Uncle Remus ~ His Songs and His Sayings and Read A Classic Month

In 1880, Joel Chandler Harris, a moderate white Southern journalist, published a collection of black folktales, proverbs, songs, and character sketches based on stories he had heard as a child. In his introduction, Robert Hemenway discusses the book's enduring popularity, pointing out that the character of Uncle Remus, the docile and grandfatherly ex-slave storyteller, is a utopian figure-a literary creation by Harris that reassured white readers during the tense and tentative Reconstruction. By contrast, the feisty Brer Rabbit was a mainstay of black folklore long before Harris heard of his exploits. Brer Rabbit's cunning and revolutionary antics symbolically inverted the slave-master relationship and satisfied the deep human needs of a captive people.

So, here's a bit about my reading for the month before I get to my "sort of" review.  I have an author/blogger friend named Robert Zimmerman (his blog is A Life Among The Pages) who has a habit of talking me into things I don't want to do.  Sometimes I'm happy about it after all is said and done, like the fact I like Gilmore Girls now and sometimes it just ends up being a thorn in my side, like "Read A Classic In November" has been.

I have been so busy lately.  I have barely read a book every other week the last couple months.  It has been terrible.  So in November not only am I trying to read, but I'm reading a classic which I have a hard time due to my past experience with them not being the best.  I hated reading them in school and the couple times I have tried since I have hated it within a couple chapters.  It just isn't really for me.  So this time I thought I would maybe listen to a classic.  It's almost the same as reading and to some it is the same.  I had 8 hours in the car to myself while driving to Yallfest in November so this was going to be cake!  Yeah, not so much.  Within 3 chapters I was about to fall asleep at the wheel, not because the book I was listening to was bad (The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells) but just because the listening and driving wasn't a good mix for me over a long distance.

A couple weeks pass and I start thinking about what else I could maybe fit in and might be a bit more fun to read AND something my kids might enjoy at the same time.  I remembered seeing the Disney movie "Song of the South" as a kid and loving it.  I have always loved the stories told by Uncle Remus because they were so funny.  So I talked my 9yo into letting me read her a story about Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox.  After a page or two she stopped me with "I don't get a thing you're saying Mom!" That's because I wasn't really good at reading "Southern" out loud which is how these stories are written.  I had to keep stopping and telling her what was happening and before long she was bored.  I pulled out the Disney version of the book and redeemed myself with her at least.  It was much easier for her to get and we had a fun time laughing over these few stories I remembered.

  

Then the teens came home and I MADE THEM sit down and let me read the book to them as well. They thought it was funny too and I felt like I at least passed a little something different I enjoyed as a kid on to them.

The next night we were all hanging out and I decided to read them some of the differences in the versions of the stories.  We listened to a few of them on audio as well and this week I have heard "de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' Nuthin'" and "Brer Fox, he lay low" about 100 times....literally! We all loved the Tar Baby story and have been laughing about it all week.  Since my kids speak fluent southern is sounds fairly authentic as well.

I went through and read a few more of the stories and although I didn't read the entire book, I wanted to share the small experience I did have with reading a few of these adventures with my kids.  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we did it.  I want to finish reading them, or listening to them, sometime soon. Perhaps when I'm wrapping Christmas gifts in the coming weeks.  I found the writing EXTREMELY hard to read out loud, but not so bad to read to myself.  Years before living in the south (I have been here 16 years now) I would have probably found it even more difficult, but I actually found it getting easier the more I read.

I thought I would be fun as well to ask my kids what their favorite part of the stories were and here's their replies:

Ainsley ~ 9 
"I liked the story where Brer Rabbit talked Brer Bear into trading places with him for the dollar a minute job when he was in the trap Brer Fox set."

Meaghan ~ 13 
"de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' Nuthin' and "Brer Fox, he lay low." (That was her exact answer when I asked her her favorite part! I told you....I've heard it all week!)

Beighley ~ 17 
"I liked the Tar Baby story and when they threw him in the Brier Patch." (He's a man of few words.)

I want to thank Rob for making me, once again, do something I didn't really want to do that didn't turn out too bad.  If nothing else, my kids and I have something else we share that we all like.

You can catch Rob's Read A Classic In November post HERE and maybe you will be inspired just a bit to read a classic yourself sometime soon.

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Winter To Be Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by 

The Broke and the Bookish. 

This weeks topic: My Winter To Be Read List

10 & 9 
Torn ~ True Love 
Tore ~ Divided Love
by K.D. Ferguson

These are the only books I purchased while at Y'allFest this month (a small miracle I know) and I enjoyed meeting author K,D. Ferguson very much so I am looking forward to reading this series.

8 ~ Any Book by Colleen Hoover

I have been all but yelled at by so many people for never reading anything by Colleen Hoover that I guess it's about time I get her bumped up on my TBR.  

7 ~ Daughter of Smoke & Bone Trilogy

by Laini Taylor

This is another series I have been putting off for a while.  I am really in the mood for a good fantasy series so I look forward to getting to this one.

6 ~ Contradictions

by Tiffany King

It's no secret that I love Tiffany King.  Her books are amazing and I am certainly looking forward to reading the final book in the Woodfalls Girls series...Contradictions.

5 ~ City of Heavenly Fire
by Cassandra Clare

I haven't had time to finish this series yet, mostly because I need to reread books 4&5 before I read this one.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this series ends. 

4 ~ Shadow and Bone Trilogy

by Leigh Bardugo

This is a trilogy that has been sitting on my shelf for a long while.  I look forward to sinking in to it hopefully while the weather is cold this year.

3 ~ The Weight of Destiny

by Nyrae Dawn

This book was a must have for me.  I love Nyrae Dawn's books so much and this one is calling out to me like crazy!  I also would like to note that I LOVE this cover!

2 ~ The Oh Captain, My Captain Series

by Lindsay Paige and Mary Brown

My best author discovery of the year was Lindsay Paige and Mary Smith!  I love these ladies and their work is amazing!  I am looking forward to this great series that they have released so fast that I can't seem to catch up with it!  

1 ~ Breaking the Rules

by Katie McGarry

Katie McGarry is a must have author for me and I look forward to every one of her books.  I can't wait to devour this installment of the Pushing The Limits series.

That's it for me this week.  What books are on your Winter TBR?

#TGIT Recap Week 8

To see last week's post click here.

Shondaland's Thursday Night Lineup TGIT will have its winter finale tonight!  It's been a crazy nine weeks so far, and we can't wait to see how it ends! Naturally, there's a lot more that goes on each show before the winter finale, which means that there was even more to forget or miss last week. Here's are the main points from last week's episodes so!  This #TGIT Recap starts in 3... 2... 1...

Babies, Drugs, and More Drama...

Grey's Anatomy

Can We Start Again, Please?

  Amy's sobriety comes into question when someone from Narcotics Anonymous breaks the most important rule and it almost makes her lose her job as a result.  Everybody in the hospital is talking about it, or whispering is more like it.  Richard helps her through the ordeal.

  Derek is asked by Owen if Amy should be Chief of Neurosurgery and he hesitates and doesn't even give an answer.  Amy is not happy about this and Derek promises to fix it, and he does.  At the end, he tries to apologize and says he doesn't know who he is anymore.  He's miserable and he hurts the people he doesn't want to hurt.  Amy tells him that he's hit rock bottom.

  Arizona decides to go through with Herman's deal.  When Herman goes M.I.A., Arizona has to handle a case on her own the way she knew how. She has Kepner help her work on closing up the mother, who ends up dying.  She has a deep talk with Jackson later on, saying she's not worried because she's got her faith.  

  Meredith apologizes to Maggie for the dinner incident.  She ends up forgiving her and they go out for dinner at the end of the episode.  Also, be happy because Jo successfully did her first surgery by herself!  She doubted herself and Bailey, who stood in on the procedure, played on her fear before she told her everything was okay.  

  Arizona walks in to Alex's house with her stuff, asking if she can stay and he, of course, tells her she can.  The awkward part... everyone, including Callie was there and just pointed out everyone was related through sex.  Jo is just sitting in the other room, and she needs to get over her problems with not having all the Alex time she used to have.  

It's all coming together!

Scandal

The Last Supper

  Jake spends most of the episode in the bunker because Rowan can't know he's free.  He fights with Fitz multiple times about various things, but Olivia is always at the core of their arguments.  Later on, Fitz and Olivia share a kiss with only a wall between them and Jake.  

  Lizzy Bear goes to Olivia to help find out who's bugged her phone.  Olivia finds out that Cyrus is the one and she also finds out about Michael, the prostitute.  It turns out he never really shared information with Liz because he cares about Cyrus.

  At the White House, Mellie and VP Andrew are starting up their affair again.  Why?  Because he almost died from a car bomb and it made her realize how much she loved him and wanted to see him again.  They do adult-like things a couple times during the episode.  Also, David is turning in the B613 files to help with Jake's case.

  Huck takes Javi on a stakeout.  They're watching Lizzy Bear's secret apartment.  Hu sends Javi to go grab ice cream while adult business goes on.  First, Kubiak, who Quinn has been watching for forever, but does nothing; he is the last connection to the key and pictures of Olivia.  He walks in to Liz's apartment.  YOU. WOULD. NOT. BELIEVE. WHO. WALKS. IN. A. MINUTE. LATER! 

  IT'S THE VICE PRESIDENT!! That's not even the worst part of this! Kubiak leaves for a minute and then we see him start making out with LIZZY BEAR!!!!  That's right!  He's cheating on Mellie, who's cheating on Fitz with him!  Kubiak comes up to Huck's surveillance truck and they have a quick fight.  Huck barely kills Kubiak... and then he looks over and sees that Javi saw the whole thing.  He runs away.

  Amid one of the Fitz-Jake fights, Olivia poses a plan to distract her father.  She takes him to dinner that night.  At dinner, he tells her that even though he wasn't always the best father, everything he does is for her.  While this is happening, snipers have their guns locked on him and there's a whole video feed and everything at the White House.  After Rowan's little speech, all of the agents on the perimeter are shot down, and the B613 files have all gone blank.  He obviously knew somehow that this was happening.  He tells Olivia that now she's turned her back on him, so she is on her own.  He tells her that if she thought the world was a such a terrible place with him in it, she's gonna see what it's like without him.

 #BonnieKilledSam

How to Get Away with Murder

He Has A Wife

  We see Lila Stangard's last moments before she was murdered.  She talks to Rebecca about "Mr. Darcy" and all of that drama.  When Sam breaks up with her, she shows up to the Keating residence to tell Annalise everything.  Bonnie answers the door and tells her that she needs to go home.
  The day before the murder, Annalise tells Wes about Lila's pregnancy and asks him to keep Rebecca out of the loop on this one.  That, of course, doesn't happen.  He tells Rebecca, who tells her new buddy Nate, who tells her a DNA test should fix everything.

The Day of the Murder...
 
  Wes finds out that these two are in kahoots with each other and he doesn't like it at all and he argues with Rebecca about it.  When Connor and Laurel come over for a study group thing, Rebecca storms out. Afterwards, we see Wes beating on Rebecca's door, which has loud music playing behind it.  Connor suggests that maybe she's ran away, and that's exactly what happened.
  Michaela feels like she should have the trophy because she won the case today, but Keating doesn't really care at this point, so she never really gives it to Michaela.  What does Michaela do?  She has an argument with her mother-in-law-to-be at dinner and then goes to Asher's place and steals the trophy.  No big deal.  Meanwhile, Frank and Laurel are doing it as they're entering his apartment.  It's very exciting... Until another girl walks in asking if Laurel's the student of the month!  Laurel leaves without any explanation.
  Bonnie talks to Sam about what happened with Lila and she knows that he knew about the pregnancy.  They kiss.  Later that night, Bonnie tells Annalise that Sam kissed her to manipulate her.  She rambles on about how he can't be trusted and stuff like that, crying as she does so.  She is fired right there, right then, and is devastated.
  There are so many people with the motive, but there's only one murderer.  Tonight, we will finally find out who killed Sam!  Many believe it's Bonnie because of her long history with Sam and she is probably not happy with him at the moment.  Others believe it is Rebecca because of everything that has happened concerning Lila's case.  Could it be someone else?  Find out tonight on the winter finale of TV's new #1 Drama How To Get Away With Murder!  

Now that you're caught up, don't miss the TGIT Winter Finale starting at 8/7c on ABC!