 |
"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates
Have You Ever Read . . . ? |
 |
Menu of Recommendations:Please click on the link to read my brief recommendation.
"Janet Waking" by John Crowe Ransom (poem)"Janet Waking" by John Crowe Ransom is is a poem that gives the appearance of being a trifle but actually can floor a reader with its depth and emotion. A father narrates (he is the only one who would know how he would kiss each curl of his daughter's hair) and muses on how his daughter will react now that she has awoken and is soon to discover that her pet chicken is dead. A seemingly insignificant incident, the father acknowledges the absurdity of the situation with rueful humor ("Now the poor comb stood up straight / But Chucky did not."), but also realizes that his daughter has been awakened into the knowledge of death and life. It is not a lesson he would deny her but he also knows the permanence of the change in her life. It is the loving care with which the father sees his daughter which catches my attention. He simultaneously sees this as an important lesson for his daughter, a gentle initiation into the realities of life, and understands the pain she feels. While the pain of a lost hen may seem a small thing, he has the ability to see that there will be more in her life. There will be further loses, his own death, her mother's. The hen is just the beginning of the pain Janet must contend with in life. Life is made of joys and love, but there is also loss. Chocolat by Joanne Harris (novel)Chocolat by Joanne Harris begins fine by concentrating upon the conflict of a woman who is open to the natural world and is in tune with it and society and a man who ostensibly is a representative of the spiritual world but who really denies its existence with his every action. Having set up these two polar opposites, Harris lets the plot wind down unsatisfactorily with a clear but ultimately meaningless resolution.
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman (non-fiction)I picked up Ex Libris offhandedly while I was at the public library with my children. They were having a good time and I needed something to occupy my mind. I was through a third of the book before we left and had laughed out loud a couple of times which got looks by several strangers. Anne Fadiman writes a book of essays for and about book lovers. This is a book for those who have special feeling about the actual physical touch and feel and smell and even taste of a book. These essays are about what it means to have a physical relationship with reading material. Are you the type of person who idolizes books and never bends the spine or curls the pages and who never, ever writes notes in the margins or underlines passages? Do you wish to keep your book pristine and pure? Or are you the type of bibliophile who ravages a book with notes and marks? Do you shove books into your pocket and make them fit your life style? Do you organize your library with a guiding principal or do you pile books into shelves haphazardly? What do you do when you marry? Will your libraries merge as your lives do or is the library the last fortress of your secret self? If these questions make sense to you at all, you will find sympathy in the essays of Fadiman. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (novel)I remember reading To Kill a Mockingbird when I was 12 or 13. My mother spotted me and asked my brother if I was too young to read this book. If ever I needed inspiration to finish a book that was it. To answer my mother's question: No, I wasn't too young to read To Kill a Mockingbird. I understood the southern society, the conflicts and the crime of which Tom Robinson was accused, but with an adolescent's understanding, a preteen's point of view, a youthful perspective. I am happy to say that I rediscovered the book some dozen years later. For the first time I realized how funny the story was, and how tragic. All the humor of the children's adventures which has once seemed so serious to me, now made me laugh. The plight of Boo Radley now seemed to hit home. And the hero worship Scout had for her father (and Harper Lee had for the character based on her own father), still seemed justified. The character of Atticus Finch still seemed real, stalwart and amazingly admirable. To this day, Atticus is my literary hero. He is the personification of honesty, dignity and duty, a man with depth, a man whose words count. A character like this must be read. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost (poem)"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" By Robert Frost has a soft spot in my heart because it is the first work of literature I ever analyzed. It was the first work where I saw that there was more than the literal meaning. And it was the subject I was writing about when I first realized that I could be right and that my teacher was wrong. When answering a text book question about the symbolism of the woods in Frost's poem in a tenth grade assignment, I read the poem several times and realized that the speaker might have been contemplating his own death as he stared into the woods that were "lovely, dark and deep." I realized that to the speaker, this moment, whatever it was about , was crucial. It was a time to make a decision: to retire or take action, rest and resign or keep promises that have been made. The woods were the attractiveness of the mystery that sometimes is death when compared to the sometimes conflict filled daily life. In simpler words, this is what I wrote. My teacher corrected my answer and said, no, I was wrong. I questioned her and said that this might be a way to interpret the poem. She said, no, I was wrong. I did not argue. I could see that she did not see the pointof the poem. I did. I failed the homework assignment. It was very satisfying. It boosted my confidence. It was the moment I began to love literature and not just enjoy reading. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (autobiography)The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is an interesting look into the mind of and egotistical giant who had much to be egotistical about. Ben Franklin was America's first international superstar. His autobiography is considered to be America's first internationally recognized classic. The Autobiography is funny, wise and laughable all at the same time. Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather (novel)The strangest recommendation I ever received about a book was about Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather, the story of the life of a quiet priest in America's West. "You'll love this book," my friend Kathy said. "Nothing happens in it." So I read it. The priest lives, grows old and dies. Nothing ever seems to happen. It is a beautiful story of the life of a good man. And I loved it.
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver (novel)Prodigal Summer was recommended by Ms. Tammy Due and when I first began the novel, I thought I would not like it. Time has much changed my opinion. First, it seals with a time honored theme of Humanity and Nature. The author, Barabara Kingsolver, weaves together the lives of several characters and their environments attempting to show that the humans are not as removed from Nature as we sometimes like to think. This was interesting, but by itself would not have made the novel memorable. With this theme was the interconnectedness of all aspects of nature and the place that humans have in it. Kingsolver is an expert in the sciences of the environment and I have learned much about the world about me that I might never have known had it not been for this enjoyable book. Since reading it a couple of months prior to writing this recommendation, I have recommended it personally to a half dozen people and have found myself thinking about the characters and events in the novel several dozen times.
The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw (non-fiction)Had not The Perfect Storm Sebastian Junger been written, The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw, an enjoyable book about the life at sea for swordfishermen, might never have made it to the shelves. This is a journal about the day to day pressures and joys of someone who loves what she does for a living even though it may mean sacrifice and hardship. The reader is left with the feeling of knowing what this life is like.
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger (non-fiction)The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger is one of the most popular books of the last decade and rightfully so. Please do not judge the book by the movie. However entertaining you may have found the movie or not, the book is far superior. It is a book about the risks undertaken by men in one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, swordfisherman. It describes the courage of those who rescue people from ships at sea. It is about the awesome powers of Nature and the total inability of humanity to deflect those powers. It is a great read.
"To Build a Fire" by Jack London (short story)I always mention "To Build a Fire" by Jack London when I teach about the conflict of Human versus Nature. In this story, the protagonist is in the Yukon where the temperatures can get fatally cold. Setting out from his camp alone except for his dog to reach the next camp, the main character realizes he has broken one of the basic rules for survival in the Yukon: Never go out by oneself. The temperature continues to drop below zero. First thirty below, then forty, then fifty below zero. Imagine the difference between the chill of zero degrees and fifty degrees and then imagine what it must be like if the temperature goes in the other direction. The man must keep moving or he will freeze where he stands. It is so cold that his spit will freeze before it hits the ground. It is so cold that the steam from his breath freezes around his mouth and continually builds a cone of ice on his beard that he must breathe through until he breaks it away every half hour or so. The temperature drops even further until it becomes necessary for the man to build a fire to save his own life. This is a marvelous story of survival.
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien (novel)If you read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien you will recognize some of the style and some of the themes covered in In the Lake of the Woods. They are much different books, however. While The Things They Carried went into the nature of truth in fiction and what is the nature of fiction, here O'Brien examines truth and people. Can anyone know another person? Is it possible? What happens to us when we discover that there are things we will never know about others? about history? about life? I found this to be a compelling and fast read that I think will stick with me for years to come. I have not yet come to grips with all of the themes as of yet and I am looking forward to having it read by a few friends of mine.
The Autobiography of Mark Twain by Mark Twain (non-fiction)This is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite writers. This is less an autobiography and more a commentary on the world in which he lived. Much of his insight is relevant today, and it is still funny.
E-mail Thomas Trevenen
Number of visitors since January 8, 2001:
|