I Read: The Meaning of Mariah

The Meaning of Mariah by Mariah Carey and Michaela Angela Davis 

Mariah Carey has always been a bit intriguing - she's been a media darling, and media trash. At times it seemed like she really knew how to work the system, to get the publicity, and at times it really looked like she was getting blown away by it all. 

I picked up this book to see how much truth I could glean between her own story and my exiting perspective. Above all else, I think I learned that she's never really been anything but herself. And she's not really apologetic for anything, nor should she necessarily be. 

I Read: Sanditon

 Sanditon by Jane Austen

This is an unfinished work by Jane Austen. I started reading because PBS was showing a mini-series and I was interested to see what had inspired it. Now that I'm completed it, I'm intrigued and wish I could know where Austen was planning to go with it. 

It's a typical Jane Austen style novel, and I'm sure she was making social commentary on the women and their lives, or the way that life was conducted. But with only 12 chapters completed, it's hard to know exactly what that was. The characters are many in this work, and I did find myself very much more attached to some than others. Some didn't seem to have much point at all. 

The estimate is that what is available is about 1/5 of the completed novel as Austen would have written it. I'm not sure that another 4x this much would have enlightened me much further, but I would have loved the opportunity to know where she was taking this story. 

I haven't completely read much of Austen's work to this point. I used to get very tied up in the language and her use of the larger and more foreign words in older style English. But I have come to an appreciation of that language at this point, and will try to read at least one of Austen's work per year from here forward. 

#70-2020