Rebecca Reads

Although Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a slim book (124 pages), the issues raised are relevant today. I wouldn’t say Gilman’s writing is stunning or beautiful. The plot is not engaging or page-turning. It is predictable and overly “convenient.” The characters are stereotypes on steroids. But rather than expecting any of those other things, [...]

Aucassin et Nicolete was written in medieval France, but it’s not your typical roman d’amour.
I haven’t actually read any other medieval romances. My expectations of “typical” are all formed on stereotype. In many ways, Aucassin and Nicolette meets those fairy tale stereotypes. On the other hand, something goes quite “wrong” in this love story, for [...]

I was looking for a light “romance” to read for my library summer reading program, and I decided to go completely out of my comfort zone by reading a YA novel with a romance in it.
So because it was such a foreign genre, I suppose I was setting myself up to be disappointed by reading [...]

Phileas Fogg, a proper Englishman in 1870s England, gambled his life savings on the supposition that he could go around the world, from London to London via France, India, China, Japan, and America, in just eighty days. An amazing number of things hold him up as he travels by train, boat, carriage, and even an [...]

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi is almost a fairy tale. There is a magical fairy, there are talking animals, and of course, there is talking marionette who wants to be a real boy. And yet, Collodi’s tale fell just a little short of fairy tale status because of the obvious moralizing lessons: the [...]

What do you eat in one week? What does a typical American eat? What does a typical Brit eat? What does a family in the Darfur Refugee Camp in Chad eat? What do the people of the world eat?
These are the questions that photographer Peter Menzel seeks to answer through his coffee table book of [...]