Review

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Review: “Go Set a Watchman”

Lee, Harper. Go Set a Watchman New York: HarperCollins, 2015 ISBN 978–0–06–240985–0 You won’t envision Gregory Peck when you read what Atticus Finch has to say to his daughter late in this novel: “You realize that our Negro population is backward, don’t you?” (p. 242) “Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools […]

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On Novels and Novelists

7 Book Franchises We Really Need To Say Goodbye To Claire Fallon writes in the Huffington Post: Let’s be honest: Too many series and franchises are reworked and rebooted until there’s simply no life left in them. As much as fans may clamor to spend more money on another Dune book, for example, they’re more

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The Classics Club

The Classics Spin #9: “Cannery Row”

Back in March I won the opportunity to read John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row for The Classics Spin #9. And I mistakenly thought the completion date was May 15. In fact, it was May 5. Not that it really matters, since I’m a bit late either way. But I did finally finish reading the book on

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woman reading

Why You Never Hear Stories about Wicked Stepfathers

You know the story of Cinderella. She’s a princess, dearly loved by her father, the king. When her mother dies, her father eventually marries a widow with daughters of her own. But nothing much changes for Cinderella as long as her father lives and continues to protect her and treat her like the princess she

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bookshelves: Literature and Psychology

Review: “Winesburg, Ohio” by Sherwood Anderson

Anderson, Sherwood. Winesburg, Ohio Original publication date: 1919 Rpt. New York: Random House, 1947 Sherwood Anderson’s masterpiece, Winesburg, Ohio, is a collection of 23 interrelated sketches—Anderson calls them “tales”—that portray life in a Midwestern town in the early years of the twentieth century. The unifying thread throughout is the coming-of-age story of George Willard, an

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The Classics Club

On Rereading “Anne of Green Gables”

Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables Original publication date: 1908 Like most young girl characters who appear in books written for girls, Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables functions for readers as a model of how to be a successful girl. These books communicate and reinforce to children the beliefs and behaviors that

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bookshelves: Literature and Psychology

Review: “The Girl on the Train,” Paula Hawkins

Hawkins, Paula. The Girl on the Train New York: Penguin Group, 2015 ISBN 978–1–59463–366–9 Rachel rides the same train every day on her commute to and from London, right past the street where she and her husband used to live. She’s still reeling with despair over the failure of her marriage two years earlier. Looking

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The Classics Club

Classics Club Spin #8: “Revolutionary Road”

Related Post: CLASSICS CLUB SPIN #8 Yates, Richard. Revolutionary Road Original publication date: 1961 Rpt. Random House, 2008 eISBN 978–0–307–45627–4 This novel is most often described as an anti-suburban tract, a condemnation of the life of conformity and veiled unhappiness that flourished in the U.S. after World War II. And it is that. But it’s

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“Little Heathens” by Mildred A. Kalish

Kalish, Mildred Armstrong. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression  Bantam Books, 2007 Some time around 1930, when the author was “little more than five years old” (p. 6), she, her mother, her baby sister, and her two brothers went to live with her mother’s parents in

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bookshelves: Literature and Psychology

“Before I Go to Sleep,” S.J. Watson: We Are What We Remember

  Related Post: Introduction to Life Stories   Before I Go to Sleep: A Novel by S. J. Watson HarperCollins, 2011 Kindle Edition A woman awakens, wonders where she is, rolls over—and is shocked to see a middle-aged man wearing a wedding ring and with hairs on his back sleeping next to her. She stumbles

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