Book #7: Little House on the Prairie

 

Title: Little House on the Prairie

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Have I read this book before? Not sure

How obtained: Borrowed from our local library

Why This Book: My girls liked this series of books when they were growing up and my wife and I would read the books to our family.  I decided a few years agi that I wanted to read the entire series myself and this is the third one I've got to so far.

(Not So) Fun Fact: A few years ago I took this book out from the library and one of my daughters took it upstairs to read and lost it.  Finally, I had to pay the library to replace it.  Like clockwork, my kids then found the book but our library won't let you return a book once you've paid for it. When I went to borrow it from them to read it this year, they had lost it again.

Quote from the book:

Pa and Ma were still and silent on the wagon-seat, and Mary and Laura were quiet, too. But Laura felt all excited inside. You never know what will happen next, nor where you'll be tomorrow when you are traveling in a covered wagon.

Here's what someone else thought about this book: Click here for Plugged In's review of this book.

What Did I think? While it's not my favorite of the Little House books it is a solid piece of work.  I think Pa is a moral compass for the family and I like especially how he continues to be a voice of reason for how their family should treat Native Americans even though other characters believe and say say some racist things, it is clear that the family follows the Dad's example of tolerance and neighborliness.  

I finished this book on June 27th, the 30th day of my summer reading program. This puts me on schedule 23.31 books during the challenge.

Book #6: Moby Dick

Title: Moby Dick

Author: Herman Melville

How obtained: Listened to via Hoopla

Why This Book? It all began in 1993 ...

Quote from the book:

There is, one knows not what sweet mystery, about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seems to speak of some hidden soul beneath; like those fabled undulations of the Ephesian sod over the buried Evangelist St. John.  And meet it is, that over these sea-pastures, wide rolling water prairies and Potters' Fields of all four continents, the waves should rise and fall, and ebb and flow unceasingly; for here, millions of mixed shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulism, reveries; all that we call lives and souls, lie dreaming, dreaming, still; tossing like slumberers in their beds; the ever-rollings waves but made so by their restlessness. 

From Chapter 111 - The Pacific 

Here's what someone else thought about this book: Click here for original reviews of the book from 1851 (several years before I began reading it.). 

What did  I think? Who cares??!!?? After almost 30 years, I finally finished it!! I loved it! It is odd, eccentric, dark, genial, down-to-earth, tantalizing and mesmerizing; sometimes, all at once. Next summer, I may even attempt to read it again. I finished this book on June 24th, the 27th day of my summer reading program. This puts me on schedule to read 22.22 books during the challenge. 

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Book #5: The Great Gatsby

Title: The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Have I read this book before? Yes.

How obtained: Borrowed from my local library.

Why This Book? I read this book 3 times in school.  Once in high school, and twice in college.  I think that I still own a copy from my college days, but it is in a box somewhere.  I was at the library and I wandered into a section called book club where they have multiple copies of books.  I saw Gatsby and realized I had not read it for a while and picked it up.

Quote from the book: ForDaisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of new life in tunes. All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the Beale Street Blues while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. (p.151 of the 2013 paperback edition)

Here's what someone else thought about this book: Joan BaumThis puts me on schedule to finish  talks about the book's 95th anniversary in Dan's Papers.

What did I think? The prose in this book is downright gorgeous.  For a classic, it is an incredibly quick read.  It is a sad irony laced story, but it stands up to multiple readings even when there's no assignment involved.   

I finished this book on June 20th, the 23rd day of my summer reading program.  This puts me on schedule to read 21.73 books during the challenge.

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Book #4: Whose Body?

 

Title: Whose Body?

Author: Dorothy L. Sayers

Have I read this book before? No.

How Obtained: Borrowed from my local library.

Why This Book? I was looking at the World Magazine blog, last week and I was reading the transcript of their June 7th podcast of The World and Everything In It when I saw that they have a segment called Classic Book of the Month.  As I'm always looking for book ideas, I read on.  Whose Body? was the selection of June.  being a big fan of Peter Wimsey mysteries, and realizing I had never read this inaugural one, I went straight to my library and picked up their copy.

Fun Fact: Just as I read this book as a suggestion from a magazine. I originally became a fan of Peter Wimsey due to an "audio magazine" called at the time The Mars Hill Tapes and now called Mars Hill Audio. The "issue" I was listening to did a segment on an unwritten but plotted  Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane project called Thrones, Domination which was finished by Jill Paton Walsh in 1998. This introduced me to Lord Peter Wimsey.  

Quote from the book: "I love trifling circumstances," said Lord Peter with childish delight; so many men have been hanged by trifling circumstances, ..." (p.31 of the 1987 edition)

Here's what someone else thought of this book:  I refer back to the World Magazine segment transcript. Emily Whitten is the reviewer.

What did I think? I loved this book.  This book takes place in much the same time and culture of Downton Abbey and I have not read a Wimsey novel since before my Downton experience.  I think Wimsey is a good companion to Downton.  This book has made me want to take a deep dive not only to the Wimsey novels I have not yet encountered, but also to reread the others first I am going to obtain some of Sayer's poetry as I seem to be on a poetry kick (both reading and writing) of late.

I finished this book on June 12th, the 15th day of my summer reading program.  It was the second book I finished today, which is the first time this summer that I have finished more than 1 book in a day. I am now on track to finish 26 and 2/3rds books by Labor Day.

Book #3 Where the Sidewalk Ends

Title: Where the Sidewalk Ends

Author: Shel Silverstein

Have I read this book before? Yes.

How obtained? / Why this Book? Last Fall, Barnes & Noble in our local mall closed and moved to another location.  They used the occasion for a mammoth sale and on the penultimate day of the store's existence I picked up several books for my family with the intent of giving them as Christmas presents.  I was pretty much successful in this task, although a few weeks ago I found a 3 pack of Shel Silverstein books in my closet that I had purchased for her at that time.  When she finished rereading Where the Sidewalk Ends (In approximately 1.3 seconds) I borrowed it for my re-reading and finished it today.

Fun Fact: One of my part-time jobs in college was to have children in vision-therapy read to me. One of the books they had us read them were selections from Where The Sidewalk Ends.  Years later my son needed vision therapy and we went to the same practice I had worked for,  I had almost forgotten working there.

Quote from the book: (As with book 2, I'll include 2 poems from this book., the first and the penultimate.)

The first

Invitation

If you are a dreamer, come in,

If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,

A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ...

If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire

For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.

Come in!;

Come in!

The Penultimate

Merry ...

No one's hangin' stockin's up.

No one's bakin' pie

No one's lookin' up to see

A new star in the sky.

No one's talkin' brotherhood,

No one's givin' gifts

And  no one loves a Christmas tree

On March the twenty-fifth.

Here's what someone else thought about this book:  Connie Smith examines the titular poem in   "Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein" at Poem Analysis. 

What did I think: I'm a big fan of Silverstein. I came in originally through some of his books, particularly The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece.  In my latter years, I've come to adore his poetry.  I picked this book first to read of the 3 I gave my daughter as I remembered it being my favorite of those 3.   I really enjoyed rereading it.  I like especially his wordplay, creativity, imagination, and his trick endings like in "Merry." I only hope I enjoy the other 2 as well as I liked this one.  

I finished reading this book on June 12th, the fifteenth day of my summer reading program. This puts

me on a pace to read 20 books by the time my program ends on Labor Day. 

Book # 2: Ten-Second Rainshowers

 

Title: Ten-Second Rainshowers

Compiled by Sanford Lynne

Illustrations by Virginia Halstead

Had I read this book before? No.

How obtained?  I borrowed this book through inter-library loan.  

Why This Book?  My daughter, an aspiring poet,  often borrows the book Writing poetry from the inside out by Sandford Lynne from our local library.  As I'm on a bit of a poetry kick these days, the last time I returned it to the library for her, I checked it out myself.  In that book, Lyne alludes to this one which is a compilation of Children's poetry from 3rd graders to 12th graders that Lyne had held Poetry workshops for.  

Fun Fact: When I decided to find this book, I saw that a copy was available at the Evanston (Illinois) Library.  I contacted my local library in Elgin, Illinois and they were  able to obtain it from the Elmhurst (Illinois) library.  The fun fact is that all of those towns begin with the letter E.  

Quote from the Book:  (Actually this time I'll include 2 of the poems)

Poem 1:

Rainshowers

Rainshowers

last forever, seconds

at a time, and

almost like a poem

which is long

at heart.

Mike Davis

Grade 8 

(From the back jacket cover as well as p. 87)

Poem 2:

My violin's soft music

makes me feel relaxed

It's like traveling in my dad's truck

from busy Virginia to flat, warm Kansas. 

Tondra Seibring 

Grade 8

(From Page 77)

Here's what someone else thought of this book: Sharon Korbeck in School Library Journal (Found on the editorial review section of the Ten-Second Rainshower page at Amazon.  Miss Korbecks is the 2nd review and the one I agree with most.

What did I think:  I think this book is extraordinary.  The majority of these poems are worth reading again and again and I hope to be able to use this book with some of my students next year.

I finished reading this book on June 10/2002, the 13th day of my summer reading program.  This puts me on a pace to read 15.38 books by Labor Day.