King Solomon's Ring

King Solomon's Ring: New Light on Animals' Ways by Konrad Lorenz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Humorous and earnest. I really enjoyed Lorenz's adventures with and observations of the animals in his life. I think that for his time (post-WWI and pre-WWII), he was very interested in animal welfare. The book is only dated in that some of the attitudes have shifted toward favoring animal rights and that DNA has changed the study of some animals (like dogs/wolves). Very enjoyable read!

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Misty of Chincoteague

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'd avoided this book since grade school since it was an animal book that plenty of people just knew I'd love. I probably would have too! I liked it pretty well even as a grown up. :) It's also nice to have some animal books like this intermingled with the Old Yeller's and The Red Pony's out there. A little bit about growing up - both for the young people and animals in the book, but it's not as harsh a transition/decision/lesson as in some of the other animal books out there.

Definitely recommended for kids who love horses or other books with animals, but also recommended for general readers also.

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The Fire Next Time

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was fantastic & very thought-provoking - sadly for many of the same reasons as when it was published in the early 1960s. It makes me interested to know what Baldwin would write now if he wrote a follow-up. I like to think that some things have changed, but maybe not at that deep psychological or philosophical level. Highly recommended.

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O, Pioneers!

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think what I like about Cather's novels is their 19th century characters confronting the turn of the century and it's upcoming shift into "modernity." Changes in season that have always existed mirror changes in technology and values. How the characters interpret or confront those changes are really the interesting part in her stories. I also respect that while Cather admires the pioneer people (often, but not always Scandanavian immigrants) none are portrayed as perfect. All her characters are flawed in some way and even the "happy endings" are more accurately described "not as tragic as it could've been." It makes them hard to read because they bring out the pessimist in me & I am relieved at the end that few of the things that I imagine happening really do.

I think that with so many of the characteristics of modernist novels, that these are a good choice for introducing those concepts to high school readers since it does have an overall plot, chapters, punctuation, etc... that make others (Woolf, Joyce, among others) more difficult for teens to approach. That being said, these novels are not for everyone. I think having a Midwestern youth helps me a bit, but isn't necessary for appreciation.

And for my skeptical friends, she does kill several characters during the course of the novel.



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Manon Lescaut

Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was all right. I found it a little difficult to sustain my disbelief that the narrator of the story, Chevalier, would stand by such a flighty, inconstant, gold-digger. She must've been really something, I guess - some kind of Helen of Troy. Anyway, though she never speaks for herself (her words always come through the filter of her lover, the narrator), she dies at the end while the narrator survives to become an upstanding guy again after having lived in sin so long. While I can appreciate the author not wanting to seem too scandalous in his day, the double standard of behavior is annoying. Unless you like reading classics/romances from the 18th century, this will probably only irritate you. :D

I like this kind of book and it irritated me. (Whiny main characters - especially male ones - irritate me). This would be a good book to explore in a course about transgressive women in the novel over the course of time. Otherwise, if you aren't a fan of 18th century (1700s) literature, I'd skip it and read something different.

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Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Maggie Berg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book gave me a lot of insight into Wuthering Heights' enduring status as a classic. I think the reason I disliked Wuthering Heights so violently was because I'd always heard it was a love story & that isn't the case at all. Heathcliff is pretty much a psycho and Catherine is a drama queen. Both are definitely narcissistic. Passionate, yes, but still damaged goods (I mean seriously, who'd dig up the corpse of their beloved - twice?). I liked this analysis of the book because it discussed the fact that all the action in the book is interpreted through at least one filter (Lockwood) and mostly through 2 - Lockwood telling us what Nelly told him what she observed and what the other characters told her. I can appreciate the unreliable narrator aspect and I think I can more fully appreciate the text - even though I still find it disturbing.

I would definitely recommend the book - with the caveat that I think the readers should read something else *about* the book also (doesn't have to be this particular work of criticism). I definitely got a lot more out of it that way.

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A Child's Garden of Verses

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I remember having read at least some of these poems as a little girl. "The Swing" and "My Shadow" were poems I remembered in particular, though whether I read this before or read those in a different collection, I can't be sure. My oldest boy (3 & a half yrs old) really enjoys the poems. His favorite thus far is "My Shadow." The illustrations in this edition are wonderful also. Very highly recommended for bedtime reading with kids of all ages. Great alternative to a lot of the comical poetry for kids and Mother Goose (though I like those also).



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John Keats - Poems

Keats: Poems by John Keats

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Keats's sonnets were much more enjoyable than his longer work, I think due to their structure. The longer works just felt like someone sat down with a rhyming dictionary and did their best to entertain their friends & loved ones. The descriptive language Keats uses is rich and vibrant. The rhyme just felt forced and was very distracting, whereas with the shorter poems, this was not the case. Perhaps this is because the poetry is written by a young man (he died at 25) still developing his style and becoming comfortable with different poetical structures. Anyone interested in the Romantics should take a look - perhaps starting with the sonnets, but I'd recommend Samuel Coleridge first though before Keats.



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The Would Be Gentleman (or The Shopkeeper Turned Gentleman)

The Would Be Gentleman by Molière

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This play has several similar titles depending on who the translator was. I am sure this would be hilarious to see performed. As other reviewers have said, it's a take-off on "The Emperor's New Clothes" and is wonderful. :)



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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I liked that this was a more psychological novel about espionage. The characters seem a little bland, but there's nothing real about them - even to themselves... They need to *be* their story. Le Carre follows through with this splendidly and it's closer to a mystery than an adventure or suspense story since a lot of the reader's thoughts toward the story are devoted to "who's doing what & working for whom?" / "what's really going on here?"

A definite (& refreshing) change from dashing Mr. Bond. There's no harsh language, graphic violence or sex, and the style isn't as terse as most hard-boiled or noir fiction, but The Spy Who... has that kind of cloak of shadows around it. Even without those devices, though, this is no cozy read. Recommended for fans of espionage fiction (it's a classic of the genre) and for mystery readers who want a little bit different fare from their usual whodunnit.



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Good-bye Mr. Chips

While many reviewers praise this book by James Hilton on its sentimental interpretation of the story of an English schoolteacher, Mr. Chipping (aka the titular Mr. Chips), I found the story to be sad, though not depressing. I thought of it less as a portrait of an institution or a boarding school Everyman, than as a story of someone passed by & not really thought about by his peers or students. Having the people in his life regard him flippantly (though without malice) as "Mr. Chips" made me sad that no one really knew him. Probably, though he cared for his students, the young men they became probably didn't think twice about him after they left school. The picture I saw was a very lonely one. I suppose in a way, he is an Everyman in the sense that we can never really can know those around us, but still - I'd like to think some of us are more sensitive to the needs of others than most of the people around poor Mr. Chipping. Maybe that's the entire point of the sentimental story.

Recommended for middle and high school students. Also recommended for general audience.

Sarah, Plain and Tall

This children's book by Patricia MacLachlan was a great story. I enjoyed it now as an adult, but I would have adored it during my "Little House" phase as a kid. Ah well! Don't let the kids you know escape their childhoods without it! If they have time to read Goosebumps, they have time for this one too!

Very highly recommended for all children 5-10 years old & all kids who enjoy Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series or stories about pioneer times. Also recommended for any adult who enjoyed those kinds of stories as a child, but never actually read this one (like me!).

The Joy of Sex

Ok, ok, I know... Everybody's heard about it. I figured I'd read it to see if this book by Alex Comfort was in reality what I expected it to be. If all you expect upon opening this book is a racy book full of exotic photos, you'll be surprised. The Joy of Sex is actually very down-to-earth and not really at all titillating (pardon the pun). It's almost like a Chilton's guide to heterosexual sex. That being said, this book is most likely to be of help to relatively inexperienced couples, but even those of us who have been around the block a time or two will probably find out something previously unknown.

Comfort's direct writing style and factual information will likely irritate those readers who picked up the book thinking it'd be a quick thrill. However, for those readers interested in improving their lives in the bedroom, it's worth at least a skim-through.

Highly recommended for the relatively inexperienced couple. Recommended for all others.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

This classic by Oscar Wilde somewhat defies categorization. It's usually lumped with horror, but isn't quite - in the same way that The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux isn't really horror. That being said, though, the story moves along well and the characters are fairly lively for a book written in the latter part of the 19th Century. I kept imagining scenarios I'd seen in a movie adaptation of "An Ideal Husband" in relation to setting and speech patterns.

For a book that's considered a classic, The Portrait of Dorian Gray is very readable and would be a good book for any high school student to report on. :) I'd even say that if you already know something about the story, the book will still appeal to you!

Highly recommended for general readers. Very highly recommended for high school students who want to report on a "classic" to look good to their English teachers (hey, it's a win-win situation!).

The Witches of Eastwick

This book by John Updike (which was made into a movie in the late 1980's) was a worthwhile read. I found the book much darker and less wrapped-up morally than the movie - though this doesn't surprise me. :) The Witches of Eastwick is a well-written book and Updike embraces the power (not necessarily supernatural) that women have, but also shows the ugly side of women's relationships: jealousy, guilt, & sometimes betrayal.

None of the characters in The Witches of Eastwick are purely good or evil and it's up to the reader to decide how he/she feels about them at the end of the story. I won't spoil this write-up with more comparisons between the movie and the book, but suffice to say, it's worth reading and renting and one will not spoil the other.

Recommended for general audiences who don't mind sexual content. Highly recommended for those with an interest in witches, witchcraft, or witchy stories. :)

A Clockwork Orange

After about 9 years after my (now) husband read this book, I decided to go for it. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is a good book, but is not for those who can't stomach reading violent content - especially violence against women. The book is VERY different from the movie and gives the reader much more insight into the main character, Alex's, reasoning, moods, etc... that the movie doesn't do. Also, the version of the book I read has the original last chapter that was cut when the book was originally imported to the U.S. I think I enjoyed it much more with that chapter, though I could see why it was cut due to the time period in American pop culture.

As an aside, the book is written in dialect, so it will be difficult (and not very enjoyable) for some readers. I'd say that if you enjoy Irvine Welsh's books (Trainspotting - among others) and somehow this one has slipped past you - go for it! You'll probably really like it. If you dislike Welsh's books, it doesn't mean you won't like this one, though!

Highly recommended.

The Wind in the Willows

Another children's classic I didn't get to in my youth (too busy reading about spiders and the graphic novel-esque biographies of the Presidents of the United States - and Nancy Drew, of course.) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame is a great story about friendship, bravery, and when to seek out adventure (and when not to!). I found the book an enjoyable and relaxing read as an adult, but I suspect it would have been one of my favorites if I'd read it as a kid.

Highly recommended for children!! Also recommended for grown-ups who are kids at heart.

The Nine Tailors

This intriguing mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers is an excellent read! I don't believe this book is the first of her tales starring Lord Peter Wimsey, but it's a great introduction that leaves the reader wondering where he came from and where he's going. I think this makes a terrific foray into Sayers' work! I will admit that The Nine Tailors is the first of her books that I've read personally, but I am looking forward to reading more!

The book takes place in rural England (I can't be more specific, I don't think without making a fool of myself) and has terrific characters and glimpses into the small community life. Must read for all mystery lovers. Highly recommended for other fiction readers. I think there is enough description of change-ringing to be of interest to readers of light non-fiction as well, but probably not enough for those non-ficiton readers who prefer the hard-hitters (Durant's Story of Civilization, etc...).

Pere Goriot

This classic novel by Honore Balzac is an excellent example of the (mostly) honest man vs. high society. I enjoyed the hints of Shakespeare present in the undertones of the text (think King Lear and Iago from Othello). As tends to be the case in many early European novels, extensive description can lead the 21st century reader astray. If you enjoy Dickensian melodrama and coincidence, you will enjoy this work, however. I think this book is a great introduction to Balzac's work - much more so than his longer novel, Lost Illusions.

Recommended in general; highly recommended to lovers of Charles Dickens' work and to readers of classic fiction.

Old Man and the Sea

This short work by Ernest Hemingway is an American classic. Read by several generations of high school students (I suspect in part due to its brevity), this book is an excellent example of a man vs. nature story line. I would say, though, that what the book was really about was not the sea or even the fish, but about the man himself: his strengths, weaknesses, and more than anything, his humanity.

It'll take an hour to an hour & a half to read. Just do it. :) It's really a great (and not depressing) book about the human condition.