The Power of Reading by Stephen D. Krashen is a very through book. I first got interested in reading books about books when I read Book Lust by Nancy Pearl, which by the way is worth having a copy. I can’t recommend Book Lust enough! But, back to The Power of Reading.
This has tons of citations from studies conducted in the 1990s and 2000s. Because there are no recent studies the book is a little dated in its citations. The copy I read was published in 2004, but the book was first published in 1993 and it seems not a lot of the references have been kept as up-to-date as a reader like me would have liked.
This book reads like a research paper so be prepared for that. If you want something that is a little easier to read I would highly suggest you read The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. His book is mentioned in any good study of reading books and the positive effects.
I gave The Power of Reading 3 out of 5 stars. Not great, but if you are doing a paper on the importance of reading or reading to improve english as a second language (ESL) then this is the book you need to check-out, but I wouldn’t recommend buying it.
Liked this classic a lot. It is on my BBC100 challenge list. I thought at first it was going to be a great romantic novel, but it turns into a sad depressing novel. While I still liked this book, I was disappointed in the sadness of the novel. I was looking at reviews online about this book and Mark Goacher nails it with this you tube video review on Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.
I think this is a great classic and worth reading. I like the drive that Jude shows throughout the novel. I listened to this novel read by David Case on audio. Mark in the above video even talks about the films that were made of the book including the 1996 film Jude. I can’t wait to watch this movie and hopefully do a review on the movie part of the book. I’ve always like Kate Winslet and she plays Sue in the movie.
This is a very original novel. It is super short. My copy was only 105 pages. Anthem, originally called Ego, by Ayn Rand is a dystopian story. It follows one person who has a hard time falling in line with other people. The story is in the future but somehow humans have fallen back into the dark ages. They use candles and all technology is no longer used.
I was curious how other people were reviewing this book so I did a quick search and found this very interesting take on the book:
I really like the book and would recommend if for other lovers of post-apocalyptic stories. A great place to find more post-apocalyptic books is a goodreadsbook club that I belong to.
Here is the short list for the rest of the month. I hope to read these all by the end of the month. I’m starting The Stranger today. The rest will follow in the order they are in the picture. Most of these are from my reading list, but The Stranger is a suggestion from a great virtual book club on goodreads called Catching up on the Classics.
Here I am going on and on and totally forgot to get to the point. I just finished my 9th book of the month (review coming soon). You know what that means? I’m on track to read 100 books this year. I need to read at least 8 books each month (8.2 really). So I am very excited to be on track and can’t wait to dive into The Stranger.
The group does a few reads every month. They have a new school read, which is a modern classic. An old school classic which is what you think it is. They also have a long read, usually over 500 pages and a short read under 200. February’s short read is The Stranger, weighing in at only 123 pages in the paperback pictured above.
I hope they can forgive me for starting it early, but I have already read The Little Prince which is January’s pick. By the way, if you haven’t seen the 2015 movie, you should. It is really fantastic and lets you re-think the book entirely. I’m putting the trailer in here below.
I have another review coming soon, but for now, I really need to get back to my reading. See you in the stacks!
Placentia, A Pleasant Place by Virginia L. Carpenter
This is a story that should prove why your local library is so important. I found a video on my twitter feed from the city of Placentia. The video reminded me of a book that I found at the Placentia Library, Placentia, A Pleasant Place by Virginia L. Carpenter. She literally wrote the book on Placentia. I stubbled upon this browsing through the books in the Friends of the library section of the Placentia Library. They were asking $20 for the book. At first, I thought this was a little steep, but being new to the city, I wanted to lear about the history of it. After all I am a history buff.
I was wondering a little more about Virginia today as well. I’m not finding much about her except links to her book, now selling for $95 most places! I did find a little on the Placentia Library website. She was hired as a librarian there in August 1953. In April 1978, she helped dedicate the California room in the library where she signed copies of her book. I have the revised edition pictured above that was published in 1988.
I also found some 1984 minutes from the city where the then major Richard Buck presented a proclamation that July 17, 1984 be Virginia Carpenter Day in Placentia.
Finally, I tweeted to the Placentia Library to find out more. They have reached out but only to schedule time in the history room. I’m a little disappointed in that, because I just wanted a simple answer. Hopefully, I’ll learn more when I have time to schedule time with them.
Missing Person by Patrick Modiano, was originally written in French I believe. I of course read an English translation. Mr. Modiano won the 2014 nobel prize for literature. Because of this, I was expecting an amazing book with shocking brilliant prose. The book is not bad, it is in fact a some what interesting story. But it doesn’t move very quickly. It is a kind of detective novel.
I bought this copy on abebooks I believe and it was hard to find. I had to purchase it because none of the local libraries had a copy. I think I know why they didn’t have a copy now. There is nothing special about this book. The story is just kind of there. Nothing exciting. Maybe this was just over my head, I’m not sure, but I can’t give this a good rating as it just didn’t interest me very much. I think the best part was the first 40 pages or so when the story is just getting started and I thought it was building up to something great. But it was anti-climatic. I was let down. This book only earned two stars out of five from me. Very disappointed.
Start at 1:10 if you only want to hear about The Sleeper and the Spindle. This book has fantastic illustrations and I would be remiss if I did not mention the amazing work that Chris Riddell did in this book. Simply astounding. Take a look:
The Sleeper and the Spindle – Inside
Just gorgeous. If you are a Neil Gaiman this one is a keeper. I however, didn’t purchase this one. I borrowed it from the library. I was thinking I have about an hour what can I read in that time. So I glanced at my to-read list on goodreads and this was a short book that I remembered from Lucy’s video. I’m so glad I read it.
My local library had a digital copy ready for download. So, for the first time I tried downloading an ebook on my iPad. It worked really well.
The Sleeper and the Spindle – iPad
Back to the story though. It was a wonderful fantasy about dwarfs and a princess and an evil witch/enchantress. They have a dangerous and wondrous adventure. In typical Gaiman style, things are never as you expect. This book is easily a 4 out of 5 star book! The only thing I didn’t like was that it ended so soon!
If you want something like this but a little longer I highly recommend The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel, another Neil Gaiman novel. This one is just perfect. I read it in 2015 and it is definitely a 5 star book!
If you listen to audio books you have probably heard of David Case’s voice. I first heard his voice when he was reading Shogun one of my all time favorite books. When I started reading Jude the Obscure this week I heard a familiar voice so I looked up who the reader was and I saw that the reader was Frederick Davidson. Next, of course came the google search to see if I could find out who this person was. I was very sad to see his obituary listed on the LA Times Seems he would not give up smoking cigarettes and died of throat cancer in 2005. He was nominated for a Grammy. He recorded over 700 audio books! So rest in peace Mr. Case and thank you for all the wonderful hours of audio!
Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp is a great book for anyone wanted to read an action packed Star Wars novel, but for those who loved the 6th movie in the Star Wars films, this is even better. It gives the blow-by-blow of an adventure that involves Darth Vader and the Emperor and there may be even a few references to the animated series Rebels in there for you fans.
Before we get to deep it is important to mention a few things. First when Disney bought the Star Wars film franchise they said all the books that had been written before their purchase don’t count. Now, these were wonderful books and I loved many of them. So they DO COUNT, but the story line will not be followed by Disney in the new movies. So, now that that has been said there is a huge vacuum that needs to be filled with new books and stories. Some of these stories will be in Rebels, some will be in other movies that are off shoots from the movie that came out in December 2015. Some of the stories will be told in books and graphic novels/comic books.
To learn what books are part of the “new cannon” the post-Disney story, the best place to look is Wookieepedia…get it? Yeah. Anyway, check the link to see what books to read if you want to fill in the gaps that the new movie left. I read Dark Disciple in 2015. This year I want to continue reading the story of Star Wars and the next book up was Lords of the Sith.
I enjoyed this book very much. There is an action scene a little more than half-way through the book that was just amazing! The foreshadowing to what fans already know lies a head is great. I don’t want to say too much more because I don’t want to spoil it. If you are a Star Wars fan and you read, the decision should already be made for you. While there are no huge revelations made in the book the story is solid and if your a Vader fan you will not be disappointed!
By the way. Paul S. Kemp, the author, is on twitter. He was nice enough to retweet some of my comments as I read the book and I recommend following him to see what he is up to.
SPOILERS BELOW:
This is a good video review that IGN did, but it does have some slight spoilers in it. If you like to go into a book without knowing anything about the story, don’t watch this. Otherwise, enjoy.
Halfway through The Secret History by Donna Tartt I knew I was going to give this book a 5 out of 5. It is a story about a handful of students that are taught by a special professor. The professor only has this handful of students and teaches all but one or two of the students classes himself. An oddity in college. The story takes place in Vermont. The students see them self as elite as does the professor and the professor helps them see only the best in themselves.
The students take things too far. Further than you or I would think possible. There are several places where Greek is spoken but you get the just of things so it’s okay. It helps if you have read some of the Greek classics. Just when you think the book is winding down, boom! There is a surprise. Great book!
I listened to the audio edition of the book. It is read by Donna Tartt, the author. I love it when the author does the audio book themselves. You know they are reading it the way it is meant to be read. They are putting emphasis in all the right places. They do the voices of the characters as they should be and as they felt they would be. Really it’s the best thing you can get if unable to read the print version.
This book is on the BBC 100 list that I have been referring to often in my writing on this blog. So, I’m very glad I can put a line through another title. I would recommend this book to my friends. It is a great story and not slow by any means.
