This Sonlight Core 7 novel has been given the "best Sonlight book ever" designation by my kids. The Endless Steppe is author Esther Hautzig's narrative of the 5 years she spent in Siberia as a Polish-Jewish exile during WWII. Hautzig is a master storyteller. At age 10 she and her parents went from a completely normal life in Vilna, Poland, surrounded by dozens of family members, to being outcast in a barracks in Siberia. The five years spent in exile are filled with the daily struggle of finding food, clothing, and shelter. This was one of the books, too, that spanned the ages of my kids. While written for a young adult, the novel was appropriate for my 4th-grader, as well, and even my kindergartener listened in now and then. And a warning for those moved to tears by Sonlight books: get your tissues out for the last few chapters.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Book Review: My Antonia
I am taking great joy in re-reading, or in the case, reading for the first time, classics in American Literature in preparation for my class next year. This past week I've been reading Willa Cather's wonderful novel about the immigrant experience on the Nebraskan prairie in the early 1900s. The star of the novel is Antonia, an immigrant girl from Bohemia. Told through the eyes of her neighborn, an American-born boy, the novel chronicles her optimism and innocence in the midst of struggles over the course of 25 years. The prose is simply lyrical, a quality which is most often absent in today's novels. (Even contemporary poetry lacks a lyric voice, as often as not.) Reading classics leads me to wonder why today's novelists focus primarily on telling the story, with little regard to the craft of language. But I'll save my criticism of contemporary lit for another time. My Antonia will likely make the list of books we'll read in American Lit.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Book Review: The Pearl
Who am I to review a classic by John Steinbeck? One of my big "jobs" in these next few weeks is to pick the nine novels that we'll read in the American Lit class I'm teaching next year for our enrichment class program. Boy, is it ever hard to pick just 9 classic books by American authors. I have somewhat narrowed down my list and am now reading those with a critical eye: Is this book appropriate for grades 9-12 in subject matter, comprehension, etc. Do the students have the world context necessary to understand the book? Does it represent something unique about life in the U.S.?
The Pearl is a timeless study of human nature, of the struggle between good and evil. It is fast-paced and readable--an excellent introduction to John Steinbeck. But it doesn't capture that facet of America that is so powerful in other Steinbeck novels, and so I will take this out of my stack of possibilities. Next up, Of Mice and Men.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Book Review: Crossing Over
Subtitled One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, this book by Ruth Irene Garrett leaves me feeling cheated. I simply don't trust her narrative. In her account, she leaves her abusive,stifling Amish family at age 21 for a 43-year-old, thrice-divorced, 450-lb. non-Amish man. (Of course, she prayed before she did this and apparently God told her this was OK.) Her life is then filled with letters from her family, which are supposedly reproachful but which mostly sound sad to me. (And why, exactly, is she sharing all these private letters, anyway? They don't add to the story.) I'm not saying she didn't have an authoritarian father, and I concede that the Amish belief system is legalistic. My beef is that this book seems to be a thinly disguised forum for a "poor me, I'm a victim" narrative. Also, she really takes Scripture and yields it as a dangerous weapon, justifying her behavior with all kinds of out-of-context verses. Methinks Ottie needs to get off his 400-lb. butt (according to the author, he is on a diet and has lost 53 lbs.) and get a job. And the author needs to deal with her demons in a less public forum.
Book Review: Jerusalem Vigil
My parents have been raving about this series by Bodie and Brock Thoene for quite some time, and I finally read the the first book. Phew. It was a quick read, but I had a terrible time keeping track of the huge cast of characters. This is one of those books that switches among 3-4 sets of characters every page, and I have a lot of trouble keeping up. (I can read Faulkner with his 4-page sentences much easier than I get read this kind of modern flash lit.) That said--and I did need to get that criticism off my chest--I did find this book interesting. The story takes place in 1948, just after the new State of Israel was created, and the Jewish and Muslim forces are fighting for control of the holy city. This is just the first book in the Zion Legacy series. I will read one more to see if I can become more caught up in the story; if not, Book 2 will be my last.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Book Review: My Sister's Keeper
I wasn't too crazy about the first Jodi Picoult book I read, The Pact; it was hard to put down but very dark. My Sister's Keeper, however, was even harder to put down and without the despair. The subject matter seems despairing enough: one sister, conceived specifically as a perfect genetic match for her leukemia-ridden sister, fights to be medically emancipated. Several other stories are woven in with this one, and all the side stories were compelling, as well. I wasn't sure I wanted to read another Picoult book after The Pact, but I'm glad I did.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Book Review: The Eyre Affair
Blech. That's what I have to say about this book by Jasper Fforde. I made myself read it, because I kept thinking it must get better. I read so many Book Bloggers who gave The Eyre Affair good reviews, that I thought there must be something redeeming in it eventually. But, boo. It nearly bored me with too much trying-to-be-clever-ness. The Time Traveler's Wife just handles the whole concept of time travel in such a superior, engaging fashion. I probably would have liked this when I was in my very early 20s, as I thought it was fun to read books that were like a game of wit-matching. Now I laugh at things like, "Mommy, what would happen if I were an evil bunny with red eyes?" Give me a good story. I'm just not in a clever season of life.