Bella Literati

Bella reviews literature.
I haven’t posted in awhile, since March 18th to be exact. On Sunday Morning March 25th, I was bicycling and hit a little tiny rock and lost control of my bicycle resulting in a trip to the Emergency Room a good concussion, contusions, and a black eye.  In hopes to make up for my lack of my normal weekly Sunday Book reviews, I owe you five to be exact, I have decided to tell you about the SPELLMAN SERIES this wonderfully hilarious series that I can only best describe as a kids book for adults. There are currently five books in the series, therefore, this should bring me back up to date with my reviews.  It is written in the first person, our narrator is one Isabel Spellman otherwise known as Izzy, at the start of the series she is 28-years old, living with her parents, hanging out with a grandfatherly aged man named Mort, and working for the family business Spellman investigations. Set in San Francisco, the wit, dialogue, and relationships between the characters will have you hooked from the beginning. The Spellman Series, QUOTED in order below: “What’s her name?” “None of your business.”“That can’t possibly be her name.” -THE SPELLMAN FILES “ISABEL: Sorry I missed my session Monday.DR. RUSH: Would you like to tell me why?ISABEL: I was depressed.DR. RUSH: That’s a good reason to come to therapy.” -REVENGE OF THE SPELLMANS  “If people really grew up, there would be no crime, no divorce, no Civil War reenactors…. it’s not like you think it will be, that one day you’ll wake up and realize that you’ve got things figured out. You never figure it out. Ever.” - Isabel Spellman attempting to explain growing up to her sister Rae”  -CURSE OF THE SPELLMANS “Our ability to adapt is amazing. Our ability to change isn’t quite as spectacular.” -THE SPELLMANS STRIKE AGAIN   “When they entered the house, Rae spotted my mother napping on the living room sofa.  “The Eagle is sleeping,” She whispered. “Where is the Gopher?” Dad asked. Unaware that I was the Gopher, I exited the kitchen and headed into the office, brushing past my kin as if they were invisible. “The Gopher is on the move,” My father said in a conspiratorial whisper. -TRAIL OF THE SPELLMANS 

I haven’t posted in awhile, since March 18th to be exact. On Sunday Morning March 25th, I was bicycling and hit a little tiny rock and lost control of my bicycle resulting in a trip to the Emergency Room a good concussion, contusions, and a black eye.

 In hopes to make up for my lack of my normal weekly Sunday Book reviews, I owe you five to be exact, I have decided to tell you about the SPELLMAN SERIES this wonderfully hilarious series that I can only best describe as a kids book for adults. There are currently five books in the series, therefore, this should bring me back up to date with my reviews. 

It is written in the first person, our narrator is one Isabel Spellman otherwise known as Izzy, at the start of the series she is 28-years old, living with her parents, hanging out with a grandfatherly aged man named Mort, and working for the family business Spellman investigations. Set in San Francisco, the wit, dialogue, and relationships between the characters will have you hooked from the beginning.

The Spellman Series, QUOTED in order below:

“What’s her name?”

“None of your business.”

“That can’t possibly be her name.” 
-THE SPELLMAN FILES

“ISABEL: Sorry I missed my session Monday.

DR. RUSH: Would you like to tell me why?

ISABEL: I was depressed.

DR. RUSH: That’s a good reason to come to therapy.” 
-REVENGE OF THE SPELLMANS

 “If people really grew up, there would be no crime, no divorce, no Civil War reenactors…. it’s not like you think it will be, that one day you’ll wake up and realize that you’ve got things figured out. You never figure it out. Ever.” - Isabel Spellman attempting to explain growing up to her sister Rae” 

-CURSE OF THE SPELLMANS

“Our ability to adapt is amazing. Our ability to change isn’t quite as spectacular.”

-THE SPELLMANS STRIKE AGAIN

 

“When they entered the house, Rae spotted my mother napping on the living room sofa. 

“The Eagle is sleeping,” She whispered.

“Where is the Gopher?” Dad asked.

Unaware that I was the Gopher, I exited the kitchen and headed into the office, brushing past my kin as if they were invisible.

“The Gopher is on the move,” My father said in a conspiratorial whisper.

-TRAIL OF THE SPELLMANS 

A well crafted family saga which traces some 60 years in the life of a family with its roots in Rural Saskatchewan. Margaret Evans, a young nurse, and Davis Campbell, a Scottish laborer who meet and fall in love when Davis becomes Margaret’s patient. Ah yes, the typical love story you think. No, this story is anything but typical. The couple settles into a grueling impoverished life as farmers and have three children: Hilda, Jem and Stuart. Hilda, who must cope with devastating grief from loss of her parents, bankruptcy and an unknown future, moves to Toronto to start a new life. Here she copes with unwanted pregnancy, unexpected love and premature widowhood all in the space of a few years. Her inherent toughness pulls her through. Not surprisingly, Hilda’s daughter Danielle experiences the same itch to move on after high school. When Hilda arranges a job for her at an auction house in Paris, the focus of the novel moves with her to a new, strange and sophisticated environment. 


A well crafted family saga which traces some 60 years in the life of a family with its roots in Rural Saskatchewan. 

Margaret Evans, a young nurse, and Davis Campbell, a Scottish laborer who meet and fall in love when Davis becomes Margaret’s patient. Ah yes, the typical love story you think. No, this story is anything but typical. The couple settles into a grueling impoverished life as farmers and have three children: Hilda, Jem and Stuart. 

Hilda, who must cope with devastating grief from loss of her parents, bankruptcy and an unknown future, moves to Toronto to start a new life. Here she copes with unwanted pregnancy, unexpected love and premature widowhood all in the space of a few years. Her inherent toughness pulls her through. 

Not surprisingly, Hilda’s daughter Danielle experiences the same itch to move on after high school. When Hilda arranges a job for her at an auction house in Paris, the focus of the novel moves with her to a new, strange and sophisticated environment. 

The lead into the story sets an uneasy tone of distance between the two women. The author begins the story by showing us the two mothers sitting on a terrace of a roman restaurant. The distance is well represented in the text by the careful word choice, for example, in the lead the women “looked first at each other, and then down on the out spread glories of Palatine and the Form.” This looking at each other then looking out at the scene before them is the sort of thing that strangers or acquaintances would do. As the reader gets more into the story, the author again sets the distance between the two women, “perhaps we didn’t know much more about each other.” When Mrs. Ansley says this to Mrs. Slade, it conveys to the reader that Mrs. Ansley is hiding something from her companion. Again, the author shows us space between the two, “for a few moments the two ladies, who had been intimate since childhood, reflected on how little they knew each other.”  As the two women reflect, they both stereotype each other into neat little molds in their heads without ever scratching below the surface. Their friendship exists only on a superficial level. Mrs. Slade as described by Mrs. Ansley was beautiful and vibrant, full of life and excitement in her past; but in her present she is depressed and “full of failures and mistakes.” Mrs. Ansley by Mrs. Slades description is beautiful yet dull, in past and present, “Museum specimens of old New York.” Mrs. Slade spends a lot of time contemplating her past and present relations with Mrs. Ansley. She also spends a lot of time being jealous of Mrs. Ansley’s daughter because she is more exciting then her own daughter. We learn that the two women after getting married around the same time also lived in New York across the street from one another. The two women’s husbands also died around the same time. These superficial similarities seem to be all that their friendship is based upon: “The similarity of their lot had again drawn them together.” They had no real conversation flow between them, as you expect old friends to have. There are no specific memories of anything that the two of them did together in the past or present of the entire text. Another good example of how little they knew of each other: “So these two ladies visualized each other, each through the wrong end of her little telescope.” When you look through the wrong end of a telescope you see very little of the big picture.  The author’s focus is on the tone of uneasiness, which finally makes its full-blown entrance as the two women sit in silence on the terrace. Mrs. Slade, the longer she sits, seems to become more and more jealous of her companion. “She thought:” I must make one more effort not to hate her.” Yet in her attempt not to hate her, she cannot help but to hate Mrs. Ansley. She learns that Mrs. Ansley not only was in love with Delphin, but that she slept with him and had his child, Barbara. This proves to be the reason why Mrs. Ansley’s mother rushed her off to Florence to get married quickly to Horace only two months after her affair with Delphin.  The ending was not what I had readily expected, but the tone had been set for it from the lead into the story. This explains the uneasy feelings between the two women and the superficial friendship


The lead into the story sets an uneasy tone of distance between the two women. The author begins the story by showing us the two mothers sitting on a terrace of a roman restaurant. The distance is well represented in the text by the careful word choice, for example, in the lead the women “looked first at each other, and then down on the out spread glories of Palatine and the Form.” This looking at each other then looking out at the scene before them is the sort of thing that strangers or acquaintances would do. As the reader gets more into the story, the author again sets the distance between the two women, “perhaps we didn’t know much more about each other.” When Mrs. Ansley says this to Mrs. Slade, it conveys to the reader that Mrs. Ansley is hiding something from her companion. Again, the author shows us space between the two, “for a few moments the two ladies, who had been intimate since childhood, reflected on how little they knew each other.” 


As the two women reflect, they both stereotype each other into neat little molds in their heads without ever scratching below the surface. Their friendship exists only on a superficial level. Mrs. Slade as described by Mrs. Ansley was beautiful and vibrant, full of life and excitement in her past; but in her present she is depressed and “full of failures and mistakes.” Mrs. Ansley by Mrs. Slades description is beautiful yet dull, in past and present, “Museum specimens of old New York.” Mrs. Slade spends a lot of time contemplating her past and present relations with Mrs. Ansley. She also spends a lot of time being jealous of Mrs. Ansley’s daughter because she is more exciting then her own daughter. We learn that the two women after getting married around the same time also lived in New York across the street from one another. The two women’s husbands also died around the same time. These superficial similarities seem to be all that their friendship is based upon: “The similarity of their lot had again drawn them together.” They had no real conversation flow between them, as you expect old friends to have. There are no specific memories of anything that the two of them did together in the past or present of the entire text. Another good example of how little they knew of each other: “So these two ladies visualized each other, each through the wrong end of her little telescope.” When you look through the wrong end of a telescope you see very little of the big picture. 


The author’s focus is on the tone of uneasiness, which finally makes its full-blown entrance as the two women sit in silence on the terrace. Mrs. Slade, the longer she sits, seems to become more and more jealous of her companion. “She thought:” I must make one more effort not to hate her.” Yet in her attempt not to hate her, she cannot help but to hate Mrs. Ansley. She learns that Mrs. Ansley not only was in love with Delphin, but that she slept with him and had his child, Barbara. This proves to be the reason why Mrs. Ansley’s mother rushed her off to Florence to get married quickly to Horace only two months after her affair with Delphin. 


The ending was not what I had readily expected, but the tone had been set for it from the lead into the story. This explains the uneasy feelings between the two women and the superficial friendship

“I didn’t make this plan. I just wake up sometimes and want to crawl out of my life” (60). After getting expelled from high school in Hampton, NH in 1965 when it is discovered that she is 5-months pregnant, Meredith finds herself very alone in the world. Shunned by the community that she once was a part of-even by her friends & and family including her own mother. She was sent to live with her father and her step-mother during her pregnancy in Epping, NH; both traveled for work and she was kept in isolation. If they had dinner parties-she was to dine alone in her room. After the baby’s delivery she is sent off to boarding school and the baby is given up for adoption. She has no choice in the matter. After graduation she and her step-mother have an argument and she is banned from her father’s house forever. Meredith’s soul searching took her from New Hampshire to Boston to India to Maine. “The nights are very cold. I have no jacket, no sweater, no shoes” (113). “I believe that this is a choice for me, that working here is temporary, that I will be moving back into adventure any day. For most of the women, it is what they will do all their lives, and their jobs are never certain as prices or fish stocks rise and fall” (84). She wrote such a moving personal essay that Bowdoin College admitted her as their only non-traditional student at the age of forty. She worked part-time, went to college full-time, and raised two sons alone. She teaches writing and gives inspiration to students at the University of New Hampshire. Her memoir is written in a beautiful narrative that is brave, honest, raw, but not “dramatic” it’s rational and logical yet free-spirited - a real page turner. Once I started it I didn’t put it down until I was finished. This is a book that you don’t read - you consume it, digest it, and think it over. 

“I didn’t make this plan. I just wake up sometimes and want to crawl out of my life” (60). 


After getting expelled from high school in Hampton, NH in 1965 when it is discovered that she is 5-months pregnant, 
Meredith finds herself very alone in the world. Shunned by the community that she once was a part of-even by her friends & and family including her own mother. 

She was sent to live with her father and her step-mother during her pregnancy in Epping, NH; both traveled for work and she was kept in isolation. If they had dinner parties-she was to dine alone in her room. After the baby’s delivery she is sent off to boarding school and the baby is given up for adoption. She has no choice in the matter. 

After graduation she and her step-mother have an argument and she is banned from her 
father’s house forever. 

Meredith’s soul searching took her from New Hampshire to Boston to India to Maine. 

“The nights are very cold. I have no jacket, no sweater, no shoes” (113). 

“I believe that this is a choice for me, that working here is temporary, that I will be moving back into adventure any day. For most of the women, it is what they will do all their lives, and their jobs are never certain as prices or fish stocks rise and fall” (84). 

She wrote such a moving personal essay that Bowdoin 
College admitted her as their only non-traditional student at the age of forty. She worked part-time, went to college full-time, and raised two sons alone. 

She teaches writing and gives inspiration to students at the University of New Hampshire. 

Her memoir is written in a beautiful narrative that is brave, honest, raw, but not “dramatic” it’s rational and logical yet free-spirited - a real page turner. Once I started it I didn’t put it down until I was finished. 

This is a book that you don’t read - you consume it, digest it, and think it over. 

Fairy Tales, they never were just for kids you know, at least not the original roots of them, so vivid and graphic nothing at all like the Disney versions that kids today have. Even the original Brother’s Grimm Illustrated plates that accompained the tales were frightening enough to give any child a fear of the dark! An Excerpt from one of the stories in “The Bloody Chamber”:   “What big teeth you have! All the better to eat you with. The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody’s meat.” The Bloody Chamber is a collection of familiar fairy tales retold in vivacious prose. Carter puts a twist on the tales you grew up with and makes them her own. The helpless female victim of the past is no more. Now, she is an independent, intelligent and sensual woman who does not need anyone to save her.  (Review written by Bella Literati Copyright October 2006 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you.)

Fairy Tales, they never were just for kids you know, at least not the original roots of them, so vivid and graphic nothing at all like the Disney versions that kids today have. Even the original Brother’s Grimm Illustrated plates that accompained the tales were frightening enough to give any child a fear of the dark! 

An Excerpt from one of the stories in “The Bloody Chamber”: 

 
“What big teeth you have! All the better to eat you with. The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody’s meat.” 

The Bloody Chamber is a collection of familiar fairy tales retold in vivacious prose. 
Carter puts a twist on the tales you grew up with and makes them her own. The helpless female victim of the past is no more. Now, she is an independent, intelligent and sensual woman who does not need anyone to save her. 

(Review written by Bella Literati Copyright October 2006 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you.)

“This is a story about commitment: to food, service, love perfection, and to being the bacon” - Phoebe Damrosch. This book was a quick fun read. A nice light read after working in food service/retail and moving. I especially loved the tips for guests that come to the restaurant at the end of each chapter: “A TIP: If you want to change the majority of the components in a dish, you might consider choosing something else” (182). Anyone who has every worked as a cook or server/waiter will relate to the many instances detailed in Service Included. “A TIP: There’s no need to say that you are allergic when you don’t like something. Not only are allergies very serious, but you have right to your personal taste” (72). (Review written by Bella Literati Copyright April 2007 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you.)

“This is a story about commitment: to food, service, love perfection, and to being the bacon” - Phoebe Damrosch.

This book was a quick fun read. A nice light read after working in food service/retail and moving. I especially loved the tips for guests that come to the restaurant at the end of each chapter:

“A TIP: If you want to change the majority of the components in a dish, you might consider choosing something else” (182).

Anyone who has every worked as a cook or server/waiter will relate to the many instances detailed in Service Included.

“A TIP: There’s no need to say that you are allergic when you don’t like something. Not only are allergies very serious, but you have right to your personal taste” (72).

(Review written by Bella Literati Copyright April 2007 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you.)

The New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith are a must have for any poetry lover! At first unnoticed as a poet, Stevie worked in a London publisher’s office until 1953. Steadily gaining respect, Smith won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1969. Her poetry speaks with a fiercely comic voice, underneath which lie serious questions about contemporary life. Her light, comic verse is characterized by her unique use of sound and meaning. Her poems-many of which combine elements from nursery rhymes, songs, and hymns are characterized by a simplicity of diction and a youthful lively wit. Stevie Smith’s poetry is uniquely dark and comical.  (Review written by Bella Literati Copyright September 2006 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you.)

The New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith are a must have for any poetry lover! 

At first unnoticed as a poet, Stevie worked in a London publisher’s office until 1953. Steadily gaining respect, Smith won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1969. Her poetry speaks with a fiercely comic voice, underneath which lie serious questions about contemporary life. 

Her light, comic verse is characterized by her unique use of sound and meaning. Her poems-many of which combine elements from nursery rhymes, songs, and hymns are characterized by a simplicity of diction and a youthful lively wit. 

Stevie Smith’s poetry is uniquely dark and comical. 

(Review written by Bella Literati Copyright September 2006 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you.)

The author leads the reader into this story by setting a tone of madness. The narrater is describing the house that she and her husband have rented for the summer as an ancestral mansion that maybe haunted and definitely spooks her a bit. “Still I would proudly declare there is something queer about it” (725). This bit of information may lead the reader to believe that the woman was made from the start. But I believe that it was being cooped up in a bedroom for three months with nothing to do that drove her mad. I think that upon seeing the house, she had a feeling that something bad would happen to her if she stayed in it. She tried to tell her husband that but he just laughs at her. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (725). This was written in a time when women were to “obey” their husbands and did as they were told. I think there is a moral to this story and that is to not listen to what anyone says what is best for you except yourself.  At points in the story, she suspects her husband of trying to make her ill. “John is a physician and perhaps…that is one reason I don not get well faster” (726). She does not come out directly and say this, though she says that her husband doesn’t believe that she is sick. He believes it’s just her nerves. But then why doesn’t he let her do anything besides lie in bed in that depressing room? She even says she doesn’t agree with the ideas of her husband and brother about how to make her well: “Personally, I disagree with their ideas” (726). It seems that for her to get well she should be allowed to do what she thinks best. But her husband forbids her to work, which is what she wants to do. “Personally, I believe that congenial work with excitement and change would do me good (726). I believe that her illness is simply depression from not being allowed to do as she pleases. “I did not write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal – having to be so sly about it, or else met with heavy opposition,” (726). I should think that anyone would become depressed if a loved one forbids him or her to do as they pleased. It’s like the first step of breaking someone’s spirit, taking away from him or her simple pleasures.  From a combination of not being allowed to do the things she wishes to do and from being cooped up in her rented bedroom for three months, she goes insane. In today’s society one might wonder if her husband did this to her intentionally. Maybe he was having an affair and needed an easy way to get rid of his wife. Since divorce probably wasn’t too popular back then if he drove her insane he could then have her committed and would be rid of her. But from the way the story ends that theory of mine was blown. If he had been trying to drive her mad he most likely would not have fainted when seeing that she had gone crazy. “Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!” (737). This image that the author presents to the reader of the woman creeping around the room tight to the wall is done very well. I could picture the woman actually doing this and wonder if this might have been written about a real person. The way the story is written the reader feels as if they are stealing a glimpse of the narrator’s diary. The descriptions given go from being rather normal into a dream state or hallucination state where the readers find themselves questioning what really happened. (Review written by Bella Literati Copyright September 2005 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you. )

The author leads the reader into this story by setting a tone of madness. The narrater is describing the house that she and her husband have rented for the summer as an ancestral mansion that maybe haunted and definitely spooks her a bit. “Still I would proudly declare there is something queer about it” (725). This bit of information may lead the reader to believe that the woman was made from the start. But I believe that it was being cooped up in a bedroom for three months with nothing to do that drove her mad. I think that upon seeing the house, she had a feeling that something bad would happen to her if she stayed in it. She tried to tell her husband that but he just laughs at her. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (725). This was written in a time when women were to “obey” their husbands and did as they were told. I think there is a moral to this story and that is to not listen to what anyone says what is best for you except yourself. 


At points in the story, she suspects her husband of trying to make her ill. “John is a physician and perhaps…that is one reason I don not get well faster” (726). She does not come out directly and say this, though she says that her husband doesn’t believe that she is sick. He believes it’s just her nerves. But then why doesn’t he let her do anything besides lie in bed in that depressing room? She even says she doesn’t agree with the ideas of her husband and brother about how to make her well: “Personally, I disagree with their ideas” (726). It seems that for her to get well she should be allowed to do what she thinks best. But her husband forbids her to work, which is what she wants to do. “Personally, I believe that congenial work with excitement and change would do me good (726). I believe that her illness is simply depression from not being allowed to do as she pleases. “I did not write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal – having to be so sly about it, or else met with heavy opposition,” (726). I should think that anyone would become depressed if a loved one forbids him or her to do as they pleased. It’s like the first step of breaking someone’s spirit, taking away from him or her simple pleasures. 


From a combination of not being allowed to do the things she wishes to do and from being cooped up in her rented bedroom for three months, she goes insane. In today’s society one might wonder if her husband did this to her intentionally. Maybe he was having an affair and needed an easy way to get rid of his wife. Since divorce probably wasn’t too popular back then if he drove her insane he could then have her committed and would be rid of her. But from the way the story ends that theory of mine was blown. If he had been trying to drive her mad he most likely would not have fainted when seeing that she had gone crazy. “Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!” (737). This image that the author presents to the reader of the woman creeping around the room tight to the wall is done very well. I could picture the woman actually doing this and wonder if this might have been written about a real person. The way the story is written the reader feels as if they are stealing a glimpse of the narrator’s diary. The descriptions given go from being rather normal into a dream state or hallucination state where the readers find themselves questioning what really happened.

(Review written by Bella Literati Copyright September 2005 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you. )

“Sister Josepha” by Alice Dunbar The lead into the story sets a tone of boredom of a routine life. The author begins the story by showing us Sister Josepha in church doing what must have been part of her daily routine. This dullness is well represented in the text by using such verbs and adjectives as in this sentence “…hold her beads mechanically, her fingers numb with the accustomed exercise,” (407). Again, the author sets the tone of monotony with “always the same old work…” and “filling the same old lamps,” (407). The reader instantly notices how dull Sister Josepha feels that life in a convent is.  But Sister Josepha, the reader learns, is battling herself in her search for identity. She faces the decision of either living a mundane life as a nun or escaping into the world outside of the church that she knows hardly anything about. She finds herself torn between wanting excitement and freedom and wanting safety and security. The first glimpse of this we see is when a couple comes to the convent and wants to adopt her. Sister Josepha refuses to go with them because she thinks that the man looks at her in a vulgar way. “Untutored in worldly knowledge, she could not divine the meaning of the pronounced leers and admiration of her physical charms which gleamed in the man’s face, but she knew that it made her feel creepy, and stoutly refused to go,” (408). I took this to mean that although she is not highly educated she is smart enough to reject this couples’ offer because of the way the man looks at her. He looked at her in a sexual way. Why else would it make her feel creepy?  The author’s focus is on Sister Josepha’s identity. All she knows about herself is that her name is Camille and she is beautiful, but outside of that, she knows not much. That is why she stays at the convent after thinking about running away. At least at the convent she has an identity as “Sister Josepha” she is a nun. In the world outside, she would be nothing but a beautiful nameless object. She realizes this after overhearing Sister Francesca talking about her: “…how hard it would be for her in the world, with no name but Camille, no friends, and her beauty…” (411). I think Sister Josepha, as a character, was quite wise to chose staying with the mundane life where she knew what she could expect over the life beyond the convent’s walls. I expected her to runaway from the convent after she spotted the young military man and their eyes met. But found myself glad that she didn’t. After all routine and mundane can be a good thing.  (Review written by Bella Literati Copyright May 2005 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you. )

“Sister Josepha” by Alice Dunbar

The lead into the story sets a tone of boredom of a routine life. The author begins the story by showing us Sister Josepha in church doing what must have been part of her daily routine. This dullness is well represented in the text by using such verbs and adjectives as in this sentence “…hold her beads mechanically, her fingers numb with the accustomed exercise,” (407). Again, the author sets the tone of monotony with “always the same old work…” and “filling the same old lamps,” (407). The reader instantly notices how dull Sister Josepha feels that life in a convent is. 

But Sister Josepha, the reader learns, is battling herself in her search for identity. She faces the decision of either living a mundane life as a nun or escaping into the world outside of the church that she knows hardly anything about. She finds herself torn between wanting excitement and freedom and wanting safety and security. The first glimpse of this we see is when a couple comes to the convent and wants to adopt her. Sister Josepha refuses to go with them because she thinks that the man looks at her in a vulgar way. “Untutored in worldly knowledge, she could not divine the meaning of the pronounced leers and admiration of her physical charms which gleamed in the man’s face, but she knew that it made her feel creepy, and stoutly refused to go,” (408). I took this to mean that although she is not highly educated she is smart enough to reject this couples’ offer because of the way the man looks at her. He looked at her in a sexual way. Why else would it make her feel creepy? 


The author’s focus is on Sister Josepha’s identity. All she knows about herself is that her name is Camille and she is beautiful, but outside of that, she knows not much. That is why she stays at the convent after thinking about running away. At least at the convent she has an identity as “Sister Josepha” she is a nun. In the world outside, she would be nothing but a beautiful nameless object. She realizes this after overhearing Sister Francesca talking about her: “…how hard it would be for her in the world, with no name but Camille, no friends, and her beauty…” (411). I think Sister Josepha, as a character, was quite wise to chose staying with the mundane life where she knew what she could expect over the life beyond the convent’s walls. I expected her to runaway from the convent after she spotted the young military man and their eyes met. But found myself glad that she didn’t. After all routine and mundane can be a good thing. 

(Review written by Bella Literati Copyright May 2005 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you. )

“But enough about me: by Jancee Dunn  “How could I cultivate a new, hip persona when I lived with my parents in a New Jersey suburb and wore black leggings as pants?” Jancee Dunn’s memoir is a wonderful combination of interviewing tips, dirt-digging secrets and her own personal life snippets into a mixture that equals But Enough about Me. This just for the record has to be the first and only grammatically correct and easy to read rock-n-roll chic memoir that I have ever read. I was hooked from page one, chapter one titled, “How to jolly up a Surly Hung-over Band during an Interview.” She trekked to the Canadian Rockies to hike with Brad Pitt, was chased by paparazzi who mistook her for Ben Affleck’s new girlfriend, got proof that Dolly Parton really loves SPAM and Velveeta, and danced drunkenly on stage with Kim Deal during a Beastie Boys set at Lollapalooza. . She even became a reluctant TV star as a pioneering VJ on MTV2. But Enough about Me is the story of an outsider who couldn’t quite bring herself to become an insider and introduces readers to a hysterical, lovable real-life heroine.  (Review written by Bella Literati Copyright September 2007 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you. )

“But enough about me: by Jancee Dunn 


“How could I cultivate a new, hip persona when I lived with my parents in a New Jersey suburb and wore black leggings as pants?” 

Jancee Dunn’s memoir is a wonderful combination of interviewing tips, dirt-digging secrets and her own personal life snippets into a mixture that equals But Enough about Me. This just for the record has to be the first and only grammatically correct and easy to read rock-n-roll chic memoir that I have ever read. I was hooked from page one, chapter one titled, “How to jolly up a Surly Hung-over Band during an Interview.” 

She trekked to the Canadian Rockies to hike with Brad Pitt, was chased by paparazzi who mistook her for Ben Affleck’s new girlfriend, got proof that Dolly Parton really loves SPAM and Velveeta, and danced drunkenly on stage with Kim Deal during a Beastie Boys set at Lollapalooza. . She even became a reluctant TV star as a pioneering VJ on MTV2. But Enough about Me is the story of an outsider who couldn’t quite bring herself to become an insider and introduces readers to a hysterical, lovable real-life heroine. 


(Review written by Bella Literati Copyright September 2007 and already published elsewhere online so don’t re-post without credit. Thank you. )