Bookshelf Additions
NOTE: The current bookshelf list has been moved to a new (Dec 6 post) - info and summaries of the some of the books on the shelf remain in the comment to this post however. -Jay 12/6/06
posted by JayC @ 9:47 PM
Monday, September 11, 2006
4 Comments:
OK. Here are two picks from me... I don't know much about these books, but they have struck me as potentially interesting reading. I also think I heard once that "The Magnificent Ambersons" was set in turn of the century Indianapolis, or maybe it was just 'based on' - Maybe I'm thinking of the movie... Below are my two picks with some summaries I lifted off of Amazon.com:
1) Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War - Nathaniel Philbrick (this a relatively new non-fiction book)
2) The Magnificent Ambersons - Booth Tarkington (this would be considered a 'classic')
********From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this remarkable effort, National Book Award–winner Philbrick (In the Heart of the Sea) examines the history of Plymouth Colony. In the early 17th century, a small group of devout English Christians fled their villages to escape persecution, going first to Holland, then making the now infamous 10-week voyage to the New World. Rather than arriving in the summer months as planned, they landed in November, low on supplies. Luckily, they were met by the Wampanoag Indians and their wizened chief, Massasoit. In economical, well-paced prose, Philbrick masterfully recounts the desperate circumstances of both the settlers and their would-be hosts, and how the Wampanoags saved the colony from certain destruction. Indeed, there was a first Thanksgiving, the author notes, and for over 50 years the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims lived in peace, becoming increasingly interdependent. But in 1675, 56 years after the colonists' landing, Massasoit's heir, Philip, launched a confusing war on the English that, over 14 horrifying months, claimed 5,000 lives, a huge percentage of the colonies' population. Impeccably researched and expertly rendered, Philbrick's account brings the Plymouth Colony and its leaders, including William Bradford, Benjamin Church and the bellicose, dwarfish Miles Standish, vividly to life. More importantly, he brings into focus a gruesome period in early American history. For Philbrick, this is yet another award-worthy story of survival. (May 9)
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Though not out of print, this latest offering from Bantam is the least expensive edition currently available. The 1919 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel portrays the decline of the superrich Amberson family, who act as a metaphor for the old society that crumbled after the Industrial Revolution. All fiction collections should own a copy, and all video collections should include Orson Welles's 1942 film version.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
The lives and changing fortunes of three generations of a once-powerful and socially prominent family are chronicled in this vivid tale of the corrupting influence of greed and materialism. As the rapidly turning wheels of industry and commerce overtake old ways in the early twentieth century and change the definitions of ambition, success, and loyalty, the prominence and prestige of the Amberson family irreversibly changes as well.********
Dale, I like your choices; I've always wanted to read the Kerouac book, and I have read the Henry James book years ago. It's a good ghost story - and one of the easier to read of the Henry James books I've encountered.
I also nominate Sonja, as our first meeting's host, to pick our first book from the bookshelf once everyone has added their books.
-Jay
Ok, I've picked two books for the bookshelf. I don't have a thoughtful reason for picking them, I picked the first one because I liked the title and the second one because I wanted something lighter to be included in the list (I'm not sure if it will be lighter...just thought it might be).
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
A High Wind in Jamaica - Richard Hughes
I'll wait a little longer to pick the first book, but we best hurry if we are going to have plenty of time to read it by our meeting at the end of October.
Dale - thanks for the support of my books.
Here's what I found on the Internet about my books:
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNGER: Four lonely individuals, marginalized misfits in their families/communities, each obsessed with a vision of his or her place in the world, collect about a single deaf-mute with whom they share their deepest secrets. An adolescent who desires to write symphonies, an itinerant drunk who believes he must organize poor laborers, a black physician whose desire is to motivate his people to demand their rightful place in American society, and a cafe owner whose secret wish is sexually ambiguous, believes that the deaf Mr. Singer understands and validates his or her obsession. Singer, ironically obsessed with a friendship of questionable reciprocity, commits suicide when the friend dies.
This richly detailed work, set in the pre-World War II era in a small southern U.S. city, explores a wide range of contemporaneous issues: the status of the black in the south; the loss of purpose among young people; the continued exploitation of labor. It also deals with disenfranchisement of the physically and/or emotionally disabled and those racial "others." The social and economic position of the black physician reminds the reader how recently non-caucasian, non-male doctors entered the profession in any numbers, and how far the "others" must go to gain equal status. And, finally, the novel raises questions about suicide and about the parameters of madness.
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA: Richard Hughes's celebrated short novel is a masterpiece of concentrated narrative. Its dreamlike action begins among the decayed plantation houses and overwhelming natural abundance of late nineteenth-century Jamaica, before moving out onto the high seas, as Hughes tells the story of a group of children thrown upon the mercy of a crew of down-at-the-heel pirates. A tale of seduction and betrayal, of accommodation and manipulation, of weird humor and unforeseen violence, this classic of twentieth-century literature is above all an extraordinary reckoning with the secret reasons and otherworldly realities of childhood.
Ok, ok, I know I picked very current and probably not serious enough for this group with "A Salty Piece of Land" by Jimmy Buffett. I was reading it at the time, and was really enjoying all of the references to phrases in songs. I know I'm a bit of a parrot head and consider Mr. Buffett to be a bit of a philosopher. AS soon as I think of something else (or go throught the list of great books again) I'll switch it out for something else.
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