However enchanted we are with the flavor of the month—bawdy romances with flashy covers, thrillers that wind us into tense, white-knuckled expectation, explosive tales of espionage, or solemn dramas—there is always room for the classics. Not to knock the new titles out there; some of them may well prove themselves classics. We’ll just have to wait and see. But for those of us too impatient to wait, along with a few newer titles, here are a few classics we've recently reread for you, tried and tested.
Outlaw, bricklayer, courtier, playwrite and poet, Ben Jonson was one of the most influential writers of his time. His verses are lyrical and clear and rival any of his contemporaries'. Volpone is a brilliant comedy that satires the avarice that motivates us with language that is absolutely stunning.
Aristophanes's "The Birds" is one of the great dramatic comedies from all of classical antiquity. It is the story of Euelpides and Pisthetaerus, two old Athenians, who are disgusted with the litigiousness, wrangling and sycophancy of their countrymen, and resolve upon quitting Attica. Having heard of the fame of Epops (the hoopoe), sometime called Tereus, and now King of the Birds, they determine, under the direction of a raven and a jackdaw, to seek from him and his subject birds a city free from all care and strife.
The epics get all the attention. They're beautiful, I know, but they're also longwinded, august works that fail to capture some of the more lighthearted aspects of life. This comedy is concise, witty, and a pleasure to read. It gives the reader a whole new perspective on the ancient world.
~Brian
Do you really need me to tell you simple plot lines to pique your interest when all that really needs to be said is this is simply the most horrific, blood drenched tale that I have ever read? Or should I instead tell you that it was my first choice when my 10 year old son asked me what "classic" should he read for his class reading assignment? Should I mention that he ran to me after each chapter to proclaim how frightening it was and he had no idea the story of Dracula was so...
horrific? I should probably warn you that it's much better than any movie adaptation you might have seen and that the images that Bram Stoker conjures will be permanent fixtures in your dreams.
Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor and chief of French Elle magazine, suffered a catastrophic stroke at 43, that left him in a coma for twenty days. When he awoke, he found his mind was unimpaired but that he was completely paralyzed, "like a mind in a jar", except for the ability to blink his left eye. With the use of this one small link to the outside world and his determination to continue living a full life, if only in his mind, he sets out to write this memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, one letter at a time. This is an extraordinary, uplifting, eloquently written book, told with wisdom, honesty and humor. A triumph of the human spirit, it is a story you won't soon forget, nor want to.
As a gymnast who loves her sport, and now as a parent, I am grateful to Jennifer Sey for sharing such an honest account of her experiences as an elite gymnast. She has eloquently and fairly exposed a dark side of our sport that parents have long needed to be made aware of. It was with a heavy heart that I read Sey's descriptions of the worst side effects of elite competition among young women. On the other hand, it was refreshing to see just how well she has survived her trials and tribulations-enabling her to blossom into a strong and successful businesswoman. Sey may have had a tumultuous journey in gymnastics but her strength to tell her story with such accurate detail is inspiring and ultimately uplifting. I hope this excellent book encourages others to open up and share their stories as well.
There's a lot going on in this small, fast-moving novel that introduces big issues--faith, class, color, prejudice, family, disability, and friendship. Woodson tells her story with immediacy and realism through the stirring first-person narrative of a young girl, Frannie, growing up in 1971. The new boy in school is the only white kid in Frannie's sixth-grade class, and she wonders why he doesn't go to the white school across the highway. He's pleased when some of the kids call him Jesus Boy, and Frannie's devout friend, Samantha, thinks he may be the savior. A few of the boys harass him, especially bullying Trevor--who looks white himself. When the new kid turns out to be far from perfect, Frannie wonders: Was he God's child? Aren't we all? In her loving home, filled with light, hope, and laughter, a deaf older brother has always enriched her life, but Frannie realizes that she still has bridges of prejudice to cross.
A fable leaning towards the tradition of Shelley's Frankenstein, Lives of the Monster Dogs is the story of a group of elegant "monster dogs" in top hats, tails, and bustle skirts who become instant celebrities when they come to New York in 2008. Refugees from a town which had been completely isolated for 100 years, the dogs retain the 19th century Germanic culture of the humans who created them. As the dogs struggle to adapt to their new surroundings, a young woman befriends them...and discovers that a strange, incurable illness threatens them with extinction.
Lately it seems as if putting a dog on the cover is a sure fire way to publishing a bestseller. Call me crazy but if you too are kind of tired of the crop of golden lab looking dog prophets gracing our bookstore shelves, you might want to try
the "Monster Dogs". I read this book when it first came out and it still stands as one of my favorite and completely fun reads. By the way, they not only wear Elizabethan clothes, they produce an opera and sing (in English) ~Mary
How can a leaf become a fish? Join two young children and their dads to find out, as they observe life in and around a stream. Energetic collage art and simple, lyrical text depict the ways plants and animals are connected in the food web
This is a wildly wonderful book about a hyperactive kitten, Skippyjon Jones, whose head and ears are too big for his body, and whose imagination is too intense for his mama. According to her, he needs to do some serious thinking about what it means to be a Siamese cat instead of a bird (Skippyjon always wakes up and eats worms with his feathered friends). She sends him to his room, where he imagines he is a Chihuahua ("My name is Skippito Friskito./I fear not a single bandito"). Chock-full of rhyming chants and Spanish expressions, the feline's adventure as a doggy Zorro ends in chaos. His frazzled mother gives him a hug anyway and says, "Say good night, Skippyjon Jones." "Buenas noches, mis amigos," says the kitten, as he bounces on his bed all ready for another adventure. The buoyant and colorful cartoon illustrations match the exuberant text perfectly. Spanish-speaking children will be especially delighted by the words and humor; others may be a little bewildered by all of the foreign phrases and will need some explanation, but the story definitely has the potential of a fun read-aloud.
This book is kind of weird, but I found myself enjoying it in a guilty, book-snobby sort of way. It's all about Jane Austen addict Courtney who, suffering from a filandering fiance, wakes up in Jane Austen's time. Yes that's right, it's ye olde merry England, a la1816. It was kind of fun seeing a character with modern sensibilities deal with a bossie corset-wearing stand-in mother, men in tights, and the alarming absence of makeup and hygiene. Call it fluff and trivial, I don't care. It was just fun. ~Mary
The epics get all the attention. They're beautiful, I know, but they're also longwinded, august works that fail to capture some of the more lighthearted aspects of life. This comedy is concise, witty, and a pleasure to read. It gives the reader a whole new perspective on the ancient world.
~Brian
