In October, I attended (via Zoom) the DPL program “Spoon River Anthology” which was performed by Paddy and Jon Lynn. Excellent program! When I tried to figure out how long it has been since I had read the book (in high school?), I decided I needed to read it again. Danville Public Library has the book and the audiobook. But the program was on Saturday and the library was closed until Monday. Later that day, I was in the Habitat for Humanity Restore and there was the book! I purchased it for 50 cents and I “Spent the Weekend with a Book.”
Later, I checked out the audiobook which was a different experience just listening to the residents of the cemetery reciting their short poetic story about their time here in Spoon River. What a wonderful and innovative piece of writing! I found out the author, Edgar Lee Masters, is an Illinois native and that fictional village of Spoon River is about the actual Illinois Spoon River Valley.
As a teen, I didn’t realize how innovative it was and that it was an unusual style of poetry (and it was assigned reading) so I would have rated it lower than 5 stars but now as an adult, I really appreciate those things and it is an Illinois author! So bonus points for that!
Review by Melody W.
Jeeves. Wooster. Aunt Dahlia. Craziness ensues. I recently watched the Jeeves & Wooster episodes based on this book. Knowing what was going to happen lessened the reading experience not one bit. In fact, it made me that much more eager because I knew another funny bit was just around the corner. And with Wodehouse, funny bits are just about the only sort of bits present. Bonus: I had Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in my head the entire time I was reading it! This is obviously an awesome thing.
Kurt Vonnegut is one of my all-time favorite authors. I bought this collection as soon as I heard of it’s existence and finally got around to it a few weeks ago. The stories included were all terrific. As with all of his work, these stories span a range of genres, from thriller to science-fiction to fantasy to mystery. I particularly enjoyed the story in which the main characters finds a tiny spaceship filled with tiny explorers. The whimsy involved is great and yet sad. I suppose that’s a theme in Vonnegut’s writings: the humor and the sadness interplay with one another, as they do in real life. I recommend this anthology to any fan of Vonnegut, naturally, but I would also suggest it as a good introduction to any interested in dipping their toes into his sea of works not knowing where to start.
THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!!
I found this book so fascinating. Most of us have heard the phrase, “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog,” a sentence that uses every letter in the alphabet. This book is about an island off the cost of Canada where the author of this phrase was born. The island has a statue of him quoting the phrase and one day a letter falls off the statue. The government decides that this letter can no longer be used in speech, writing or reading. A few days later another letter falls off, then another, and another, whittling away at the letters that can be used. The story can be a little difficult to follow, but the writing is fascinating. To be able to get rid of letters and still make yourself understood. WOW!
Arguably Charlotte Brontë’s most refined and deeply felt work, the autobiographical Villette is a strikingly modern story of a young woman starting over – a powerfully moving study of isolation, and the pain of unrequited love.