Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus

Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The god who gave us science and education is unjustly punished by those who wish to maintain and hoard power. What a modern story.

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Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a good YA coming of age book with a gay main character in a conservative town. It’s painful but it’s also appropriate for young teens.

I could have lived without the passengers’ monologues.

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Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A super fun modern fairy tale about the drawbacks of obedience and the benefits of cleverness.

Haven't seen the movie yet, but now I'm excited to see it.

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Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin

Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a little mini-memoir for kids about Buzz Aldrin's early life, becoming a pilot and a scientist, and then (after first being rejected) becoming an astronaut. His first space flight was Gemini XII in 1966 and according to Wikipedia, it was the 26th spaceflight of all time. His second spaceflight was the more famous Apollo 11 that made the first moon landing with commander Neil Armstrong in 1969. Pretty exciting!

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Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This covers about two years. Mary goes off to college which is a really exciting. The family moves to the town for the winter and they have tons of social events.

Laura is maybe 14 at the beginning of the book, and 15 at the end, and she has so much drama at school and at church and with boys. There's a really one-dimensional character Nellie. She's still more interested in playing than in boys.

There's one racist scene that makes this unideal as a kid's book or for reading out loud.

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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is not one literary sentence in this book, but none of the sentences made me groan in protest. The plot is fun and excellently paced. Hard to put down until it was finished.

And yes, sure, the relationship in the book is super messed up, as one would expect it would be given the circumstances. But to be fair, the participants have legitimate supernatural excuses.

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Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book wrestles with ethics, religion (Christianity), and love. It's excellent.

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Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read it for the first time as an adult. Takes place on the prairie, where "Papa," aka Jacob, and his two children, Anna and Caleb, are getting to know a woman named Sarah.

First of all, it's written in a really lovely way. The author really conveys the children's feeling of longing and love.

Sarah is kind of a mail-order bride. She corresponds a bit with the father in the story and the kids before "coming to visit," and it's clear she can leave if she wants, but her hometown in Maine is pretty far from the prairie. Since the story is told from the perspective of the children, we have no idea if the father in the story actually woos Sarah in any discernible way. He does treat her with the utmost respect though, which is not totally reciprocated by her, but well.

Sarah is really obsessed with the ocean. I know a lot of people love the ocean, but if she loved it so much, couldn't she find a man anywhere on the entire East Coast? Plus, her beloved aunts and everything and everyone she's ever known? Certainly there might be a good reason to leave Maine, but why not correspond with some bachelors in, say, Virginia?

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Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson

Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first read this in 2007 or 2008, but I didn’t fully appreciate it like I did when I reread it recently. Just so insane and beautiful and scary and sad. Even funny.

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The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis

The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fun romance with no dramatic tension whatsoever. Tempted to read what happens next though it's pretty obviously an uncomplicated romance between the third sister and the policeman.

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The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Despite the adorable cover, this is the one where the Ingalls family almost all starves to death.

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By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Things have not been going well since the second novel when the Ingalls family got malaria or the third novel where their new wheat farm was ravaged by a grasshopper plague. This book opens with the Ingalls family recovering from Scarlet Fever. So the solution is to move back West again! Seriously, this is the third move and each place has resulted in worse and worse conditions. Really what was wrong with that first place in The Big Woods? It looks pretty good in retrospect. Even their dog Jack is getting tired of this nonsense.

Oh, and Mary is blind now. She didn't make a full recovery from the Scarlet Fever. Laura isn't too worried about it. I get that Laura is only about 12 years old, but a little sympathy here?

Anyway, this time Pa works for a train company, forces his family to run an impromptu bed and breakfast, and seeks to claim a homestead near a wolf den where his daughters Laura and Carrie almost get eaten. Nonetheless, he neglects to watch his baby Grace when outdoors. Can’t wait to see what horrors await the family in the next book! There are some suggestions that child marriage might be next.

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Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life by Richard Carlson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book offers 100 pieces of advice. All the advice is good but some of it is repetitive, and the book lacks internal structure. For example, "12.Let Others Be 'Right Most of the Time" and "30. Choose Your Battles Wisely" are basically the same. Several of them are about feeling and expressing gratitude, patience, giving, and having some quiet contemplative time in your life.

It might be especially good for kids since the very short 100 sections could be read one at a time at bedtime or in the morning before school.

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