I loved this novel about a small community in Monterey, California. I think I expected something more industrial from the title – Cannery Row refers to Monterey’s cannery district, where most of the men of this town make their living. But it’s also an ode to the natural beauty of coastal California, something that really…
Brideshead Revisited was written during World War II by Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh. Brideshead reflects many aspects of his life, from experiences at Oxford, his friendships with the British aristocratic set, and his military service. He published his first novel in 1928 at the age of 25. Also around that time he was married, then…
George Eliot, a classic Victorian novelist, has created characters that are so distinct from other novels of the time. Published in 1860, this novel is set around the 1820s in Lincolnshire, England. I was drawn into this story from page one, with little Maggie Tulliver playing on the banks of the River Floss. Maggie is smart,…
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is about our favorite books written before we were born. I haven’t written about my favorite classics for a while, so this was a nice opportunity to span a couple centuries of great literature and pick out my favorites. In making this list, I…
I have a list of recent Austen adaptations I want to read, like Ayesha at Last, Unmarriageable, and Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors. I’d seen great reviews of Pride by Idi Zoboi and was happy to find the audiobook narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo. I thought her reading was terrific and I really appreciated Zoboi’s fresh look at…
You might not expect Heidi to be one of my childhood favorites, but it is. I tended to love books that were grittier and darker. I preferred flawed or “prickly” characters (think Mary Poppins, Ramona, and Harriet the Spy) and I loved stories that scared me and those that had fantastic elements. Written in 1880,…
With three months left to finish the Read Harder 2018 challenge, I’ve been putting off the toughest category on the list: an assigned book you hated or never finished. For obvious reasons — who wants to reread a book they hated? My mind immediately jumped to my own book-nemesis, Jane Eyre. So many bloggers count…
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is the top ten books that have been on my TBR list the longest. Most of these are classics, but not all of them. This is a good chance to cull my list a bit. Please weigh in if you’ve read any…
A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The New York Drama Critics’ Circle named it the best play of 1959. I read this powerful work for the Classics Book a Month challenge. It’s the story of the Younger family, an African-American family living in…
For some reason I started this book several times; it didn’t quite grab me at first. I suppose a story about a theater director seemed like it might be pretentious. I should have realized that Margaret Atwood wouldn’t write a pretentious book. Once I gave this book a couple of chapters, I was hooked. And…
1984 has to be one of the most disturbing books I’ve read, between the creepy parallels with our current political situation, and the torture and brainwashing. Animal Farm has always been one of my favorite books, for its basic but powerful allegory about political corruption. 1984 takes this idea to a very different level. Written in…
Cathy from 746 Books has started a series called The Books that Built the Blogger, and the idea is to talk about the books that have most influenced you. I spent a few days thinking, but these are ones that immediately came to mind. Childhood: The Oz series by L. Frank Baum Recently I wrote…
The Book Stop 