Blog + Dog, Books, Reading Lists

Literary Puppies; Big Names For Little Paws

We’re doing a massive throwback to when the puppies were still babies and I was the proud mama of fifteen dogs. Keeping in the vein of: I’m so far behind in writing content for the blog, I’m showing up with these pictures taken in the middle of May 2020 when the babies were tiny and I had yet to realize I had lost all motivation. So content I meant to publish well over a year ago is finally seeing the light of day.  

This was as haywire as it looks.

As of right now, the puppies have been in their forever homes for a year and three months. I ended up keeping four and the mama along with my first rescue dog. The house is chaos, and I love it. 

When it comes to names, I believe a name is important. It is an identity. The utterance of a name evokes an entire being. I’m the owner of a unique name with meaning. My dogs are my children, and I wanted to bestow them with unique and meaningful names; even if those names would only be with them for a short time. 

Beau is the first baby I named. Her full name being Beauvoir for Simone de Beauvoir, the French writer, feminist, and existentialist. I wanted her to be strong and smart and full of character. All things that she very much is. When Tess came along, she was a pregnant teenager alone in the world, so I named her for the titular character in Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Let’s just say, her story has a much happier ending than the novel. 

Tess brought the puppies into the world on March 3 and 4, 2020. Dylan and I went back and forth naming them. To say the least, the names were not necessarily equal in creativity. No paws pointed in any direction… Just to inform, the names I chose were largely literary or historical and sometimes both. The exception being Noski, meaning socks in Russian because he had four white paws, creatively uncreative. 

My favorite thing was sitting down and letting them climb all over me.

March—Everyone thought I named her March because she was born in March. That would be coincidental. I named her for the March sisters in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Now named Vienna, for Vienna sausage because she looked like a tiny sausage puppy.

Hardy—Named for one of my favorite authors, Thomas Hardy, who wrote Tess of the D’Urbervilles. He was a Victorian novelist, who wasn’t afraid to tackle difficult subjects and women’s struggles. Now named Marcus, for Marcus Aurelius, so yay for a creative furever dad.

Hera—[Dylan Named] He wanted to name a few girls after ancient Greek goddesses, who are strong. Yay for mythological stories. So I’m not mad about it. Still named Hera.

Boudica—A warrior Queen of the Iceni tribe, who met and conquered the Roman forces in 60 AD. Maybe not literary, but there are some great books about her! Now named Lucy!

Makeda—Named for a highly disputed woman who may or may have not existed in Ethiopia and/or the Middle East, depending on tradition. She is better known as Queen of Sheba and first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. 

Lily-May—A combination of Lily Bart from House of Mirth and May Welland from The Age of Innocence both by Edith Wharton. Now named by Sadie.

Athena—[Dylan Named] Another girl named for an ancient Greek goddess. She’s still named Athena, but she goes by Teena.  

Oryol—The hometown of Ivan Turgenev, a Russian writer, known for exploring nihilistic themes in much of his work. Fathers and Sons is a particular favorite. He now goes by Murphy. 

They were chaos, but they were cuddly chaos.

My house has three girls and three boys. The girls were all named by me: Beau, Tess, and Makeda. Dylan named the three boys: Knight, Duke, and Bear. None are literary names. I did make Knight’s name fun by pronouncing it K-Nig-Hit. It is pronounced phonetically and not with a silent k, g, or h. People look at me weird, and I love it. I like to tell people Duke was named for Duke Orsino in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and Bear was named for Professor Behr in Little Women. Neither is true, but I can pretend. 

bisous un обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Books, Reading Lists, Travel Guides

Packing List

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A River of Stars | The Silence of the Girls | Brief Answers to the Big Questions  | Torch Song Trilogy | Age of Innocence | Him Her Him Again the End of Him | Miss D & Me | Well-Read Black Girl | Pajamas | Throw Blanket || Luggage

I packed a suitcase full of books for my trip this month. Alex, my frequent partner in crime, is deploying next month. Before he leaves, I flew to North Carolina on Saturday. We spent the night on base; then, we road tripped to his parents’ homes in Minnesota. A mere 19 hours in the car. We’re actually pretty used to it. We’ll be spending a week and a half together before I go home to Houston. We’ll see how many books I read in that time span. I am travelling prepared, though!

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Miss D & Me: Life with the Invincible Bette Davis
by Kathryn Seremak with Danelle Morton
I’m looking forward to this one because I am a huge Bette Davis fan, and I love her classic movies! Such a talent.

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
from Glory Edim
I follow @wellreadblackgirl on Instagram. Glory is beyond inspirational. When I learned of this book, I knew I NEEDED to read it! So it’s on the top of my list right now.

Brief Answers to the Big Questions
by Stephen Hawking
I feel like this speaks for itself. I’m always looking for books to challenge me. Stephen Hawking will for sure do that. I know very little about his realm of study.

Torch Song Trilogy: Plays
by Harvey Fierstein
I haven’t read a play in a long, long time, so I’m excited to dive in.

The Silence of the Girls
by Pat Barker
I haven’t read much historical fiction this year. I’m a tough critic, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about this one in particular.

Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
This is one of my favorite books. It’s been years since I have read it, and I want to revisit.

Him Her Him Again the End of Him
by Patricia Marx
I’m going to be completely honest… I bought this solely because the spine has houndstooth on it, and I have been obsessed with that pattern for ever.

A River of Stars
by Vanessa Hua
I don’t know much about this book, but I do love the cover a lot! It’s so bright!

Pajamas
from Target
I love pajamas, but I honestly don’t wear them that often. I mostly bum around in oversized t-shirts, which is totally fine when I’m at home or with Alex. But I’ll be spending time around his parents. I love these pajamas; they are literally the softest thing ever!

Brown Hat
from Amazon
I think everyone needs a good brown, felt hat for the fall season… especially up North!


Yellow Faux Mohair Plaid Throw
from Target
I bought this throw blanket on a whim. I’m so glad I did. It was so necessary on the plane!!! It fit perfectly in my bag, but it is also incredibly soft and warm. You need it! Ok, I “needed” it.

Samsonite 20” Centric Spinner
I bought new luggage for my trip because it had been a decade. I did a bunch of research, and I really like this set of luggage. This carry on is perfect and lightweight. It really only carried my books on this trip, though!

I’m off to bed! It’s been a long few days of travel, travel, travel! I need some sleep before I get to work again bright and early tomorrow morning, so I can have some fun in the afternoon!

Bisous!
RaeAnna

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Miss D & Me || Well-Read Black Girl || A River of Stars ||
Brief Answers to the Big Questions || Torch Song Trilogy || The Silence of the Girls ||
Age of Innocence || Him Her Him Again the End of Him

Books

Edith Wharton

Read: No
Length: 869
Quick Review: A thorough and insightful look into the life and writing of an influential, female author.

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Edith Wharton is an author known for her realistic social critiques of the American upper echelon’s wealth, morals, classicism, and more. Her use of language captured a way of life that was both disappearing quickly and unattainable to the majority of Americans. Wharton had a unique insight into the New York City aristocracy because she was born into high society.

Wharton is one of my favorite authors and has been for a long time. I first fell in love with her writing while reading House of Mirth and Age of Innocence. They are both wonderful and classics. One thing I didn’t know about Wharton but learned is her love for dogs. She cites receiving her first dog as a child as a pivotal moment in her life. As a dog mama, I completely and totally identify with this sentiment.

Edith Wharton was born in New York City in 1862. She was much younger than her two older brothers, which caused her to view her childhood as one filled with solitude. Between the ages of four and ten, she lived in Europe. Upon returning to New York City, she could never shake the feeling of otherness, which would often crop up in her work thematically. The feeling of being an outsider would eventually allow her to critique the aristocracy so poignantly. Wharton was a writer from the very beginning. She began publishing work in her teens but disappeared from the publishing world for many, many years. At the age of 23, she married Edward Wharton. After 28 years of marriage in 1913, they divorced. She didn’t begin publishing until the later years of marriage that Wharton began publishing. Wharton would spend a great deal of time in France and spoke French fluently but with a heavy accent. She passed away in 1937 in France, her preferred home.

Hermione Lee explores the life and work of Edith Wharton in a mere 870 pages. Edith Wharton was extensively researched and written with precision. Lee relied heavily on Wharton’s work for biographical clues and sites lengthy passages from her work. Lee sites so much of Wharton’s work that the book feels more like a textual analysis than a biography. Vast majority of the time, it was difficult wading through all the passages and analysis to find out about the historical information about the woman who penned the words originally.

I can understand why Lee cited Wharton’s work so heavily. Much of Wharton’s life is a mystery because she was incredibly private. She destroyed her correspondences and asked for the recipients of her letters to do the same. In her autobiography and memoir, she was not always truthful in her self portrayal. Turning to Wharton’s work is an obvious and helpful way of circumventing the research challenges.

Memorable Quotes
“The gift of her first small dig at the age of three was evidently as life-changing an event as her first publication, or her first car, would be.”

Title: Edith Wharton
Author: Hermione Lee
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 978037540009