The Vulgar Eclectic

Tag: book jots

  • Boyhood by Leo Tolstoy

    Here is an old book jot from August, 2021…still getting caught up with posting these! I just finished reading Boyhood (1854) by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Judson Rosengrant. It’s the second novel in his autobiographical trilogy. The first book, Childhood, was the first work Tolstoy published. The prose is beautiful, natural, and simple. It was…

  • The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

    I’m still trying to add some older book jots…here is one from July 2022: I finished reading The Sword of Shannara (1977) by Terry Brooks a few days ago. This was a chunker of a book…a great big, epic fantasy novel. Years ago I had read the first chapter or so when I was in…

  • Thunder by Alexander Ostrovsky

    I finished reading Thunder (also translated as The Storm; 1859), a play written by Alexander Ostrovsky. I had never read anything by Ostrovsky before, and coming across this play was like finding a hidden jewel! There is a well-developed cast of characters surrounding two young Russians: Catherine, an unhappy married woman, and Boris, the son…

  • Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

    I finished reading Kidnapped (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson. This was a fantastically fun read! It’s an adventure novel that takes place in the mid 1700s in Scotland and follows the trials and tribulations of young David Balfour. Friendship is a major theme, as is integrity and honor. There were many words new to me,…

  • Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov

    Here is an old book jot from July 2021: I just finished reading Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (1898), translated by Peter Carson. It is a four-act play and considered one of Chekhov’s major plays. Chekhov has long been one of my favorite authors, and I’ve read many of his short stories over the years.…

  • Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke

    I finished reading Childhood’s End (1953) by Arthur C. Clarke. This science fiction classic opens with humanity’s first encounter with an alien species. Characters come and go and the plot develops primarily through their interactions with each other and the aliens. The writing is brisk and tightly descriptive. There is not much character development; the…

  • The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather

    I finished reading The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather. It’s a coming of age story and follows Thea, a young girl born and raised in a small town near the sand dunes of Colorado in the last decade of the 19th century. I loved the first half or so of the novel,…

  • L’Assommoir by Emile Zola

    Here is a book jot from July 2021: I finished reading L’Assommoir (1877) by Emile Zola, translated by T. W. Tancock. It’s one of twenty books that make up his Les Rougon-Macquart series. These novels follow two lines of a French family living in the latter half of the 19th century. L’Assommoir chronicles the lives…

  • The Fortune of the Rougons by Émile Zola

    I just finished reading The Fortune of the Rougons (1871) by Émile Zola, translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly. This is the first book in Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart cycle of twenty novels. I have previously read four other books that take place much later in the series, and reading the beginning was quite interesting. Some characters…

  • The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

    A book jot from July 2021: I finished reading The Great Brain (1967) by John D. Fitzgerald with illustrations by Mercer Mayer. It’s a children’s novel that takes place in the late 1890s in Utah. The setting and some of the plotlines seem unusual for children’s literature, and it handles some difficult themes in a…