Weekly Wrap-Up 03/31/13

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 48 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila @ Book Journey. 

Reviews:
(Click to read my review)


Bloggish Business:


Melissa’s Bookshelf featured The Relentless Reader as part of the Getting to Know You challenge during Bloggiesta. Thanks again Melissa! Go show her some love, I’d appreciate it!


Angela at AJ Arndt Books mentioned me for a Your Blog is Fabulous Award. Thanks Angela!


Have you heard of Bloggers Recommend? From the website:
Bloggers Recommend is the brainchild of veteran book bloggers Jen of Devourer of Books and Nicole of Linus’s Blanket. The Bloggers Recommend mission is twofold:
  1. Provide a place for readers to learn about some of the best upcoming books every month.
  2. Highlight the recommendation power of both the blogger community and individual bloggers themselves.

Check it out, I think it’s going to be a great resource. Don’t forget to sign up for the monthly newsletter! You can see the inaugural issue here. 

I’m sure you’ve heard that Amazon has bought Goodreads. What does that mean? I don’t know! I’m trying very hard to withhold judgement until I see what changes take place.

I hope you all had a lovely week!



The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 44 Comments
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Published: 1931
Categories: Classic, China
Source: My own copy
Description:

Wang Lung, rising from humble Chinese farmer to wealthy landowner, gloried in the soil he worked. He held it above his family, even above his gods. But soon, between Wang Lung and the kindly soil that sustained him, came flood and drought, pestilence and revolution….

Through this one Chinese peasant and his children, Nobel Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life, its terrors, its passion, its persistent ambitions and its rewards. Her brilliant novel beloved by millions of readers throughout the world is a universal tale of the destiny of men.

My Thoughts:

There aren’t enough words to accurately describe my feelings about The Good Earth. Simply put, it is one of the best books ever penned.

The book begins on the morning of his wedding to a slave girl named O-Lan. As he prepares himself we get a sense of the simple, proud, and hardworking man that he is. He is fiercely attached to his land, devoted to his father, and eager to start a family. 

As the old saying goes, behind every great man is a great woman. O-Lan is crucial to Wang Lung’s success. Her skills and smarts make all the difference in the fortunes of their family. 

Captivating characters and irresistible prose have made The Good Earth one of my favorite books of all time.

“But Wang Lung thought of his land and pondered this way and that, with the sickened heart of deferred hope, how he could get back to it. he belonged, not to this scum which clung to the walls of a rich man’s house; nor did he belong to the rich man’s house. He belonged to the land and he could not live with any fullness until he felt the land under his feet and followed a plow in the springtime and bore a scythe in his hand at harvest.” 

“Then Wang Lung, without comprehending it, looked for an instant into the heart of this dull, and faithful creature, who had labored all her life at some task at which she won no reward.”
The Classics Club
2013 TBR Pile Challenge