Goodreads review: Jane Eyre

Noe's review

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

Jane Eyre is an excellent story with great characters and is told by a master of the art. Each person that is introduced is brought out in marvelous clarity; even the minor characters in the book are seen as distinct individuals, not just impersonal voices who appear to say a line and then exit stage. Charlotte Bronte’s ability to express feelings and mood often approaches what would best be described as poetry. In addition to this, the conversations are unbelievably terrific. So often a writer excels at one and does the other poorly, but not Charlotte Bronte—she does both with skill and beauty.

Jane Eyre isn’t without fault as far as I’m concerned, though. Three aspects, in particular, keep it from being so:

• First, there were several places where Bronte went on too long about things that were of no importance to the story and of little interest. I subscribe to the principle: you have a story to tell, tell it without taking long detours. If it was a modern novel, I would say she was concerned about a certain word count, but perhaps they were in her days also, which would explain it. Whatever the reason, there is much that could be cut out with good effect.

• Second, I wish she would have refrained from addressing the reader. I don’t like that because it dispels the feeling or mood that a scene is creating by reminding me that I am just reading a book. How much sense does it make for a writer to work diligently to pull us into their imaginary world just to snap us out by saying something like ‘dear reader...’ I only want to be reminded that I’m just reading a book when it’s time to stop reading, not while I’m caught up in it. This might best be put under a pet peeve, whereas the other two issues I stand firm about.

• Third, the conclusion. By that, I mean the very last few paragraphs of the book. Bronte spent them talking about and quoting St. John (the character in the book, not the Bible writer), of all people. It was almost like she felt some pang of conscience about writing what is essentially a secular story and was compelled to end with a religious message and scriptural references. I don’t mind Bible quotes and things like that, but St. John was such an unlikeable character and was of little consequence to the overall story, why have him be the last person we hear about? What mattered most to me when I got to the end was how things turned out for Jane, the person who had gone through so many trials and challenges.

Those three things aside, I will reiterate, this is a wonderful book—indeed, a masterpiece. Anyone who thinks of it just in terms of a romance novel is basing their opinion on some movie adaptation and not the book. Not that I think romance novels can’t be great; Jane Austen puts the lie to that notion. But to distill Jane Eyre to just a story about a man and woman falling in love is as ridiculous as relegating it to simply a story written for young girls to read. It is epic in its scope of covering the range of human emotions and doing so in a way that a person would have to be made of marble not to be touched. The book masterfully takes us through the depths of despair and the heights of great joys and even the everyday coping with life with the flare that only a genius can. So glad I got a better copy and was able to read the real story.

Note: Goodreads rating is as follows:
 did not like it
 it was okay
 liked it
 really liked it
 it was amazing
~~~~~
Amazon Customer Reviews Guidelines 
Frequently Asked Questions from Authors
2. Are authors allowed to review other authors’ books?
Yes. Authors are welcome to submit Customer Reviews, unless the reviewing author has a personal relationship with the author of the book being reviewed, or was involved in the book’s creation process (i.e. as a co-author, editor, illustrator, etc.). If so, that author isn't eligible to write a Customer Review for that book. Please review our Customer Review Guidelines for more information. 

And this About Customer Reviews policy:
Authors and artists can add a unique perspective and we very much welcome their customer reviews. [Underlining ours] While we encourage reviewers to share their enthusiasm and experience, there can be a fine line between that and the use of customer reviews as product promotion. We don't allow anyone to write customer reviews as a form of promotion and if we find evidence that a customer was paid for a review, we'll remove it. If you have a direct or indirect financial interest in a product, or perceived to have a close personal relationship with its author or artist, we'll likely remove your review. We don't allow authors to submit customer reviews on their own books even when they disclose their identity. [Underlining and italics ours]

Sarah's Summer, part 6

Episode 6

We're ending our Sarah's World summer series with "Sarah looks out the window" this week. For links to the other parts of this series, look to the right sidebar under Sarah's World posts.

Sarah looks out the window
Now Sarah observed...

“Birdie loves how soft our yarn has made her nest.”
“I think so,” replied Margaret, “because she stays in it a lot.”

The girls brought some berries inside from the bush after they ate breakfast this morning. When Birdie came over for some, the cousins were surprised to find out why she had been sitting in her nest so much -- they saw three pale blue eggs with brown freckles!

“Birdie!” the girls exclaimed, “you’re going to have chicks!”

The girls noticed that Birdie was the one always sitting on the eggs. “Look how nice Loudee is,” Sarah said. “He’s bringing some food for Birdie, so she doesn’t have to leave her nest.” Birdie did leave the nest sometimes, but it was never for very long.
Margaret pointed up toward the sky, “Look... while Birdie is sitting on the nest, Loudee is always nearby on a higher branch. Sometimes I see him on the garage roof.”

Sarah added, “He looks like he’s keeping guard.” He was keeping guard, and he would make brave sounds from his high perch to scare off anyone that came by.

One day the girls saw one of the neighborhood cats come into their yard. Right away Loudee made some noisy calls, but the cat paid no attention. Sarah thought they should go out and chase the cat away to protect Birdie and her eggs. But before they could get up, they saw Loudee fly down toward the cat and hit his tail! The cat jumped, not knowing what had happened. Here came Loudee again, and this time the cat scampered off!

The girls could not believe their eyes. “Did you see that?!” they blurted out. “Loudee must be the bravest bird in the whole world to be able to chase a cat away!”

The next day, Sarah and Margaret were outside when the same cat jumped up onto the fence. At the sight of it, they remembered brave Loudee and hurriedly chased the cat away. Loudee, who had started making those warning sounds, saw what they had done. He flew down to the berry bush where the girls were standing, flapped his wings, and gave a “hew, hew” to thank the girls for helping protect his family. The girls knew they hadn’t been as brave as Loudee. After all, it was just a silly little cat to them. But they were glad Loudee saw them do it.

Ever since Loudee and Birdie had finished the nest, they no longer woke the girls with their loud chirping and whistling. They did still chirp and whistle, but now it sounded more like soft music. The girls were very glad for the change.

But this day ...

they woke up to an entirely new sound. Going over to the window bright and early, they saw three baby mockingbirds, chirping as loud as they could. “The babies are here!” Margaret said. “But, where are Birdie and Loudee?”

Just then, Loudee came with some food for the hungry chicks and Birdie followed right behind. As the girls watched, the mother and father birds were kept busy finding food for the babies.

Sarah remarked, “Most baby animals are cute, but baby birds sure are ugly! Their eyes bulge out and they don’t have any feathers.”

Her cousin added, “And for babies, their skin looks old and shriveled. Did we look that ugly when we were first born?”

“I hope not!” Sarah cried.

Mom had come into the room as the girls were talking about the baby birds. Putting her arms around them as they watched what was happening outside, she told the girls that all babies are beautiful to their mothers.

Sarah, looking up at her mother, asked: “Even when they look like that?”

Her mother kissed her on the forehead and said, “Yes, even when they look like that.”

One thing the girls had been wondering about was why Loudee and Birdie would fly to the ground whenever the yard was being mowed. They weren’t the only birds that would do that.

“Why aren’t they afraid of the lawnmower?” asked Margaret.

“I don’t know. But all those birds seem excited to get on the grass after it’s been cut,” Sarah said.

Today the girls were going to find out why the birds were so excited about lawn-mowing day. The mower was so loud it was hard to hear the babies chirping for food. But soon Birdie came from the lawn with something for her babies.

“It’s a grasshopper!” the girls cried. Again and again, Birdie and Loudee would come with some kind of bug to feed to the babies.

Then Sarah figured it out! “The lawn mower makes the bugs come out of hiding in the grass and the birds are able get them!” She looked at Margaret and asked, “Do you think all the bugs taste the same? Or do grasshoppers taste better than the squirmy ones?”

“I think they probably all taste like bugs!” Margaret responded as she turned up her nose.

Between the bugs in the yard and the berries on the bush, there was plenty of food for Loudee, Birdie, and the three babies. And the babies grew fast.

The neighborhood cat must have been able to hear the babies, because he tried a few times to get into the yard. But with Loudee and the girls keeping watch, Birdie and her babies were kept safe.

Within a few days, the three babies were starting to look more like birds. Their feathers were coming in and the nest was beginning to look crowded. Since they were starting to move about, they were now bumping into each other. The girls would laugh at their funny antics in the nest. The babies also kept up their noisy morning routine of asking for food.

After a week...

the babies were big enough to get out of the nest and hop about the tree. They no longer woke the girls with their loud chirping for food every morning. So Sarah and Margaret would get up early themselves and go straight to the window to watch them test their wings and fly from one branch to another.

It was clear to the girls that the babies weren’t babies anymore and would soon be leaving to live on their own. One morning, they saw Loudee and Birdie perched together with their three young ones gathered around the nest one last time, and after singing a happy song the three young birds took to the sky.

Sarah and Margaret were waving goodbye to them from the window, thrilled for the three babies they had seen grow up.

“What are Loudee and Birdie going to do now?” asked Margaret.

“Since their babies are gone, they’ll probably fly to new places,” Sarah said.

As the girls were talking, Loudee and Birdie came to the window. Margaret gave a chirp and a whistle and Sarah said, “Be sure to come back to see us, and we’ll take care of the nest for you if you need to use it again.”

The birds responded with “hew, hew,” then whistled a pretty song for the girls and flew away.

“This was an exciting way start to our summer!” Sarah said. The girls stayed looking out the window, remembering and laughing over the fun they had had with their friends, Loudee and Birdie.

This finishes our taste of Sarah's World ... if you'd like to read more about Sarah and her friends, please look for our stories on Amazon using the links in the right side bar. And for links to the other parts of this series here on the blog, look to the right under "Sarah's World" posts.

Thank you for reading what noeandcindy.write !

copyright © 2012 by NoeandCindy

Favorite children's stories set

Some of our favorites
We got this set years ago when our son was little, so I have no idea if it's still available somewhere. I used to love to hear Noe reading them to Amos, especially The Wind in the Willows ... they would laugh and laugh all the while. There's nothing like reading to your child!

Illustrated by Eric Kincaid

Thank you for reading what noeandcindy.write !

Sarah's Summer part 5

Episode 5

We're continuing our Sarah's World summer series, beginning "Sarah looks out the window" this week. For links to the other parts of this series, look to the right sidebar under Sarah's World posts.

Sarah looks out the window
Margaret

    Sarah’s cousin Margaret came to spend all summer with her. The two girls were up late the first night she got there, laughing and having so much fun they didn’t think they would wake up early the next morning.

    Something did wake them, though, and it was very early. There was a sound coming from outside.

     
    The cousins opened their eyes, looked at each other and asked, “What is that?”

    Going over to the window, they saw a very noisy bird in the tree next to Sarah’s window.

    “What’s that bird doing?” asked Margaret.

    Sarah didn’t know, but said, “This is the first time I’ve ever seen it.”

    So they stayed at the window watching.

    The bird was chirping and singing, then it flew away. “I guess it saw us,” said Sarah.

    “So it probably won't come back,” Margaret replied.

    “I’m still sleepy. Let’s get back in bed,” Sarah mumbled as she yawned.

    But just as the girls were getting comfortable back in bed, the bird returned, making as much noise as before. The cousins looked at each other and exclaimed, “Not again!”

    They went back to the window and there it was. This time they looked more carefully and noticed it seemed to be looking and chirping at something. When they turned that direction, they saw another of the same kind of bird.

    “I think they’re talking to each other,” Sarah said.

    “It looks like they’re really excited about something,” Margaret added.

    The girls sat in their pajamas a few minutes, watching the birds talk to each other. Then the one on the ground flew to the tree, with a twig in its mouth.

    Both birds began flying around, bringing twigs and things back to the tree. Sarah and Margaret turned to each other and cheered, “They’re building a nest!”

    The two birds stopped, and for a moment, the birds outside were looking at the girls inside and the girls inside were looking at the birds outside. Then the birds began to chirp at the girls.

    Sarah said, “It’s okay, you two. You can build your home there.”

    Margaret began to whistle and make chirping noises and said, “Look, we can make sounds just like you.” The birds looked at each other, then the bigger one flew to the window ledge.

    “You see,” said Sarah, “we’re your friends.” The birds looked carefully at the girls’ smiling faces and knew they would be good neighbors.

    Always chirping, the birds flew back and forth gathering more things for their nest. The girls also saw the birds eating some berries growing on one of the bushes in the yard.

    Now they felt hungry and went to get some toast for breakfast. While they were eating, Sarah suggested, “We can go pick some more berries out in the yard and see if the birds will eat them.” Margaret thought that was a good idea.

    After filling a little basket, they went back inside to the window and were surprised to see how much the birds had gotten done on their nest since they first started early that morning. The cousins called to the birds and put a few berries on the ledge. First only the bigger bird came, but soon both were at the window eating berries.

    Sarah whispered, “Let’s see if they’ll eat from our hands!” They put some berries in their hands and held them out. The birds slowly made their way over, and sure enough, started eating right out of their hands!

    Sarah and Margaret smiled a big smile at each other. They wanted to scream with excitement, but they didn’t want to frighten the birds. So they just held their breath and watched. When the birds had enough to eat, they went back to work on their nest.

    The girls laughed merrily about the birds eating from their hands. They ran and excitedly told Sarah’s mother all about what had been happening. Now she wanted to see the birds too, and the three of them watched together wide-eyed as the birds kept working hard.

    Finally, Mom said it was time she got busy like the birds and prepare lunch, so the girls went to help. And the two cousins spent the rest of that day riding their bicycles and drawing on the sidewalk with chalk.

The next time ...

they got to look in on their birds, it was time for bed. The birds had stopped working on their nest for the night too, and the girls couldn’t see them because the tree was so dark.

    “I think they must be tired after doing all that work,” Margaret said.

    “Maybe they’re so tired they won’t wake up as early tomorrow,” Sarah thought hopefully.

    But Sarah’s hope did not come true. The cousins were awakened once again very early by the sound of the busy birds.

    “My father sometimes says he has to work as hard as a dog. I think he should start saying he has to work as hard as a bird!” Sarah declared as the girls rolled out of bed.

    “That’s true. My dog just sleeps all day,” Margaret added.

    Mom came to their room that morning to give the girls a book with pictures of birds. So they were soon wide-awake, looking through it to find what kind of birds these were, building a home outside their window.

    They soon found a match. “They’re mockingbirds,” the girls said together. The two birds turned to look at Sarah and Margaret, as if to ask: “Did you call us?” The girls giggled and the birds went back to work.

    Margaret thought out loud, “We need to give them names.”

    “That’s a good idea!” Sarah replied. “The big one is the loudest. We can call him Loudee,” she laughed and added, “I think he’s the boy -- boys are always making so much noise!”

    “That means the other one is the girl,” said Margaret. “Let’s pick a pretty name for her, something short likeLoudee. Short names are the cutest ... I know, let’s call her Birdie.” The girls thought these were just the right names for their little friends.

    Later that day, they noticed that Loudee and Birdie were not bringing twigs anymore, but were finding soft things like grass and leaves now. Sarah had an idea and went to get some leftover yarn from her mom. They placed a bit on the ledge and called, “Loudee, would you like to use this to make the nest nice and soft?”

    When Loudee and Birdie saw the soft white pieces of yarn, they chirped and danced with excitement. They flew over to get it, and began lining their nest. Birdie then came back to the window, and looking at the girls, she let out a soft sound: “hew, hew.”

    The girls made the same sound back to Birdie. She flapped her wings and went back to work on the nest. Sarah turned to her cousin, “I think she was thanking us for the yarn.”

    Margaret replied, “She’s going to have the softest nest to sit in. That will be better than having to sit all night on a cold, hard limb.”

    Sarah said, “I wonder if this means they’re almost finished.”

    Loudie and Birdie were finished, and even though the girls were kept busy with Mom and Dad for the next couple of days, they always started and ended their day by saying “Good morning” and “Goodnight” to the birds. Margaret would be sure to give a whistle and a chirp. Both birds seemed to enjoy seeing and hearing from the girls. They always gave a happy ‘hew’ and a chirp.

Come back next week for more ~

copyright © 2012 by NoeandCindy

Goodreads review: Georgiana Darcy's Diary

Cindy's review:


Georgiana Darcy's Diary: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Continued by Anna Elliott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars 

I thought this was a pretty good book. One thing I liked about it was the diary style which came across better than many I've taken a look at. To me it seemed like one at least; some "diaries" are written more like a novel (you know, the person would never be able to be that detailed in their diary).

I also liked her bringing in Anne de Bourgh and seeing Georgiana try to befriend her. But I didn't care for the way either Lady Catherine or Caroline Bingley were depicted. And I didn't like Georgiana being coupled with the guy she had her with in the end, but not because I had another choice from the other guys in the book. Wish she could have come up with someone else.

I think the idea of Pride & Prejudice continuing stories (or any other great book, for that matter) is so interesting. We always want to hear more about the characters we love. But I really hate some of the books that have taken these characters and slurred them into sex-crazed fools. I don't read those, that's why I'm so thankful that places like Amazon have "look inside" features so we can really get a feel for how an author writes. I do have my favorite P&P variation on my book list, and about this diary by Anna Elliott, I agree with another review that said it's an easy read and keeps you interested enough to want to find out what will happen.

Note: Goodreads rating is as follows:
 did not like it
 it was okay
 liked it
 really liked it
 it was amazing

~~~~~
Someone mentioned to me that authors are not allowed to do reviews on Amazon, but here's what I found:
Customer Reviews Guidelines Frequently Asked Questions from Authors
2. Are authors allowed to review other authors’ books?
Yes. Authors are welcome to submit Customer Reviews, unless the reviewing author has a personal relationship with the author of the book being reviewed, or was involved in the book’s creation process (i.e. as a co-author, editor, illustrator, etc.). If so, that author isn't eligible to write a Customer Review for that book. Please review our Customer Review Guidelines for more information. 

And this About Customer Reviews policy:
Authors and artists can add a unique perspective and we very much welcome their customer reviews. [Underlining mine] While we encourage reviewers to share their enthusiasm and experience, there can be a fine line between that and the use of customer reviews as product promotion. We don't allow anyone to write customer reviews as a form of promotion and if we find evidence that a customer was paid for a review, we'll remove it. If you have a direct or indirect financial interest in a product, or perceived to have a close personal relationship with its author or artist, we'll likely remove your review. We don't allow authors to submit customer reviews on their own books even when they disclose their identity. [Underlining and italics mine]

Sarah's Summer part 4

Episode 4

We're continuing our Sarah's World summer series, finishing up "Sarah and Pcee" this week. For links to the other parts of this series, look to the right sidebar under Sarah's World posts.

Sarah and Pcee
A whole week went by ...

and Pcee was still sleeping in her special shell. Sarah missed holding her and watching her eat. A few days later, though, something different started happening. Pcee’s shell wasn’t green anymore. It was turning clear, and Sarah got excited. She was hoping she would soon see her friend again.

    Then Pcee started trying to get out of her shell, just like a baby chick breaks out of its egg. When she did come out of her shell, Sarah could not believe her eyes! It didn’t even look like Pcee at all.
    She called for her mother to come. “Look, Mom, Pcee has changed! She doesn't look like a caterpillar anymore. She’s a butterfly! I always thought Pcee was pretty, but now she is beautiful. I can’t keep her in this aquarium any more. She needs to be outside so she can fly.”

Sarah took the top off the aquarium, and right away Pcee flew out and began flittering around the room. Then she went to the window and opened it. “You need to fly out the window, Pcee, so you can see how pretty things are outside. I think you’ll like the flowers all around the house.”

  Pcee flew to the window and landed on the ledge. Sarah said, “Go ahead, Pcee, go outside. You’ll like it.” Instead of flying out the window, though, she turned around to look at Sarah and flew over to her. As she held out her hand, Pcee landed on it, fluttering her wings.

This was Pcee’s way of saying, “Thank you, you’ve been so good to me.” Then she flew out the window to go see all the pretty flowers Sarah had talked about.

Following her to the window, Sarah looked out and said, “Bye, Pcee, we’ll see each other when I go outside to play!”

And whenever Sarah did go outside, Pcee would come to see her. The two of them would play and have lots of fun among the flowers where they first met.

Come back next week for more ~

copyright © 2012 by NoeandCindy