Bookish Talk | Book Chatter

*This read-along has ended, but you can find all of the updates at the bottom of this post.

Welcome to Wuthering Heights Wednesday! Softdrink is hosting a read-along of this classic novel, and we’re reading (and posting about) 3 chapters a week.

Chapters 1 through 3

My Synopsis

Lockwood, the narrator of our little story, has rented a property owned by Mr. Heathcliff. Heathcliff is a terrible grump of a man and does not like people in general so when Lockwood shows up on his doorstep in the middle of a snowstorm, Heathcliff has no patience for him. However, Lockwood is a bit of a pest and invites himself to dinner and it is then that he meets the rest of the household.

Mrs. Heathcliff, although beautiful in face is a real B. Lockwood is taken with her to a degree but reads her all wrong and mistakes her for Heathcliff’s wife when in fact she is the daughter-in-law and a real thorn in Heathcliff’s side. There’s also Earnshaw, who Lockwood assumes is Heathcliff’s son even though he is sort of a ruffian in looks. We later find out that he is Heathcliff’s nephew and that Heathcliff’s son has been dead for some time. As you can see, Lockwood isn’t making any points with his assumptions.

After dinner Lockwood asks for an escort to take him back to his rental, but Heathcliff scoffs at this. Lockwood begins to panic a little as there is no way he can navigate back to his home in waist-high snow(he’s a bit of a wimp). He ends up spending the night in a room that Zilah, the housekeeper has provided for him, but the room is questionable as it is filled with the memories of Catherine, who I assume is Heathcliff’s dead wife. After a fit of sleeplessness, Lockwood does fall asleep only to be awakened by a horrible nightmare. You see, the room is haunted or at least appears to be.

My Thoughts:

Years ago I tried to read this book and could not get through it. I just didn’t have the patience for it. This time around though I felt as if the first three chapters flowed quite well and I actually had to stop myself from reading on. Heathcliff is a big grump, but I sort of like him so far. I don’t like perky people and he is anything but that. What a miserable group of people though!

Other Weeks:

Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10

It’s Sunday. Glorious Sunday and it also happens to be Easter Sunday so Happy Easter! We don’t have any big plans. It’s Spring Break for my kids, but we had a change in plans so we’re not going anywhere after all. I’m fine with it as I never get to spend any time at home as it is, so a week of small day trips and some quiet time at home sounds really good to me.

This has been a good reading week for me. I finished The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott and loved it. My review will post later in the week. Why is it so hard to review a book that you love? I also finished Beatrice and Virgil. At this point in time, I’m not sure what I am going to say about it. It was so completely bizarre but also very familiar in a scary, real way. I’m going to have to ponder it a bit more before I even attempt to put my thoughts down in a post.

On Friday I was jumping up and down because I received The Passage by Justin Cronin. Goodness! This book is 784 pages long but I squealed anyway. I’ve been hearing so much about it and even though it’s not a genre I typically review, I am very excited about reading it. My son thinks I’m nuts. He took one look at the length, mumbled something unintelligible and stormed off. Boys.

I also joined a read-along for Wuthering Heights. If you’ve always wanted to read WH, then why don’t you join us?

As for the rest of the week, I have a reading stack that is about to topple over and includes the following books. Some of which I have already started but then stalled on after just a few pages. These are the order in which they sit on my bookshelf, not necessarily the order in which I need to read them.

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
Trackers by Patrick Carman
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung
Keeper by Kathi Appelt
The Passage by Justin Cronin

I think these should pretty much fill up my week, don’t you think? My only challenge will be the weather. It’s stunning right now. Sunny and blue with a temp of about 68. It’s hard to read when the weather is so beautiful and I believe it’s supposed to be nice the entire week. We’ll see how much of a dent I put in that list.

Chatting with friends about books and life…