Trapped Behind Nazi Lines by Eric Brown is a middle grade nonfiction book about a company of medics and nurses that, while flying to Italy during World War II, got lost in the clouds and ended up crash landing in Nazi-occupied Albania. The story tells how upon crash landing their airplane, they were able to

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Olive and the Big Secret by Tor Freeman (Templar Books, 2012) tells of one girl’s challenge to keep a secret her best friend told her! I’m sure many kids can relate to knowing a tantalizing secret that just dares to be told. The mixed media illustrations of a group of animals friends give it a

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Henrick Ibsen A Doll’s House (Et Dukkehjem, written 1879) is better known than Ghosts (Gengangere, written 1881), and in my opinion, the former is also a more polished drama. Yet, when I think of one of these plays by Ibsen, I cannot but think of the other. I don’t remember which I read first, but

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Yesterday you were divorced. Today I am a widow. (page 1) So begins So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba (first published 1980, translated from the French by Modupé Bodé-Thomas), the personal (fictional) diary of the Senegalese woman Ramatoulaye, written as an extended letter to her best friend Aissatou, who has long lived in the

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Shakespeare’s King Lear captures family relationships (father to daughter, father to son, brother to brother, sister to sister) in an undeniable tragedy. Lear is betrayed by his two eldest daughters and Gloucester is betrayed by his eldest (and illegitimate) son. But although there is broken trust and mourning, there are also tender expressions of true

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Today, I am delighted to welcome Edith Wharton to my blog via The Classics Circuit! For other Edith Wharton reviews in the month of January, visit the schedule. As with the other two Edith Wharton stories I’ve read (The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth), The Touchstone deals with an individual’s challenge in

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I really like the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling. It is an inspiration for all of us to be mature. It’s especially timely for me right now because I’m currently listening to the nonfiction audiobook Emotional Intelligence (by Daniel Goleman). More about that later…

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