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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…
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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…
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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,…
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Echoes
A world forsooth where wrong and right are blent,A world that teems with war, a world that reeksWith countless crime, where evermore the ploughLacks its due honour, and the hind is forcedFar from his desolate fields, and reaping-hooksAre straightened into swords. -Virgil, The Georgics (translated by Lord Burghclere)
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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.…
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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…
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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,…
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The Poetry of Thomas Hardy
I have been dipping into this great selection of poems by Thomas Hardy. I have loved his poetry for years and this is a great volume to have at one’s disposal. Long ago, I read A Trampwoman’s Tragedy while traveling in Hardy’s homeland. I remember reading The Convergence of the Twain in a college class.…
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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…
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Indiana Jones and the Curse of Horror Island
A few nights ago, I read Indiana Jones and the Curse of Horror Island (1984), written by R. L. Stine and illustrated by David B. Mattingly. This is the first Indiana Jones Find Your Fate book, which is a choose-your-own-adventure style gamebook series. I read a couple of these as a kid and decided to…