What we're reading

Books in our current piles:


Spring Fever by P.G. Wodehouse

Yes, always a Wodehouse. We are on a "Get to know Wodehouse" crusade with anyone who will listen (and a few who won't.)


The Brothers Karamazov by F. Dostoevsky

The Brothers is on my daughter's Great Books 4 list, and I chose it as the book I wanted to read this year. My husband recently finished it, so it will enjoy constant use from November through April.


Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

What some girls choose to read when they finish David Copperfield long before its due date in Great Books 4.


Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

For a late blooming reader, progress through this book brings some serious joy.


At Home with Beatrix Potter by Susan Denver

Thanks to Magistramater, this has been the leisure book of choice for a certain budding artist in our family. We'll get it in the mail next week, Carol. I promise.


Righteous Sinners by Ron Julian



Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson



Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding philosophy through jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein

I've wanted to buy this book for a long time, and I found it on my mom's coffee table. It's a joy.

Read Aloud:


Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Favorite quotes from Chapter XI Podsnappery

"Mr. Podsnap's world was not a very large world, morally; no, nor even geographically: seeing that although his business was sustained upon commerce with other countries, he considered other countries, with that important reservation, a mistake, and of their manners and customs would consclusively observe, "Not English!" when, PRESTO! with a flourish of the arm, and a flush of the face, they were swept away. Elsewise, the world got up at eight, shaved close at a quarter-past, breakfasted at nine, went to the City at ten, came home at half-past five, and dined at seven."

and

"As a so eminently respectable man, Mr. Podsnap was sensible of its being required of him to take Providence under his protection. Consequently he always knew exactly what Providence meant. Inferior and less respectable men might fall short of that mark, but Mr. Podsnap was always up t it. And it was very remarkable (and must have been very comfortable) that what Providence meant, was invariably what Mr. Podsnap meant."

Good words for an election year AND for a year of debating illegal immigration...actually, any year.