4 Stars. I picked this up from The Bookworks, an independent bookstore in Pacific Grove, CA, pretty close to the actual Cannery Row. In fact, I just realized exactly how close I was. Dang it. Missed opportunity because I did not go there. Anyway, as I read, I enjoyed reading Steinbeck’s descriptions [...]
4.5 Stars. This is a slim volume and much of it is taken up with Mrs. Ritter, her husband, and his friend Karl’s day-to-day survival in Svalbard (Formerly Spitsbergen). Fair warning, that survival isn’t really for those who are disturbed by hunting for food and for furs to sell. Just trying to keep wood [...]
3 Stars. The book was a little bit of a slog but that’s partly on me. I can only remember one scene from the movie and it’s a sad one. I don’t particularly like sad books so I kept avoiding it. The writing is also an odd mix of a lot of action buried under very dense sentence structure. I had to take my time [...]
3 Stars. According to the introduction to this edition, Northanger Abbey is the earliest of Jane Austen's published novels but the last to be published, and even then it was published posthumously. I could tell this was an early work of hers, because her sarcasm and social commentary is much more obvious and pointed than in the other [...]
2 Stars. I'm sorry to say that this didn't quite work for me. I'm disappointed since so many other readers love it. The tales of the family misadventures were hilarious. Larry, the budding author, is a know-it-all who can steer his mom in any direction he chooses. Leslie, the avid huntsman, shoots his guns and scares the wits [...]
3 Stars. The Screwtape Letters is honestly not the kind of book I would choose on my own but it filled a reading challenge prompt, I love Narnia, and one of my old bosses recommended it to me years ago. So my review should be read with that in mind. This just was not the book for me. I’m a fast reader and simply cannot bring [...]
2 Stars. I imagine that this book is a fantastic choice for a book club or assigned reading but I, as a solo reader, just found it confusing. The plot jumped around with little resolution, characters appeared and disappeared, and I couldn't find an entry point to understanding it. To be fair, it's written in an [...]
4 Stars. I don't even know how I first came across this title but I added it to a list of possible books to read for a classics challenge I'm participating in. I had to read Beowulf and The Epic of Gilgamesh in high school so I wanted to read some epics from other cultures. Somehow I found The Ramayana. Then I realized that this version [...]
4 Stars. I’m not entirely sure what I expected when I started this book, but it’s not what I got, and that was a pleasant surprise for me. Lady Slane is a delightful creature and I know she and I would be friends if she were real. She’s always been dutiful to her family but she has a rich inner landscape. She draws eccentrics to herself [...]
4.5 Stars. Oh my goodness. Why do we pay less attention to Anne Brontë than the other sisters? I liked this book infinitely more than Wuthering Heights! I’ll still give Jane Eyre the edge as my favorite book by a Brontë, but it’s a closer thing than I expected. Anne wrote both a captivating story and a searing indictment of “bad boys” and [..