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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
By Mark Twain

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is classic Mark Twain. It is strewn with funny anecdotes stemming from the narrator’s naive episodes. It’s not merely a story, but a great hilarity, a political speech, an economic text, and a historical spoof.

The narrator is hit on the head while supervising in the Colt’s arms factory. In his dream, he is transported back to the 6th century to the court of King Arthur. The medieval people are terrified of his clothes and speech and they plan to hang him. Our hero uses his knowledge of solar eclipses to teach the audience to fear him. With his knowledge of gunpowder, he wins the confidence of the dense citizens; he goes into competition with Merlin to see who is the best magician.

The Boss, as he is called, secretly sets up printing presses, telephones and telegraphs, electrical stations, and a West Point-like academy. He solicits the brightest of the population to work in those areas, but he is aghast at the dull reasoning of the general people. His downfall comes when he butts heads with the Church. The men of England rally with the Church, but are vanquished by the Boss’ army of 20 soldiers and 5 miles of live electric wire.

In the duration of his dream, the Boss makes many superficial changes. However, the innate fear of the Middle Ages cannot be wiped out by one man. That fear lead to the most comic moments in the book.

I would recommend his book to anyone, just for pleasure reading. It’s not a history of the Middle Ages, nor is it the most interesting plot. The genius of irony of Mark Twain shines through and makes the book worthwhile.

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee

This was a GREAT book. It's about a small southern town (Depression Era) and their struggle with racism. A black man is accused of raping a white girl. Atticus, a lawyer, is chosen to represent to black man, Tom Robinson. Atticus, instead of just showing up for work, makes a real case for Tom's innocence.

The story is narrated my Scout Finch, Atticus' dauhter. Scout, her brother Jem, and their summer friend Dill have nothing better to do than try to lure Boo Radley, the neighborhood recluse, out of his house. The narration by Scout is hilaroius, genius on Lee's part.

Atticus' character imparts a lot of wisdom to Scout and Jem. He never uses real discipline (he rarely ever needs to) and he instills a sense of justice and moral uprightness in his kids. (Their mother died before the story began). Atticus is a state legislator and highlt respecte in the community.

Even though justice isn't served to Tom Robinson and Jem never does see Boo Radley, the story is charming and very well written. This was Harper Lee's only novel.

Wurthing Heights
Emily Brontë

Charming little tale set in England from 1775-1802.

Mr. Lockood is a new renter of Thrushcross Grange. He is disturbed by a visit with his odd, misanthropic landlord, Mr. Heathcliff. At home he inquires into the history of the man. The story told is given by a reliable a (supposedly) neutral voice, Nelly, the old servant woman.

She begins when the horrid animal-like child Heathcliff was adopted. No one but little Catherine liked him much.

Catherine grew up and married Edward Linton, but she loved Heathcliff. Heathcliff was married to Isabella, Edgar’s sister. The marriage to the infatuated Isabella was merely revenge against Edward for taking Catherine. Isabella ran away when she discovered what a brute Heathcliff was. She had a boy and named him Linton.

Catherine had a girl, but died in childbirth. Little Catherine was the apple of her father’s eye. Linton returned to his father when Isabella died. Edgar Linton died. His daughter Catherine was yet unmarried. Heathcliff used his position to force Catherine and Linton to marry. Linton died soon after the wedding. That brought the story up to the present day.

As you can tell, the plot is fairly complicated. Emily Brontë handled it well, and the book is not so confusing. The element that really pulled the whole story together was the acrid character of Heathcliff. He is involved in almost every subplot, but he cannot be hailed as the protagonist. I enjoyed this book, although I liked Jane Eyre better.

The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck

It’s hard for me to really learn about China. They missed the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution. Chinese society is different from anything I normally encounter, anything I’m usually exposed to. I read the Good Earth; it helped me grasp the culture of the Chinese. Penned by Pearl S. Buck, the story is set in the (I think) beginning of the 19th century.

The story is of the adult life of Wang Tung. On his marriage day, he goes to the great House of Hwang and gets a kitchen servant there. This servant is to be his wife. The Wangs are poor.

The theme of this book is Wang Tung’s attachment to his land. He sees land as the only real property. The first time he runs across money, he invests in some rice lands. He sacrifices much for these lands, he sometimes sacrifices his family. More and more land accumulates. These lands prosper, multiply and make Wang Tung rich. When he grows old, he rests and reflects, but realizes his sons don’t have proper respect for the power of land ownership. He was wise, but his sons were not.

At first I was impressed with Wang Tung’s attachment to the land. Here is a man, from the backward land of China, who can recognize the economic power of land. The more I read, the more I thought of it as worship. Wang Tung worshipped his land. This inspired a number of essays of land ownership of which I will not bore you with posting.

Pearl S. Buck was a missionary to China. I think the cultural accounts given in the book have a claim of accuracy.

I recommend this book very highly.

The Giver
Lois Lowry

This short sci-fi novel focuses on the world of Jonas, who lives in a perfect, hyper-advanced society. Two spouses are given a male child and a female child. Everyone is given job when they turn Twelve. When someone is exepctionally disobedient, or too old or sickly, they are taken away and killed by injection. The community knows this as release.

Jonas is chosen to be apprenticed as the next Receiver, holder of all the past world’s memories. Only one person keeps these thoughts, sheltering the rest of the population from grief and pain.

When Jonas experiences anguish, joy, and love, he realizes the lack of depth in the lives of people in the community. He decides to attempt escape. He succeeds by biking for miles with his co-escapee, a toddler named Gabriel. Jonas took Gabriel to rescue him from release. Jonas breaks through time and space and joins the real world.

This was a great book. I loved it. The message was invaluable: fear a super-controling government and be wary of mans’ claims of perfection.

Lord of the Flies
William Golding

English schoolboys are stranded on an island after their evacuation plane crashed. No adults survived.

The boys elect Ralph as their chief. They hold assmeblies and are allowed to speak only when in possession of the special conch shell. Piggy, a fat boy with glasses, is smart, sensible, and despised by everyone except Ralph. Jack Merridew is the leader of the boys choir, who are the hunters of the group.

Jack defects and takes many boys with him to the opposite side of the island. This group lives like savages. They kill one boy after he was mistaken for the phantom beast.

Piggy is killed by a 40-foot fall from the rocks. Ralph is left all by himself. The savage boys hunt him. They fail to obliterate him. Eventually, a rescue boat arrives.

NOTE: A worthwhile book, although a little heavy on the blood and gore. Complete mutiation of Piggy was not necessary.

The Black Arrow
Robert Louis Stevenson

The War of the Roses was unique because it was fought by royalty. The lords and barons fell in combat, not the plebs. The Black Arrow tells the story of one boy, Richard Shelton, and his small part in the war. Dick was raised by Sir Daniel; his parents had died. Sir Daniel switched sides fom Lancaster to York and back again as long as it was financially beneficial for him. For most of the book, Sir Daniel fights for the Lancasters.

While out one day, Dick discovers a small boy named Mtcham, who has run away from Sir Daniel. The boys flee from Sir Daniel’s property, but Daniel finds them and brings them back.

Dick turns against Sir Daniel when he learns Daniel had a hand in his father’s death. Dick joins a band of Yorks, the ones who carry the black arrows. He fights for Sir Richard Crookback, later known as Richard of Glouchester.

This book took a long time to get into. The dialogue contains archaic spellings and phrases. Dick’s charcter is revealed mainly by omniscient thought-dissection, which gets old fast. If you like historical fiction, this would be a good book for 15th century England. If you can’t stand fiction, by all means don’t bother.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tells the story of Huck Finn and an escaped slave, Jim, as they float down the Mississippi River on a raft. This tale takes place in the mid-nineteenth century.

Huck and Tom Sawyer got rich at the end of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn opens as Huck has some problems with the widow, who is his adoptive mother, and his real father.

Huck doesn’t like being “civilised.” He leaves the widow and lives with his father. Huck’s father wants his son’s money. To escape, Huck fabricates a scene that makes it look like he has been murdered. He lives on an island, Johnson island, in the Mississippi River. He finds Jim, an escaped slave, who belongs to a resident of Hannibal, Missouri, where Huck was from. Huck decides to let Jim come down the River with him, at least to the Ohio River. At Cairo, Illinois, the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers meet. If he followed the Ohio north, he would be in the free states.

Huck sneaks into town on the mainland and learns that men will be searching for his father on the island that night. Huck’s father is suspected for his son’s murder. Jim and Huck leave immediately. Due to exceptionally heavy fog some days later, they miss the Ohio River and Cairo and keep floating. When they finally stop to ask if they are close to Cairo, they find they are days downstream.

Next, a steamboat runs over their raft. They are separated and forced to go on land a few days. Huck meets the Grangerfords, a wealthy family in an intense rivalry with the Sheperdsons, the area’s other wealthy family. The Grangerfords take Huck in. During his short stay, Huck witnesses a very gruesome battle break out between the two families when a Shepherdson and a Grangerford elope together. Huck finds Jim with the help of some slaves and they set off again on a small part of salvaged raft.

Three days later, the duo meet the king and the duke, two escaping con men who claim they are legitimate royalty. The men gladly sail with Huck and Jim. Huck soon witnesses first-hand the deceitful nature of the “royalty.” The king walks into a church service in a small town and takes a collection to be used to convert pirates in the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, the duke sells advertising space in the town’s newspaper, never intending to print anything.

Before the citizens can unravel their scheme, the king and duke are downstream, with Huck and Jim tagging along. Their next hoax is this: The king and duke talk with a boy playing on the shore of a small town. They happen to stumble upon information that a man has just died in the town and left a large estate to his brothers, who are coming from England and should be arriving soon.

The king and duke assume the roles of the brothers. They march into town, console their nieces and gather the gold. The night before the royalty were to leave, Huck took the gold from inside the duke’s mattress and hid it in the dead man’s coffin. Then, he tells the man’s daughters where the gold is.

Huck and Jim try to escape from the king duke, who are irate at their spoiled plans, but the royalty catch up with them.

The quartet sail for many days before stopping. When they finally stop, the king and duke sell Jim and squander the money on alcohol. Huck goes in search of Jim; he knows the name of the man who bought Jim. When Huck arrives at the Mr. Phelp’s house, he is greeted warmly, being mistaken for a visiting nephew. Assuming a new name, Tom, Huck lives with the Phelps calmly until he figures out exactly whom his portraying. He has been substituting for Tom Sawyer, his best friend from Hannibal, Missouri. Huck can now give accurate accounts of the people back in Hannibal, of whom Mrs. Phelps is so interested.

But if he is now Tom, what happened to the real Tom, who the Phelps family was expecting? Huck persuades Mr. Phelps to let him go into town by himself to collect baggage. Huck meets Tom Sawyer on the way. Tom is astonished to see Huck; Huck was supposed to be dead. Tom agrees to pretend to be Sid Sawyer, Tom’s cousin. Tom and Huck go back together.

Meanwhile, Huck has found out that Jim is being kept in a small shack on the Phelps’ farm. Huck wants to take off the board on the window and just have Jim crawl through the window. Tom, who scoffs at such simplicity, won’t allow it. His plan is an assorted, patchworked strategy made from different books he has read. Tom’s elaborate plan includes: having illiterate Jim keep a diary by writing in blood, having Jim carve such phrases as “Here a captive heart busted” and “Here, homeless and friendless, after thirty-seven years of bitter captivity, perished a noble stranger, natural son of Louis XIV,” ripping up sheet to make a useless rope ladder, and digging a tunnel with knives.

Tom and Huck help Jim escape. Tom gets shot in the leg in the process. Huck is forced to fetch a doctor for Tom and meets Mr. Phelps in the doctor’s house. They go back to the farm. Tom is carried in shortly later. Jim is apprehended, rought back and almost hung. Tom’s Aunt Polly shows up and explains that the two boys are Tom and Huck, not Sid and Tom. It is revealed that Jim is free; his owner died and set him free. The Phelps want to adopt Huck.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beacher Stowe

Uncle Tom is a good, pious slave sold out of necessity in a slave auction. Tom finds a god home at first with the small, saint-like mistress Evangeline. Evangeline dies and her father, Augustine St. Claire, promised Tom his freedom, but died suddenly before the paperwork was finished.

The whole estate was sold. Tom got stuck with a brutal master who beat him near death. On his deathbed, Tom is visited by Master George, his first master. Tom dies. George returns home and frees all his slaves.

Other storyline-A young slave mother tries escape with her son and flees to Canada. These subjects, Eliza and little Harry, are reunited with the last of their family, the husband, George, a slave from another plantation, on a Quaker settlement. This settlement is part of the Underground railroad.

NOTES: Little to no literary quality, just a compilation of emotional prattlings on fictious events. Skewed representation of the slave trade and of slaves’ lives. Stowe couldn’t decide if she wanted to canonize the slaves or make the masters devils. She uses Christianity to her advantage, offensively and almost mockingly (but she was a transcendentalist).

A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens

The two cities are London and Paris. Dr. Manette is imprisoned in France. He is forced to make shoes. A wine merchant, M. Defarge, arranges an escape. Manette is reunited with his daughter by Mr. Jarvis Lorry, a messenger and friend of Manette. The daughter, Lucie, marries a Frenchman who is the child of Mm. Defarge’s sister. This man’s name is Charles Darnay (in France it’s Evermonde).

Charles goes to France to free a friend from jail. He goes to jail himself. His crime was being a “foreigner.” He spends a year in jail. He is freed because of an exceptionally forgiving jury. However, he is immediately re-imprisoned.

The Red Badge of Courage
Stephen Crane

The Red Badge of Courage is the magnum opus of Stephen Crane. Although Crane did not live during the Civil War, he attempted a realistic, accurate account of the single greatest turning point in U.S. history by reading personal accounts and viewing famous pictures.

The book spans only a single battle-3 days-of the Civil War. The main character, a Union soldier, deals with his initial fears of panicked desertion when faced with a real battle. He does flee during his first battle, but through the confusing circumstances following a battle, manages to appear “lost and separated.”

Henry, as he is called, is an egotist who believes his mind is superior to all other soldiers and officers. Much time is spent developing the condescending, naiasstic thoughts. At various points during combat, these thoughts are consumed and defeated. Henry always manages to revive them with renewed vigor. As the story expires, the Union has won the battle and pride surges through the battered ranks.

The story in this book did not interest me at all, as I like neither fiction nor war. However, the development of the character was very well done. I could identify with the (often-misplaced) pride and profound emotional tension it created. That reason alone made the book worthwhile.

Sydney Carter, friend of the family and ardent admirer of Lucie, creates a plan to get the family out of France. He dies in Charles’ place.

Mm. Defarge, the antagonist, investigates the family for France. She almost has them arrested, but they flee in time. The servant lady, Mrs. Pross, kills Mm. Defarge.

This book is really good.

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Ken Kesey

Story of a group of mistreated men in a mental hospital. They are subjected to the cruel tyrannies of the Head Nurse. They are always threatened with EST, eletrical shock treatment. When a new patient is admitted, the entire ward is turned upside down. Randall Mcmurphy breaks windows, plans fishing trips, and flirts with the nurses.

One night, McMurphy arranges for a couple of whores to break in. That was the last straw. He was sent to have a lobotomy operation, and came back a vegtable (it had been discovered that he was immune to EST). Chief Bromdom, a tall Indian and narrator of the story, puts McMurphy’s spirit out of its misery with a pillow.

Title Note- “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” is a phrase used in a part when Bromdem was getting zapped with EST.

Note- There are many surreal chapters of robot workmen installing wires inside people. People have been transfoemed over the present generation to be machines, controlled by a computer. The head nurse has such a computer. McMurphy’s wires were never installed.

Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë’s best selling work by far.

Jane Eyre opens as a 10-year-old orphan is unfairly oppressed by her aunt-in-law. She is ridiculed and punished by her cousins, with whom she is living. Jane is soon shipped off to a strict boarding school.

Jane spends six years at the school as a student and two as a teacher. She sees no purpose in continuing there, so she hires herselfout as a govenrness. Jane falls in love with her master, Mr. Rochester. They were to be married, but a stranger revealed that Rochester was hiding his mad wife on the top floor.

Horrified, Jane runs away. She stumbles aimlessly across the English countryside. Finally, she finds solace in the home of two friendly girls. She discovers that these girls are her long lost cousins, of whom she has always dreamed of meeting.

Meanwhile, her uncle died and left her a fourtune. Jane goes back to Rochester. She finds him blind and maimed; scarred from trying to save his wife from a fire she set. Jane and Rochester get married.

Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity
by Robert Cwicklik

This biography followed Einstein’s entire life. He grew up in Germany, but renounced his German citizenship to opt for a Swiss one. He dropped out of highschool only to return 3 years later (no coleges would admit him for his lack of exposure to German literature and poor composition skills). He worked in a patent office until his breakthruogh paper on “Electrodynmaics of Moving Bodies” (1905) was published.

Cwiklik not only tells of Einstein’s life, but he also explains (in short detail) the theories involved. This book is a goodintroductin to Einstein’s theories. It breaks down one’s thinking that all is constant. The targeted audience is 12-13 year olds, so the depth of the concepts are kept at a minimum.

Bronze Bow
by Elizabeth George Speare

This is a fictional story of an eighteen-year-old Jewish boy living at the time of Jesus’ ministry.

Daniel is first involved with a zealot group in the mountains. The gang’s legendary leader, Rosh, is a hard little man who thinks nothing of taking sheep from local herdsmen or corn from local farmers if it will “help the cause.”

Daniel’s boyhood acquaintance, Joel, climbs up the mountain one day to find the zealot band. Joel meets them, but returns home. He eventually becomes a great rebel fighter. Daniel has to leave the mountain and go back into town to care for his sister who is possessed by demons and won’t leave the house. He opens a blacksmithery.

It is about this time, when Daniel returns to civilization, that he begins listening to Jesus. Jesus has a good message, but he doesn’t really jive with Daniel. Daniel hates the oppressive Romans, but Jesus compels him to give up his hatred and replace it with love. At first Daniel rejects that, but at the end of the book, he accepts Jesus’ message o love and compassion.

This book was OK. I thought Jesus’ character was portrayed as too love-y. He needed more substance.

The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimoore Cooper

This book is about a group of Americans and Indians interacting during the French and Indian War.

Four Americans, Heyward, a major in the U.S. Army, Cora and Alice, the lovely sisters and daughters of the genera at Fort William Henry, and David, the pious walking hymnal, are misled by their Indian guide. They are fortunate enough to meet a white scout, Hawkeye, and his two onderful Indians, Chingachgook and his son Uncas. The group travels together to Fort William Henry. Along the way they are captured by savages. They barely escape with their lives. When they finally arrive at William Henry, the French have put it under siege.

The Indiands again capture the girls. Heyward, Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Uncas run off to rescue them. (Heyward is in love with Alice.) In the end, Uncas is killed and Cora is murdered.

I couldn’t stand this book. By the time I figured out who everyone was, the book was half over (the Hawkeye/Heyward thing didn’t help). It’s not recommended. The perfect-Indian-in-total-touch-with-nature thing got real old real quick.

Animal Farm
George Orwell

This book is about a bunch of animals who overthrow their farmer (owner) and set up a government for themselves.

The animals revolt because they are hungry and oppressed. Certainly self-government would work out much better, they think. They do manage to procure a crop every year, but the autocracy soon begins to fade. The pigs take charge and the management of the farm is slowly transfered to them alone. The farm moves from democratic communism (a unrealistically perfect breed of communism) to total facism.

It's really interesting to see how the pigs turn into dictators. They begin to smudge the Seven Commandments, making previously illegal acts honorable. There is even a police force of attack dogs. The animals end up worse off than with the farmer. It's a short book and well worth reading.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
by Elizabeth George Speare

This is one of the worst books I’ve read in a long time. It’s one of those short Newbery Award novels written for 11-year-olds that I never bothered to read. I could barely finish this one. It was bad. The characters were poorly developed, the language was entirely too modern, the actions taken by the characters was totally anachronological. The Puritans were misrepresented as evil, narrow-minded witch hunters who were too sacrosanct for their own good. The reasoning done by the author on behalf of the Puritan characters was hollow. It was actually contrary to what a Puritan would have done.

Disgusted, I give you a summary:

This story followed a 16-year-old English girl from Barbados, where she lived with her wealthy grandfather until his death, to Connecticut in a Puritan town where she lived with her only other relatives. She is shocked at the cruel, hard life the Puritans lead. The town doesn’t accept her, and she is accused of being a witch. She never does settle and marries a sea captain.

I was disappointed about this book, especially after the successful Bronze Bow by the same author. Perhaps it’s poor research, or even compromising novelization skills, but for some reason, this one was a waste of time.

1984
by George Orwell

I was really excited about reading 1984. “Another great Orwell political sermon,” thought I. I expected it to be just a good, as involved and intense, as Animal Farm. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out quite that way.

The plot centers around Winston, a Londonite in 1984, 30 years after the socialist have taken over. Everyone is closely monitored to do as the party wishes, those who act contrary or think to heavily “vanish.” Winston is harboring some wicked anti-Party thoughts; he gets away with this for a time, and even extends it into anti-Party action, but eventually he is caught and brainwashed.

There is a lot of fun metaphysical discussion toward the end of the book. the Party has totally rewritten all of history, to the point where you only exist if they say you exist. The key phrase is 2 + 2 = 5, which shows that the Party has absolute control over everything, even scienctific and mathematical principles. Winston debates the ontological view that he exists because he knows he’s there...not his strongest argument.

The socialist society is well-exposed and mocked, but that is done neither subtly nor with much taste. At the end, the strange toture thing reminded me of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which also follows the same line of a trapped group who is obliterated when they don’t obey.

Presumably these people in the book are socialists, but they acted more like communists. People appeared to eat, drink, and sleep under a roof whether or not they worked (although no one ate well). Orwell called the economics system “Ingsoc” (English Socialism), and that’s why I refered to them as socialists.

Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen

This was one of those books that I should’ve read when I was 10. Brian is going to visit his father for the first time since his parents get divorced. He is flying there in a single engine plane. On the way there, the pilot has a heart attack and dies; Brian can’t get help and the plane goes down. He survives in the wilderness for 2 months with only 1 tool: the hatchet his mother gave him before he left.

This is not a true story. I suppose that doesn’t matter, but they’re always better when they’re true. The author doesn’t write in complete sentences. Sometimes you get a predicate, other times a “feeling.” For instance, a passage might begin simply “Awake.” and end a few paragraphs later with “Sleep.”

A measure of complexity is added to the story because Brian is haunted by his knowledge of his mother’s affair that broke up the marriage. This memory occurs often, non sequitor from the rest of the story.

Jamestown: 1544-1699
by Carl Bridenbaugh

This book gave a short history of the early years of Jamestown. It was caught between a dour history and a narrative. The events covered are done so in some detail, but he style is not always consistent.

The author tends to whine for the sake of the Jamestown citizens, how oppressed they were by the London Company and eventually by their own nobility “government.” I’m not sure the citizens were accurately represented, in terms of religion or civility. Not recommended for someone who wants a concise, true history of the Jamestown settlement.

The Great Gastby is not here yet.
The Jungle is not here yet.

A Separate Peace
by John Knowles

This was a coming of age story narrated by a boy in prep school during WWII. The main character, though is his best friend, Phineas (Finny). Finny is an amazing athlete and daredevil, which eventually leads to his downfall. He is presented as not only brilliant, but humble. He’s an idealist, which is exposed by his intense training of Forrester, a scholar by nature, for the ‘44 Olympics, when he himself is unable to train.

Included in the story is a plethora of Humanistic elements. These boys want to have complete control over their destiny. They dismiss theism. They make their own rules, insist on the absence of absolutes, and would wreak havoc if they did, in fact, get drafted.

This book isn’t too long, and it’s probably worth a skim reading once or twice. (It’s a wonderful skim candidate. Dialogue is used for the majority of the story and Knowles doesn’t get sucked into boring scenery illustrations, which I can not stand.) Beware of the Humanist elements; it was author by a Humanist, and his worldview will be present in his writings.

Mere Christianity
by C. S. Lewis

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Lewis is truly a gifted apologist. His style is built on his ability to conjure and convey visual and kinetic images through his writing. Every point is accompanied by an allegory or example from life that completes the thought.

Mere Christianity is a book for people who are not yet Christians or young Christians who need to be strengthened in their faith. It is divided into 4 books, and the chapter titles are true to their content. (Because of that, this book is a good one to keep on hand for quick reference on one subject or another.) This book is a good preface to Christianity as it explains major points in compact, distinct chapters. It’s one deficiency is that of Bible verses. Lewis makes statements, but doesn’t back them up with Scripture. Perhaps that’s the way the book was designed (maybe he felt to many references would turn non-Christians off).

Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome was a poor man living in New England about the turn of the ventury. His wife was a crabby hypodondriac. Frustrated with his mundane life, Frome attaches himself to his neice-in-law, Mattie. The two eventually attempt suidide; they see it as a solution to their problems: if they can’t live together, why live at all?

The first paragraph of this book was my favorite, I’ll never forget it. I am not a friend of fiction, but the entry into this story went very well. My attention was captured in the first 3 sentences. The style panders to people who enjoy gossip. Read it yourself if you want a better explanation.

The story is told from a presumably unbiased source: a visiting engineer who meets Frome’s acquantainces in town. The characters are introduced carefully and are well-developed. The dialouge is managed well except for the last chapter, when the conversations speed up and the organization falls apart. Aside from this fault, the quality of Wharton’s writing is really quite nice.

Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbit

This is a story about a family who drank from a magic spring that stops aging. They have appeared the same age for 87 years. When a 10 year old girl named Winnie sees one of the family, Jesse, drinking of the spring, she wants a sip, too. Jesse can’t refuse her this without an explaination, so she gets wrapped up in these people’s horrid problems.

The premise (fountain of youth) is only vaguely interesting. The presentation was just awful, just characteristic of this genre of youth novels. I could just barely get through all 140 pages, the strain on the dialouge was so bad.

Not recommended.

Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck

Two men, George and Lennie, are migrant workers on the California coast sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. They had known and traveled together their whole lives. George is a small, sharp man and Lennie is a large, retarded man. Lennie has little self control and becomes scared easily. His behavior has the pair driven from job after job.

In the beginning, it seemed not to bother George that his companion was so much trouble. Rather, George liked the company that few workers could boast of. George and Lennie’s combined income could make the dream of owning acreage resolve twice as quickly.

When they began new jobs at a new farm, they met a lot of interesting charaters (foils, mostly.) Slim was the hard-working, deep-thinking skinner. Carlson and Whit were classic farm workers: crude and tough. Crooks was the black barn keeper. He was quite lonely, but covered the emotion with aloofness. Curley was the rough son of the boss. His new wife was a vamp.

George made plans with Candy, the bunk house keeper, to buy a farm. Candy had saved much money already. Lennie spoils it when he accidentally kills Curely’s wife. During the ensuing manhunt, George finds Lennie, reminds him one last time of the great life on their own farm, and shoots him in the back of the neck.

Lennie
Lennie had a fascination with small furry things. He would keep dead mice to stroke them. He liked small puppies. He dreamed forever of cages of rabbits.

Women
The only female charater in this book was not even given a name: Curley’s wife. She was a tramp always looking for trouble. Two other women were metioned in the course of conversation. One was Susie, the nice old woman who “nev’ swears” and runs the cheap whore house. The other was Lennie’s Aunt Clara.

The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway

An old fisherman struggles for 2 days to reel in the biggest fish he’s ever seen.

The old man has had not caught a fish for 85 days. He has lost his helper. The apprentice’s parents said the old man had bad luck. The loyal boy still helps the old fisherman every morning.

The old man gets a bite from a large fish. The fish carries the small craft far out to sea. The man fights it for two whole says and finally reels it in. The fish is too big to fit in the boat, so it must float along side. In the trip back to shore, sharks come and eat all of the good meat.

The dejected fisherman collapses on shore and the boy helps him home. Most of the skeleton is still there and the village is awed by its length: 15 feet.

I believe this story was about a Cuban fisherman in the 1950’s and my clues are these: The fisherman talks of baseball constantly, especially of the great DiMaggio. When at sea, the fisherman wonders how far it is back to the island. The first sentence of the book declares that the old man fishes in the Gulf Stream. “Speed boats and radios are for rich people.”

One hundred and forty pages is a lot of room to fill up with fish-man-sea-hands, fish-man-sea-hands paragraphs. The was only one conflict, the fish versus the man. Hemingway really beat all the life out of a fish-man-sea-hands template. This book was really boring. Typical Hemingway. The style of writing he uses makes one think that he must have been in a cloud somewhere. However, his etheral surroundings aren’t supposed to diminish the force and urgency that the story “commands.”

The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hester Prynne commits adultery and it produces a baby girl. Hester refuses to reveal the name of her partner, and is publically humiliated alone. She is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter on her chest for the rest of her life.

On the day of Hester’s public humiliation, her husband stumbles into town. He had been held up by Indians for years while Hester waited in the quiet Puritan settlement. Instead of greeting the shamed woman, Mr. Prynne assumes the name of Roger Chillingworth and becomes the town’s doctor.

Hester and her baby live in an abandoned shack at the edge of town. Surviving meagerly on revenue created by her stylish embroidery, Hester and little Pearl are ignored by society. Pearl is a beautiful little girl, but she seems possessed. She loves terrorizing her mother and screams like a demon at townspeople.

Upon his new occupation as a doctor, Chillingworth is given charge of the beloved minister, Mr. Dimmesadale. Mr. Dimmesdale has grown increasing pale and sickly over the past year and has a habit of bringing his hand to his heart. It’s not long before it is revealed that Mr. Dimmesdale’s conscience is sick with the black mark of Adultery.

Hester and Mr. Dimmesdale plan to leave on a ship and go back to England. Chillingworth tries to spoil their plans. The Sunday before the ship departs, Mr. Dimmesdale make a public confession and dies. Hester and Pearl leave.

The Unvanquished
by William Faulkner

This story is set in Mississippi during and after the Civil War. It’s about a young Satoris and his slave/friend, Marengo. Accompanied by Granny, this set has a variety of escapades: making a killing reselling Union cattle, traveling around the state with a price on their heads, avenging Granny’s murder, and rebuilding a holocausted house.

This novel is exquisitely written. The characters of young Satoris and Granny are made alive in the book. Faulkner offers a perfect blend of plot and setting, dialogue and description.

This little book is highly recommended.

Why did the chicken cross the road?
To die. In the rain.

-Ernest Hemingway