classic book

Book Review: Tess of the D’Urbervilles

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousin’ Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. – GoodReads Description

I love Hardy’s writing style, but what brand of stupidity is this story?!? I got so frustrated with the characters, and the plot is just so depressing and horrible at every turn. Nothing nice happens. Ever! Continue reading →

Review: The Comedy of Errors

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The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two sets of twin baby brothers are cast adrift in a storm and wash up on shore in separate cities. When they are grown, they meet up again, not knowing of the others’ existence, and mistaken identities abound! One man’s wife mistakes him for his twin, and some creditors apply to the wrong twin for payment. The servants are totally confused, because they keep receiving conflicting commands from their masters.

While there are lots of hilarious situations, mix-ups, and puns and jokes galore, the plot is very straight forward with no surprises, and that made me a bit bored. It’s a very short play with a small cast of characters. It’s comedic fluff with not much of a story to it.

Maybe I’m just not in the mood for comedic fluff right now. Maybe if I saw it performed, it would be funnier, and I would enjoy it more. Reading a play is never the same as the real thing.

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Poetry Review: Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

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Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by George Gordon Byron

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is an epic poem in four Cantos about a young man, disillusioned with life, who goes on a tour of Europe, reflecting on wars fought in various countries and their histories, and ultimately deciding that life sucks, and there is no love or peace to be found anywhere. (Yay. So it’s a happy poem.) There are many references to a hidden emotional pain of Harold’s that forced him to leave England and haunts him wherever he goes, marring his enjoyment of life. What that painful secret is, we never find out.

The poetry itself is beautiful, of course, but I was hoping for more of a plot instead of all these ramblings and reflections on history and society. The entire poem is rabbit trails with no real resolution! There’s little to no structure in the story. Continue reading →

Book Review: Far from the Madding Crowd

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Far from the Madding Crowd
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This classic tells the story of Bathsheba Everdene, a young farm owner, and the three men who are in love with her. She has to make some difficult choices, some of which bring tragedy to her life, but ultimately she finds true love.

As with most classics, there is a lot of setup in the first chapters, but once the story gets going, it really moves along! Towards the middle and end, I was gasping and crying and laughing my head off. It’s definitely a wild story at times, and so brilliantly written.

Hardy has a reputation for writing depressing stuff, and there were some terrible depressing scenes that had me crying and horrified. But the ending is happy, so I was buoyed up again. Continue reading →

Review: King Henry VI, Part 3

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King Henry VI, Part 3
King Henry VI, Part 3 by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was starting to get bored with the Henrys, but this one revived me a bit. There were some especially rousing speeches, and I didn’t completely hate every character.

I feel like every situation and scene was gone through twice. Twice Edward is on the throne and Henry is forced to compromise or flee. Twice Henry is on the throne and Edward is fleeing. Twice they summon all their allies to send soldiers. Twice somebody sends to France for soldiers. Twice Henry is thrown into prison in the Tower, then Edward is thrown into prison as well with the Archbishop. Two big battles where half of everyone is killed. Two different scenes where young boys are killed. So much back and forth. Ugh. I feel like I read the same play twice. Continue reading →

Book Review: Great Stories of Suspense

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Great Stories of Suspense
Great Stories of Suspense by Ross Macdonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I only read three of the stories out of this book. One by Agatha Christie, a Miss Marple story I had read before, “What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw”. It’s longer than I remembered, and I think I liked the TV version better. I do love that very iconic scene of the old lady witnessing a murder through the windows of a train into another passing train car.

I read one by Dashiell Hammett, “Fly Paper”, that was the very “shoot ’em up, Joe” type of stuff I have come to expect from the author of The Thin Man. Nobody writes about private detectives like this author! His style is very clipped and to the point, which is perfect for a short story.

Then I read “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl, which was extremely short, rather obvious, but written in his inimitable style. I love how he never actually comes out and says what is happening in the story, but leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions. He really is a master at telling a whole story with half an actual story.

All in all, a great collection of stories!

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Book Review: My Side of the Mountain

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My Side of the Mountain
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every kid thinks about running away at one point or another; few get farther than the end of the block. Young Sam Gribley gets to the end of the block and keeps going–all the way to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and his wits as his tool for survival. In a spellbinding, touching, funny account, Sam learns to live off the land, and grows up a little in the process. Blizzards, hunters, loneliness, and fear all battle to drive Sam back to city life. But his desire for freedom, independence, and adventure is stronger. No reader will be immune to the compulsion to go right out and start whittling fishhooks and befriending raccoons.

I am certainly not an outdoorsy person, but I loved this book so much! What an adventure to live off the land all alone in the woods!
The writing is charming, Sam’s character is full of pluck and resourcefulness, and I was completely involved in every little woodsy adventure. Continue reading →

October REading

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Minion Book Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2vjeGKMv-U
Frankenstein Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JUxl5411AM
Curious Incident of Dog in Nighttime REview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV0qM8z2aHw
Novels and Nonsense: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUfP0El1vakyfkkXbyJwy0Q
Brunette Bibliophile: https://www.youtube.com/user/Just4Teens2012/featured

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