The Pleasant Grove Library is reading To Kill a Mockingbird for its citywide read this year.
Starting September 1st, you can pick up a copy to have, read and share with fellow citizens.
Carl Sederholm, a popular Humanities professor at BYU, is going to lead a discussion on Wednesday, September, 29th. For people who are interested, we also have fifteen copies of Mockingbird: a Portrait of Harper Lee to check out.
Harper Lee has led a fascinating life.
If you decide to participate, the library would really appreciate feedback on your experience.
When I was a teenager, I read Little Women every summer. It was a tradition.
I also loved Jo's Boys, Little Men, Rose in Bloom, and Eight Cousins.
When I was assigned a research project in high school, I wrote it on Louisa May Alcott.
Did you know that:
Louisa's father was a transcendentalist and close friends with Emerson.
She was home schooled by her father.
She went on nature walks with Henry David Thoreau.
She was a Civil War nurse.
Like many other nurses, she became ill with typhoid fever and was treated with mercury, which created health problems the rest of her life.
She was an abolitionist and a feminist.
Although she patterned Jo after herself, she never married.
It is believed that she died of mercury poisoning at the age of 56.
I'm sad that I missed the production Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, which was aired last December on PBS. Here is a clip:
And I love the movies. Have you seen these movie adaptations?
Katharine Hepburn as Jo. Great casting.
Peter Lawford makes a great Laurie. So many great actors in this version.
I was a big fan of Susan Dey when I was a kid -- remember The Patridge Family TV show? I wrote her a fan letter when I was in fifth grade.
Surely you've all seen this version. Love it.
And I have the music for the Broadway production, though I haven't seen the show--yet.
Here is a clip of Sutton Foster singing "Astonishing":
As you can see, I am a fan.
And other fans have written books about Louisa and her "little women."
March is written from the perspective of the March patriarch, who is largely missing from Little Women.
It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006.
Edens's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for biography.
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott is fan fiction.
"Deftly mixing fact and fiction, Kelly O'Connor McNees imagines a love affair that would threaten Louisa's writing career-and inspire the story of Jo and Laurie in Little Women. Stuck in small-town New Hampshire in 1855, Louisa finds herself torn between a love that takes her by surprise and her dream of independence as a writer in Boston. The choice she must make comes with a steep price that she will pay for the rest of her life."
A father who never fully forgave her for causing her mother's death in childbirth
A stepmother who raised her from infancy, but who showed strong favoritism towards her own children
A scandalous romance with a famous, wealthy and aristocratic poet
A convenient suicide by her lover's wife
The death of three of her four children in infancy
The drowning death of her husband (Ironically, his first wife also drowned)
MARY SHELLEY/FRANKENSTEIN QUIZ
1. How old was Mary Shelley when she began writing Frankenstein?
a. 25
b. 15
c. 18
d. 30
2. Where was Mary Shelley when she came up with the idea for Frankenstein?
a. attending a funeral
b. vacationing in Ireland
c. walking in the park
d. visiting Lord Byron
3. What motivated Mary Shelley to write a Gothic story?
a. the death of her first child
b. Shelley's encouragement
c. a literary party challenge
d. b & c
e. a & c
f. a, b &c
4. How did Mary Shelley get her inspiration for Frankenstein?
a. a drug-induced vision
b. a dream
c. a story told by her husband
d. a drunken stupor
5. The subtitle to Frankenstein is The Modern Promethius. In Greek mythology, Promethius:
a. fell in love with his own reflection
b. sent a sea monster to earth, which destroyed man and beast
c. tried to build a temple with the bones and skulls of travelers
d. brought fire to man
6. When Frankenstein was first published:
a. It was published anonymously
b. It received mixed reviews by the critics
c. It was published in three parts
d. None of the above
e. All of the above
7. Who did Mary Shelley dedicate Frankenstein to?
a. her father, William Godwin
b. her stepsister, Claire
c. Percy Bysshe Shelley
d. Lord Byron
8. In the second edition of Frankenstein, published six years after the first, Mary Shelley made substantial changes to the manuscript. True or false?
Frankenstein's monster has undergone a big transformation over the years:
This is one of the first visual depictions of the monster:
Anti-Irish propaganda from Punch magazine, published in May 1882.
The 1910 movie version, which you can watch below:
The most famous depiction of Frankenstein . . .
and the most famous of all the many movie versions.
Along with movies, there are many books that feature the monster or the mythology:
This Dean Koontz series is very popular at the library. The third one in the series, Dead and Alive, is set in New Orleans and was slated to be released right after Hurricane Katrina. The publication was delayed until the summer of 2009, which frustrated a lot of loyal Frankenstein fans.
"Set in present day New Orleans, the series follows the activities of Victor Frankenstein, now known as Victor Helios, as he continues to create new life forms for his own purposes. Opposed to his activities are a pair of homicide detectives and Frankenstein's original monster, now known as Deucalion.
"While the original Monster was made with parts from dead humans, Victor Frankenstein is now using modern technology to create more creatures, particularly synthetic biology. The new race he is making is constructed and designed from the bottom-up, and can be seen as bio androids, artificial humans made of flesh. Their knowledge and behavior is even based on programs downloaded directly into their brain, which appears to be an advanced wetware computer."
Frankenstein even has its own musical! Check it out here. I think the music is pretty good.
Or watch a promo below:
Answers to the quiz:
1. c
2. d
3. f
4. b (She has something in common with Stephenie Meyer!)
5. d
6. e
7. a
8. True
