Teresa
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is a mystery novel that begins with a woman dressed all in white that has escaped a private asylum. Very quickly the reader begins to question why the woman was really committed. Is she really insane or is there another motive? How is she connected with Sir Percival Glyde?
This is a interesting mystery, what does Sir Percival Glyde and his accomplice really want and how far will they go to get it?
This novel brings up some very interesting questions and themes. It brings up the question of women in a society where they are seen as less than the men and their husbands. They often had no power in their marriages or property as it is “managed” by the male they are tied to. The uneven power structure that lessens women is one of the major themes of this novel. “they take us body and soul to themselves, and fasten our helpless lives to theirs as they chain up a dog to his kennel. And what does the best of them give us in return?”
It also touches on the unequal standards in social class. The upper classes is seen as better and is automatically trusted and taken at their word simply because they are part of the upper-class. For example, Sir Percival is automatically believed because of his social status, “I have no doubt myself that every explanation which can be expected from a gentleman and a man of honor, he will readily give. Sir Percival stands very high...” The lower classes are seen as unreliable and suspicious.
Morality is also touched on. What is considered a crime? What is considered immoral? There is a debate in the book between the characters that touches on this subject. One person's good and morality is not considered so for other cultures. Unfortunately, this also brings up issues of some condoning or even giving a pass on crimes one society would condemn.
The theme of identity and appearance is another focus in this novel. Is someone really who they present themselves to be? This can be used to manipulate others. This can also be used to protect oneself from being used or harmed. This theme seems to be a central theme of the story and ties the other themes of class, marriage, gender, morality, and crime together. Who really are these characters and what do they really want?
This novel will make you think of morality, identity, and our place in society. Where do we stand in that society? How do we navigate that society? Does that society work for us or against us? These are questions that need to be asked. By asking them we confront the society we live in, not just to survive it but to change it. Sometimes a society needs to change to improve it for the people who live in it. This is a book that will make you think as you wonder what happens next.
Emma is a novel by Jane Austen. It is a story of the upper class woman known as Emma Woodhouse who thinks she understands love and who will be the best life partners. Most of her match-maker abilities are focused on her companion, Harriet Smith. Emma means well, however miscommunications, misconceptions, and personal conflicts abound in the town of Highbury where the book takes place. Emma's well meaning schemes and misunderstandings of love lead to many mismatched relationships.
Emma gives off a sense of someone who has been spoiled, isolated, and has had her ego strokes just a tad too much. The town of Highbury always flatters her and seems to follow her every word. This is exemplified by the character of Harriet Smith, a lower class girl who cannot seem to have a thought of her own unless Emma approves of it, or even suggests it. This leads Harriet to some heart break.
Emma does come to the realization of what she done with her schemes. However, this comes through jealousy. In all her schemes, Emma has unknowingly schemed against herself. She now regrets trying to “arrange every body's destiny” and acknowledges her machinations to be mistakes. Admitting to being “doomed to blindness”.
I enjoyed this book it was quite intriguing on who would finally get together with who. Also wondering when Emma would come to her realization. However, the language barrier was a problem, which is understandable as this novel was written in 1815. Jane Austen wrote in a time where complex sentence structure was the norm. Some of these sentences can go on for half a page or more. Also, Austen wrote in a very formal language. Some of the wording can be confusing if you read this book quickly. This book is to be read slowly and savored.
All in all, this was an enjoyable book and I highly recommend it. The themes of marriage and courtship, social class, miscommunication, and misperceptions are readily apparent in this book. Experience is important. Humbleness is important. One can do the wrong thing while meaning to help others if understanding is not present. All of these can come from experience and the willingness to listen.
This is a difficult book to review. Not because it is hard to read, but because of the information given. This book is a history of state sponsored genocide (broadly defined) and famine. It covers some of the reasons for the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
The Holodomor (as it is known) is little known in the West. The reason for this is because of the lack of information at the time (early and mid-1930s) and the cover-up by both the Soviet government as well as Western politicians and media who wanted to side with the Soviets against Hitler, admired the new communist government, or just did not want to be involved.
The scars are so deep that the results are still being shown today. The Ukrainians government is corrupt and the institutions are not trusted. The Russians still re-write history to lessen or negate any blame they might fall under. Many of their institutions are direct descendants of those that carried out the orders and atrocities against the people of Ukraine. Sides are still polarized and might be for generations to come.
The Soviets/Bolsheviks were a minority of the Russian people that came to power through violence and propaganda. They maintained that power through violence and propaganda. Ukraine was one who suffered, probably more than most during this time. To push forward their agenda (the Soviet ideology and their collectivization program) the people were stripped of their belongings (farm equipment, farm animals, seeds), their institutions (government and religious), and later (as the famine spread) their food. All this was done as the Soviet Union exported grain and other food stuff to other parts of the world as their own people starved
This books paints a very vivid picture of death by starvation from adult to young children. It also tells of the disposal of the dead that resulted from the strict ideological beliefs of those in charge. Anyone who voiced displeasure of what was happening was labeled subversive or enemy of the state and was imprisoned or killed. The lucky ones seemed to have been killed quickly. The unlucky ones seemed to have slowly starved.
This is a time of history that should be remembered. Even though it is hard to face. The more we know, hopefully the less likely we are to repeat it.
A book about a young woman who works as a governess for upper class families. It touches on the themes of money and love in marriage; power and cruelty; religion (insincere and sincere); as well as education, authority, and class.
Agnes Grey works for two rich families who may have book smarts, but they have no moral foundation to their education or wealth. This leads to multiple forms of cruelty of both animals and people. Agnes's mother, and other women of the various families Agnes works for, are pushed into marriages only for money and status. If they don't comply, they suffer both familial and societal punishments. Being cut off from both they find it difficult to make their way with no safety net. Women have few options during this time in history that this book covers.
The upper classes have a great deal of power that comes from their wealth. This can lead to cruelty if there is no moral foundation to their education to anchor them. This foundation should come from their teachers and religious leaders of the time. However, the governesses have little authority to punish their students if they break any rules (the parents rarely do). The religious leaders are often insincere in their own beliefs and often follow the needs and desires of the upper class to ingratiate themselves to the rich. Those who do follow a moral code are often at the bottom rungs of society.
This book shows the dangers of power, authority, and money without good morals, insincere religious leaders, money over love, and a lack of options for women.
An excellent story for the young that deals with the very important themes of friendship, loss, and death.
Everyone needs a friend, even animals. Without friends we get lonely. Like Wilbur the pig, we need friendship to live a good life. Wilbur's life is good when he is with his human friend Fern. When she no longer comes to see him as much as she used to, Charlotte the spider becomes his friend and eventually saves his life.
This story also deals with death. Wilbur's death hovers over him even when he doesn't know about it. He is a pig. They are usually killed in the autumn to be food for others. He is saved by his friend Charlotte who writes messages about Wilbur in her web. Wilbur survives, but Charlotte doesn't. Charlotte dies a natural death of old age (for a spider). Wilbur is once more sad for the loss of his friend. However, Charlotte has left behind an egg sack that Wilbur protect. The baby spiders hatch and three stay behind to be friends with Wilbur.
This is a story with some heavy topics for young children. However, this story can be used to discuss the topics that some young children face, the loss of a loved one. The author, E.B. White makes these topics approachable for young children. It is a very enjoyable story.
In The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, Bryan Ward-Perkins argues that the current "peaceful transformation" theory of the Roman Empire into the Medieval period is wrong. For the author it is a time of decline, dislocation, and fear that destroyed Rome as it was known and set back the West's standard of living. He attacks current popular theories with archaeological evidence and explores the consequences of Rome's decline on the lives of everyday people that once lived under the Roman umbrella. He explains the fear of the barbarian invasions and occupation, as well as the after effects on the economy, agriculture, political system, architecture, writing, industry, and household materials. All of which declined or collapsed.
Many scholars today don't want to put forth the idea of civilization decline. They point to the Eastern Roman Empire (aka the Byzantium Empire) as the example that Rome (the Western Empire) simply transformed and did not fall. They mostly ignore the idea that by the time of the fall both West and East were for all intense and purposes different entities by the time of Rome's fall. Mr. Ward-Perkins fells that the biases of other scholars and academics play a large role in these views they put forth.
All in all this was a very interesting book to read. The author put forth evidence for his argument. Read this book and see if you agree with him or not.
Silas Marner by George Eliot, aka Mary Ann Evan (1819 - 1880), is a story in which the love of gold is replaced by the love of a child. Marner is a weaver from a community of people who were dominated by strict religion. He is framed for a crime and leaves. He lives his life in isolation from his new community in Raveloe keeping company only with the gold he has collected. One day his gold is stolen. He thinks his life is pretty much over until a blond child who has just been orphaned walks through his door. He thinks his gold has been replaced by this "golden haired" child and takes care of her. As he takes care of her he learns that there is more to life than his previous hoard of money, there is love and family, the true treasure. Through his new daughter, he once again connects to a community and gains friends and ties that he once thought were gone forever. He is once more a person connected to the world around him and not an isolated hermit.
This is an excellent novel about the recovery of purpose (Marner's purpose of raising his new found daughter) and reconnection to a community. I highly recommend.
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a satirical dystopian tale about a farm that experiences a revolution to overthrow the human owner to set up a society run by and for the animals. It does not go well. Their idealistic revolution quickly turns into another corrupt totalitarian society with one group (the pigs) ruling over all the other animals.
This story is used to discuss politics and power grabs that happened at the Russian Revolution. The characters can be paired up with their human counterparts who shaped Russian history (Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Tsar Nicholas II). The story comes to an end with the realization that nothing has changed. The wheel has simply come full circle (corrupt power to idealistic revolution to corrupt power). The only thing that has changed is who holds the whip.
Animal Farm touches on many themes we as a society must face, corruption of power and ideals, the abuse of language written and spoken, the tendency of class stratification and exploitation, as well as the dangers of blindly following those in power.
This is a banned book in many countries (examples: Cuba, North Korea, UAE).
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is a young adult/children's book set during the American Civil War and the years after. It concerns four girls as that grow to adulthood and face the struggles between family duty and their own growth, the necessity of work and duty, as well as the important trait of being a genuine person.
I had high hopes for this book. I had always heard great things about it. I was disappointed. Unfortunately, the writing seemed choppy and lacked flow from one chapter to another. Each chapter seems to be its own self-contained mini-story. The author also wanted to capture the readers attention on herself and not let the characters tell their story themselves.
This book is not high on my book list and I don't plan on recommending it. There are better ya/children classics to read.
An enjoyable book for every age. The Secret Garden is a story of how two neglected, feral, and spoiled children becoming healthy and happy by companionship, friendship, good food, and people just being nice to them (with a little from a secret garden).
Mary and Colin, two of the main characters, have had a rough start in life. Neither of the children were wanted by their families. So, in a way, they make their own family with the help of Dickon and a few adults who care for them.
A delightful story of how our outlook, human companionship, and our own surroundings affect us as people. A bad environment can have bad results on us. A good environment can have good results on us. 4.5 stars
This is a foundational work in the science fiction genre. It expresses topics of progress, human identity, politics, and decay. Progress is not inevitable and the future is not guaranteed to be positive.
The Time Traveler goes to the year 802,701 and finds two species that have split off from the current human race, the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi, descendants of the elite, seem to live in an idyllic garden, but the Traveler soon learns about the relationship between the Eloi and the underground dwellers, the Morlocks who are the descendants of the working poor. It is a relationship of farmer to livestock. The farmer is the Morlocks and the livestock is the Eloi. Society has flipped.
The Traveler has many misadventures. One of which is setting a large forest fire as a means of escaping the Morlocks. The Traveler eventually returns to his home time and tells his story to his companions.
This novella is quite enjoyable. Lessons can be learned from this work.
A good short gothic horror story for October. The story centers on a young woman who is having to deal with a female vampire. As with all vampire stories there is sexuality in their encounter. This leads to topics of the loss of innocence, love and lust, and female sexuality. The sexuality is more blatant than in Dracula. (Be warned if you don't want to avoid this topic.)
Overall, it is a nice read.
An excellent story that deals with temptation and the duality of human nature (good and evil). Some things should not be studied. The curiosity of a person's identity, lead to the separation of that identity. What was once a blend became two entities, one good and one evil. When evil is indulged, that side of our identity grows stronger and can overshadow the good. Evil cannot be controlled. It can be suppressed.
An enjoyable book that took me back to my childhood. The main character, Meg, catastrophizes and is not at all patient. Meg's adventure with her brother and friend, Charles Wallace and Calvin, to Camazotz helps her grow as a person. She learns that being different is good because love can only exist between people who are unique.
An enjoyable book about journeys home and what it takes to get there. The three main characters (Odysseus, Telemachus, Penelope) all use cunning in an attempt to return to family (home) or keep the memory of family (home) alive. Odysseus uses it to return to Ithaca. Telemachus uses it to find news of his father. Penelope uses cunning to restrain the suitor's advances.
It can also be read as a tale of hope and despair. Both Odysseus and Telemachus strive to have a reunited family. Penelope is in despair, believing her husband is dead, but wanting no one else.
I recommend this book to be read at least once. It is not as violent as The Illiad. A reader can easily connect to the characters and the journeys they take to be reunited.
The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins, is a mystery in a mystery. It is a mystery novel that follows the story of a diamond from India that is not only stolen from its original custodians, but from a family in England that comes into possession of it. There are several questions that will be answered: How did the diamond come to England? How was the diamond stolen from the family? How did the diamond get to London? Does the diamond return to India or does it remain in England?
The Moonstone is one of the first modern mystery novels that helped create the genre and set the rules for mystery/detective fiction. It is written in a series of letters by the characters to understand what has happened. The story might be a bit slow in certain places (situations need to be set up), but it is an enjoyable read as both a mystery and an exploration of how the modern mystery began.
I found this book very informative about myself and the society I live in. It was written by Susan Cain, who is an introvert, a personality type that prefers being quite to outgoing (extrovert). This book discusses how our society became dominated by the "Culture of Personality" as opposed to the pervious "Culture of Character" and how introverts can contribute in that culture. Many introverts, of which I am one, feels left out or talked over in the world we live in. We like quite time and do our best work when we are left alone or in small groups. The current work culture, especially of large corporations, seem to believe that great work only comes from large, outgoing groups. The author discusses when the societal changes took place as well as cultural differences. She puts forward ideas on how introverts can still contribute to our work and society. She also gives some ideas for parents of introverted children, who are naturally quite or are not as outgoing as other children, that can help their children grow and navigate the friendships they form. I feel this book can also be useful to others who have quite friends and even those in a leadership position who have people who prefer to work alone or rarely speak up in meetings (there might be reason). After all according to this book, studies have shown that one third to one half of Americans are introverts.
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This book is set during a hard time in American history, the Great Depression, and what it does to the people living during that time. The main characters, and others, dream of a better life on a piece of land that they own. However, both themselves and circumstances don't allow this. All the characters feel fear and a sense of captivity due to the lives they live. How they cope says much about themselves. Some cultivate friendships while others find enemies. There is also joy, loneliness, and anger.
This was a hard book to read, but worth it. The economic and racial problems were massive. This work is on many banned book list due to the racial language that is used, be warned.
There are many themes that can be explored while reading this. Some of those themes are: fear, the American Dream, predatory human nature, and racism.
"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen is an excellent classic romance book. I usually don't like romance books. They usually seems flat and uninteresting to me. However, Austen is an author I love to read. Not only does this book handle Elizabeth's and Mr. Darcy's character growth into lovers. Austen handles themes of class differences, gender roles, and family connections. This novel is more than just a one dimensional romance story. This is a story about the interactions of people and how they handle those interactions. "Pride and Prejudice" is a novel that I highly recommend.
An excellent classic book with many movie adaptions. It goes over the state of the soul, vanity, corruption, and beauty. The main character, Dorian Gray, keeps putting the blame of his actions and state onto the picture of himself that has been cursed. He believes that if you have beauty, you have everything no matter how decadent, vile, or corrupt you are. He keeps forgetting that he placed the curse and he is doing the actions that are being placed on the picture. He values his beauty more than his soul.
A good classic book written in the 1800's by Mary Shelly. It explores questions about secrecy, knowledge, ambition, and monstrosities. While reading this book, one needs to question who is really the monster; the creature or the creator/humanity? Also, ask how far one can be pushed and ostracized before they crack and do horrible things to those around them.
It is a book that should be read by everyone and explore the questions asked.