The Friday Fifty-Six: Contemplations on Hate

On an April morning, when the first snowmelt brought grassy scents from the mountains, the Luftwaffe sent wave after wave of Stuka dive-bombers to raid Belgrade. Armies from four hostile nations poured across the border. It took less than two weeks for the Yugoslav army to surrender. Even before that, Germany had declared Sarajevo part of a new state. “This is now the Ustashe and Independent State of Croatia,” the Nazi-appointed leader had declared. “It must be cleansed of Serbs and Jews. There is no room for any of them here. Not a stone upon stone will remain of what once belonged to them.”

People of the Book is a historical fiction novel by Geraldine Brooks that concerns itself with an imagined history of the the Sarajevo Haggadah, a well-known and very prized illuminated Continue reading “The Friday Fifty-Six: Contemplations on Hate”

Friday Fifty-Six: A Dose of Currer Bell

Today’s Friday Fifty-Six is brought to you by the Penguin Drop Caps Edition of Jane Eyre, a.k.a. my second and very prized copy of this beautiful piece of classic literature.

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre happens to be my favorite book and, for that reason, I thought it was only fitting to include it in an early edition of my contribution to the Friday Fifty-Six.

I cannot even begin to describe how important this book is to me, why I love Jane, the character, oh so much; how, since I read it for the first time at twelve years of age, this book continues to speak to me more and more with every read.

I cannot begin to describe any of that in one short post, so I leave you with this short excerpt instead, from page fifty-six of the Penguin Drop Caps Edition of Jane Eyre:

As yet I had spoken to no one, nor did anybody seem to take notice of me; I stood lonely enough, but that feeling of isolation I was accustomed; it did not oppress me much. I leant against a pillar of the veranda, drew my gray mantle close about me, and, trying to forget the cold which nipped me without, and the unsatisfied hunger which gnawed me within, delivered myself up to the employment of watching and thinking.

And, sometimes, the employment of watching and thinking is simply the very best there is.


The Friday 56 link up is hosted by Freda’s Voice.

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