Category: Books and Reading
My wife’s family is from the Camas Prairie, a beautiful region in North Central Idaho that includes communities like Grangeville, Cottonwood, and Winchester. That same area is the setting for Terry C. Johnston’s Cries from the Earth: The Outbreak of the Nez Perce War and the Battle of White Bird Canyon June 17, 1877. I purchased Johnston’s fictionalized account of the beginning of the Nez Perce war mostly because of its setting, and I hoped the history would come alive because of my familiarity with the area. Unfortunately, the...
The rest of the month of March may be the most challenging portion of the entire Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along. After the dramatic end to Volume I, not only does the narrative shift to a completely different scene, but that shift goes on for nineteen chapters. The characters that the reader has become so invested in are seemingly abandoned for a sixty page account of the Battle of Waterloo. And of course, reading only a chapter a day makes this section last even longer. All I can say...
These High, Green Hills is the third book in Jan Karon’s The Mitford Years series, and I have to admit that I really enjoy these books. I haven’t written about this series before, so rather than review this third book, I will simply say that each of the first three books have the same charm, humor, and uplifting themes. The stories center around Father Tim, pastor of a small Episcopal parish in the fictional village of Mitford, North Carolina. Father Tim is a good man and a good...
If you have been reading one chapter a day in Les Misérables, then congratulations on reaching Volume II today. It’s been over two months since we started, and we have finally finished the first of the book’s five volumes. I hope you have been pleased by what you have read so far of Hugo’s magnum opus. Fantine is behind us, Cosette is before us. But before we get back to our little Lark, Hugo will take us on an extended tour of the battlefield of Waterloo. Prepare yourself to...
In light of the Academy Awards show last night, this week we take a different look at Les Misérables, comparing several different film versions. Les Misérables has been filmed dozens of times, and rather than give a full review or summary of the difference versions, I am going to simply give you the same scene from six different films and ask you what you think. I’ve chosen arguably the most famous scene in the book, the Bishop’s Candlesticks, and I’ve tried to find as many versions as are available online....
It’s time for a link-up of reviews of western books for the Wild Wild West Challenge. It’s March already and I didn’t think to make link posts for January and February reviews. If you did read a western for the Wild Wild West 2018 Challenge in January or February, then you can link to your reviews below, along with any books you review in March. Going forward I’ll try to do better at providing linkups at the beginning of each month so you can link to your reviews...
Today is February 26, the birthday of Victor Hugo. On this day 216 years ago, Victor Hugo was born to Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trébuchet. More importantly to me, this also happens to be the birthday of both my mother, Mrs. Senger, and my wife, Dr. Senger, two people who mean much more to me than Victor Hugo ever could. Happily, both are participating in the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along. So if you are feeling deprived of the ability to wish Victor Hugo a happy birthday, please feel free...
We’re two months into the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along, eight full weeks. We’re still in Volume One: Fantine, and this week we finished Book Five: The Descent, we read Book Six: Javert, and we began Book Seven: The Champmathieu Affair. Here are a few examples what people had to say about these chapters on Twitter: https://twitter.com/burns_nancy/status/965496932872458240 https://twitter.com/joyacousin/status/965572164337520641 https://twitter.com/buttontapper/status/965603099120250880 https://twitter.com/bronasbooks/status/965871081637650432 https://twitter.com/buttontapper/status/966062507671474176 https://twitter.com/bronasbooks/status/966095318570827783 https://twitter.com/MissCarrieLA/status/966162970232307713 Great grief is a divine and terrible radiance which transfigures the wretched. At that moment Fantine had again become beautiful.V1 B5 C13 #LesMisReadalong pic.twitter.com/z5OVIHsdod — Rick...
The Red House Mystery is a locked-room cozy mystery written by A.A. Milne, most famous for creating the lovable character Winnie-the-Pooh. It is the only mystery Milne ever wrote, and he explains why he wrote it in the dedication to his father, John Vine Milne: Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories, and feel that there are not enough of them. So, after all that you have done for me, the least that I can do for you is write you one. Here...
I don’t think he’s a very nice man. I hate people who ask you to decline nouns for them. Card Drawn: 9♣ Anthology: Lord Peter Views the Body Story: “The Learned Adventure of the Dragon’s Head,” 1928 It’s taken seven weeks, but I finally drew a club, the suit I’ve assigned to Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy Sayers. I don’t know if I’ve ever read anything by Dorothy Sayers that I haven’t liked, and I’ve been looking forward to this anthology since the year began. Her stories featuring Lord...
He was not the most honest or pious of men, but he was courageous. I first read Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte twelve years ago, and it didn’t make much of an impact on me then. It was the third book in a row I had read by Pérez-Reverte, following The Club Dumas and The Fencing Master, and I think I was anxious to move on to something else and didn’t give it a fair chance. So I was very happy to receive a paperback copy for Christmas as part of...
As we enter the eighth week of the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along, we arrive at the 50th chapter of the book. From The Bishop of Digne to Jean Valjean, from Fantine to the Thénardiers, we have seen light and darkness, gardens and stars, shipwrecks and collapsed carts. And there is still so much more to come. The last few chapters have focused on the figure of Fantine and her sad fate, and in this 50th chapter Hugo summarizes her life: At the point we have now reached in this...
