English 101

Island Beneath the Sea

April 28, 2010

This month, English 101 (our modern classics book club), is reading Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune–a tour-de-force that traverses 19th century Chile, California, and China. It's fitting then, to talk about Allende's eagerly-anticipated Island Beneath the Sea, out now in hardcover! Island Beneath the Sea is the story of Zarité–known as Tété–the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. Tété becomes the slave of twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain, who arrives on Saint-Domingue in 1770 to run his father’s plantation. Spanning four decades, Island Beneath the Sea is the moving story of the intertwined lives of Tété and Valmorain, and of one woman’s determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been battered, and to forge her own identity in the cruellest of circumstances.

-Kayleigh

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith, Books, Brave New World, English 101

English 101: The Modern Classics Book Club

February 5, 2010

Over on The Roaring 20s we've talked a lot about classic novels you love to hate (Melville and Steinbeck were the winners). So, in an attempt to avoid being a Negative Nancy, all this year I'm reading–and gushing about– modern classics. Erica (The Olive Reader) and I have started a book club specifically for this purpose, which we have named English 101. Each month this year we'll be reading a different paperback and discussing the book on our blogs and Twitter (hashtag #english101). January was devoted to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (here's Erica's review, and mine) and this month we're reading one of my personal favorites: Aldous Huxely's Brave New World. Interested in joining us? You don't have to be a 20something! Click here for the full schedule.

Happy Friday!

-Kayleigh