Books

Mr. Darcy and Whiskey: If Literary Characters Were Beverages

Mr. Darcy is whiskey

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that whiskey makes for an excellent character arc. –Jane Austen, probably

Have you ever thought about how different drinks have different personalities? If chocolate milk were a person it would surely have different hobbies, character traits, and life goals from Wine or Orange Juice, for example. So naturally, this question simply begs to be asked: if certain characters from literature were beverages, what type of beverage would they be?? Continue reading “Mr. Darcy and Whiskey: If Literary Characters Were Beverages”

Songs For Every Book

Les Misérables and British Indie Pop (Songs For Every Book)

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One of the most beautiful and heartbreaking songs I’ve ever heard has to be “I Found” by the British Indie band, Amber Run. I’ve loved this song for a while now, but recently I realized that the lyrics sound an awful lot like Éponine’s pain as Continue reading “Les Misérables and British Indie Pop (Songs For Every Book)”

Music

Top 5 Electric Guitar Versions of Songs That Need to Happen

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The face you get when you give a classical pianist an electric guitar

I’ve discovered that playing Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” on the heavy metal setting of my electric guitar is not only awesome, but super cathartic.  As a result, I’ve been thinking about other songs I could crank Continue reading “Top 5 Electric Guitar Versions of Songs That Need to Happen”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Les Misérables

Les Miserables

Brahms: Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 1

“Sleep softly, my child, sleep softly and well!
It breaks my heart to see you weep.”

These lines are from “Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament” and appear at the beginning of Brahms’ score.  The entire “Lament” is from the perspective of a mother singing a lullaby to her child, but as the poem gets darker we soon discover that the child’s father has abandoned them.

Sound familiar?

To me, the opening of the piece sounds like Fantine singing a Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Les Misérables”

Books

The Best Classic Books as Inspired by Pastries

Catcher Pastry

Thanks to sfarnell for tagging me in the Pastry Book Tag! As usual, I can’t do anything quite like the rest of the world, so I turned this into a list of some of my favorite classics!

P.S. What in the world is a croquembouche??? Continue reading “The Best Classic Books as Inspired by Pastries”

Books

Detective Stories…Without Detectives (My Top 6)

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The “A Tale of Two Cities” and “A Glimpse of the World With Detectives” blog posts from “Confessions of a Readaholic” have caused me to think lately about what a detective story really is (and since my posts lately been pretty much dominated by the Anna Karenina Classical Music Stories series, I thought I’d take a quick break to talk about something different).

Sure, we generally think of them as containing, well, a detective, and solving a mysterious crime. But I’m starting to think that other stories are like “detective” stories, too.

After all, when you read a book you’re always solving a mystery in a sense. You gradually discover who the characters are, what will happen to them, and/or how Continue reading “Detective Stories…Without Detectives (My Top 6)”