Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
I am working on a different project today, but I came across this amazing poem by E.A. Robinson (1869-1935), who won more than one Pulitzer Prize in poetry. It’s called “Zola,” and it so perfectly captures why I disliked Germinal at the same time I absolutely loved it. If you’ve read any Zola before, you
As I’ve scoured the lists of books about revolutionary America for a book to read for my own education, I struggled to find one that covered a variety of people (I love biographies, but I can’t read one about everyone!) and eras (I would love to learn about all eras of the revolution, from the
Thornton Wilder’s sparse and simple play Our Town was first produced during the Great Depression (1938). In a set without any scenery beyond chairs and tables and in three short acts, Thornton Wilder creates an intimacy with the characters. This is probably due to the familiarity of the subject: life, love, and death in a
In my reading journal a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I may want to reread The Good Earth many times. I may need to amend that. The writing was beautiful. I loved Pearl Buck’s almost Biblical prose that just flowed like poetry. And yet, probably a dozen times, I almost stopped listening to the
The Summer Lovin’ Challenge is all about rereading favorites, so can you blame me for squeezing in a short reread this week? After I made my list, I couldn’t resist. I love rereading my favorite books! Wit by Margaret Edson is a quick read (I think I read it in about an hour over the
Carl Sandburg was born in rural Galesburg, Illinois in 1878. He quit school after eighth grade, and did a variety of jobs throughout the Midwest, including traveling as a hobo, working as a fireman, and threshing wheat, eventually settling down as a journalist in the city of Chicago. Through his experiences, he observed the dichotomy
I let myself browse the library a few weeks ago, and I ended up coming home with a huge coffee table book of photography, Moments: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographs by Hal Buell. I thought I’d browse through the award-winning photographs and then return it. To my delight, the short summaries on the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs
While I didn’t like Hemingway’s short stories when I read them, I did enjoy Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. While it has an element of sadness, there is also a beauty and majesty around its short plot.
[amazon_link asins=’B000I9VOO4′ template=’RightAlignSingleImage’ store=’rebereid06-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’7ddffe1b-17f4-11e7-ad88-c96d2a60b2c1′]Making a movie of To Kill a Mockingbird (reviewed here) was like killing a mockingbird: a sin. In the beginning, I thought “Wow, this is bad; they should do a remake.” By the end, I decided that no remake could capture the beauty of the novel: any film is bound
[amazon_link asins=’0446310786′ template=’RightAlignSingleImage’ store=’rebereid06-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’debcb40e-17f3-11e7-ba88-d5e79d61f198′]Harper Lee wrote one novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and it won the Pulitzer prize in 1961. Its themes still resonate with readers and her novel has become a part of our culture. That, I believe, is success. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee almost perfectly captures the main
[amazon_link asins=’0679406417′ template=’RightAlignSingleImage’ store=’rebereid06-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’55943483-17f2-11e7-9036-a32ce870b40e’]In The Complete Maus, Art Spiegelman tells not just his mother’s and father’s story but the story of all Jews in World War II Poland. The Complete Maus is the story of the Holocaust. In a break-through way, he tells this story in the form of a graphic novel. I
[amazon_link asins=’0753801671′ template=’RightAlignSingleImage’ store=’rebereid06-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’19670029-17f0-11e7-8b77-439f2f999c72′]Katharine Graham was most well-known to me for being publisher of The Washington Post during the newspaper’s reporting of Watergate. However, her life extended far beyond the walls of the Washington Post city room. In a sense, her life was a life of contrasts and similarities. After reading Katharine Graham’s
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