Basil Blue's Bookstore
offers you a selection of Basil Blue's favorites!
As an English Literature major at UC-Berkeley,
I have read a lot of books!
Looking for the perfect present for a friend, a relative, a child, or even for yourself? Look no further!
You can browse and buy without leaving your chair.
I have used Amazon.com and was pleased with their professional, prompt service. I received my book three days after I ordered it. If you're buying a book as a gift for someone, they gift-wrap, too -- and they can even leave off the price tag!
A Fish Out Of Water by Helen Palmer
Join Otto and his goldfish! This book has been amusing me for over 20 years, since I was a little girl in my Grammy's lap. It's sweet, gentle, and keeps up the suspense. This is a great book for adults -- oh yeah -- and their kids, too! Plus it's a good reminder for kids to feed their goldfish "only a pinch."
Here are my favorite Dr. Seuss books:
Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss
This is the story I read when I need some encouragement: it is the huggable teddy bear of books. It's a tale of sometimes going many places...and sometimes falling on your faces. This book is sure to be understood and appreciated by children and adults alike.
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
Doesn't this title say enough? You don't have a copy? Get one!
Because I made my mother read this book to me a gazillion times, I had it memorized by the time I was four. I would recite it to the kids in the neighborhood, who were amazed by how well I could *read*. This is a perfect way to explore with children concepts like pollution, consumerism, commercially-produced *need*, ecology, and recycling! Sounds too tedious? It's not! This is a colorful, engaging story. It has touched me so deeply, I still remember it: "At the far end of town, where the grickle-grass grows..."
Amazing Grace
This book has some of the best illustrations I have ever seen! Grace is a spunky, imaginative African-American girl who, in the course of playing and socializing, deals head-on with issues of sexual and racial stereotypes. (This means she does get to be Peter Pan in the school play!)While the book deals with these subjects, it is done in a subtle manner. I like that Grace uses household objects in her play, rather than storebought toys. I also liked that Grace lives with her mom and grandma in a home that's not spotless, but messy, like mine! This book is not preachy or heavy; it is lively, celebratory, and fun!
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
This book is recommended by Basil Blue and Mother Jones Magazine. It's about life and death; it takes place in a nursery/abortion hospital. As usual, John Irving will have you laughing, crying...and thinking.
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
I love this book. I laughed so hard I nearly peed. I cried so hard I sobbed. Where John Irving get this stuff from, I have no idea. This is my favorite book of his. When I brought it home, it sat on my shelf for months before I'd open it (it looked long); when I cracked it, next thing I knew I was in the last chapter, wishing it would never end.
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
This is my favorite of the Kurt Vonnegut books I've read. It's deep and irreverent and bawdy and thought-provoking all at once. I told my busy husband that if he's only going to read one book this summer, this should be it! A great time.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Hard to write about this one. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the blues, in poetry, in fiction, in ethnic literature, or in themselves. The Bluest Eye is honest and poignant and painful. Toni Morrison has given us blues narrative in its purest form. Join Claudia and Freida, two girls who watch as their friend Pecola is detroyed by racism and incestuous rape that results in pregnancy. You would never believe such a horrendous tale could be told in such a beautiful, poetic way. Morrison doesn't take the easy way out: in this novel there are no monsters, only rich characters working within the contexts of their lives. And don't be fooled -- it will make you laugh out loud, too! Please read this novel.
Maus: A Survivor's Tale Vol. I/And Here My Troubles Began Vol. 2/Boxed by Art Spiegelman
The Holocaust and comics: two things that don't sound like they'd go together. Art Spiegelman does an incredible job in this autobiography that centers around his experiences as the survivor of Holocaust survivors. His medium is very unusual but effective. These books are fast reads, but they are not *easy* reads. Spiegelman blends tragedy with comedy.
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
This novel is spicy! Zami is "a biomythography by Audre Lorde," in which she chronicles her experiences as a black lesbian woman coming of age in the late 50s in Harlem. She is very pro-woman, without being anti-man. Her style is rich and sensuous, even as she recounts what other writes often overlook: she writes of her first menstruation that she "...could feel bands of tension sweeping across my body back and forth, like lunar winds across the moon's face. I felt the slight rubbing bulge of the cotton pad between my legs, and I smelled the delicate breadfruit smell rising up from the front of my print blouse that was my own womansmell, warm, shameful, but secretly utterly delicious." (p. 77)
If she can do that to her description of menstruation, just imagine what she can do to sex!
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Hope For the Flowers by Trina Paulus
or in Spanish:
Esperanza Para Los Flores: Hope For the Flowers by Trina Paulus
My Aunt Susie gave this book to me for my fourth birthday. I got something out of it then (caterpillars changing!) and it has grown with me through the years. Every time I read it I get something new out of it...it reflects myself back at me. This is the delightfully simple yet infinitely deep tale of two caterpillars metamorphosizing into butterflies. I would recommend this book to anyone who is still a caterpillar...and let's be honest, aren't we all still caterpillars in some way?
I gave the Spanish version to my friend, who graduated from UC-Berkeley with a major in English Literature and a minor in Spanish. He enjoyed it so much he's planning to use it for the students in his Spanish classes.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Tao Te Ching
