This edition of Cover Awe is for us goth kids. Cover illustrations by Malika Favre Amanda: Loving these classic goth covers. Sarah: The one on the right doesn’t do it for me, but the middle and left are terrific design. Especially the use of shadow on the Jane Eyre cover. Elyse: I love the Sense and Sensibility cover. Shana: I love the eye contact on the S&S cover. The left and middle immediately remind me … Continue reading Cover Awe: Dark & Moody →
Sometimes a book comes along that is so fun, so unabashedly silly, and so clever that it makes you glad to be alive. Such is the case with My Plain Jane, which re-imagines Jane Eyre in such a bizarre and gleeful fashion that even in the grip of my regularly scheduled holiday depression I was overcome with bliss. The premise of My Plain Jane is this: Charlotte Bronte is real, and attends Lowood School. Jane Eyre … Continue reading My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows →
Miss Miles was written in 1890, and it describes the lives of four women in Yorkshire. Sarah Miles is a working-class young woman who wants to become a “lady” even though she doesn’t fully understand what being a lady means. Amelia is a lady, or the closest thing the area has to one, and she is driven to despair because her family will not let her do any kind of work. Dora and Maria are … Continue reading Miss Miles by Mary Taylor →
Villette is such a frustrating book. It’s a book that makes you work hard, and it’s a book that refuses to reward either the reader or the character with a happy ending. It took me two weeks to read through Villette, and I was irritated for every minute of it. However, by the end of the book I felt a weird compulsion to immediately read it again. Villette is a puzzle. An annoying and sometimes … Continue reading Villette by Charlotte Brontë →
It’s time for Romance Wanderlust, the column in which I find yet more reasons to leave my everyday cares behind and visit romantic locales instead. I haven’t been to any of these locations, so this is neither an endorsement nor a review – just daydreaming with the help of the Internet. For those of us who love Victorian literature, there’s a new reason to head to England. Norton Conyers is finally re-opened to the public … Continue reading Romance Wanderlust: Norton Conyers, Inspiration for Thornfield →
Monday night, The Bitches gathered around our TV sets to watch To Walk Invisible, a PBS drama about the Brontë siblings. Since we all live in different time zones, we gathered around our individual sets, but there was still a certain camaraderie in the air as we asked each other, “Why do these children have flaming halos over their heads?” and yelled, “Branwell, you ass!” at our screens. The Brontës were a brilliant but troubled family … Continue reading Movie Review: To Walk Invisible →
As the title suggests, we have three books with some historical element to them. So if that’s your bag, gird your book budget accordingly.
