Culture Clash + The Epic Book Project

[trinityofone]

I’ve been really craving “culture clash” romantic comedies. I’m pretty sure this started because I’ve been rewatching The West Wing (siriaeve’s fault) and I was reminded of a Josh/Donna fic I read years ago where Josh, the East Coast Jew, meets Donna’s Midwestern WASP family, and amusing awkwardness and eventual romance ensue. (This is, incidentally, the story of my mother’s family—my Grandpa G. was even from Connecticut and my Grandma C. from Wisconsin!) Anyway, I can’t find this fic anywhere. Does anyone:

1) Know what the heck I might be talking about?
2) Have any other recs for culture clash rom coms—be they books, fic, films, or anything else? (Just don’t say Meet the Parents.)

Second, I used to nobly set aside a Large and Intimidating Classic to read in the summer months of July and August; this is how I tackled Ulysses and War and Peace. I want to start doing this again, but I can’t decide what book I should read. Can I beg your thoughts? (I’d make a poll but I just realized you can’t without a paid account. Pooh.)

Trin should read:

1) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
2) Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
3) Middlemarch by George Eliot
4) Something else that I’ll suggest in the comments
5) The very idea of this project is incredibly pretentious and I think Trin should just read fanfic and more of akukorax’s Star Trek novels

Thanks, as always, for your suggestions!

Comments

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I love Inferno—I actually took a seminar on it taught by this eccentric British guy; it was fantastic. Dante/Virgil = OTP!!!

Even if I don't read Middlemarch this summer, I promise I will soon/eventually. And speaking of Bronte—someone else was just telling me I should read Villette. Have you read it, and if so, how do you think it compares to Shirley?

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

woops. posted about the Inferno before I saw this. Glad you enjoyed it.

Definitely read Villette! It really blew me away....

[siria]

Villette I would also recommend :D Shirley is all class warfare! Trouble at t'mill! whereas Villette is all about the levels of Gothic repression it's possible to achieve in a girl's boarding school. *thumbs up* Though I do have a bizarre level of affection for all of the obscure Bronte works, and re-read them all tell my Penguin paperback copies were tattered when I was ten or eleven or so, so you might want to take my recommendations with a pinch of salt!

[elbomac.livejournal.com]

Villette is amazing! Heartily recommend!