Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
I had hoped that by waiting a week or two I’d know what I want to say about Love’s Labour’s Lost, but after all this time I still have very little to say. I worry that I feel this way because I read a free Project Gutenberg version of it, and as I read in
In Kali’s Song by Jeanette Winter (Schwartz and Wade Books, 2012), a young boy who lives thousands of years ago in a cave with his mother finds joy in his life. His journey is serious. He watches his mother paint images of the animals on the wall of the cave, and then he must go out
At my classics book club last night, one of the women had not had a chance to read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (published 1940), but she came to hear the discussion about it nonetheless. She was not familiar with the book, and as we discussed it, she commented on how
A six-year-old must walk across a large field and near woods to get to her school bus stop, and in Singing Away the Dark by Caroline Woodward and Julie Morstad (Simply Read Books, 2011), she pushes away her fears by singing as loudly as she can. Although my four-year-old son was a bit concerned that she was by
Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite by Anna Harwell Celenza and illustrated by Don Tate (Charlesbridge, 2011) tells the story of the creation of Duke Ellington’s unclassifiable jazz redefinition of the classic Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky. I must admit that I absolutely love the music from Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet and my husband has converted me to jazz in general, so this
Brother Sun, Sister Moon by Katherine Patterson and Pamela Dalton (Chronicle, 2011) is one that I love for its simple beauty, although I can’t get my son (age 4) interested in it at all. A retelling of a hymn of praise by St. Francis of Assisi, Brother Sun, Sister Moon is made spectacular by the careful cut-paper illustrations which
Over in the Meadow illustrated by Jill McDonald (Barefoot Books, April 2011) comes with a singalong CD (sung by Susan Reed) so of course, my son loved it! In the past, we have checked out a different version of the “Over in the Meadow” folk song. I loved this illustrated version, which is a digital collage
Although I didn’t love Jazz as much as I loved Toni Morrison’s Beloved, I found it to have a similar depth. I know such depth requires me to reread it in order to truly sum up the main point of the novel. Because I’ve only read it once, I’m somewhat stumped as I go to
In preparation for the upcoming (February) Harlem Renaissance Classics Circuit, I’ve been reading a lot of introductory material to prepare for the introductory information we need to write for the sign up post. As I mentioned yesterday, I don’t feel like an expert in anything, so I love having The Classics Circuit to get me
I had previously seen the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet, so I thought I’d revisit it on CD during my opera phase in November. When I listened to the commentary CD for it (produced by the Chicago Lyric Opera), I discovered that the story was originally a novella by Prosper Merimee, so I downloaded the
When I joined the 2009 Science Book Challenge, I didn’t intend to focus on neuroscience, but it turns out that that branch of science is absolutely fascinating to me. These two books I read really have convinced me that science and art are inextricably related each other, for art is perceived and appreciated by the
The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (music) and Emanuel Schikaneder (libretto) holds a special place in my life: it was an opera my husband took me to when he was courting me. It’s been four years now, but I still feel giddy when I think about that special time when we were
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