Mary Ellen > Recent Status Updates

This is rough. It’s painful to read about this poor woman’s life when we already know how her story ends. I am really loving it!

There are a lot of characters in this book. I wish there was a character guide. M n my 10 year old have been slowly making our way through it for the past several weeks. To be honest, I was tempted to skip the last 30 pages. I’m not overly impressed.

I’m sure learning a lot. Most of what I knew about Russian history before this year was from watching (and not really understanding) Doctor Zhivago as a teenager, Fiddler on the Roof, the cartoon Anastasia (What? Rasputin wasn’t an evil
sorcerer who could remove parts of his body and communicate with bats and bugs?), and some other random historical fiction novels. I’m connecting a lot of dots now!

If you want to know what happens in this book, you must listen to what is told in the review I will eventually write when I am finished with the book.

. . .”when we look at recent history of Chinese women, we might ask: what is the extent of our progress over the last few years? Five or six years ago, we didn’t know what ‘restoration’ was; had the word ‘revolution’ had never even reached our ears or dwelt in our thoughts. Indeed, we didn’t know what an ‘association’ or ‘organization’ was.
—Chen Xiefen (1904)

I had to return the book to the library. 👎🏻 I’ll have to finish it sometime.

It’s books like this one that made me think I was prepared for having a child with a disability. If only it were this easy. Sometimes, rather than facing their realities with courage, they get teased enough that they just become bitter.

But, it’s the library’s family book club book, and it is kind of funny. So, I will keep reading..

My dad, my older sister, and I took this book on a backpacking trip when I was probably 12. We took turns reading chapters out loud in the car and at night in our tent. This would have been almost 30 years ago. I haven’t read it again since. Now, reading it out loud with my daughter, I’m suddenly remembering what it felt like to be utterly exhausted after a full day of walking, and my dad’s voice as he read.

I can’t get enough of this guy. Gogol is so witty. I’ve loved his short stories and am looking forward to finishing his play The Inspector General. It has been a treat to dive into a full novel.

I marked this book as read in December, even though I didn’t read it all the way through. (I probably read 3/4ths of it. But, I’m returning to it because I got called out on it. I am

I wish I had an audio version of this. Every time I pick it up, I realize this is a book to be enjoyed out loud. So far, the three people I have attempted to read out loud to have promptly fallen asleep. The story is delightful, so it’s clearly my reading that is boring.

I’m reading this with my 10 year old for homeschool. This is the perfect way for me to learn history. I get just a taste, which inspires me to go read more about the things I am the most interested in. It’s seriously silly how much of these first 37 pages are completely new to me. My 10 year old knows more about some of these people from the “Who Was” show.

Oh my goodness. “An Unwritten Novel” is absolutely incredible. I did not know that writing could be published like this! Once, I got on a train and rode it for two hours. I didn’t stop writing the entire time. I shared it with my professor and she loved it! I was so confused. It was just my thoughts as things flew past me. Reading “An Unwritten Novel” kind of gives me a glimpse into what my professor saw.

Reading this with my 9 year old for school. I’m surprised how many things I am having to look up. I learned today that when a cat retracts its claws, that was (maybe still is to some people) called “velveting”. Who knew?

Thank heavens for computer programmers turned authors! My 14 year old loves reading Big Nate, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Garfield. He is a total genius, so he rarely finds anything fictional that will keep his attention. After reading The Martian in school, then Project Hail Mary, he read the Skyward books from Brandon Sanderson. He needed something new! I think I found it!

So good!!

Loving it!