So, I've been using my Typepad account instead of VOX, and whenever I come back over this way I have shit loads of spam comments to delete. Surely, VOX, if you delete a spam account, it should automatically delete all of the spam comments they've left as well?
at the end of it, i felt like attached to the guy in a way that i dont want it to end. it's so grippy.. keeps you in his world.. it's a true story after all.. one of the best reads ever.. at the start of it i thought to myself, if i finish reading this book, then i'll be a hero for myself.. 933 pages of tiny font! :D
the thing about it is a soul reflective book.. it's so deep in the descriptions that makes you smile, and also makes you feel sorry for the people in the story.. if you're a fan of novels and inspirational stuff, then this will help a lot..
one of the best lines i read in the book are:
"Every life, every love, every action and feeling and thought has its cause and its reason and significance: it's beginning, and the part it plays in the end. Nothing in any life, no matter how well or poorly lived, is wiser than failure and or clearer than sorrow. And in the tine, precious wisdom that the give to us, even those dread and hated enemies, suffering and failure, have their reason and their right to be."
i'm a bit emotional now.. haha!
plus, i'm losing the grip on emotions right now.. and its getting a bit harder by the day..
Really, not the kind of story that bears telling via the film medium. Skip it and spend the money on the book instead.
This is a book with many characters, and I love it for how crowded it is. I love how characters are differentiated, how they react to events and situations unpredictably. Byatt has succeeded in creating several interesting roles, which inspire a variety of emotions in the reader: Olive Wellwood, an author of children's tales, beautiful, unrealistic, somewhat weak, inspires a fair amount of irritation; her philandering husband Humphrey, father to many women's children, is alternately disgusting and charming; Herbert Methley, advocate of free love, is sly and frightening; Elsie Warren, a young woman who falls prey to Methley, generates empathy for her innocence and admiration for her subsequent independence -- and so on.
The Children's Book follows the life and times of several creative, talented, offbeat adults in the late 19th century, and studies the impact of their choices on their children and the paths the new generation chooses for itself. In terms of plot, it is a success, though I personally feel it extends too far into the 20th century and there was not much need to include a wartime dimension. But it is so heavy and ponderous in the telling that the pleasure in reading seems to leach out about halfway through, especially after a painfully detailed and uninteresting description of the "Grand Exposition Universelle" at Paris, where Byatt insists on painting a verbal picture of every statue, every tent, every puppet and other conceivable artistic work displayed there.
But if you can manage to tolerate/skip the boring bits, the 600-page read is worth it for the richness of the characters. Anselm Stern, the German puppetteer; Julian Cain, intelligent, weak, confused about his sexuality; Dorothy Wellwood, who fights the prejudices of her times to become a doctor; Benedict Fludd, a wild, deranged artistic genius -- and many, many more. Be warned that it will take time and effort to make it through the whole book, though, and that the prose is patchy and sometimes even yucky (a young boy masturbating is described as "working himself into... a soaring wet ecstasy") but Byatt manages to achieve a compelling study of human nature, even if the free history lesson is quite unwanted.
so this is how it goes.. i miss you guys.. and i know haven't been a good voxer.. i miss being here so much.. want to hear you stories and read them soon.. :)
"You Are The Solution" Forum
Presented by
The Black Star Community PTA and the League of Black Parents
The solutions to problems in the Black community are not outside of the Black community. The solutions are not in what we say, but in what we do. You are the solution!
In Chicago and across America, we cannot stop the carnage of Black children without you!
"You Are The Solution" Forum
Illinois Institute of Technology
Saturday, October 3, 2009
12:00 noon
3201 South State Street
Chicago, Illinois
Please RSVP to Lauren at 773.285.9600
You are the solution. Join us for our "solutions" forum. Even if you do not stay for the forum, you should please come to sign-up to be part of the solution and be prepared to do at least one of the following activities:
1.Volunteer for our Student Motivation / Mentor Program and become a classroom-based mentor for 6th- through 12th-grade students at least 3 times a year
2.Volunteer for our Real Men Read Program and become a classroom reader for kindergarten to 3rd-grade students two times per year
3.Volunteer for our Destination College Program and become a college coach for 4th- through 8th-grade students two times per year
4.Join our 100 Concerned Women In Action to work with a team of women helping to solve the problems of the community
5.Join our League of Black Parents and Black Star Community PTA to work for and advocate for the education of all children
6.Attend Parent University classes that create outstanding parents at least 4 times per year
7.Join our Million Father Movement, where fathers take their children to school or visit their child's school at least one day each month
8.Join our Take A Black Male to Worship Day, where faith-based organizations reach out to young Black men 4 times per year
9.Join our Fathers Club and take your children to free sports, athletic, cultural, educational and recreational events at least 4 times per year
10.Become a dues-paying member of The Black Star Project to support the above programs. Click here to join.
While we are all part of the solution!!
This forum will feature these solution leaders:
•Phillip Hampton of Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy
•Spencer Leak, Sr. of Black on Black Love (Invited)
•Tio Hardeman of Cease-Fire!
•Rev. Franklin Ballenger of By The Hand Club for Kids
•Phillip Jackson of The Black Star Project
http://www.blackstarproject.org/home/
Please RSVP to Lauren at 773.285.9600
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
