Book Review: Jane Eyre

Title: Jane Eyre

Author: Charlotte Bronte

Genre: Classics

Rating: 3.5/4 out of 5...I'm not sure if I want to do a 3.5 or a 4...hence the slash

Why Did I Read? Part of the English curriculum and I focused on it with my honors class this past block.

Summary: Jane Eyre is an orphaned young girl living with her aunt that doesn't want her.  The aunt eventually ships her off to a boarding school.  Jane becomes a teacher at the boarding school and then a governess for Mr. Rochester's ward.  As she lives at Rochester's home of Thornhill, she begins to develop feelings for her boss.  Does he return those feelings or is he going to marry someone else? And what will Jane do when she figures out where Rochester's true heart lies?

What Did I Love: I loved how the book kept you guessing.  There were twists and turns, which helped it to be very entertaining.  I enjoyed the themes of the story as well :)

  

What Did I Hate: She often gets on her soap box about something and it occasionally felt like Rochester and Jane would just talk to talk---and it doesn't seem to move anything forward. I also think it is great for the seniors--a lot of good review of symbols/foreshadowing/themes etc. without feeling like it is too simple. And I have had a majority of my students enjoy the story.

Bottom Line: The reason I gave it the slash on the rating was the fact that I wouldn't necessarily recommend it--because I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone.  I would recommend it to people that enjoy classics and have maybe enjoyed Jane Austen and would like something different. 

Remembering 2013 in Last Minute Read-a-thon

As I look back on the reading I've done in 2013....I am still disappointed with how much I have accomplished.  So I'm not sure how productive this challenge will be...but I will give it my best shot..

1. Best book of 2013: I have said it numerous times but The Storyteller by Jodi Piccoult was by far my favorite of this year!
2. Worst book of 2013: Don't really have one....
3. Favorite new author. Charlotte Bronte....I know not "new"--but definitely new to me and I want to read more of her stuff!
4. Book that surprised you: Divergent by Veronica Roth.  I am traditionally not a huge fan of the dystopian type of things.  They are sometimes too much with the shoving down your throat about how life should be better or they don't create a believable universe. This one was great. Though I'm a little nervous about starting Allegiant...I have not heard good things.
5. Book that disappointed you: Mansfield Park is what I'm going to put on here...because I have yet to finish it! I love Jane Austen and I'm disappointed that this book is not at all enjoyable...at least yet--I'm going to keep trying!

Our hosts: http://vonniesreadingcorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/last-minute-2013-rembering-2013.html
http://anightsdreamofbooks.blogspot.com/2013/12/last-minute-read-thon-remembering-2013.html

My Progress

Very low...like I don't even want to own up to it. Spent the day hanging out with the husband--it was a great day to spend some quality time together!

#ReadingCram Wrap-Up

This has been a great week and a half! Even though I had hoped to get a lot of reading done and not get distracted by a lot of things around me--but considering I haven't finished two books in this amount of time in a long time, it is an achievement for me.  I am almost done with Insurgent and I still want to try to finish it this year...though my ambition to finish so much of the Book of Mormon was a bit high--though halfway through by the end of the year. I am hoping that this #ReadingCram will help me keeping going through the end of the year.

So what did I accomplish this #ReadingCram....

I finished

As an audiobook! Not sure how many pages that ended up being

Started on page 239 and then finished on 322

Currently still reading:

Started on page 72 now on page 136

Started on page 112  and currently on 268

Audiobook as well...started during reading cram and I am on disc 4

I haven't ever really done page counts...but I like how that looks.  I read 300 pages...which is like a whole book from start to finish.  Not bad considering my full-time job, tired brain, and other obligations.

One thing that I will definitely miss with this challenge is not having to come up with blog posts each day--the challenges did that for me;.  Thank you to Dana and Jenny for their efforts with that--it was great to be able to do some fun things with my posts each day!

As I look at the last week and half or so of my #365 project--I have LOTS of ideas of what to do for 2014 and a few for the rest of the year--just need to put pen to paper so I don't forget them all!

Jane Eyre in 166 Characters or Less

So...today is the seventh day of the #ReadingCram challenge.  I have not done as much reading today as I really had hoped/wanted to.  Yesterday ended up with having to constantly tell myself that there are things not in my control and that is okay....so things ended up getting pushed to today. I am hoping before I go to bed tonight that all of the Christmas presents will be bought and all I have to do is wrap some to ship tomorrow and I will be done with the presents part.  My goal for tomorrow is to bake some cookies and listen to some books while I do so---hopefully that all goes according to plan :)

Today's challenge from Mommasez is to summarize a book in 166 characters or less.  So I decided to tackle Jane Eyre, because I just barely finished it and I think people give up on classics waay too fast.

An orphaned girl can’t find her way in the world in which no one loves her. Shuffled from her aunt to a boarding school to a job as a governess, she falls in love with her boss—will she finally find love? 

 I hope it makes you read the book :) And that was harder to write than I thought!