For the Record: November 2008

Writing individual book reviews is SO tiresome...especially when time is at a premium.  Instead, for the time being, I think I'll try writing a quick overview once a month of the books read that month. Here's what I read in November:

In the Wake of the Plague by Norman Cantor. See my review here.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I was pleased to find that this book followed my favorite adaptation fairly closely. I really liked the book, and appreciated the philosophy of life that was discussed. There were a couple of times I started to get a little nauseous with the poetry of romance, but that is just my own personal preference. Good writing, good story.

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. What a sweet revisit into childhood. I'd forgotton how educational these books are! The fit wonderfully into our study of the pioneer era.

The Boxcar Children #3: The Yellow House Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Dated and of marginal writing quality, these books are nonetheless captivating for my 7 year-old. She's searching for book #4.

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman. I read this with the intention of seeing if it was a good choice for either of my boys to read as a school book to further enhance their understanding of the gold rush and pioneer days. I think that it was enjoyable, and probably would be more so for somebody younger than myself. However, I felt that the writing was a bit too simplistic, and the main character was underdeveloped to substantiate the ending. This will go on my shelf to be available as free reading, but it wasn't great enough to be assigned reading.

Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath. This delightful book is written with a whimsical, humorous approach. It is the tale of a girl who has quite a difficult year, but remains optimistic and fairly lighthearted. I got this book from Sonlight, and devoured it within hours. It is a wonderful, touching, fun, and funny book.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I'm fairly fond of a good mystery, but tire quickly of them so there is usually a large span of time in between reading anything classified as a mystery. A month back I decided that I really should have read an Agatha Christie book by now, and I was excited to receive it in my Sonlight order. It was a fast paced book, and Ms. Christie did a fabulous job of pulling the reader into the story. I liked that there was no main character functioning as the detective in this story: all of the characters were vital to the story and took part in figuring out the mystery.