The Spoon River Anthology is yet another of those books I last read in High School which came back up when I decided to branch out and read some more poetry. In this case, it was actually a whole production where each person in the class would memorize a different poem and then we made a platform in the woods, dressed up, and recited them. Pretty cool actually.
Mine:
The second Boxcar Children book and the first of the formula that would come to define the series. It’s summer and the children are off to an adventure to an island Grandfather owns , more or less by themselves (although two other adults live on the island). They make a house, explore, find mysteries, and generally have an idyllic time.
“Now, tell us, Grandfather,” cried Henry. “We ran all the way home from school.”
The Pillars of the Earth was quite a ride of historical fiction, introducing us the people of a small English city of Kingsbridge in the 12th century. When I learned that there was a sequel (World Without End) set in the same town but hundreds of years later, I was intrigued. A timeskip with the same setting but different (descended) characters hundreds of years later isn’t something I’ve often seen and it’s fascinating when done well. Add in that World Without End is set during the years of the Plague… I was intrigued.
For the most part, World Without End did well. It has big shoes to fill following up to Pillars of the Earth. In comparison, the building seems smaller (a bridge and a tower instead of the entire cathedral), the conflicts seem smaller and more petty, and the characters feel more anachronistic. There are any number of times when I wonder if people of the time period were really that ‘modern’ or is that an invention of Follett.
Man these are getting long. 20 hours on the audiobook. Even at 2.5x, that’s a while. It probably doesn’t help that every. single. time. a measurement is mentioned, it has to be converted. Is that the same in the print version? Because it’s maddening…
Pitt’s heart pumped a good five liters (a gallon) of adrenaline through his system, but he remained calm and clinically surveyed the towering figure that looked like a monstrosity out of a science fiction horror movie.
On one hand, I read Robert Frost many years ago. Perhaps I remember it all. I could tell you that say this is all just refreshing my memory.
Or perhaps I don’t remember a thing of it, other than the vague idea of The Road Not Taken and nothing more.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
All the miles of a hard road are worth a moment of true happiness.
I enjoy fables. It’s a nice way to illustrate various lessons and morals and pass them along to children somewhat subtly. Especially when you take the wordcraft and illustrations of Arnold Lobel (Frog and Toad).
A long time ago (in high school), I was told by a teacher that he liked my poetry. It reminded him of William Blake. It’s the sort of comment that sticks with you. For me, I still remember it from time to time a decade and change later. It’s been a while since I’ve read any Blake, so perhaps it’s time for another go.
Throughout the Complete Works, there are essentially three parts to Blake’s writing:
The city knows. It remembers. Its past is written in its bones, though the past now speaks in silences.
The City of Stairs is a wonderful book. The start is remarkably dense, dropping you into the deep end of a complicated world with flavors I at least wasn’t as familiar with where Proper Nouns abound and the rules are uncertain–even to those living therein.
Many years ago, my mother would read aloud the Boxcar Children books to my brother and I. We read many many books together for many years, but the Boxcar Children are perhaps the ones I remember most. Now, perhaps it’s time to start passing that along to my own children.
From a child’s perspective, it’s a wonderful little book. The children are on a grand adventure, escapism idealized. They work together to not only survive but thrive without any adults telling them what to do. They get to make their own house in the woods and have a dog and everything ends up all right in the end.