Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Jane Austen: A Life Revealed by Catherine Reef (to be published June 6, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcout) is a short biography of the authoress geared for young readers. It has a second dimension, though, and that is as a biography of the novels that Austen created. As an adult, I must admit that I
I am not normally a reader of memoirs, but I’ve been finding some that work for me. The books listed in the Peresphone Books catalog have been calling me lately, and Karen’s recent review of A London Child of the 1870s prompted me to look for it in my local library system. As you know,
Same Kind of Different As Me (by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, 2006) is the perfect book club book for our group this month. We recently enjoyed (and yet struggled through) the deep Christian doctrines in Mere Christianity. This one is a true story about practical Christian living. Same Kind of Different as Me captures
I have not been in the mood for blogging or reading blogs lately, mostly because it’s been an emotional month (I suppose I could say year) for me so far. Among other things, my grandma passed away peacefully on January 1, 2011 at age 87. She is survived by five children (one other passed away
In the introduction to A Moveable Feast (published 1964), his memoir of the years between the wars during which he lived in Paris, Ernest Hemingway writes: If the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction. But there is always the chance that such a book of fiction may throw some light on what has
Brigham Young: American Moses (by Leonard Arrington, first published in 1985) captures the unusual personality and able leadership of the controversial second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church). Although I did not find Mr. Arrington’s text to be fascinating, the stories about Brigham Young were noteworthy, and I
As a mother raising a child in a world of video games and television, electronic gadgets and noise makers, I have often wondered how to encourage my son’s imagination. This seems to be a challenge even now when he’s a toddler, and it may be even more so as he grows. Society’s emphasis on after-school
From my limited perspective (that is, having read Undaunted Courage), the life of Meriwether Lewis was tragedy. He was a very good leader in the midst of an unknown wilderness, yet the results of his expedition were little because of his subsequent drunkenness and ineptitude at producing his results, governing, and otherwise assimilating back in
As much as I love to read, I am not a book buyer, and I especially I don’t have any special feelings for independent book stores, which I equate with less selection and higher prices. I buy used books online via various marketplaces because, even with shipping, it’s normally cheaper than buying a new or
We Two: Victoria and Albert, Rulers, Partners, and Rivals by Gillian Gill is a non-fiction biography of the monarch and her husband. I read it to get a sense of what made the Victorian Era a distinct era. I found the biography quite fascinating, even if the relationship between Queen Victoria and her husband Prince
I don’t normally read memoirs, but I’m finding that I really love to read political or journalistic memoirs when they are in graphic novel form. They are a fast read, and I learn so much about a different country’s political situation in a new perspective. I love that I can see the country via a
In his narrative of life in slavery and what led him to escape, Frederick Douglass captured the chief dilemmas that slaves dealt with, including slavery of the mind. Douglass’s slavery in Baltimore and surrounding areas was horrendous, and yet it was, as he admitted, quite tame compared to those experiences that slaves on plantations in
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