Shakespeare Farce?

Charles and Mary Lamb (bother and sister) were very real and rather interesting people. They wrote "Shakespeare for Children" in 1807 ish.

The Lambs of London is about the Lambs as young adults still living at home and the people who they are acquainted with. Charles and Mary are both interested in Shakespeare. A young man becomes involved in their lives who has discovered new Shakespeare papers. Are they authentic or are they not? That is the question.
This is a short, quick, fun read. Enjoy it and then go to :

http://www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/ylamb.htm

to learn more than you every wanted to know about Charles and Mary.

The Book Thief

author: Markus Zusak

One reviewer says it is like Harry Potter meeting the Holocaust. But not really. It is a tween book. It bridges the gap 'tween teen and adult readers.
I have to say that this is a wonderful journey of words. The story is about how words can make such an impact on a people. Hitler used words.

The narrator is Death. He really doesn't like his job. The Book Thief is about a girl trying to make her way in a world of confusion and growing up during WWII. She is a child sent to another German family in order to keep her safe during the war. She steals books. One of them before she learns how to read. These books keep her life, family, and neighbors held together during air raids. Her willingness to share her gift with others help break down a feud long in the making.

The author writes beautifully. You are reading along and then comes a sentence, a series of them, maybe a paragraph that just kinda grabs and shakes you. It says 'hey! hey! Read me again!

It is a story of love, hate, joy and despair. But most of all about love.

An Apologetic for the ALF

Let's see...A teen earning money for college, good and bad officers' of the law, pigs, dogs, young love, bullies, a post-Marxist intellectual, conspiracy, various other interesting people, and of course, drugs. All of these are an integral part in the travel from front to back. I did enjoy this book inspite of all the extreme left animal rights tirades. I guess I call them tirades because I don't happen to share the extreme views. The language is kinda ruff. It was interesting watching a young man with little confidence become a confident one though. So check it out, it does bring up some interesting questions.

Suite Francaise

I was going to blog about a new book called Suite Francaise (wiggle mark under the c). It is a story written by Irene Nemirovshy, a Jewish Russian, at least 2/5'ths of the story. She wrote this while in France during the beginning of the German occupation. She tells her experience of this using the medium of fiction. It is an incredible story. The say "write what you know" Irene Nemirovsky did. She didn't have the chance to finish it, she was sent to the gas chamber in July of 1942.
But I decided not to.