Well, almost St. Patrick's Day; and a happy one to you all!
After reading Laura's post this week about Winnie the Pooh characters, I started noticing similarities to the characters I'm reading about in War and Peace. Pretty bizarre, I know, and not the sort of depth one would expect from a character analysis of such an epic work. Nevertheless, here are a few I've noted:
Natasha = Tigger
Pierre = Eeyore
Nickolai = Roo
Countess Rostov = Kanga
Old Count Rostov = Pooh
Marya = Piglet
Boris = Owl
By the way, turns out in the Pooh test that I'm Roo, which explains why I relate so well to Nickolai.
I'm nearing the War and Peace halfway mark, and I'll have some good chunks of reading time in the next couple of weeks, so I anticipate finishing by the end of the month. I'm finding it a compelling read, pleasantly surprised by the humor and depth of emotion Tolstoy conveys.
And I'm almost done reading Year of Wonders: a Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks. It is not a cheery book! but it's very good. Her language is so authentic (17th century English village) and believable, it's almost like reading a diary from the time - she talks about tools or clothes using the authentic words and it doesn't even matter that I'm not sure what she's referring to, it just all makes sense in the context. I'm looking forward to reading more of her books, I think she's a brilliant writer. I'm confident enough to rate this before I finish it: (4.5/5)I'm not sure what I'll pick next for my supplement to W & P - it needs to be something fairly short and straightforward that I can pick up and put down, so neither of the Sarah Waters books I have, and not The Blind Assassin, which is fairly high on my TBR stack; I want to give those my full attention. Maybe I'll pick one or two of the John Steinbeck short novels - I found a lovely 1953 edition of a collection of them at Goodwill a few weeks ago.
Have a great week, Salonsters. Happy reading!
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