then we spent this weekend exploring places and doing a medieval trail and visiting a theme park and taking the boys on their first carousel ride.. All of which is to say that this week there are no questions to guide you, just write what you want!

I really loved this week. From the beginning I was getting way more into the story than last week, and at one point towards the end of the section I actually nearly missed my bus stop because I was so engrossed! Lots and lots of men to love this week for me - firstly, Tertius Lydgate, coolest character name ever? I think I really like him. I definitely like how forward thinking he is. He just seems like the kind of logic-driven doctor you would want around you in life-threatening situations really, and I'm quietly enjoying watching Rosamund enact her sort of manipulative but not really marriage plan on him. It'll be interesting to see how that goes.

I also really liked Will Ladislaw this week. I thought he was going to be all grumpy and dislikeable when he was first introduced, but he's so far from it this week and I can't help loving him and feeling super sorry for him that silly Dorothea married extra boring Casaubon :-( I do feel bad for her as well now though, because although she was really naive and has absolutely no idea what marriage actually is, she's clearly now going to pay the price for that and I kind of want her to be happy.

Winning my heart forever though, despite his complete recklessness, is Fred Vincy. I love him. He's so pathetically endearing with his love of Mary Garth (who is also excellent) and although his lack of responsibility makes me mad I feel like his character has so much potential. I'm really interested to see what happens to him!

So yes, basically all about the men this week! There were women and I enjoyed their stories - the Garth family's in particular - but all the focus was on the men for me.

How was your week? Are you loving the book? Hating it? Tell me all, and link up your posts below!

#EliotAlong Chapters 1 - 14 & Link Up

Apologies that this post is slightly delayed - I've been gallivanting in Yorkshire this weekend with Laura and Nahree and only got back this morning, so although I have finished the reading for the week it was only on the coach yesterday, so. In future weeks I'll be more punctual, I promise!

I'm liking Middlemarch so far I think, although it hasn't entirely sucked me in yet I'm not finding it a chore to read which is good. I really like the diversity of characters that have been introduced so far, and the amount covered in the first fourteen chapters is quite impressive. It feels kind of like Austen with more politics to me, which is definitely a good thing, To prevent rambling I'm going to utilise the questions I wrote when I'd only read half the chapters (and thus only knew of the existence of half the characters!).

1. Is this your first encounter with George Eliot? How are you finding it? Did you have any preconceptions about Eliot or the book before you started? 

This is my third Eliot experience, but all I remember about the other two is that I liked it (Silas Marner) and had no feelings about it either way (Adam Bede). So far I'm finding it funnier than I thought it would be, and the characters are much more relatable than I thought they would be. I like the balance - some of the characters are pretty dry but then others are lively enough to balance them out. Basically they seem pretty well - rounded, and although Eliot keeps going off on political tangents that I don't really have the background knowledge to understand properly it's making me want to find stuff out rather than making my eyes glaze over, so that's good. My preconceptions were pretty much that it was going to be really long and dry and hard work, and so far they're being proved wrong!

2. How do you feel about Dorothea?

I keep changing my mind. In the beginning I found her to be overly pious and it was a bit annoying, and although I still think that he expectations of life and particularly marriage are totally unrealistic and a little silly, it's kind of understandable given her age and the society that she is growing up in I guess. She's very sheltered and slightly unrealistic but she's intelligent and not afraid to speak her mind and I do like that about her. I definitely think Dodo is a better name than Dorothea though, that's what I'll be calling her from now on!

3. Who is your favourite character so far and why?

I didn't anticipate how difficult this question would be to answer when I wrote it! I think probably Sir James - he just seems like a really decent guy, and I agree with Celia that him marrying Dorothea would have been crap for him. I really appreciate that he's still going ahead with the cottage plan despite his disappointment, as lots of men wouldn't, and yeah. Basically I just think he's a good man.

4. The place of women is mentioned a lot in the first few chapters. Discuss.

I can't decide about this, because there's a lot of stuff about how maybe women should have more opportunities and education being great (obviously) and stuff, but also lots about how they need to be submissive after they get married and the traditional place of women and basically I don't have enough information to decide how this is going to go yet. So yes. That.

I pretty much feel like this week was an introduction and I'll have more information next week!

Link up your week one posts below so we can all come and comment!

#LittleHouseRAL Little Town on the Prairie

Apologies for the lateness of this months post, but it's July and we're reading Little Town on the Prairie! That means after this we only have two books left of the original nine book series! How fast is this year going? As usual use #LittleHouseRAL on social media and link up your posts here!

#EliotAlong Week 1 Questions!

I mentioned vaguely in the kick off post that I might be posting prompt questions each week and I've decided it's probably a good idea. Of course you don't have to use them when you're posting about the book, but just in case you're stuck with what to write I thought questions might give us a good starting point for discussing the book.

As of writing this I'm only up to chapter 8, but I have a lot of time on a coach over the weekend so I anticipate being done by Sunday!

1. Is this your first encounter with George Eliot? How are you finding it? Did you have any preconceptions about Eliot or the book before you started?
2. How do you feel about Dorothea?
3. Who is your favourite character so far and why?
4. The place of women is mentioned a lot in the first few chapters. Discuss.
5. Anything else?

If you haven't signed up yet and still want to join us you can find the schedule and link up here - we're only one week in so you haven't missed too much!

Middlemarch Readalong: Kick Off!

It's here guys, the Middlemarch readalong starts today!

I don't know about you guys but this massive book has been on my TBR for literally years and I am really excited to finally read it. I have a mixed experience with George Eliot; I've read two of her books previously, one of which (Silas Marner) I really liked and one of which (Adam Bede) I felt very meh about, but either way I plan to finally get through Middlemarch and I'm hoping it will be as great as so many people tell me that it is! I'm really looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts about, so please make sure you link up your posts/tweets/IG pics etc. The linky on this post will be for kick off posts if you want to write one, and then I'll post again next Monday about the first weeks chapters and a linky for week 1 posts, if that makes sense? Also please make sure you've linked up wherever it is you're going to be talking about #EliotAlong on the original post so I can make sure I'm following you and everyone else can say hi too!

In case you don't know, George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, and English author living in the 19th century. She wrote under a pseudonym because she wanted her work to be taken seriously and to get away from the stereotypes of women only writing light hearted chick-lit type stuff (like, 19th century chick-lit, so I imagine there was more shopping and less sex...or maybe just more dancing) and published Middlemarch originally in eight installments during 1871 and 1872. She wrote seven books in total and scandalised everyone by living with a married guy for more than 20 years. I've been dipping in and out of The Road to Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead over the last few weeks and it's really interesting about her life and how she began to write the novel.

So essentially Middlemarch is about the lives of a bunch of people living in a fictional town called - wait for it - Middlemarch! It's set in the years leading up to the 1832 Reform Act (which I just looked up on Wikipedia and is apparently the Act that made electing MPs properly a thing - I know, my history is shocking, please feel free to correct/embellish if you know more than me!) and has lots and lots of characters, the major one of whom is named Dorothea, a name which annoys me extremely because my head always wants to pronounce is Dorothy-ah, which is probably (definitely?) not how it's pronounced! Again, feel free to enlighten me. So yes, lots of people, small town setting, lots going on!

In case you missed it the schedule is here, and here's a lovely picture of my somewhat scruffy, from-a-charity-shop edition:

You may recognise it because I made the graphic for the readalong by cropping a photo of the book and adding text, because I'm a genius at graphics, obv. 

Link up your kick off posts here, and don't forget to use #EliotAlong on social media. Happy reading!

#LittleHouseRAL: The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

We're getting so far through this readalong now guys, we've hit the halfway point and I've now officially bought all the books except for the auto/biographies! In keeping with tradition I finished The Long Winter weeks ago but waiting until almost the end of the month to post about it, because it wouldn't feel right otherwise!

It was weird reading this in the mostly pretty warm, occasionally pretty rainy, but with absolutely no blizzards at all English summertime. The book takes places during one especially long, especially harsh winter after Laura and her family have settled into their 'claim'. The winter is basically so bad that the newly emerging railroad is blocked for months on end and no supplies can get through and everyone is nearly starving and pretty desperate pretty much all of the time as they suffer extreme weather conditions for days and weeks on end. It's pretty bleak for a while in the middle; Pa even stops playing the fiddle, but being the Ingalls family they always manage to find a bright side, and I remain impressed with their ability to function excellently in ridiculous circumstances.

I really loved that Almanzo and his brother had way more story in this installment and I'm super looking forward to reading about how they ended up together *squeals*. I feel bad that Mary went blind, but honestly I'm happy to have less of her over the top pious goodness all the time - I prefer Laura! I do like that Carrie's a proper little person now, so Laura has someone to run around with. Basically this was more of the same Little House stuff I've come to know and love, but with less house building and more near starvation and snowdrifts as tall as your house.

This series is excellent. Bring on July.

Stuff I've Read in 2016: Non-Fiction

So it's somehow June already, although the weather round here seems unsure of that, but anyway I just had my 29th birthday, which means we are definitely halfway through the year and I thought I'd like to do some posts about the awesome stuff I've been reading this year. Obviously though there's way too much to talk about in one post so I thought I'd do several separate posts divided up by subject and just talk about 3-5 titles in each genre that I've read and enjoyed and think you should read!

Before we go into this, you may have noticed that my title links all link to Wordery. I've been using them pretty much exclusively for online new book purchases for over a year and I love and adore them. They are independent, offer FREE worldwide shipping and have a brilliant selection. Prices are good too. I've recently become a Wordery affiliate, which just means that if you decide you want to buy a book I mention in this or another post and you do so through the link in the post or the little banner I have in my left hand sidebar, I will get a small commission and my grocery bill will love you forever. 

Kicking it off is a genre that I'm constantly striving to read more of; non-fiction. I do read loads more of this than I used to a few years back and I entirely blame Nonfiction November for that because the recs I've got through that event are just insane!

I read The Year of Living Danishly by Karen Russell way back at the beginning of the year after I bought it for Heather in last years Nonfiction book swap during Nonfiction November. Karen Russell moves to Denmark when her husband is offered a job at Lego (!!) and becomes fascinated by how Denmark is supposedly the happiest country in the world. The book goes through all the different things that supposedly make them happy and Karen Russell explores the truth behind it all and how it works. I have a little bit of a thing for Scandinavia and that part of the world really, and I just really enjoyed this book.

Most of my non-fiction so far this year has been memoir, and the second title I really liked was also my first audiobook, Shonda Rimes' Year of Yes. Shonda Rimes is a fantastic narrator and I'd massively recommend the audiobook. The book basically does what the title says and documents a year in which she vowed to say yes to things that pushed her outside of her comfort zone and which she would usually have automatically said no to, but it's also hilarious and because she's the lady she is (creator of Grey's Anatomy and several other popular TV shows) she gets to do some amazing stuff over the course of the book. Very interesting and well worth a read (or listen).

I Will Find You by Joanna Connors I've already talked about here several times but I couldn't pass up the chance to mention it again since it really is an incredible book. I've literally never read anything like it. Joanna Connors was raped as a young married woman and after many years she decides to try to find out more about her rapist; what drove him to do it and what he was like. The book is incredible and just read it read it read it.

Final pick is kind of a cheat since I'm in the middle of it but I'm pretty confident it's going to be on my best of 2016 lists and you should absolutely pick it up if you're interested in feminism or even just being an understanding, accepting person. If you know any teenage girls you should get it for them and it is Girl Up by Laura Bates, who you may (should) know from her previous book Everyday Sexism and The Everyday Sexism Project. This is the book I wish I had when I was a teenager. It's so unashamed and hilarious and straight up about every single thing from vaginas to sexual orientation to mental health. Plus it has helpful pictures and stuff which I love. I've giggled out loud while reading it and I'm sure I will giggle more before I reach the end. I think Rhys feels I should issue a rant warning with my recommendation though which is if you're like me and like to rant about stuff you've read, this will probably make you do that. Constantly. At your unsuspecting (and totally feminist) husband, who may then feel slightly attacked...Basically, this is probably the book your mum should have given you when you hit puberty instead of that one written by some middle aged doctor guy who had no idea what a teenage girl was.

And in case you need some more titles, here are some from my shelf that I'm really excited to read:

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (both on my 20 Books of Summer List)
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott (not a memoir! Hooray for me!)
My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff (OK, back to memoir)
Watching the English by Kate Fox (also not a memoir!)

What great non-fiction have you read recently?