Classics Archives - Page 8 of 8 - Introverted Reader

Thumbing Through Thoreau, compiled by Kenny Luck: Book Review

Synopsis from the book's website. On July 4, 1845, when Henry David Thoreau moved into his cabin on the shores of Walden Pond, he was probably unaware that his abode in the woods, and the impact and influence of that endeavor, would forever echo through time. Thoreau was an uncompromising idealist; an ardent maverick who criticized his fellow man. He urged that men and women ought to live more simply, and more deliberately. “The mass of men,” he famously wrote, “lead lives of quite desperation.” Yet the scope of Thoreau’s message is much wider than social criticism. He speaks of spiritual transcendence in Nature and the unbounded potential of the individual. Thoreau is a dreamer and he speaks to dreamers. In a word, shun dogmatism and demagoguery; see beyond the immediate conventional religious explanations to reap a higher understanding. In our commodified contemporary American society, with the rise of religious intolerance and fundamentalism, materialism and mass consumerism, Thoreau’s message is needed now more than ever. Author Kenny Luck has thumbed through Thoreau’s voluminous journals, correspondences and other publications to make this the most comprehensive collection of Thoreau aphorisms available. Illustrators Jay Luke and Ren Adams lend their talents to artistically interpret Thoreau's vision. Each quote is accompanied by an original drawing. A collaboration of three individuals breathes new life into the immortal words of Henry David Thoreau. Thanks to the publicist for sending me an unbound galley for review. I see this review as being in two parts: the quotes and the format. The quotes are pretty easy. I think most people already have at least a vague idea as to what Henry David Thoreau was all about. I enjoyed studying the transcendentalists in college, and I enjoyed reading more from Thoreau now. Here are some quotes that I marked…

Night by Elie Wiesel: Book Review

Honestly, I can't help but feel that for me to sit in judgment of a memoir of the Holocaust would be terribly presumptuous. We can't ever forget the Holocaust, and any work that reminds us of what happened is important and should be read as widely as possible. The style is a little sparse for me, but do we really need lavish descriptions of crematoriums? I didn't think so. What is important is that Wiesel laid out his thoughts and feelings for all the world to see, an act of unimaginable courage. It is amazing to me how quickly he and the other prisoners were stripped of their very humanity. It is also amazing how tiny acts of kindness stand out in his memory. But we all know those were too few and far between. Just read this. Today, April 11, 2010, is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Six million Jews were killed in WWII. Six million. How do we even begin to wrap our minds around that kind of loss? It's as if everyone in the cities of Los Angeles and Chicago were gone. No longer there. Because of violence and ignorance and prejudice. We cannot forget the loss of these people. The Jewish people are the chief mourners, but we should all mourn their loss. The victims weren't "only" Jews, they were citizens of the world. My world. Your world. Our world. Who knows how things might be different now if such a staggering loss hadn't occurred then? Read Elie Wiesel's 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Visit the US Holocaust Museum's Days of Remembrance page. Visit the US Holocaust Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia. Here are links to other books I've read, both fiction and non-fiction, that focus on the Holocaust. Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds HistoryMaus II:…

Persuasion by Jane Austen: Book Review

5 Stars. My favorite Austen! Captain Wentworth! *sigh* Or is it *swoon*? This was a nice blend of Austen's pointed social commentary and a (bitter)sweet romance. Anne's family is just awful. They are silly, vain and entirely too class-conscious. They insist on their "inferiors" showing them the proper amount of deference and [...]

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery: Book Review

My favorite book growing up was Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. It's still one of my all-time favorite books. I have to confess that the first time I tried to read it, I thought it was boring. I'd seen the movie somewhere and grabbed the book at the library, and I think the language was just a little too difficult for me at the time. I couldn't have been ten years old. But I tried once again, and that time I fell in love. I wanted to be friends with "Anne-with-an-e" and the ever-loyal Diana and share in their adventures. If I'm honest, I still want to be friends with them! They just became real to me. My family used to go to the beach every summer, and there was this one little bookstore that always had a big selection of L. M. Montgomery books. My library only had the first two Anne books, so it became a tradition for my mom to take me to that bookstore so I could get one or two more of Montgomery's books to read. I was always impatient for more, but now I'm glad I got to stretch all those books out over such a long period of time. The anticipation was delicious. One of the books, Jane of Lantern Hill, was actually out of print, so I didn't complete my collection until I was somewhere in my twenties and my husband bought that one for me online. I was thrilled! I don't have any new-to-me L. M. Montgomery books to look forward to now, but I've re-read everything she wrote countless times, and I get something new out of them every time. I'm thinking it's getting to be time to do another re-read. Synopsis from GoodReads: As soon as…