Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2025) somehow seamlessly ties trauma from 9/11 with the pandemic of COVID-19, all while supporting a mischief-making boy as he finds new meaning in his life. For Finn, losing his firefighter dad in New York City during the early months of COVID-19 (two years before)
With a strong Nantucket setting, Downright Dencey by Caroline Snedeker (published 1927) is the story of a developing friendship between a Quaker girl and the young, poor orphan boy who lives on the outskirts of town. More deeply, however, it is a sweet old-fashioned story of Christian conversion and what it means to find forgiveness and
The Lighthouse Santa by Sara Hoagland Hunter (illustrated by Julia Miner; New Horizons Partners, 2011) is based on the true story of the man who brought Christmas presents to the distant lighthouses along the New England coast each year. It tells of a fictionalized family in a remote location, where one Christmas a snow storm meant
Summer by Edith Wharton (published 1917) is a short novella about a young woman searching for her place. In some places, it’s been cited as Wharton’s most “erotic” work1. Charity Royall does come to her own sexual awakening over the course of a summer, but Wharton writes about Charity’s choices without too much sexual reference.
I adopted May as A Short Story a Day in May (which was also, apparently, made “official” by someone important I’d never heard of). I started off on a roll: I read a short story every day for almost three weeks. Then, by the last week of the month, I realized that I was honestly
I was a bit disappointed by Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome. I’m glad I read it: it gave me a new perspective on Wharton, because it was a different setting, cast of characters, and theme from those I’ve read before. It was wonderfully written, with Wharton’s elaborate and realistic descriptions of the setting and thought processes.
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