Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
I really like audiobooks sometimes because it gives a book a new edge. I absolutely loved listening to a selection of John Cheever’s stories via audiobook. The John Cheever Audio Collection was very well done. As I listened to the stories, I kept recalling my time reading the short stories of Chekhov and Maupassant last
I like history and I always want to know more about American History. But in all the nonfiction and fiction about the Revolutionary War, it’s rather limited to dead white guys who fought the battles and otherwise founded our nation. Enter: Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts. In a conversational tone, Roberts shares some of the
There is something to be said for close, careful reading. I must have read Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar with the rest of my tenth grade class, but I honestly didn’t remember any of it. I decided to read it this month as a part of the Martel-Harper Challenge, for which Yann Martel chooses “book[s] that ha[ve]
I enjoyed The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman, a Newbery-winning novel. Cushman believably created a 1300s scene, and I liked learning about midwifery and superstition in the middle ages. While modern girls won’t face trials as extreme as the girl’s in the novel, they still must develop self-confidence and determine what their own dreams are.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley on the 101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers list, and I know I’ve seen it on many other “must-read” lists. I never read it in high school when many people apparently did, so I thought I should give it a go now. But I just cannot. I’ve listened
Green Knowe is a medieval castle in the English countryside, and it is full of enchantment and ghosts. L.M. Boston’s chronicles about the manor house are full of child-like delight. And yet, describing the series as a whole is challenging. They all, but one, involved magic of some kind. They all, but one, focus on
In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis sets out to share what he believes the core of Christianity is. He makes it clear in the introduction that he is not sharing doctrines of a specific faith, but rather Christianity in general. I hope no reader will suppose that “mere” Christianity is here put forward as an alternative
Often, I consider superior writing to be more important than a superior story: if it is written well, I don’t care so much about the story because the powerful writing can carry my interest in the book. Lord of the Flies by William Golding, however, failed that test. I loved the writing: Golding’s prose is
Much of the life of William Shakespeare is a mystery. He carefully did not keep a diary nor send love letters to his wife. Shakespeare, the prolific writer who, in just over 50 years wrote an almost unbelievable number of remarkable poems and plays, did not leave many personal details of his life beyond public
I read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as a teenager – and I loved it. Since then, I watched the A&E movie multiple times, and then last year I watched the newer movie, which was OK. I felt it was certainly time to revisit the novel itself. I was not disappointed. I loved it even
Whew! We’re moved! Friday the 13th turned out to be very lucky day for us — no problems at all before, during, or after the move. In the past two weeks, there were three or four days when I did not read more than ten pages. I’ve been reading so much in the past few
I disliked Three Cups of Tea; my mother loved it. Read our counterpoints. Hated It By Rebecca Reid of Rebecca Reads I heartily disliked listening to the 800+ minute audiobook of Three Cups of Tea by David Oliver Relin. To begin with, I disliked the horrible writing, which was full of extraneous details and parenthetical
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