Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought this had interesting concepts about an alien invasion and I even liked the inversion of time, memory, and religion, but I didn't think it was executed all that well.

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Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe

Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this a few times wondering what I was missing. I don't know. Possibly it's just not that great?

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The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A house with a haunted atmosphere works its negative influence on the inhabitants. A study in how location and company can affect your mental state.

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The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe

The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The type of thinking demonstrated in Poe’s conclusion is not an insubstantial part of my life philosophy.

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The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I decided to read this because my funny and wise husband posted this tweet on Monday: "The external world could take care of itself... It was towards the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends.” 

This is the perfect short story to read right now though it may not currently have its intended emotional effect.

The whole story is available for free here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1064

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The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Took me nearly 4 months to get through it because it is so long. It's a good quarantine read as the main characters are themselves in a bit of a quarantine bubble. There are a hundred stories of varying quality, but some of them were cheerful and bawdy. The tenth day of stories was a bit of a bummer though as things got even more misogynistic and cruel towards the end, especially with the husband that tortured the wife for years and is presented as wise for doing so.

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Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There were times when I was reading this that I thought I didn’t like this book that much. It’s not an easy book. But I kept at it and finally it opened up. This is a classic among the classics.

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Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My first grade teacher, Mrs. Doscher, read this out loud to us in class, and I think it was the first time anyone read out loud to me as a kid. In my memory, it took us a few months to read it, chapter by slow chapter. I don't remember crying in class, but this book is still one of the saddest books for me.

As an adult though, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would the people in the book assume a pig was writing on a spiderweb? Wouldn't they rightfully assume it was the spider doing it?

Update from 2020: I'm rereading this to my kids and I realized I'm such a dummy! The farmer characters in the book thought God wrote in the Spiderweb! It totally took me 35 to get that. Maybe because I never really thought about the literature of miracles when I was younger. I have been humbled by my own stupidity. Haha.

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The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another 10 stories. Tigger steals the show in this one as his 2 (3?) stories are the best.

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The Plague by Albert Camus

The Plague by Albert Camus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is fantastic and-- despite the opinion of my friends who are horrified that I'm reading this right now-- this is the perfect time to read this. Covid doesn't allow you the ordinary-day emotional distance from the plague victims.

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Sounder by William H. Armstrong

Sounder by William H. Armstrong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is not a book about a boy and his dog. It ripped my heart out. The writing is excellent. It feels too heavy and possibly subtle for children, but maybe for high schoolers.

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Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Grandma gave this book to James, so I read it. I think it's a nice book especially for people who love horses. Despite the girly name, it's not winning any feminist awards, but it's okay.

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The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple by Alice Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was shocked by how wonderful this book is because I'd actually read it before as a teenager and I didn't remember it being this phenomenal. I think as a teen, I was so mired down in the horror and sadness of the beginning that that's what stood out for me the most. Plus, having no life or significant literary reading experience, I failed to get most of the brilliance of the book. But what a beautiful perfect book. Amazing characters, amazing sentences, amazing everything. Favorite favorite.

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She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith

She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The central problem in this play is that Mr. Marlow believes himself to be too modest to speak to women of a high class. He states his trouble in this way, “[a]n impudent fellow may counterfeit modesty, but I’ll be hanged if a modest man can ever counterfeit impudence.” But we soon learn that he's a complete douchebag. But I think that's the point. Hilarity ensues! And it's actually pretty funny.

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Existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre

Existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Just a short explanation of Sartre's views on what Existentialism is and is not. Neither the philosophy nor this book did much for me.

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Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There were 22 stories in this collection, and I especially enjoyed 5 of them: They're Not Your Husband, Neighbors, What's in Alaska, Bicycles, and the title story. Carver seems especially good at the sadness of disappointment though Bicycles, in particular, seemed like the opposite- about a boy's admiration of his father. I have been told I need to read What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

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The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The Call of the Wild by Jack London
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a classic with good reason. Moving and captivating story with a lot of criticism about humanity.

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No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very dark and funny. Full of great lines exploring the simple tortures of everyday life.

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Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway

Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good writing but I had to force my way through.

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A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Miss Bartlett, in deed, though not in word, had taught the girl that this our life contains nothing satisfactory. Lucy though she disliked the teacher regarded the teaching as profound, and applied it to her lover.”

This is the thesis that this book seeks to tear down, and it does so in the most delightful way.

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