Recent Reads

I've been extremely busy with traveling and such and that has actually afforded me substantial time to read but not to post. So here's an update on the latest reads:

Good Omens by Neil Gaimon and Terry Pratchett--what a good little book. It has definitely inspired me to read more of each author's books. FUNNY! Definitely British humor though.

The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion was informative, a little scary, and parts were boring. The author attempted to be scholarly and to keep it historical, as opposed to editorial in focus. I'm not as familiar with pieces about Islam (other than the Koran) and so I don't have much of a basis for comparison with other works, but it probably compares well with other works of the same type.

Orange Trees of Versailles by Annie Pietri was strange. I thought it was a children's book and it's listed as such, but I don't know that it was. At best it would fit in the Brother's Grimm sort of category of children's stories. It was a quick read, but I am not convinced that I enjoyed it. Nice cover illustration though.

The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success was wonderful. It's nice to read a fact-based history of economics and religion that isn't written by someone with a secularist agenda. I so enjoyed it that I bought another book by the same author and am looking for more. It's dense in terms of subject matter, but it makes for a very entertaining and quick read.

The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots was boring. I had a "so-what" response upon finishing it. Plus, I found it very difficult to finish the book. I kept reading and finishing other books before finishing this one. It was thick with information, but I didn't find it at all engaging. I actually felt the book was a little cowardly, safe.

The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments was perfect. I read Gertrude Himmelfarb's The Demoralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values a few years ago, and thought it was extremely thought provoking and well-written. I think the same of The Roads; however, I would recommend becoming familiar with the basics of western philosophy before reading this one. If you're unfamiliar with Kant, Hume, Smith etc...(the list goes on and on), then it would be really difficult to follow or identify with what this author writes.

The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield was ok, not wonderful. I felt like the fantasy/philosophy story was well excuted, but I felt like the religious/philosophical stuff was jumbled. It was a little like: let's put some ancient Greek ideas of religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity (and golf) in a pot and see what we cook up. I did like some of the sentiments like God is always with you etc., but I can't quite say I enjoyed it. I also think other books have tried the same sort of thing but have done better. I may retract this later. Maybe I should let the book sit and steep a little.

Green Valley Book Fair

Bill and I went on a spontaneous day trip with friends on Sunday. We went to the Green Valley Book Fair. Bill had never gone before and I haven't gone in years. It was worth the hour-long treck to Mount Crawford. The drive was beautiful and conversation was great. We were able to catch up with old friends and make a new one (I hope). We had a few exciting moments when we had to pull over because an unexpected rain storm made it impossible to see the road. All in all it was a fun day with friends that ended with dinner at Mono Loco and drinks at a local bar.

I couldn't resist temptation, so our acquisitions were as follows:

• Johnathan Swift, A Tale of a Tube and Other Works(Oxford University Press, 1984). I think that many of the stories in this volume were published before Gulliver's Travels, but I'm not sure.



• Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian (Little, Brown and Company, 2005). Challenging royal authority is rarely good for one's health, but it sure can be fun.



• Owen Gingerich, The Book Nobody Read (Penguin Books, 2004). Revolutionary.



• Nancy Geary, Being Mrs. Alcott (Warner Books, 2005). I was feeling a bit stodgy?



• Marisha Pessl, Calamity Physics (Penguin Group, 2006). Now this one is actually one that a friend passed on to me after having finished it. So, after having finished it, I'm sure I'll feel morally compelled to do the same.



• Hannah Arendt, Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing Our Common World (Westview Press, 2001). I wish I were that smart.



• Pope John Paul II, The Way to Christ (Harper Collins, 1984). He seemed like a wonderful person.



• Louisa Thomas Redgrave, The Vineyard (Penguin Books, 2003). Having recently entertained thoughts of starting a business, I thought a reality check was probably in order. Plus, how could one read a book about a vineyard and not drink wine while doing so?



• Mark Helprin, A Dove of the East (Harcourt Brace and Company, 1975). He's a great writer, and I've now gotten word that I must absolutely read his Freddy and Fredericka, his thinly veiled satire of Diana and the Prince.



• Mark Helprin, The Pacific and Other Stories (Penguin Books, 2004). One always have to have a few short story books available for those moments when you can't really set aside enough time to read a whole book.



• John Dunning, The Sign of the Book (Scribner, 2005). I do like a good mystery. Keep your fingers crossed.

I've been in a reading as opposed to a writing mode recently, but I've made a promise to myself to set the necessary time aside to write some reviews.

Oops

I'm a moron.

At some point, Blogger and Google merged (don't ask me what that means exactly), and, as a consequence, I've had difficulty logging into my own account.

On top of that we've been really busy since our wedding. Because I didn't see any of my friends commenting on my blog, I thought posting could wait--nobody's reading it anyway.

Wrong.

I finally got into my account only to be reminded, that last year after having received one too many "Please feel free to purchase our condoms and anal lube at lolawannadoya6969.com," that I had selected to moderate comments before they posted to the blog. As a direct consequence of having forgotten that, I had over 70 comments waiting to be published. Oops.

It shant happen again.

Anyhoo, in four days, I'll be sworn in as an assistant commonwealth's attorney for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Yipee! I am very happy about this new job, and the opportunities that come with it.

If anyone had wondered during my hiatus: "Does she have time to read?" The answer is "yes," but I haven't had nearly enough time to read all the things want to (but that's not new). With my new job I believe I'll have more time to read--since I wont be working seven days a week. I've run out and gotten a new bunch of books in preparation (not that I needed more of them).

So, without further ado, this weeks acquisitions:

• Matthew Stewart, The Courtier and the Heretic:Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World(W.W. Norton & Company, 2006). Hello, my name is Kat, and I'm a Johnny.



• Danny Danziger and John Gillingham, 1215: The Year of the Magna Carta (Simon & Schuster, 2003). Challenging royal authority is rarely good for one's health, but it sure can be fun.



• The Thomas Jefferson Reader (Konecky&Konecky). How could a UVA graduate not have at least one Jefferson book?



• James T. Fisher, Communion of Immigrants: A History of Catholics in America(Oxford University Press, 2002). I don't know. It looked interesting.



• Paul Doherty, Alexander the Great: The Death of God, (Constable and Robinson, LTD., 2004). I'll be imaging the cast of 300 while I read this one.



• Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances (Everyman Classic, 1993). I wonder what the differences are between French chivalry and English chivalry? Any takers? I remember your essay on the Knight's tale Peculiar.



• Annie Pietri, Orange Trees of Versailles (Delacorte Press, 2004). What an intriguing cover.



• Philip Zweig, Icons (2004). Bill and I love artbooks. No shocker given his aspirations. But we simply can't afford those big huge art books that cost more than our student loan payments, so this one was a great find. Byzantine art, even when shrunken down to 4" by 8", is breathtaking.



• Elizabeth Cook, Achilles (St. Martin's Press, 2001). It's suprisingly tiny.



• Aline S. Taylor, Isabel of Burguny (Madison Books, 2001). I'm not one who much goes for books that fall into the "women's studies" category, but this one did look good; it also pops up under european history, so I'm willing to take a chance.



• Jean Zimmerman, The Women of the House (Harcourt Books, 2006). I hate it when there are errors on the book jacket, they never bode well for its interior. We'll see.



• C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on tape as read by Michael York. Yes, yes, cheesy I know, but you just want one of your own.



• Benton Rain Patterson, Harold and William (Cooper Sqaure Press, 2001). History!



• Caryl Johnston, Consecrated Venom (Floris Books, 2001). I just finished Neil Gaimon and Terry Pratchett's Good Omen's--funny, by the way. Caryl's book, same theme, different genre.



• Harold Bloom, Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? (Riverhead Books, 2004). Bloom's an odd duck.



• Clare Francis, A Dark Devotion (Macmillan, 1997). I'm on the look out for a new mystery series. Is this the one?



• Philip Larkin, A Girl in Winter (The Overlook Press, 1985).

Congrat's to the recently engaged Richmond couple and to the-ready-to-burst-with-child Charlottesvillian attorney. No, I do not mean me.

WOW

Look at this!
What an amazing time to live in. Though, I've often wondered whether my personality fits in with an earlier time period, this is too fantastic not to note.

Acquisitions

I've been a member of the Quality Paperback Book Club for years, but, of recent, I haven't been too interested in their offerings. Apparently, I'd gone so long without buying a book, that they offered to allow me to rejoin. They're a bit like drug dealers aren't they, i.e., the first time's free, so we've gotten a bunch of new books.

Anyhow, our book collection has profitted from their peddling.

• Patricia Schultz, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die (Workman Pyblishing, 2003). We're already planning 1,000 trips.
  
  
• James Shapiro, A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (HarperCollins Publishers, 2005). "Wedding is great Juno's crown./O blessed bond of board and bed!/'Tis hymen peoples every town;/High wedlock then be honored./Honor, high honor and renown,/To Hymen, god of evrery town!" (As you Like It, 5.4.140-145). How could anyone not like Shakespeare? Lovely. Just lovely.
  
  
• Biggest Book of Slow Cook Recipes (Better Homes and Gardens, 2002). Yum.
  
  
• T.J. Wray and Gregory Mobley, The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots (Palgrave, 2005). It'll either be great or really laughable.
  
  
• Julian Barnes, Arthur & George (Alfred A. Knopf, 2005). Historical novel...We shall see.
  
  
• Donna Leon, Through a Glass Darkly: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005). I love a good mystery.

Unbelievably Cool if True

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061005/D8KIF7J80.html

The Forgotten One

Just one more.

• Vio Ettiore, The Basilica of St. Mark in Venice (Scala/Riverside, 1999). Beautiful. I'd love to visit Italy.

This Week: Newest Treats

So, though I have barely enough time to sleep at this point, I can't resist temptation. I couldn't find my keys to get into my office-please note that it is SATURDAY!--though I did later find them in the pocket to the suit I wore yesterday. Since I couldn't go to work, I decided to go shopping for books. I only went to two bookstores and I did some pretty good damage anyway. One of the bookstores was offering buy one, get one for free--I was like "Is it my birthday?!" Anyhow, here are my newest acquisitions:

• Elizabeth Bowen, The Death of the Heart (Anchor, 2000). "Human character" is mentioned like ten times on the back of the book. Yummy.
  
  
• Peters Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel (Vintage, 2001). I do enjoy Irish humor.
  
  
• Valerie Martin, Mary Reilly (Pocket, 1991). I don't recall being a huge fan of the movie, but I generally think movie adaptions of books suck.
  
  
• John Lescroart, Sons of Holmes (NAL Trade, 2003). So the title Rasputin's Revenge caught my eye, but it was not the first in the series, so I picked up this one instead. We'll see.
  
  
• Anonymous, Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics (Warner Bros. 1996). I believe that this one speaks for itself.
  
  
• John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism; On Liberty; On Considerations on Representative Government; Remarks on Bentham's Philosophy. I know. I know. I'm a glutton for punishment. The thing is that, when I read excerpts from On Liberty, I really enjoyed them.
  
  
• Camille Paglia, Sex, Art, and American Culture (Vintage, 1992). She's hilarious (not in a bad way).
  
  
• Sylvia Nasar, Beautiful Mind (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Maybe I'll see the movie after I read the book.
  
  
• Somerset Maugham, Collected Short Stories, V.4 (Penguin, 1978). I read The Appointment in Samarra when I was in high school. Maugham retold the story:
  
  There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to
  buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white
  and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace
  I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was
  Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture,
  now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid
  my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The
  merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his
  spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then
  the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
  
  What an interesting vignette. On its surface it's clearly about death, but isn't it also about how events are set in motion. Anyhow, I'm sure I'll like the collected stories.
  
  
• Gaston Leroux, The Phantom Opera (Puffin Classics, 1994). Speaks for itself.

And now, I am off to bed. Good night and good reading.

To My Friends

Congratulations to you-know-who for you-know-what!

(The truth is that all of my friends have interesting or wonderful things going on right now, and so the safest way to address everyone is the above maxim/salutation.)

Coming Up for Air

Well, I am still drowning, but I'm taking a day or two off.

Work has been moving ahead at a million miles per minute.

I had a wonderful time in Washington D.C. over the weekend. It was nice to see old friends.

I'm looking forward to all the wedding-related stuff I intend to get done this week.

I did make an acquisition this week, via a gift from a friend (you know who you are):
1. Stephen Lubet, Lawyer's Poker: 52 Lessons that Lawyers Can Learn from Card Players (Oxford University Press, 2006). It looks like a fun book written by a law professor at North Western University. He also wrote a trial advocacy manual, that I believe I read while in law school. This one looks entertaining. I hope it's pithy.

Here's a cliff hanger: Come this fall I may have big non-wedding related news. :)

I'm Drowning

Work is Life.

Life is work.

Work is life...

Clients always want more time; however, I cannot change the length of a day. It will, for now, remain a paltry 24 hours. Shame on me for being unavailable for 5 a day.

Party Hardily

Although I've neglected my friends, my blog, my fiance, and my cats, it has paid off. I just won a particularly large component of a serious case.

Finally, I can breath.

I'll write more later this week.

Wedding planning has been rather consuming as well.

Women Writers Meme

BOLD those you’ve read. Italicize the ones you’ve been meaning to read and ??? the ones you have never heard of (or wish you had never heard of? Or the ones you wonder, "why is this book on this list?". I left the ones that I've heard of but don't really have an interest in reading, plain--that is, neither bolded nor italicized.

Alcott, Louisa May–Little Women
Allende, Isabel–The House of Spirits
Angelou, Maya–I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret–Cat’s Eye
Austen, Jane–Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade–Salt Eaters ???
Barnes, Djuna–Nightwood ???
de Beauvoir, Simone–The Second Sex
Blume, Judy–Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret
Burnett, Frances–The Secret Garden
Bronte, Charlotte–Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily–Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl S.–The Good Earth
Byatt, A.S.–Possession
Cather, Willa–My Antonia
Christie, Agatha–Murder on the Orient Express
Cisneros, Sandra–The House on Mango Street
Clinton, Hillary Rodham–Living History????????? There aren't enough question marks in this universe.
Cooper, Anna Julia–A Voice From the South
Danticat, Edwidge–Breath, Eyes, Memory ???
Davis, Angela–Women, Culture, and Politics
Desai, Anita–Clear Light of Day ???
Dickinson, Emily–Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois–I Know What You Did Last Summer
DuMaurier, Daphne–Rebecca
Eliot, Geroge–Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi–Second Class Citizen
Erdrich, Louise–Tracks ???
Esquivel, Laura–Like Water for Chocolate
Flagg, Fannie–Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe ???
Friedan, Betty–The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne–Diary of a Young Girl
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins–The Yellow Wallpaper ???
Gordimer, Nadine–July’s People ???
Grafton, Sue–S is for Silence ???
Hamilton, Edith–Mythology
Highsmith, Patricia–The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hooks, Bell–Bone Black ???
Hurston, Zora Neale–Dust Tracks on the Road
Jacobs, Harriet–Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl ???
Jackson, Helen Hunt–Ramona
Jackson, Shirley–The Haunting of Hill House
Jong, Erica–Fear of Flying
Keene, Carolyn–The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them? Try all of them.)
Kidd, Sue Monk–The Secret Life of Bees
Kincaid, Jamaica–Lucy
Kingsolver, Barbara–The Poisonwood Bible
Kingston, Maxine Hong–The Woman Warrior
Larsen, Nella–Passing ???
L’Engle, Madeleine–A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K.–The Left Hand of Darkness ???
Lee, Harper–To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris–The Golden Notebook
Lively, Penelope–Moon Tiger ???
Lorde, Audre–The Cancer Journals ???
Martin, Ann M.–The Babysitters Club Series
McCullers, Carson–The Member of the Wedding
McMillan, Terry–Disappearing Acts ???
Markandaya, Kamala–Nectar in a Sieve ???
Marshall, Paule–Brown Girl, Brownstones ???
Mitchell, Margaret–Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy–Anne of Green Gables
Morgan, Joan–When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost ???
Morrison, Toni–Song of Solomon
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu–The Tale of Genji
Munro, Alice–Lives of Girls and Women ???
Murdoch, Iris–Severed Head ???
Naylor, Gloria–Mama Day ???
Niffenegger, Audrey–The Time Traveller’s Wife
Oates, Joyce Carol–We Were the Mulvaneys
O’Connor, Flannery–A Good Man is Hard to Find
Piercy, Marge–Woman on the Edge of Time ???
Picoult, Jodi–My Sister’s Keeper ???
Plath, Sylvia–The Bell Jar
Porter, Katharine Anne–Ship of Fools ???
Proulx, E. Annie–The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn–The Fountainhead
Ray, Rachel–365: No Repeats ???
Rhys, Jean–Wide Sargasso Sea
Robinson, Marilynne–Housekeeping ???
Rocha, Sharon–For Laci ???
Sebold, Alice–The Lovely Bones ???
Shelley, Mary–Frankenstein
Smith, Betty–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Zadie–White Teeth ???
Spark, Muriel–The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spyri, Johanna–Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth–Amy and Isabelle ???
Steel, Danielle–The House ???
Tan, Amy–The Joy Luck Club
Tannen, Deborah–You’re Wearing That
Ulrich, Laurel–A Midwife’s Tale
Urquhart, Jane–Away ???
Walker, Alice–The Temple of My Familiar
Welty, Eudora–One Writer’s BeginningsWharton, Edith–Age of Innocence
Wilder, Laura Ingalls–Little House in the Big Woods
Wollstonecraft, Mary–A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia–A Room of One’s Own

It's as interesting to see what's on the list as what's not. I'm taken back by how many I've never even heard of. I do recognize a number of authors, but associate them with other books or don't know what they've written, e.g., I've heard of Danielle Steele, but I don't know what she's written.

Time, A Luxury?

I would love to weigh in on the recent "wretchedness" posts by Kate, Writing in Apathy, and Odious, and Jack at The Pumpkin King, but time doesn't permit me to do so right at this moment.

Recently having finished Eldest, which is the sequel, or, more accurately, the second in a trilogy by Christopher Paolini, I realized the frequency of my posts has declined. And since I enjoyed it much better than the first installment--namely, Eragon, it seemed the right time to start posting again.

Its main character isn't in the dreaded teenage-angsty stage anymore. Whenever I think of teenage angsty characters, Luke Skywalker's simpering "But I don't wannna" comes to mind. Paolini'story is aided by the fact that his main character is easier to write, as an adult than a teen. I don't know much about fantasy literature, but his tales of elves, humans, and dwarfs seems like standard fair. It was fun, but light.

Bill can't believe that I read what he has deemed "inferior imitation" before having read Lord of the Rings. Oh well. I'm not saying it's a substitute for the king of all fantasy novels, but it maybe a good introduction to the genre. Plus, I have a sneaking suspcision that I will catch him reading Eragon anyday now.

This Takes the Cake

Are you kidding me?

No.

Famous

It seems that all my talented friends are being published at this point. JOE: Congratulations to having another article published!

Joe are you working on any more fiction, or are you transitioning into editorials only? And, NO..to your inquiry about us having a football themed wedding. :)

Right on Baby, Right On

I'm willing to openly debate anything. That fact doesn't mean that I'll change my mind at the flip of a coin. Honestly, Jesus himself would have to swoop down and tell me I was wrong to get me to change my mind on certain issues.

I'm not secretly judgmental; I'm openly opinionated. E.g., Anyone who doesn't take their values seriously probably doesn't have any. That's one of those not-so-secret judgmental opinions I have.

Can you tell I had a nasty day at work?

You Are 48% Open Minded

You aren't exactly open minded, but you have been known to occasionally change your mind. You're tolerant enough to get along with others who are very different... But you may be quietly judgmental of things or people you think are wrong. You take your own values pretty seriously, and it would take a lot to change them.

How Open Minded Are You?

Ex Post

I realized that my last comment could be read in far too many ways, which I had not intended.

What I intended was a comparison between the characters of Emma and Elizabeth. Both are heroines in Austen novels, and though their novels share themes, and the characters have some similarities, they do differ from one another heartily. Emma's world is confined in a sense that Elizabeth's is not. She's Pride to Elizabeth's Prejudice. Emma lacks sensitivity, whereas Elizabeth may have too much.

Furthermore, Emma's world is more confined that Elizabeth's, and is driven very much by Emma's own imagination. Clearly, the opening phrase of Emma--namely, that she was "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition" and "had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her" and the fact that the book is titled after the main character indicates that the book is, at heart, about Emma. Reality often intrudes on her private world, and, as she emotionally matures, she realizes that though she is witty/clever, she is often mistaken about her emotions and the emotions of others.

Where Emma begins with a very personal and particular phrase, Pride and Prejudice begins with a general phrase about society. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." This reader is left to assume that the opposite is true as well--that, that ALL women are in want of a man with a good fortune too.

The novels have interwoven themes and subthemes, and I can't even begin to realize them all. Certainly both are about how Emma and Elizabeth survive their own personal failings and find true love in the process. But, I've often wondered what Elizabeth and Emma would say to one another about the subject of Love over a nice cup of tea.

Congratulations!

Congrats to Odious over at Odious and Peculiar. He's been published and paid! Check it out at flashquake. He's husband to Kate whose poem I recommended only days ago, which brings to mind one (of many) Jane Austen quotations--namely, "It's such happiness when good people get together--and they always do." (Emma)

Would Elizabeth Bennet say the same thing?

Icky, Icky

So, recently I've happened upon novels that play with time. For example, Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is told from the present and the future simultaneously--that is, school girls reminisce and contemplate their lives and connections with a charismatic, if often misleading, teacher.

Spark's memorable characters are engaging, but I'm not sure we're on the same page with respect to what she says about those characters. Her style is perceptive, but cold. She doesn't shirk from depicting evil and failure, silliness, and human folly, but I wasn't sure that she did anything more. Then, I stopped being mentally lazy, and I got it.

The title character, Miss Jean Brodie, a silly romanantic, elevates the personal above the universal. That's why she's a good facist. She's pitiable, and yet ugly. She reminds me of Peter Keating in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. She lives vicariously through her students, convinced that she's controlling them, and is omnipotent about their futures. Student A is destined to be a great lover, and student B is destined to be X, Y, or Z. Sandy (the other primary character) observes, "She thinks she is Providence . . . she thinks she is the God of Calvin, she sees the beginning and the end." She confuses the Italian Renaisance with Italian facism. In the end, she isn't nearly as perceptive about the world or her students as she thinks she is.

She loves facism. Through her dynamic personality she controls her students, infusing their minds with her facist ideology, personifing facist authority. She convinces them that Catholism is passe, that morality is whatever the elite make it, that religion is populism, that we are all predestined to be whatever we become. In the end, though, one of her own students betrays her, exposing her shallowness and nonconformity/conformity to the school's headmistress.

Sandy, one of the Brodie-set, the "creme de la creme," rejects her teacher, and finally ends up becoming a nun. Sandy revolts against the idea that she is above all things and all others, including morality. She becomes keenly aware that her conformity to Miss Jean Brodie's "group judgment" which is at odds with her individual judgment is a source of human cruelty. Furthermore, Sandy thuroughly revolts against Miss Brodie's Calvinist ideology of predestination. Sandy, though, is not without fault. She engages in an affair with a married man, while on the road to rejecting Miss Brodie's ideology.

Miss Jean Brodie tells one of her students that she should have an affair with the art teacher (Miss Brodie's ex). She never sees Sandy as a candidate for the endeavor, so, as Sandy begins to revolt against Miss Brodie and her misleading romanticism and rejection of religion, Sandy starts the affair. The affair is just the first step. It isn't until Sandy realizes that Miss Brodie didn't think she was good enough to have the affair (Miss Brodie thinks highly of herself and must live out her fantasies through those she finds acceptable substitutes for the real thing), and that she takes NO responsibility for having contributed to the death of one of the other school girls, that Sandy truly rebels, exposing Ms. Brodie. Miss Brodie never knows who betrayed her deepest secrets and sentiments to the school, or why.

I'm writing this during a quick break. Now back to court!