No Promises in the Wind Review

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(More customer reviews)The book No Promises in the Wind by Irene hunt was about a young boy's struggle to survive during the depression in the U.S. It takes place during the winter of 1932. Josh is the main character in the book. He and his father Stefan always get into arguments because his father has no job and can't provide for his family, so his father takes his frustration out on his on Josh, his oldest son. This causes Josh to leave home and embark on his adventure. His mother Mary is the one that gives Josh the OK to leave home. She feels bad for doing this, but she only sees the situation getting worse. So, Howie and Josh decide to run away together and make a life for themselves. Howie is Josh's best friend. Just before they leave, Josh's little brother wants come along. His name is Joey. Joey is ten years old and looks like an angel. There many problems that the main characters encounter during the book, the first one happens when the brothers lose their friend. Howie is run over by a train in the beginning of the book. After this, the main problem is to get money and food. Different people help Josh and Joey get food. One day while walking, they meet a truck driver named Lonnie. Lonnie is very helpful; he gives the boys meals and a long ride down south to warmer weather. He also helps Josh find a job at a carnival. At the carnival Josh and Joey meet Emily. She is an older lady. She is very kind to the boys. Josh falls in love with her, but it does not work out because of the age differences. The carnival burns down so the boys head back north to find their friend Lonnie. Along the way they have to beg to survive.
The one character that I could relate to was Josh. Because I have had similar conflicts with my father. Like Josh's father, my dad was going through hard times and most of the time took out his frustration on me. At times I wanted to leave, but I did not. My father and I worked out our problems like Josh and his father did.
I really enjoyed this book. It keeps the reader entertained the whole time. You always want to find out what is going to happen to the boys all the way to the end. My favorite part is when the boys are at the carnival. The author does a good job of describing the people and events that happen during their stay at the carnival. My least favorite part was when the man at the shoe store took the boy's money. Personally I would not change anything to this book. I think it was written well, and it gets its point across.
I would recommend this book to any one who is interested in how life was during the 1930s. Also anyone that grew up during that time period might enjoy it. This book is a fun read that keeps you entertained the whole time.

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In 1932, America was in the depths of a deep depression. A job, food to fill you, a place to sleep, and shoes without holes--for millions of people, these simple needs were nothing more than dreams. At 15 years of age, Josh had to make his own way through a country of angry, frightened people. This is the story of a young man's struggle to find a life for himself in the turbulent 1930s.

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Out of Africa (Modern Library) Review

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(More customer reviews)Isak Dinesen, nee Karen Blixen, lived in East Africa for almost twenty years making a living as the proprietor of a coffee plantation. Out of Africa is a memoir of her experiences there. But the book is so much more.
The stories are interesting to be sure. They relate to the plantation or the people and events that one way or another impacted her life there. But it is Blixen's writing that I found so sublime. I have never read anything like it. The way Blixen turns a phrase is both lyrical and enchanting all at once - you become literally swept up in the words and imagery. It is obvilious that Blixen loved Africa - something about the continent got under her skin. In a similar fashion her words have gotten under mine. I have read Out of Africa several times; each time I marvel at the beautiful language she uses. Read this book and I am sure you will feel the same way.

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Light in August (The Corrected Text) Review

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(More customer reviews)After reading Faulkner's four major masterpieces -- The Sound and the Fury; Absalom, Absalom!; As I Lay Dying; and Light in August -- I've come to the conclusion that Light in August is far and away the easiest to read, has the most dramatic plot, the most intriguing primary characters in Joe Christmas, Gail Hightower and Joanna Burden, and even some of his most intriguing minor characters in Uncle Doc Hines and Mr. McEachern. Overall, it is his most readable and likeable masterpiece. And it leaves you wanting so much more.
The complex and ambiguous character of Joe Christmas alone could have been the source of three or four novels detailing different times in his life. While Christmas is hardly a likeable person, he is fascinating, hypnotic, a train wreck; you can't keep your eyes off him. His actions are morally ambiguous and inconsistent and yet fully understandable within his nature. As a creation he deserves to rank with Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Captain Ahab and Jay Gatsby in the pantheon of American literary characters.
Faulkner has a big mission here. The novel exposes the evils of racism both in the South and among white, northern abolitionists. It traffics in religious symbolism while savaging religious fanatacism. And it leaves one with a great deal of memorable violent and sexual imagery. And that's just for starters. This book is deep, and while it's storytelling is largely non-linear, it is far more palatable than the other three, which tend to be confusing and obscure. Enjoy this one. If you've never read Faulkner, it's a great starter.

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As You Like It (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) Review

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(More customer reviews)The play begins with problems between two pairs of brothers. Duke Frederick has usurped his brother, "Duke Senior" and taken over the land, but the more immediate problem lies between Oliver de Boys and his younger brother, Orlando. Oliver's a bad dude of the Bad For No Reason school of villains and he mistreats Orlando because: "my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he." Oliver tried his hardest to keep Orlando from any sort of achievement or accomplishment, yet Orlando is "gentle, never schooled and yet learned, full of noble device, of all sorts enchantingly beloved". In other words, he's a Mary Sue. Everybody loves Orlando, except the antagonists. But for all that unearned virtue, he's still cool. He even wins me over, and I usually despise the leading men in Shakespeare's comedies *cough*BassanioandClaudio*cough* So those are the brother problems, and now we move on to the girls' problems.
Rosalind is the deposed duke's daughter, and she is best friends with her cousin Celia, the new duke's daughter. The new duke banishes Rosalind, and Celia goes off into exile with her. Both of them put on disguises so they won't be assaulted in the wilderness (apparently, taking Touchstone the clown with them is not sufficient protection). Rosalind disguises herself as a teenage boy called Ganymede, and Celia pretends to be Ganymede's shepherdess sister.
So, Orlando flees into the forest to escape from his brother, Rosalind and Celia flee to the forest from Duke Frederick, and suddenly all of the cool people in the dukedom are out in the forest of Arden. The disguised girls rent a cottage and relax, while Orlando occupies himself by writing really bad poetry and hanging it on the trees. Rosalind find his poetry, which is all about her since they had a love-at-first-sight thing back at court, but instead of revealing her identity she stays hidden and becomes Orlando's buddy while passing herself off as Ganymede.
One of the main things Rosalind does as Ganymede is to insult all women and to tell Orlando why he shouldn't love "his" Rosalind. She really lays it on thick, all the reasons why he shouldn't pursue her. When I first read this play, I thought Rosalind was just bing sadistic, enjoying Orlando's emotional pain while she taunted and baited him and risked nothing. I'm now convinced that's not what is going on. Orlando is acting the part of a stricken lover--sighs, groans, poetry, etc--and Rosalind's trying to figure out if he's legit. And, okay, maybe she's having a little fun watching him squirm. For the audience, part of the trouble with these scenes is that Orlando's flagrant displays of lovesickness and his later tested and true love for Rosalind both look much the same to us. We're comparing one type of old-timey love convention against another, and it's hard to sort out what's supposed to be lasting when we know well get a happy ending in either case.
Silvius and Phebe, a lover and his icy beloved are even more clearly ancient archetypes of love. Rosalind doesn't think much of their behavior, and rails on Silvius for pursuing an idiot. Rosalind's words for Phebe are even harsher: "Sell when you can, you are not for all markets". Burn! Silvius and Phebe are one of the four couples who get married by the end of the play, and you have to wonder how well their union will turn out. Silvius has no self-esteem and Phebe has no mercy. But then again, we are in a play where the evil usurping duke suddenly gets religious and easily gives his land back to it's rightful leaders, so maybe these crazy kids will turn fine, all evidence to the contrary.
I feel sorry for Celia, who gets few lines after she enters Arden, although she deserves better attention after bravely following Rosalind into exile. She's an excellent but underused character who gets to be part of the play's resolution. Orlando's land problems are solved when his brother Oliver falls in love with Celia and decides to take up shepherding. It's Oliver and Celia's insta-love that inspired the famous lines "no sooner met than looked, no sooner looked than loved" and so on. With four major weddings, everyone's happy in Arden except for Jacques, the resident gloom-spreader who is nevertheless a source of entertainment for his companions because they love to hear his weird turns of melancholy. The play ends kind of unusually when Hymen, the god of marriage, comes down to perform the marriage ceremonies. And nobody thinks this is weird. But any play that includes this many "hey nonny nonny"s isn't taking itself too seriously. Rosalind's one of Shakespeare's best heroines, and her play can survive guest appreances by retro figures from Greek drama.

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Each edition includes: • Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play • Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play • Scene-by-scene plot summaries • A key to famous lines and phrases • An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language • An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play • Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books Essay by Susan Snyder The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit www.folger.edu.

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Lord of the Flies (50th Anniversary Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)"Lord of the Flies" is singularly the most important novel for required reading, whether assigned in school or self-imposed. It regularly appears as number one on my own list of best books.
Let's play "What if." What if a plane carrying a full load of school boys crashes on a deserted island with no adult survivors? What would happen to those boys? What would you expect to happen?
William Golding works with this premise: an idyllic setting, innocent schoolboys. One boy, an older boy just short of teenage years, a boy with fair hair, assumes leadership to stir the others into some semblance of organization and survival mode, much like adults would do if adults were present. He also saw a need to defuse the web of fear of the younger ones. Where are we? How long will we need to wait before someone comes for us? All questions with no answers at this time.
Ah, yes, Golding tells us, everything goes well for a while. But remember the "scar" made by the crashing plane? Something ugly is on this island (but it's not the scar). It's in the bushes, in the dark, in the depths, in the depths of hearts, and it grows like the malignancy it is.
A blatant revelation of what is about to come occurs when Roger silently and stealthily watches a young'un, unbeknownst to the little child. All the young'un is doing is running a stick through the sand, disturbing a crab in a tiny pool of water. Even he imposes control and fear on a helpless creature as Roger boldly picks up a couple of rocks and tosses them the youngster's way. He deliberately misses but comes closer with each throw. Next time he will probably hit the young boy, but not yet. This taboo--deliberately and unnecessarily causing pain to one smaller than you--has not been broken--yet.
Although the dance of the spears, the primeval chants, the attack and killing of the pig, then feasting on its flesh, their kill, are shocking acts of savagery, this event is foreshadowed by the seemingly innocent lob of the stones. From a casual incident, but one with eventual intentionality, the ritualistic slaughter is not so far-fetched or surprising. Golding prepares his readers. This is how the chaos of society starts. It begins with one simple disconnect from the rules. It begins in the minds and hearts. Will I do what society expects? Will I follow the rules to keep things running and working? Do I break a rule or two for my own enhancement. Will I feel a power surge if my rock hits that young `un?
Ralph would probably speak of the terror of knowing that rules WILL be broken. He would speak of the utter horror that any rule can be and will be broken and he won't live to tell about it. Just ask Piggy.
This novel is the only one I taught over and over during the twelve years I worked with high school seniors. My other choices I would switch around those years, drop some, add some. This one I kept. It is that important. I think of "Lord of the Flies" as a necessary manual for societal behavior and an effort to keep the chaos of evil at bay.
Is it even necessary to ask how many times that rock has been thrown since this novel was published in the 1950's? Or how much chaos has imploded so many lives?
Like the way of manuals, some remain in circulation and are deeply read; others fall by the wayside out of disinterest. Some are thrown in the trash. "Lord of the Flies"--what is its current status? And society--how is it doing? Reader, are you a little bit fearful?


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The Catcher in the Rye Review

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(More customer reviews)In J.D. Salinger's brilliant coming-of-age novel, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old prep school adolescent relates his lonely, life-changing twenty-four hour stay in New York City as he experiences the phoniness of the adult world while attempting to deal with the death of his younger brother, an overwhelming compulsion to lie and troubling sexual experiences.
Salinger, whose characters are among the best and most developed in all of literature has captured the eternal angst of growing into adulthood in the person of Holden Caulfield. Anyone who has reached the age of sixteen will be able to identify with this unique and yet universal character, for Holden contains bits and pieces of all of us. It is for this very reason that The Catcher in the Rye has become one of the most beloved and enduring works in world literature.
As always, Salinger's writing is so brilliant, his characters so real, that he need not employ artifice of any kind. This is a study of the complex problems haunting all adolescents as they mature into adulthood and Salinger wisely chooses to keep his narrative and prose straightforward and simple.
This is not to say that The Catcher in the Rye is a straightforward and simple book. It is anything but. In it we are privy to Salinger's genius and originality in portraying universal problems in a unique manner. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that can be loved and understood on many different levels of comprehension and each reader who experiences it will come away with a fresh view of the world in which they live.
A work of true genius, images of a catcher in the rye are abundantly apparent throughout this book.
While analyzing the city raging about him, Holden's attention is captured by a child walking in the street "singing and humming." Realizing that the child is singing the familiar refrain, "If a body meet a body, comin' through the rye," Holden, himself, says that he feels "not so depressed."
The title's words, however, are more than just a pretty ditty that Holden happens to like. In the stroke of pure genius that is Salinger, himself, he wisely sums up the book's theme in its title.
When Holden, whose past has been traumatic, to say the least, is questioned by his younger sister, Phoebe, regarding what he would like to do when he gets older, Holden replies, "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going. I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."
In this short bit of dialogue Salinger brilliantly exposes Holden's deepest desire and expounds the book's theme. Holden wishes to preserve something of childhood innocence that gets hopelessly lost as we grow into the crazy and phony world of adulthood.
The theme of lost innocence is deftly explored by Salinger throughout the book. Holden is appalled when he encounters profanity scrawled on the walls of Phoebe's school, a school that he envisions protecting and shielding children from the evils of society.
When Holden gives his red hunting cap to Phoebe to wear, he gives it to her as a shield, an emblem of the eternal love and protectiveness he feels for her.
Near the beginning of the book, Holden remembers a girl he once knew, Jane Gallagher, with whom he played checkers. Jane, he remembers, "wouldn't move any of her kings," and action Holden realizes to be a metaphor of her naivete. When Holden hears that his sexually experienced prep school roommate had a date with Jane, he immediately starts a fight with him, symbolically protecting Jane's innocence.
More sophisticated readers might question the reasons behind Holden's plight. While Holden's feelings are universal, this character does seem to be a rather extreme example. The catalyst for Holden's desires is no doubt the death of his younger brother, Allie, a bright and loving boy who died of leukemia at the age of thirteen. Holden still feels the sting of Allie's death acutely, as well as his own, albeit undeserved, guilt, in being able to do nothing to prevent Allie's suffering.
The only reminder Holden has of Allie's shining but all-too-short life, is Allie's baseball mitt which is covered with poems Allie read while standing in the outfield. In a particularly poignant moment, Holden tells us that this is the glove he would want to use to catch children when they fall from the cliff of innocence.
In an interesting, but trademark, Salinger twist, Holden distorts the Robert Burns poem that provides the book's title. Originally, it read, "If a body meet a body, comin' through the rye." Holden distorts the word "meet" into "catch." This is certainly not the first time Holden is guilty of distortion; indeed he is a master at it.
This distortion, however, shows us how much Allie's death has affected Holden and also how much he fears his own fall from innocence, the theme that threads its way throughout the whole of the book.
By this amazing book's end, we must reach the conclusion that there are times when we all need a "catcher in the rye." We are, indeed, blessed if we have one.

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