Wondrous Words Wednesday - Emma

I am joining Kathy at BermudaOnion's Weblog to share words I found while reading this week. If you want to join us, share some words then link up at Kathy's blog.

I found these words while slogging through Emma by Jane Austen.



illiberal

"Those who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very small, and generally very inferior society, may very well be illiberal and cross."

not allowing people to think and act as they choose: not liberal


carpet-work

"If I draw less, I shall read more; if I give up music, I shall take up carpet-work"

I could not find a definition of carpet-work when I searched the internet, but I think if may be like embroidery or needlepoint.  I understood it to mean a way to keep herself busy if she ended up being an old maid.



stomacher

"... and if she does but send her aunt the pattern of a stomacher, or knit a pair of garters for her grandmother, one hears of nothing else for a month.

the center front section of a waist or underwaist,  or a usually heavily embroidered or jeweled separate piece for the center front of a bodice worn by men and women in the 15th and 16th centuries and later by women only

A close up of a probable hand embroidered stomacher

A 16th Century version of a stomacher in a dress

A modern version 

 Both the 16th-century version and the modern version show a lot of  decolletage.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? The Mermaid Chair and Emma

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you are and about to be reading over the week.  It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever-growing TBR pile!  This meme started with J Kaye's Blog   and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. So share what you are reading this week and link up with Book Date.


This week I am still trying to read Emma by Jane Austen. I will persevere. 
I really am thinking of finding the audio version and read it along with the print book. 

And I have started to read  The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd.

From Goodreads: 

Sue Monk Kidd's phenomenal debut, The Secret Life of Bees, became a runaway bestseller that is still on the New York Times bestseller list more than two years after its paperback publication. Now, in her luminous new novel, Kidd has woven a transcendent tale that will thrill her legion of fans. Telling the story of Jessie Sullivan -- a love story between a woman and a monk, a woman and her husband, and ultimately a woman and her own soul -- Kidd charts a journey of awakening and self-discovery illuminated with a brilliance that only a writer of her ability could conjure. 


I am just starting on this one. So far it lives up to my expectations of wonderful prose from Sue Monk Kidd.  It will meet requirements for at least 3 of my 2016 Challenges. 

A book with an item of furniture in the title. 






It may even qualify for the Women's Fiction Challenge. I really won't know for sure until I have finished. 



Stay Happy and Stay Busy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/21/15

Join Kathryn at Book Date and share what you are reading this week. Just share a post about what you are reading then link up at Book Date. After you finish that be sure and check all the other posts, I am sure you will find more than one new title to add to your list of Books To Read. I know I always do!!

Today I am just getting started on Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline.

Here is a link to Goodreads. Every Fifteen Minutes.

I am also continuing to read Emma by Jane Austen. I have never read it and a fellow blogger, blogging at Dolce Bellezza was doing a read along. I thought, what a great way to read this book and get to experience what others think. It is taking me longer that most of the other read along participants. But I will continue and I will get to the end. I am pretty sure I won't review it other than to maybe share my own thoughts, but it won't be until 2016 for sure.

Emma: 200th-Anniversary Annotated Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

by Jane Austen, Juliette Wells (Introduction)

With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work. Now, with the BBC's superior adaptation, this captivating story is sure to win the hearts of countless new fans.

Beautiful, smart, rich-and single-Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegée, Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. 

So what are you reading this busy week of Christmas? Or maybe you don't celebrate Christmas and are having an ordinary December week. Either way, hope your week is awesome and you get to have some time to do what you want to do. 

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/14/15

Kathryn of Book Date is the current host of It's Monday! What Are You Reading?  Share what you are reading this week or hope to start and then link up with the rest of us at Book Date.

This week I am plodding along reading Emma by Jane Austen. I joined a Read Along hoping that reading with others would entice me to read this much loved and talked about book. It is still slow going for me. I never read it as a teenager, I took American Literature in high school and I did not go to college. So this is my first exposure to Jane Austen. I really want to enjoy this book, but it is difficult to read. Any thoughts?

I even bought the 200th Anniversary annotated edition. I did find the reading of the introduction by Juliette Wells and the tips for reading Emma did give me some insight. I also appreciate the glossary and the list of unusual spellings.

I also want to start on Every Last One by Anna Quindlen. Lots of you liked this one.

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

The Escape Artist by Diane Cahmberlain

The Escape Artist by Diane Chamberlain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Susanna Miller has lost legal custody of her small son, Tyler. Her ex-husband Jim and his new wife Peggy can provide him more financial security. No one however could love him more, and she will not give him up easily. In fact she has decided that she can't give him up at all. So she plans an escape.

Her longtime childhood friend turned lover, has no idea she plans to leave Boulder and him. She knows that letting him know anything puts him in position to lie for her and she can't do that to Linc Sebastian.

Although some readers have mentioned that this story feels far-fetched, I don't fell that way. I have an aunt whose own mother disappeared after her last child was out of high school and they have never heard from her since. That was a long time ago, and this story too was written in 1997, before 9/11. It wouldn't happen so easily these days. Although we hear about identity theft, I'm not sure about how easily you could get a driver's license etc. All in all, I enjoyed this story. I felt empathy for Susanna/Kimberly as she struggled to keep her story secret yet be open to the help of others.


View all my reviews

I am linking this review to Book Date's meme, It's Monday!  What Are You Reading?  ps: I am aware that the title to this post has a typo, but I have already linked up with Book Date so don't think I can fix it. (Embarassed!)

I hope to start Mr. Miracle by Debbie Macomber today.

And later this week, I hope to start Emma by Jane Austen for a Read-along.

I also have two other books from the library that need to be read too.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlan

and Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy