Cat Thursday - Another year with Alice and Arya #cats

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

Alice and Arya had another birthday on February 24. Alice is now 14 and Arya is 10. They had a great birthday, as you can see. Here they are with their brothers. ❤😻

Here's to many more!!!

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Cat Thursday - If they fits, they sits #cats

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

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Cat Thursday - Authors and Cats (101) Ina Donna Coolbrith

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

The second Cat Thursday of each month is Authors and Cats Thursday. Each time I will feature an author (with a birthday during the month), pictured with their/a cat(s), or guest posts by cat loving authors who also (sometimes) write about cats.

Ina Donna Coolbrith (March 10, 1841 – February 29, 1928) was an American poet, writer, librarian, and a prominent figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. Called the "Sweet Singer of California", she was the first California Poet Laureate and the first poet laureate of any American state. (More on Wikipedia)

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#ThrowbackThursday (1) The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy

Davida at The Chocolate Lady hosts this Throwback Thursday meme monthly and I've decided to participate. The idea is to highlight/share a previously published book review. Since I've been blogging since 2009, I have a lot of reviews to revisit (even if I have slowed down in more recent years, I used to be quite a prolific reviewer. lol).

So, today I'm sharing the very first book review I wrote for this blog. The book was The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy by Maya Slater and the review was published on August 6, 2009. 

Without further ado...

For those of us who love Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, this book is an excellent companion piece to that wonderful novel. This is Pride and Prejudice told entirely from Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy's point of view--written entirely in diary form. I liked this book because it gives more insight into the character of Darcy...his inner turmoils and doubts. In his diary, he wears his heart on his sleeve and we are shown an even more caring character than we find in Pride and Prejudice

and, therefore, a more suitable match for Miss. Elizabeth Bennett. We also are treated to a look at Mr. Darcy's friendship with the illustrious Lord Byron. Darcy's propriety and genuine character contrasts nicely with Byron's debauchery, although Darcy is far from being of complete innocence--he is a single man after all. I found the addition of Lord Byron to the story very clever as it gives Mr. Darcy a place, so to speak, in the historical world. Some may be shocked by some of Mr. Darcy's actions in the book, but I find it refreshing as it seems an accurate portrayal of a well-to-do bachelor of the time period. What I do find ironic is the fact that the Bennett sisters are considered "unsuitable" for a high-born marriage because of their lower status in society and yet a wealthy bachelor could visit houses of ill repute, etc. and not fear for a lowering of his reputation. I guess it was certainly a man's world back then! In all, The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy is an excellent read. Ms. Slater has produced a novel that is smart and provocative. Austen enthusiasts should consider reading this, especially after reading the original Pride and Prejudice again.

Original post here.

Join in! Click the link to The Chocolate Lady blog for all the info on how to participate.

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Cat Thursday - Funny #cats

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

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W. Somerset Maugham - The Painted Veil

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. Not that I thought it would be boring, or any slight against Maugham at all. I just had already seen the (2006) film and I did not think there would be any surprises. I know, I know. Never judge a book by its movie!

All this being said, Maugham writes the most beautiful prose. Besides being a really good story...about wrongs, love, and loss, he evokes so much beauty and depth in his writing. The passages he writes about life really resonated with me. I will share two of them...

"It seemed to Kitty that they were all, the human race, like the drops of water in that river and they flowed on, each so close to the other and yet so far apart, a nameless flood, to the sea. When all things lasted so short a time and nothing mattered very much, it seemed pitiful that men, attaching an absurd importance to trivial objects, should make themselves and one another so unhappy."

and

"I wonder. I wonder if it matters that what they have aimed at is illusion. Their lives are in themselves beautiful. I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art."

Beautiful! 

This is a short book (246 pages), but it packs a lot of punch. I'm so glad I read it!

This is a Classics Club read and also read for the 2021 Back to the Classics challenge.

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