Tag: classics

Audiobook Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith #HSReadingRedo

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Published: August 12, 2005 by HarperAudio (book first published 1943)
Narrator: Kate Burton
Length: 14 hours 55 minutes
Category: Classics, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Coming of Age

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was Book 7 out of 8 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list. As we approach the new month, I am proud to report I did most of my homework and only need to read the Cliff Notes or watch the movie of one unread book (The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck). 😉

Set in Brooklyn in the early 1900s, we fall in love with the Nolan family; whom are poverty stricken but resourceful. Francie Nolan became one of my favorite literary characters.

Goodreads Synopsis: 4.25 average rating
The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness — in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

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Book Review: Lord of the Flies by William Golding #HSReadingRedo

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First published: September 17, 1954 by Faber & Faber
Category: Classics, Fiction, Young Adult

Lord of the Flies was Book 6 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list. All I know is that after this one I am reading a book for leisure before I pick up another book from my “homework” reading list. I need a classics break!

The following 28 second video will tell you all you need to know about Lord of the Flies. Thank you, Running Out of Pages for reminding me of this scene, it perfectly summed up my reading experience.

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Book Review: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller #HSReadingRedo

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First published: February 10, 1949 by Viking Press
Category: Classics, Play, Theatre
Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1949), New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play (1949)

Death of a Salesman was Book 5 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; I can say I’ve done my homework but that’s about all. Reading it certainly felt like homework. 

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee #HSReadingRedo

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First published: July 11, 1960 by J. B. Lippincott Co.
Category: Classics, Historical Fiction, Coming of age
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1961), Audie Award for Classic (2007), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (1961), Alabama Author Award for Fiction (1961)

To Kill a Mockingbird was Book 4 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; I’ve reached the 50% mark!

How does one even review a book of this notoriety? In my honest opinion, you can’t: or I certainly can’t. All I can say is that I waited way too long to read this book. I think I took the easy way out in high school and watched the movie or read the Cliff Notes, but never dove right into this gem. Well, I can finally mark this Great American Read off my list! Phew.

Goodreads synopsis: 4.27 average rating
A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. 

Instead of reviewing, I thought I would share some TKAM fun facts and the like. Read More »

Book Review: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

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Published: April 20, 2006 by Speak (first published 1967)
Category: Classics, Young Adult, Fiction

The Outsiders was Book 2 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; two down, six to go! Reading this in one day sure made up the time it took me to read Rebecca, phew. I am back on pace but still have Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck ahead so hope I give myself enough time to finish my overdue homework 😉

I don’t know what more to say than I should have read this for homework when I was a kid. I’ve missed out on this incredible story all these years! Never mind that this book was written by a teenager, Susan Eloise Hinton used her initials to hide the fact she was a female so male readers wouldn’t dismiss her. Knowing she was an impressionable youth herself blows my mind. The insight and care she had given to the character development is beyond 5 stars: beyond!Read More »

Book Review: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier #HSReadingRedo

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edition published in 2006 by HarperCollins

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First published August 1938 by Doubleday Doran
Category: Classics, Mystery, Romantic Suspense, Gothic

Rebecca was Book 1 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; one down, seven to go. This one took me much longer to read, clocking in at 8 days! I could have read two books in that time. Well no use crying about it now.

Let’s discuss why it took so long:Read More »

Audiobook Review: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin, narrated by Ann Richardson

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Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin
Narrator: Ann Richardson
Length: 8 hours and 11 minutes
Publisher: Post Hypnotic Press Inc.
Released: Dec. 8, 2017
Genre: Classics

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm has delighted readers for over 100 years. Published in 1903, when girls were inevitably depicted as pretty, gentle and proper, Rebecca Rowena Randall burst onto the scene of children’s literature. Sent to live with her prim and proper Aunt Miranda, who is expecting her much more demure sister, Rebecca is a “bird of a very different feather”. She has “a small, plain face illuminated by a pair of eyes carrying such messages, such suggestions, such hints of sleeping power and insight, that one never tired of looking into their shining depths….” To her Aunt Miranda’s continual dismay, Rebecca is exuberant, irrepressible, and spirited – not at all “proper” or “demure”. She wins over her aunt soon enough, and the whole town, and thousands of readers and listeners everywhere.

In 1904, author Jack London wrote Kate Douglas Wiggin: “May I thank you for Rebecca?…. I would have quested the wide world over to make her mine, only I was born too long ago and she was born but yesterday…. Why could she not have been my daughter? Why couldn’t it have been I who bought the three hundred cakes of soap? Why, O, why?” And Mark Twain called Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm “beautiful and warm and satisfying”. This recording, narrated by Ann Richardson, whose sweet voice has a facility for accents and character voices, is a satisfying listening experience you’ll want to revisit. Upcoming from Post Hypnotic Press is a new annotated print/eBook edition of this book, with illustrations from the original publication and a new introduction, as well as a work-book for children.

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Reading Challenge: High School Reading Redo

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September is right around the corner and can be known as Back to School Month. The start of school can vary based on location, but typically by September students are parked at their desks counting down the days until their next summer vacation. Well at least that was what I was doing. I certainly didn’t have the time to focus on required reading and often resorted to Cliff Notes. I needed my time to…I actually don’t remember but I just know my free time was not spent reading.

The adult me doesn’t even know that person: you can’t pry a book out of my hands nowadays. To rid myself of the guilt of not doing my homework I am going to spend the month of September reading the books I was supposed to read back in school (over twenty years ago). I only hope this makes my former English teachers – or English teachers everywhere – proud! If only I had my teachers emails, I would finally submit proper book “reports.”

Join or follow my progress through the hashtag #HSReadingRedo. Read from my list below or create your own. I would love to hear of your participation so come back an drop a comment below with your book “report” links!

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Saturday Spotlight: Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

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Introducing Saturday Nite Reader’s weekly meme: Saturday Spotlight! Each Saturday I will spotlight a book I have read or am currently reading; and, of course what I think is special about it. I invite you to participate as well! Just link back to my weekly post and don’t forget to add your spotlight link in the comment section for all to see. Happy Sharing! XO, Nikki

img_9264This Week:
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Published: October 12, 1958 by Random House
Category: Novella, Classics, Short-Stories

I hate to admit it, but I have never read this book! As an Audrey Hepburn fan, I love the movie – its one of my go-tos on rainy days. I recently bought my own copy and aim to read it before the end of 2018. I didn’t even realize it was actually a novella.

img_0115.jpgFirst published in 1958, they would go on to release the movie in 1961: Holly Golightly being one of Hepburn’s most iconic roles.

I have dressed up as Golightly twice for costume parties: the first being for what she was most remembered by: black dress, black hat, pearls and cigarette holder; the second as the wardrobe from the end scene with “cat” even making an appearance. The funny thing is, I hate Halloween and dressing up but any excuse to be Audrey Hepburn for the day and I am in.

img_4326My best friend is also a book lover. In this picture our costume theme was “literary characters.” She went as Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s quotes:
“What I’ve found does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go to Tiffany’s. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there.”

“Never love a wild thing…If you let yourself love a wild thing. You’ll end up looking at the sky.”

“I don’t mean I’d mind being rich and famous. That’s very much on my schedule and someday I’ll try to get around to it.”

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Going back in time: A Separate Peace

Saturday Nite Reader20 Comments

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A Separate Peace by John Knowles
First published in 1959
Required reading during my HS years (and I don’t remember if I ever finished it, but knowing my younger self…I probably read the CliffsNotes)

This past year I set out to read books from HS (1994-98) to: 1) read from an adult perspective and 2) actually read the ones I was supposed to and know I didn’t!

I want to apologize to my English teacher now, I should have appreciated you more. 😉Read More »