Reading, Reading and more Reading

I have come to realize that I have no reading comprehension. I read, I think I understand but apparently I do not. I seriously think I have some form of ADD. But aside from that, I've been doing quite a bit of reading lately. One of the classes I'm taking is an American Literature class. In this class we are reading often short stories from the late 19th to 20th centuries. Through this I've discovered an author whose writing I love! Kate Chopin. You may know her work called The Awakening. This story set in Victorian times in the southern U.S. is about a woman and her self discoveries of independence from her husband and children, her discovery of unrequited love and her love of art. She has one final "awakening" which I will not disclose because it will ruin the ending. One of her other stories, called The Storm revolves around emotion and love with some illicit love affairs thrown in for good measure which is why many of her stories are "chick" stories but as with most artists and writers, her work was considered inappropriate for the time. She died soon after writing her last piece. Her descriptions and word choices were amazing, some almost brought tears to my eyes!

Currently, the class is reading The Adventures of Huck Finn. I've read parts of it before, but never got through the entire story and here I am again struggling to finish the book. I don't know what it is about that story that I cannot get through. Perhaps it's the dialect it is written in that is distracting to me. I know there's going to be a quiz on Tuesday so I better get to reading!

Finally, today is also my book club meeting. This month's book was one that I chose. I didn't even finish it because of all the other reading I've been doing. After the semester is over, I will pick it up again! The book is Suite Francaise. It is a story about several families who leave Paris during the German invasion in WWII. The author's personal story is almost as tragic as the book itself. Irene Nemirovsky left Russia for France during the war to escape the Nazi's. She was eventually captured in Europe and sent to a concentration camp where she died. Her writings were not discovered by her family until after her death. I love her style of writing, her story is a beautiful testament to a tragic time in the world. It is a fine piece of modern day literature.