That's insane, but I think your overall point is true. These same types complain whenever a gay couple appears in a book because it's "too sexual" for children to read, but the existence of a gay couple isn't any more sexual than a straight couple would be.

>Yeah, these rubes are having a heyday, at a time when one would have thought this kind of regressive, ignorant, paranoid thinking was dead and buried.

It reminds me of an old episode of Family Guy when Meg Griffin becomes a zealot and participates in a book burning where people burn math and logic textbooks. At the time, viewers complained because "that's outlandish. It can't happen here." How wrong they were...

No, but I wish I could. Alas, I'm a mood reader. I could write the tbr of my dreams, and it wouldn't matter in the least, because I'd end up doing something completely different! 🤷‍♀️

I've only read one so far, "The Wish", but it was delightfully twisted in an age-appropriate way. I didn't know he wrote for adults. I may check those out, too.

These are just some questions that came up for me. Feel free to take or toss.

1. Jane's most significant male figures in her life are Rochester and St. John, two very different personalities. Reflect on her relationship with St. John. Why might she be drawn to him?

2. At the climax, Jane rejects Rochester and flees the manor, but later, she has a change of heart. Why does she return to Rochester? How have her circumstances, beliefs, and feelings changed? Examine her decision through a feminist lens.

That first point makes me want to reread the book. I wonder what he'd say about avoiding arguments in these polarizing times we live in.

Yeah, it's more of a networking book.

>Sexuality is one of the gateways to losing innocence because while sex and intimacy and love can be wonderful, it's also the gateway to heartbreak. To learning the ways of sexual manipulation. Of romantic betrayal and so on. The turning from boy or girl to man or woman. A loss of illusion and protected innocence and a gaining of greater understanding of the world.

That's interesting. I always assumed sex for young women was taboo back then due to the risk of pregnancy out of wedlock, and not necessarily from any concern for the woman's emotional state. But I like your reasoning better.

Death of a loved one was also a gateway to losing innocence. This shows up in Montgomery's novel The Golden Road. When Beverley's cousin passes away, the rest of the cousins >!start thinking about their adult futures and go their separate ways.!<

Ravensbruck rings a bell. I think Auguste van Pels (from Anne Frank's diary) went there. Sadly, she didn't survive.

>Obviously all the symbolic and thematic content flew over my head, but I don’t remember ever having a problem actually reading it.

And that's OK, because after that first pass, you probably understood it better the next time you encountered it.

I wonder if they've gotten complaints from parents about children reading books with "mature themes" and this is how they deal with it. I agree; it's bizarre and inimical to learning.

Knowledge is expensive, but ignorance is free. :'(

There is Confusion by Jessie Redmon Fauset. Originally, I was so excited to read a forgotten classic of the Harlem Renaissance, but at the end, >!Peter told his ambitious fiancé, Joanna, that she'd have to give up her stage career to stay home and raise children. She basically shrugged her shoulders and said, "OK". And this was after she spent years overcoming the prejudices inherent in the theater business at that time!<. I would've thrown the book across the room, but that would've meant destroying my Kindle, and it wasn't worth that.

>we were allowed to choose whatever we wanted from the library and read for as long as we liked instead of PE and study periods.

That sounds awesome! I wish my school had this club. It's like, "Look, y'all, I'm never gonna pass the run a mile test, no matter how much I practice. You might as well let me concentrate on what I'm good at." Lol.

I have a theory that the brain is like a hard drive that fills up by the time we're in our 30s, so it starts deleting things. Unfortunately, we have no conscious control over what it deletes. 😱

I usually walk in with a short wish list from my Goodreads tbr. If I see something with an interesting-looking title or cover while I'm in the stacks, I might grab it to take home. Then I'll browse new fiction. I try not to borrow more than 3 books at once, but sometimes I can't help myself. 😊

So true. That just makes me stand there frozen in indecision until I end up leaving empty-handed. 🫤

I just pictured my least favorite politicians wearing clown makeup and getting pies in the face! Thanks for the visual! 😂😉

The Awakening by Kate Chopin. It showed me how limited women's roles were in Victorian times and still are in more traditional communities, but Edna chose to swim against the current (literally and figuratively). Although Western women today have more choices than Edna, we can't take them for granted, because social progress can go backwards.

Every time I find parts of series, they don't match. Some books may be hardbacks and others paperbacks. I'm particular, so I like them to match. Lol.

I think it depends on your personal and financial situation. For example, if you have a book budget, would this blow the budget so you'd have no money for impulse buys later on?

I love a good library sale! One caveat is this usually works best with standalones. I haven't had any luck picking up a series this way. YMMV.

My preference is physical or an ebook. My recall is so much better with the written word. With audiobooks, sometimes I get distracted and have to rewind. But audiobooks are good for when I'm battling migraine attacks and need to lie down in the dark for a while. I guess it depends on what my needs are.

That's right! Jane Austen did that, too. I guess it made the gossip in Emma that much juicier.

OMG yes! That book changed my life as a young girl. It opened up my sense of what was possible for women.