Hadley's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 25 Apr 2025 07:16:28 -0700 60 Hadley's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Black Boy 228630 Black Boy is a classic of American autobiography, a subtly crafted narrative of Richard Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. An enduring story of one young man's coming of age during a particular time and place, Black Boy remains a seminal text in our history about what it means to be a man, black, and Southern in America.]]> 419 Richard Wright 0060929782 Hadley 3 I'm glad I read this memoir of Jim Crow-era Mississippi, but it was *brutal*. I'm not sure if there were three decent people in Wright's early life. I would like to read the second part, dealing with his life in Chicago, at some point.]]> 4.09 1945 Black Boy
author: Richard Wright
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1945
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/01
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: school, memoir, african-diaspora
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
I'm glad I read this memoir of Jim Crow-era Mississippi, but it was *brutal*. I'm not sure if there were three decent people in Wright's early life. I would like to read the second part, dealing with his life in Chicago, at some point.
]]> <![CDATA[Le Comte de Monte-Cristo I (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, #1 of 2)]]> 956323
« On fit encore quatre ou cinq pas en montant toujours, puis Dantès sentit qu'on le prenait par la tête et par les pieds et qu'on le balançait.
« Une, dirent les fossoyeurs.
- Deux.
- Trois ! »
En même temps, Dantès se sentit lancé, en effet, dans un vide énorme, traversant les airs comme un oiseau blessé, tombant, tombant toujours avec une épouvante qui lui glaçait le cœur. Quoique tiré en bas par quelque chose de pesant qui précipitait son vol rapide, il lui sembla que cette chute durait un siècle. Enfin, avec un bruit épouvantable, il entra comme une flèche dans une eau glacée qui lui fit pousser un cri, étouffé à l'instant même par l'immersion. Dantès avait été lancé dans la mer, au fond de laquelle l'entraînait un boulet de trente-six attaché à ses pieds.La mer est le cimetière du château d'If. »]]> 703 Alexandre Dumas Hadley 0 4.52 1844 Le Comte de Monte-Cristo I (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, #1 of 2)
author: Alexandre Dumas
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1844
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: currently-reading, audiobook, read-in-french
review:

]]> Kindred 60931 The visionary author’s masterpiece pulls us—along with her Black female hero—through time to face the horrors of slavery and explore the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.]]> 288 Octavia E. Butler 0807083690 Hadley 4 4.30 1979 Kindred
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: african-diaspora, ouch, audiobook, feminist-ish
review:
I've received a pretty good education on slavery in the United States (including the reading of several slave narratives) so this book didn't really teach me anything I didn't already know about the enslaver-enslaved relationship and all that implied. Nonetheless, this was an excellent read (technically I listened, which was perhaps unwise considering the frequency of a certain infamous slur). The plot is unusual, compelling on both the literal and symbolic level. And the characters are achingly vividly realised.
]]> White Nights 1772910 82 Fyodor Dostoevsky Hadley 4
So charming and frustrating and melancholy and relatable (though I've never been in love) and above all, brief. It has more than one thing in common with Charlotte Brontë's Villette. I don't think I'll ever stop wondering about our unnamed protagonist's later life. I hope he is (was? will be? would have been?) okay.]]> 4.16 1848 White Nights
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1848
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves:
review:
Nobody writes weird introverts like Dostoevsky.

So charming and frustrating and melancholy and relatable (though I've never been in love) and above all, brief. It has more than one thing in common with Charlotte Brontë's Villette. I don't think I'll ever stop wondering about our unnamed protagonist's later life. I hope he is (was? will be? would have been?) okay.
]]> <![CDATA[Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy]]> 7501962
In the first major biography of Bonhoeffer in forty years, "New York Times" best-selling author Eric Metaxas takes both strands of Bonhoeffer's life―the theologian and the spy―to tell a searing story of incredible moral courage in the face of monstrous evil. In a deeply moving narrative, Metaxas uses previously unavailable documents―including personal letters, detailed journal entries, and firsthand personal accounts―to reveal dimensions of Bonhoeffer's life and theology never before seen.

In "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy"�"A Righteous Gentile vs the Third Reich," Metaxas presents the fullest accounting of Bonhoeffer's heart-wrenching 1939 decision to leave the safe haven of America for Hitler's Germany, and using extended excerpts from love letters and coded messages written to and from Bonhoeffer's Cell 92, Metaxas tells for the first time the full story of Bonhoeffer's passionate and tragic romance.

Readers will discover fresh insights and revelations about his life-changing months at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and about his radical position on why Christians are obliged to stand up for the Jews. Metaxas also sheds new light on Bonhoeffer's reaction to Kristallnacht, his involvement in the famous Valkyrie plot and in "Operation 7," the effort to smuggle Jews into neutral Switzerland.

"Bonhoeffer" gives witness to one man's extraordinary faith and to the tortured fate of the nation he sought to deliver from the curse of Nazism. It brings the reader face to face with a man determined to do the will of God radically, courageously, and joyfully―even to the point of death. "Bonhoeffer" is the story of a life framed by a passion for truth and a commitment to justice on behalf of those who face implacable evil.]]> 608 Eric Metaxas 1595551387 Hadley 4
Yes, the author has biases. I don't think it's possible not to in biography, especially with regards to someone who lived a life with as many facets as Bonhoeffer did. This book is huge yet there's so much left unexplained; I don't think Metaxas tries to hide that. The man was a devout Christian, and I think it's questionable to suggest that the interpretation of a biographer from one particular sort of Christian background is somehow less valid. This is a readable overview of Bonhoeffer's life, not a comprehensive scholarly tome. It leaves one with a great deal of fascinating historical knowledge and much food for thought.]]> 4.20 2010 Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
author: Eric Metaxas
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: assorted-nonfiction, audiobook, christian-themes, living-author
review:
With regards to certain low reviews:

Yes, the author has biases. I don't think it's possible not to in biography, especially with regards to someone who lived a life with as many facets as Bonhoeffer did. This book is huge yet there's so much left unexplained; I don't think Metaxas tries to hide that. The man was a devout Christian, and I think it's questionable to suggest that the interpretation of a biographer from one particular sort of Christian background is somehow less valid. This is a readable overview of Bonhoeffer's life, not a comprehensive scholarly tome. It leaves one with a great deal of fascinating historical knowledge and much food for thought.
]]> 1984 57502604 --back cover]]> 328 George Orwell Hadley 0 currently-reading, school 4.06 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: currently-reading, school
review:

]]> Absalom, Absalom! 373755 316 William Faulkner 0679732187 Hadley 0 to-read 3.98 1936 Absalom, Absalom!
author: William Faulkner
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1936
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory (Penguin Classics) (v. 2) by Dante Alighieri (1955-08-30)]]> 132597725 Hadley 0 3.89 The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory (Penguin Classics) (v. 2) by Dante Alighieri (1955-08-30)
author: Dante Alighieri; Contributor-C. W. Scott-Giles; Introduction-Dorothy L. Sayers; Translator-Dorothy L
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: christian-themes, read-in-translation, poetry-or-verse, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[THE GOOD MAN OF NANKING: The Diaries of John Rabe]]> 175657 The Good Man of Nanking is a crucial document for understanding one of World War II's most horrific incidents of genocide, one which the Japanese have steadfastly refused to acknowledge.ĚýĚýIt is also the moving and awe-inspiring record of one man's conscience, courage, and generosity in the face of appalling human brutality.

Until the recent emergence of John Rabe's diaries, few people knew abouth the unassuming hero who has been called the Oskar Schindler of China.ĚýĚýIn November 1937, as Japanese troops overran the Chinese capital of Nanking and began a campaign of torture, rape, and murder against its citizens, one man-a German who had lived in China for thirty years and who was a loyal follower of Adolph Hitler-put himself at risk and in order to save the lives of 200,000 poor Chinese, 600 of whom he sheltered in his own home.]]> 320 John Rabe 0375701974 Hadley 0 4.08 1998 THE GOOD MAN OF NANKING: The Diaries of John Rabe
author: John Rabe
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: assorted-nonfiction, east-asia, audiobook, on-hold-but-not-forgotten
review:

]]> Homage to Catalonia 9646 232 George Orwell 0156421178 Hadley 4 4.09 1938 Homage to Catalonia
author: George Orwell
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: assorted-nonfiction, audiobook, memoir
review:
Utterly fascinating snapshot of a time and place. Orwell is an amazing writer. There are several chapters of dense political analysis regarding groups it's difficult to care about, but I found them useful in contextualizing Orwell's own beliefs.
]]> <![CDATA[Rilla of Ingleside (Anne of Green Gables, #8)]]> 53982764 L.M. Montgomery Hadley 0 audiobook, ouch 4.17 1921 Rilla of Ingleside (Anne of Green Gables, #8)
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1921
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: audiobook, ouch
review:
This is definitely an emotionally effective bildungsroman full of well-drawn characters. But the staunch conviction that the war was a fight of good and evil despite its terribleness...has not aged well. At the age of ten when I first read this, I knew very little of WWI and hadn't even encountered its echoes the works of such writers as Tolkien, but now I see a layer of sadness beyond what Montgomery intended. Ultimately, though, am I anyone to judge a book written in 1921?
]]> The Divine Comedy I: Hell 19152
Guided by the poet Virgil, Dante plunges to the very depths of Hell and embarks on his arduous journey towards God. Together they descend through the nine circles of the underworld and encounter the tormented souls of the damned - from heretics and pagans to gluttons, criminals and seducers - who tell of their sad fates and predict events still to come in Dante’s life. In this first part of his Divine Comedy, Dante fused satire and humour with intellect and soaring passion to create an immortal Christian allegory of mankind’s search for self-knowledge and spiritual enlightenment.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700Ěýtitles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theĚýseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-dateĚýtranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 346 Dante Alighieri 0140440062 Hadley 5
How splendid to discover a work is everything you'd been told it was. Dante's poetry is worthy of Virgil's own, his personages are always vividly drawn, and I can't wait to read the other to parts to get the full grand scope of his ideas.

(I highly recommend Sayer's translation and notes. She preserves the original rhyme scheme as best she can, and is a wonderful guide to Dante's intricate imagery.)]]> 4.18 1320 The Divine Comedy I: Hell
author: Dante Alighieri
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1320
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: christian-themes, read-in-translation, poetry-or-verse, for-mythology-lovers
review:
"Came forth, to look once more upon the stars."

How splendid to discover a work is everything you'd been told it was. Dante's poetry is worthy of Virgil's own, his personages are always vividly drawn, and I can't wait to read the other to parts to get the full grand scope of his ideas.

(I highly recommend Sayer's translation and notes. She preserves the original rhyme scheme as best she can, and is a wonderful guide to Dante's intricate imagery.)
]]> <![CDATA[Rainbow Valley (Anne of Green Gables, #7)]]> 217815327
These boys and girls discover a special place all their own, but they never dream Ěýof what will happen when the strangest family Ěýmoves into an old nearby mansion. The Meredith clan is Ěýtwo boys and two girls, with minister father but Ěýno mother -- and a runaway girl named Mary Vance.ĚýSoon the Meredith kids join Anne's children inĚýtheir private hideout to carry out their plans to saveĚýMary from the orphanage, to help the lonelyĚýminister find happiness, and to keep a pet rooster fromĚýthe soup pot. There's always an adventure brewingĚýin the sun-dappled world of Rainbow Valley.]]> 9 L.M. Montgomery 149061141X Hadley 4 audiobook, humorous
Other assorted thoughts:

This book doesn't hang together as well as HoD, being largely a string of colorful hijinks, hijinks which are all I really remember from when I read it as a middle schooler. They are cleverly-constructed episodes though.

This is the first of the original books where Anne is decidedly a background character. I miss her.

Montgomery is very skilled at crafting characters that are decidedly good people yet not the least bit bland. Even though it's not really an Anne book, people like Faith Meredith and Walter Blythe are decidedly enjoyable to read. I firmly disagree with those reviewers who consider the children here unrealistic and insufferable, (and so does my mom if that holds more weight).

Ellen West treated her sister badly. I like her but she should have been held more accountable for her actions.

Nothing reminds one how much language norms have changed like seeing Mary Vance casually drop the n-word in a book that replaces all references to damnation with "darn."

My goodness Montgomery is heavy-handed with the WWI foreshadowing.]]> 4.00 1919 Rainbow Valley (Anne of Green Gables, #7)
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1919
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: audiobook, humorous
review:
I reread this book because my mom characterized it as "how things would be if your dad were a widower." I do see what she's getting at. My father isn't an exact clone of Mr. Meredith by any means, but they're definitely "kindred spirits." And the household chaos is eminently believable.

Other assorted thoughts:

This book doesn't hang together as well as HoD, being largely a string of colorful hijinks, hijinks which are all I really remember from when I read it as a middle schooler. They are cleverly-constructed episodes though.

This is the first of the original books where Anne is decidedly a background character. I miss her.

Montgomery is very skilled at crafting characters that are decidedly good people yet not the least bit bland. Even though it's not really an Anne book, people like Faith Meredith and Walter Blythe are decidedly enjoyable to read. I firmly disagree with those reviewers who consider the children here unrealistic and insufferable, (and so does my mom if that holds more weight).

Ellen West treated her sister badly. I like her but she should have been held more accountable for her actions.

Nothing reminds one how much language norms have changed like seeing Mary Vance casually drop the n-word in a book that replaces all references to damnation with "darn."

My goodness Montgomery is heavy-handed with the WWI foreshadowing.
]]> <![CDATA[Lavil: Life, Love, and Death in Port-au-Prince]]> 41257592 336 Voice of Witness 1784786837 Hadley 0 4.67 Lavil: Life, Love, and Death in Port-au-Prince
author: Voice of Witness
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: currently-reading, african-diaspora
review:

]]> Bricks Without Straw 45039142 369 Albion W. Tourgée 163600489X Hadley 0 to-read, african-diaspora 0.0 1880 Bricks Without Straw
author: Albion W. Tourgée
name: Hadley
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1880
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read, african-diaspora
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks]]> 6493208
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored� ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia � a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo � to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality� until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family � past and present � is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.]]> 370 Rebecca Skloot 1400052173 Hadley 4 4.12 2010 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
author: Rebecca Skloot
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: assorted-nonfiction, school, living-author, african-diaspora
review:
A fascinating, many-faceted story, and Skloot tells it well. Timeline jumps can seem unnecessary in a lot of contexts, but here they drive home the contrast between the scientific story and the human one. The bits about Lacks's surviving family members get quite sad at times.
]]> Just Mercy 20342617
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated to defending the poor, the incarcerated, and the wrongly condemned.

Just Mercy tells the story of EJI, from the early days with a small staff facing the nation’s highest death sentencing and execution rates, through a successful campaign to challenge the cruel practice of sentencing children to die in prison, to revolutionary projects designed to confront Americans with our history of racial injustice.

One of EJI’s first clients was Walter McMillian, a young Black man who was sentenced to die for the murder of a young white woman that he didn’t commit. The case exemplifies how the death penalty in America is a direct descendant of lynching � a system that treats the rich and guilty better than the poor and innocent.]]> 336 Bryan Stevenson Hadley 4 4.62 2014 Just Mercy
author: Bryan Stevenson
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/05
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: living-author, audiobook, assorted-nonfiction, school, ouch, memoir, african-diaspora
review:
This book made me extremely uncomfortable, but I'm very glad I read it. Stories like this are important.
]]> <![CDATA[Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story]]> 17944985 Gifted Hands, he tells of his inspiring odyssey from his childhood in inner-city Detroit to his position as director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions at age thirty-three.

Filled with fascinating case histories, Gifted Hands will transplant you into the operating room to witness surgeries that made headlines around the world, and into the private mind of a compassionate, God-fearing physician who lives to help others. In 1987, Dr. Carson gained worldwide recognition for his part in the first successful separation of Siamese twins joined at the back of the head--an extremely complex and delicate operation that was five months of planning and twenty-two hours of actual surgery, involving a surgical plan that Carson helped initiate.

Gifted Hands reveals a man with humility, decency, compassion, courage, and sensitivity who serves as a role model for anyone who attempts the seemingly impossible.]]> 0 Ben Carson 1480555088 Hadley 4 4.25 1992 Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
author: Ben Carson
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: living-author, audiobook, school, memoir, african-diaspora
review:

]]> Un papillon dans la cité 17284147 Quand, dans une cité de la banlieue parisienne, elle fait la connaissance de sa mère, de Papa Jo et de son nouveau petit frère, elle supporte un peu mieux sa nouvelle vie.
Quand elle se lie d’amitié avec un camarade de classe venu, lui aussi, d’ailleurs, elle ne rêve que d’une chose : lui faire connaître son île lointaine�

Un roman aux couleurs de la Guadeloupe, plein de tendresse, d’humour et de sensibilité.]]> 125 Gisèle Pineau 2842801563 Hadley 3 3.10 1992 Un papillon dans la cité
author: Gisèle Pineau
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.10
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: read-in-french, living-author, african-diaspora
review:
Finally I found the time to finish this little novel. It's decently written and has a lot of value for the portrayal of immigrant life. But the plot is fairly predictable, and the penultimate-page reveal that the book is in fact a diary felt annoyingly contrived and pushed this down to three stars. I'd still recommend it to students of French though.
]]> White Nights 29610266
A poignant tale of love and loneliness from Russia's foremost writer.

One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.]]> 128 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0241252083 Hadley 0 4.02 1848 White Nights
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1848
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: read-in-translation, russian, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Good Tidings of Great Joy: Christ's Incarnation the Foundation of Christianity]]> 201095765 176 Charles Haddon Spurgeon 180040381X Hadley 0 4.80 Good Tidings of Great Joy: Christ's Incarnation the Foundation of Christianity
author: Charles Haddon Spurgeon
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.80
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: christian-themes, assorted-nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All Things Made New: John Flavel for the Christian Life]]> 36621087
Flavel spent almost his entire ministry in a busy town serving working people. He believed that the gospel impacts and shapes every thought, every feeling, every ambition, emotion, desire, success, tragedy and joy. Christ makes all things new for the believer, and teaches us to follow him with confidence, until that day when he truly renews all things. To read Flavel is to catch and to be changed by the same vision.

Selected and Edited by Lewis Allen.]]> 320 John Flavel 1848717334 Hadley 4 4.53 2017 All Things Made New: John Flavel for the Christian Life
author: John Flavel
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: christian-themes, assorted-nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories]]> 32328823
First published in 1886, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of the duality of human nature and his iconic presentation of what would come to be referred to as the “split personality.”�
Ěý±Ő±Ő> 299 Robert Louis Stevenson 1435163095 Hadley 0 to-read 3.71 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Queen of Spades 60758181 Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.

Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.

A countess with a card trick; love letters filled with deception; a desperate man with a pistol. The Queen of Spades, one of Pushkin's most popular and chilling stories, is accompanied here by the thrilling Dubrovsky and unforgettable Tales of Belkin.]]> 259 Alexander Pushkin 0241573769 Hadley 4 russian, read-in-translation 3.90 1834 The Queen of Spades
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1834
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: russian, read-in-translation
review:

]]> Anne's House of Dreams 7186704 0 L.M. Montgomery 1402584334 Hadley 4 4.08 1917 Anne's House of Dreams
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1917
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: well-written-romance, audiobook, humorous, ouch
review:
I don't know why this didn't make more of an impression on me when I read it as an 11yo. It's a delightful novel--sweet, sad, and hysterical by turns.
]]> The Pillow Book 18185
Lady Shonagon was an erstwhile rival of Lady Murasaki, whose novel, "The Tale of Genji," fictionalized the elite world Lady Shonagon so eloquently relates. Featuring reflections on royal and religious ceremonies, nature, conversation, poetry, and many other subjects, "The Pillow Book" is an intimate look at the experiences and outlook of the Heian upper class, further enriched by Ivan Morris's extensive notes and critical contextualization.]]> 419 Sei ShĹŤnagon 0231073372 Hadley 4
Such an interesting (and disorganized) mix of gossip, elegant nature passages, charming anecdotes, and petty personal annoyance. ShĹŤnagon would be a fun person to have a conversation with. I definitely got thrown in the deep end of Heian upper-class culture. Lots of Buddhist ceremonies, poem-exchanging, low-key amorous intrigue, and devotion to aesthetics.]]> 4.08 1002 The Pillow Book
author: Sei ShĹŤnagon
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1002
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: audiobook, read-in-translation, east-asia
review:
More of a 3.5, because a book *entirely* made up of rambling can be hard to focus on at times.

Such an interesting (and disorganized) mix of gossip, elegant nature passages, charming anecdotes, and petty personal annoyance. ShĹŤnagon would be a fun person to have a conversation with. I definitely got thrown in the deep end of Heian upper-class culture. Lots of Buddhist ceremonies, poem-exchanging, low-key amorous intrigue, and devotion to aesthetics.
]]> <![CDATA[Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War]]> 44291410 This narrative history of China's nineteenth-century Taiping Rebellion (which cost some twenty million lives) brims with unforgettable characters and vivid re-creations of massive and sometimes gruesome battles—a riveting, both sweeping and intimate portrait of the largest civil war in history.
Ěý
The story begins in the early 1850s, the waning years of the Qing dynasty, when word spread of a major revolution brewing in the provinces, led by a failed civil servant who claimed to be the son of God and brother of Jesus. As the revolt grew, all signs pointed to the success of the Taiping, and the establishment of a modern, industrialized, and pro-Western China. But the United States and Britain threw their support behind the Qing and, after years of massive carnage, all opposition to Qing rule for years to come was effectively snuffed out. Platt recounts these events in spellbinding detail, building his story on two fascinating characters: the scholar-general Zeng Guofan, China's most influential modern military strategist, and Hong Rengan, a brilliant Taiping leader whose valiant attempts to woo the West fell short. This is an essential and enthralling history of the rise and fall of the movement that, a century and a half ago, might have launched China into the modern world.

]]> 17 Stephen R. Platt Hadley 3 3.18 2012 Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
author: Stephen R. Platt
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: living-author, assorted-nonfiction, school, audiobook, east-asia
review:
I learnt a lot from this book, but it left me with even more questions. I understand such a huge historical event can't exactly be done justice with any book of reasonable size, but the author should have been more clear about which of these questions can or cannot be answered by historians (Why did so many people join the Taiping? Did Hong Xiuquan's odd variety of Christianity have any lasting influence? Why was Zeng Guofan able to so easily overlook his men's brutality? How precisely did Hong Rengan die?) It was in general light on analysis and heavy on the British perspective. Quite well-written though.
]]> Life and Death in Shanghai 537404
Life and Death in Shanghai is the powerful story of Cheng’s imprisonment, of the deprivation she endured, of her heroic resistance, and of her quest for justice when she was released. An astounding portrait of one woman’s courage, Life and Death in Shanghai is also a penetrating account of a terrifying chapter in twentieth-century history.]]> 547 Nien Cheng 014010870X Hadley 4 4.31 1986 Life and Death in Shanghai
author: Nien Cheng
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: school, ouch, memoir, east-asia
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Three Kingdoms (4-Volume Boxed Set)]]> 158770 Complete and unabridged, Moss Roberts's translation provides an authoritative, annotated English-language version of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

"The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been." With this characterization of the inevitable cycle of Chinese history, the monumental tale Three Kingdoms begins. As important for Chinese culture as the Homeric epics have been for the West, this Ming Dynasty masterpiece continues to be read and loved throughout China as well as in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The novel offers a startling and unsparing view of how power is wielded, how diplomacy is conducted, and how wars are planned and fought; it has influenced the ways that Chinese think about power, diplomacy, and war even to this day.

Three Kingdoms portrays a fateful moment at the end of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) when the future of the Chinese empire lay in the balance. Writing more than a millennium later, Luo Guanzhong drew on often told tales of this turbulent period to fashion a sophisticated compelling narrative, whose characters display vivid individuality and epic grandeur.

The story begins when the emperor, fearing uprisings by peasant rebels known as the Yellow Scarves, sends an urgent appeal to the provinces for popular support. In response, three young men - the aristocratic Liu Xuande, the fugitive Lord Guan, and the pig-butcher Zhang Fei - meet to pledge eternal brotherhood and fealty to their beleaguered government. From these events comes a chain of cause and consequence that leads ultimately to the collapse of the Han.]]> 2339 Luo Guanzhong 7119005901 Hadley 0 currently-reading, east-asia 4.40 1522 Three Kingdoms (4-Volume Boxed Set)
author: Luo Guanzhong
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1522
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: currently-reading, east-asia
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Americanization of Edward Bok]]> 940412 316 Edward William Bok 0974290408 Hadley 4 school, memoir Such a quintessential American Dream memoir. Charming, if perhaps a touch idealized.]]> 4.01 1920 The Americanization of Edward Bok
author: Edward William Bok
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1920
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/01
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: school, memoir
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
Such a quintessential American Dream memoir. Charming, if perhaps a touch idealized.
]]> Witness 950143 808 Whittaker Chambers 0895267896 Hadley 4 4.36 1952 Witness
author: Whittaker Chambers
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/01
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: school, christian-themes, memoir
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Confessions, Vol. 1: Introduction and Text]]> 4579148 basis for a detailed line-by-line commentary (Volumes II and III) designed to elucidate the many layers of meaning in the work. Extensive quotation and abundant citation of Augustine's own writings, of the scriptural texts that were never far from his mind, and of the works of his intellectual
forebears (chief among them Cicero, Plotinus, and Ambrose) are meant to provide one essential context for reading the Confessions . Placing the emphasis primarily on exegesis, O'Donnell opens up new lines of interpretation, and gives a wealth of fresh detail to some more familiar themes. The place of
the Confessions in Augustine's own life and in the history of Christian literature is also discussed and illuminated.]]> 278 Augustine of Hippo 0198143788 Hadley 5 Such a beautiful book; it made me envious. The Latin is lovely, though a bit late; the preponderance of theological terms makes it easier to read in some ways, but there are grammatical differences. One should note that Augustine writes is second person, addressing God, and that he is one of those rambling authors. Toward the end he leaves the autobiographical framework altogether for a fascinating meditation on Genesis, the nature of time, and much else.]]> 5.00 400 Confessions, Vol. 1: Introduction and Text
author: Augustine of Hippo
name: Hadley
average rating: 5.00
book published: 400
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/01
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: read-in-latin, christian-themes, memoir
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
Such a beautiful book; it made me envious. The Latin is lovely, though a bit late; the preponderance of theological terms makes it easier to read in some ways, but there are grammatical differences. One should note that Augustine writes is second person, addressing God, and that he is one of those rambling authors. Toward the end he leaves the autobiographical framework altogether for a fascinating meditation on Genesis, the nature of time, and much else.
]]> Testament of Youth 374388 Testament of Youth is both a record of what she lived through and an elegy for a vanished generation. Hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as a book that helped “both form and define the mood of its time,� it speaks to any generation that has been irrevocably changed by war.]]> 688 Vera Brittain 0143039237 Hadley 5 This book practically made me cry. One of the most emotionally real memoirs I've ever read. Brittain does slide into slightly dnarky feminism once or twice, and in her discussion of her postwar activism, she frequently references people then famous but now obscure to a general audience.]]> 4.09 1933 Testament of Youth
author: Vera Brittain
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1933
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: school, feminist-ish, ouch, memoir
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
This book practically made me cry. One of the most emotionally real memoirs I've ever read. Brittain does slide into slightly dnarky feminism once or twice, and in her discussion of her postwar activism, she frequently references people then famous but now obscure to a general audience.
]]> A Gentleman in Moscow 34066798 The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers—Now a Paramount+ with Showtime series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.]]> 462 Amor Towles Hadley 4 living-author, audiobook Elegant and satisfying. 4.28 2016 A Gentleman in Moscow
author: Amor Towles
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: living-author, audiobook
review:
Elegant and satisfying.
]]> Araby 8332752 “Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness.]]> 25 James Joyce Hadley 3 school 3.66 1914 Araby
author: James Joyce
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1914
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: school
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives]]> 203640289
At eighteen, your life is full of of what-ifs and why-nots. You have everything to look forward to � unless you’ve got the plague.

From a young Elizabeth Tudor, the orphan facing deadly intrigue at court, to a teenage Richard Burton, the rugby-obsessed son of a Welsh miner, historian Alice Loxton explores Britain’s past through the lives of eighteen figures at this crucial age.

How do you make a living in Georgian London with no arms or legs? What would you do if a world war interrupted your university studies? With plenty of wit and insight, Eighteen invites readers to join an eclectic cast of young Britons across the nation and throughout its history, to find out what makes us who we are.

Filled with fascinating stories of royalty, explorers, writers and entertainers, Eighteen asks what lessons we can learn for modern Britain.

]]> 338 Alice Loxton 1035031302 Hadley 4
Secondly: It's a tour of life in the British Isles through the perspective of a group of culturally, professionally, geographically, and temporally diverse eighteen-year-olds. The writing style is breezy and more colloquial than I’d expected, but the book is obviously carefully researched. The subjects are well-chosen.

Thirdly: I'd definitely recommend it! Even if the interconnecting vignettes are a little silly.]]> 3.85 Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives
author: Alice Loxton
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: living-author, assorted-nonfiction
review:
Firstly: I was in fact gifted this book for my 18th birthday.

Secondly: It's a tour of life in the British Isles through the perspective of a group of culturally, professionally, geographically, and temporally diverse eighteen-year-olds. The writing style is breezy and more colloquial than I’d expected, but the book is obviously carefully researched. The subjects are well-chosen.

Thirdly: I'd definitely recommend it! Even if the interconnecting vignettes are a little silly.
]]> Capitalism and Freedom 51877 Henry Hazlitt, Newsweek

“Kendi meslektaşlarının düşünüş şeklini büyük ölçüde değiştirebilen bir profesör çok nadirdir. Dünyanın değişmesine etki edeni daha da nadirdir. Friedman ikisini de başardı.�
Stephen Chapman, Chicago Tribune

Kapitalizm ve Özgürlük’ün ilk baskısı 1962 yılında yayınlandığında, Büyük Buhran’ın acı hatıraları Amerikan halkının önemli bir kısmının hafızasında halen canlıydı. O dönemde, entelektüellerin yanı sıra hem Cumhuriyetçi hem Demokrat siyasetçilerin de tercihleri Keynesyen politikalardı. Böyle bir atmosferde yayınlanan Kapitalizm ve Özgürlük’te Friedman, devlet müdahalesinin niyet edilmemiş kötü sonuçlarına dikkat çekti. Rekabetçi kapitalizmin teorik ve pratik üstünlüklerini açık ve kuvvetli bir şekilde izah etti.

Friedman, bu kitapta, ekonomik özgürlükler ile siyasî özgürlükler arasındaki bağıntıyı net bir şekilde ortaya koymuştur. Friedman’ın iktisat felsefesinde merkezî bir tema olan rekabetçi kapitalizm, hem iktisadî özgürlüğe ulaşmak için bir araç hem de siyasî özgürlük için gerekli bir koşuldur.

Güncelliğini o zamandan bu yana dünyanın pek çok yerinde koruyan önemli pratik konulara rekabetçi kapitalizm perspektifinden yaklaşımlar sunan Friedman, devletin, duhul ettiği alanlardaki olumsuz etkilerini araştırmış ve bunlara çözüm önerileri getirmiştir. Devlet müdahalesinin etkilerinin yoğun bir şekilde hissedildiği uluslararası ticaret, malî politika, eğitim sistemi, ayrımcılık, tekeller, ruhsatlandırma, gelir dağılımı, sosyal refah politikaları ve yoksulluk gibi konular bu kitabın odaklandığı alanlardandır.

Kapitalizm ve Özgürlük, 20. Yüzyıl’ın en etkili ve etkileyici kitaplarından birisi olarak gösterilmektedir. İlk edisyonundan sonra birkaç kez revize edilen kitap, onlarca dile çevrilmiş, tüm dünyada yüzbinlerce okura ulaşmıştır. Kitap, birçok ülkenin iktisat politikasını etkileyen fikirleri yaymasının yanı sıra Friedman’ın 1976 yılında Nobel İktisat Ödülü almasında etkili olmuştur.]]> 208 Milton Friedman 0226264211 Hadley 0 assorted-nonfiction, school 3.90 1962 Capitalism and Freedom
author: Milton Friedman
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: assorted-nonfiction, school
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All Quiet on the Western Front]]> 355697
In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the â€glorious warâ€�. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young â€unknown soldierâ€� experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.]]> 296 Erich Maria Remarque 0449213943 Hadley 0
I don't really know what to rate it. It was incredibly difficult to read, but it so clearly deserves its renown; I can't decide if this is "read at your own risk" or "absolutely everyone should read this". I expect to be processing it for a very long time.]]> 4.04 1928 All Quiet on the Western Front
author: Erich Maria Remarque
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: read-in-translation, school, ouch
review:
This book...

I don't really know what to rate it. It was incredibly difficult to read, but it so clearly deserves its renown; I can't decide if this is "read at your own risk" or "absolutely everyone should read this". I expect to be processing it for a very long time.
]]> Dead Souls 28381 Dead Souls, Russia's first major novel, is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction and a devastating satire on social hypocrisy.

In his introduction to this new translation, Robert A. Maguire discusses Gogol's life and literary career, his depiction of Russian society, and the language and narrative techniques employed in Dead Souls. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, appendices, a glossary, map and notes.]]> 464 Nikolai Gogol 0140448071 Hadley 4 4.00 1842 Dead Souls
author: Nikolai Gogol
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1842
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: audiobook, read-in-translation, russian, humorous
review:
Why do all editions of this have such gloomy-looking covers? It is in fact a very funny book, providing a tour of early-19th-century Russian society in the company of an only-kind-of-lovable rogue and some of the most amusing description I've ever encountered. Too bad that the third part of this work is nonexistent and the second part is unsatisfyingly fragmentary.
]]> <![CDATA[Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy]]> 25406 Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print.

One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning--but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.]]> 518 Jostein Gaarder 0374530718 Hadley 0 3.75 1991 Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy
author: Jostein Gaarder
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: currently-reading, school, read-in-translation
review:

]]> Wide Sargasso Sea 25622780 Wide Sargasso Sea, a masterpiece of modern fiction, was Jean Rhys’s return to the literary center stage. She had a startling early career and was known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This mesmerizing work introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.

A new introduction by the award-winning Edwidge Danticat, author most recently of Claire of the Sea Light, expresses the enduring importance of this work. Drawing on her own Caribbean background, she illuminates the setting’s impact on Rhys and her astonishing work.]]> 176 Jean Rhys 0393352560 Hadley 0 to-read 3.63 1966 Wide Sargasso Sea
author: Jean Rhys
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Piranesi 50202953
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 272 Susanna Clarke 163557563X Hadley 4 audiobook, living-author 4.22 2020 Piranesi
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: audiobook, living-author
review:
Strange, but carefully-thought-out and well-written. There's a lot of obvious Narnia influence; It really explored ideas of forgetfulness and otherworldliness Lewis merely touched on, particularly in the Magician's Nephew. I also saw echoes of Wordsworth and Hugo, though I can't say that was intentional.
]]> The Death of Ivan Ilych 18386
How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?

This short novel was an artistic culmination of a profound spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life, a nine-year period following the publication of Anna Karenina during which he wrote not a word of fiction.
A thoroughly absorbing, and, at times, terrifying glimpse into the abyss of death, it is also a strong testament to the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.]]> 86 Leo Tolstoy Hadley 5 4.12 1886 The Death of Ivan Ilych
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1886
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: read-in-translation, russian, school, christian-themes
review:
Excellent in multiple ways. I didn’t appreciate its artistry enough last time I read it.
]]> All the Light We Cannot See 18143977
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here]]> 544 Anthony Doerr 1476746583 Hadley 4 living-author, ouch What gorgeous writing, if a tad unconventional. It has numerous sad moments, but what does one expect from a novel where so many characters are involved with the Nazis?]]> 4.31 2014 All the Light We Cannot See
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/01
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: living-author, ouch
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
What gorgeous writing, if a tad unconventional. It has numerous sad moments, but what does one expect from a novel where so many characters are involved with the Nazis?
]]> Les Misérables 24280 1463 Victor Hugo 0451525264 Hadley 4 read-in-translation, ouch Long, powerful, dramatic, well-written, and opinionated. Hugo is another of those rambling authors, more varied than Tolstoy. He isn't good at writing romance or teenage girls.]]> 4.19 1862 Les Misérables
author: Victor Hugo
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1862
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/01
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: read-in-translation, ouch
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
Long, powerful, dramatic, well-written, and opinionated. Hugo is another of those rambling authors, more varied than Tolstoy. He isn't good at writing romance or teenage girls.
]]> The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Hadley 4 school In a lot of ways this felt like the dark inverted image of the Bok memoir I read shortly before--a twisted American Dream. A good book, though the complex characters felt alien to anyone I'd known in real life or other fiction.]]> 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: school
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year--I think this is the last of those reviews.)
In a lot of ways this felt like the dark inverted image of the Bok memoir I read shortly before--a twisted American Dream. A good book, though the complex characters felt alien to anyone I'd known in real life or other fiction.
]]> King Lear 12938
The play tells us about families struggling between greed and cruelty, on the one hand, and support and consolation, on the other. Emotions are extreme, magnified to gigantic proportions. We also see old age portrayed in all its vulnerability, pride, and, perhaps, wisdom—one reason this most devastating of Shakespeare’s tragedies is also perhaps his most moving.

The authoritative edition of King Lear from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:

-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

-Scene-by-scene plot summaries

-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases

-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language

-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books

-An annotated guide to further reading

Essay by Susan Snyder

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.]]> 339 William Shakespeare Hadley 5 school, poetry-or-verse, ouch 3.91 1605 King Lear
author: William Shakespeare
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1605
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/03
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: school, poetry-or-verse, ouch
review:
It's a masterpiece, obviously. Besides the clever speeches, the characters are so well-drawn and the plot structure is perfect. This is one of the rare works that brought me close to tears.
]]> The Outstation 1823994 W. Somerset Maugham 141917651X Hadley 4 school 3.67 The Outstation
author: W. Somerset Maugham
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/15
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: school
review:
Well-done, if simple. It is essentially a character study of two British colonial officials in Malaysia, polar opposites but both interesting and believable. (I will say that one of them is not at all what I at first expected from a TCK). It also conforms to the stereotype of short story endings.
]]> <![CDATA[Crime and Punishment: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Editions)]]> 42448616 � Michael Katz’s “superb� (Times Literary Supplement) new translation of the world’s most-read Russian novel accompanied by his preface and detailed explanatory footnotes.
� Names of principal characters, a note on characters� names, and a map of St. Petersburg.
� Key excerpts from Dostoevsky’s notebooks, letters, and his early draft of Part II, Chapter 2.
� Twenty-six scholarly essays on the novel from Russian, European, and American sources.
� A chronology and a selected bibliography.]]> 592 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0393264270 Hadley 5
Like The Brothers Karamazov, this was thought-provoking and full of vividly screwed-up characters. But it was simpler of plot and less confusing overall. I appreciated the epilogue; things broken off, however elegantly, frustrate me.]]> 4.52 1866 Crime and Punishment: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Editions)
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1866
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/13
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: read-in-translation, christian-themes, ouch, russian
review:
Well, that was intense. Rodion Romanovich Razkolnikov is definitely one of the most interesting characters I've encountered in a while, both as a fictional creation and as a point-of-view.

Like The Brothers Karamazov, this was thought-provoking and full of vividly screwed-up characters. But it was simpler of plot and less confusing overall. I appreciated the epilogue; things broken off, however elegantly, frustrate me.
]]> To Kill a Mockingbird 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Hadley 4 school 4.25 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird
author: Harper Lee
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/27
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: school
review:
This book unquestionably deserves its fame. The plotline is powerful, the ending being particularly satisfying. So many little details of setting and character ring very true (I live in the South and have family members the approximate ages of all the Finches, as it happens). I only have a few little quibbles. First, the narrative voice shifts between eight-year-old Scout and adult, retrospective Scout in a way that doesn't feel entirely clear, though the individual passages are well-done on their own. Second, the opening passages meander a bit; it makes sense by the end but it's hard to tell where the book is going. Third, this book, while dense, is almost too clear. Circumstances can feel a little contrived. The title is alluded to three times, which is frankly too much.
]]> Wuthering Heights 6147457
In a house haunted by memories, the past is everywhere ...

As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter at the strange, grim house Wuthering Heights. It is a place he will never forget. There he will come to learn the story of Cathy: how she was forced to choose between her well-meaning husband and the dangerous man she had loved since she was young. How her choice led to betrayal and terrible revenge - and continues to torment those in the present. How love can transgress authority, convention, even death.]]> 353 Emily Brontë 0141040351 Hadley 5 school
Said family is probably the most dysfunctional I've ever encountered in literature, beating even the Karamazovs. Heathcliff may be a Byronic hero passionately in love, but it's a strangely twisted love on both sides. He's so horrible to so many people that I don't see how anyone could think him a prototype of a romantic hero. (But Romantic, yes.)

The second-generation section was very interesting in the way the children paralled, or didn't, their parents' story. (And surprisingly, their plotline doesn't end too badly.) The book could be complete without it, but not as fascinating.]]> 3.96 1847 Wuthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1847
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: school
review:
I didn't fall in love with this book in the same way as Jane Eyre at all. One's always aware here of being an external observer to events, due to the complex nested narration. Emily Brontë made better use of this device then any other writer I've encountered; the tension is marvelously done (and this despite the fact my edition spoiled every plot point with the family tree in the front.)

Said family is probably the most dysfunctional I've ever encountered in literature, beating even the Karamazovs. Heathcliff may be a Byronic hero passionately in love, but it's a strangely twisted love on both sides. He's so horrible to so many people that I don't see how anyone could think him a prototype of a romantic hero. (But Romantic, yes.)

The second-generation section was very interesting in the way the children paralled, or didn't, their parents' story. (And surprisingly, their plotline doesn't end too badly.) The book could be complete without it, but not as fascinating.
]]> Heroides 437264 288 Ovid Hadley 4 4.14 -16 Heroides
author: Ovid
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.14
book published: -16
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/12
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: read-in-latin, poetry-or-verse, feminist-ish, for-mythology-lovers
review:
This is not the first female-centered mythology retelling, and certainly not the last, but it was quite enjoyable. It is formatted as a collection of letters to absent male love interests past and present. In tone, most of these letters are a mix of longing and anger. The "heroines" of the title range from Dido to Laodamia, from extremely famous figures whose story had already been masterfully told to obscure characters now known almost solely for this work. (It also ends, for some odd reason, with a letter from Sappho, which I didn't much care for.) Most of them, however, are relatively minor, yet memorable, and it was satisfying to read their voices. The poetry, in elegiac couplets, is good, if not quite as sparkling the Metamorphoses.
]]> Notes from Underground 49455 Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, whose Dostoevsky translations have become the standard, give us a brilliantly faithful edition of this classic novel, conveying all the tragedy and tormented comedy of the original.]]> 136 Fyodor Dostoevsky 067973452X Hadley 4 read-in-translation, russian


There are a couple of reasons why I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as the two full-length Dostoevsky novels I've read. First, being essentially a study of one individual, it largely lacks the memorable contrasts and confrontations between characters. Also, it completely lacks any sort of real hope, which was a powerful element of both Crime and Punishment and Brothers K. This is like being perpetually stuck in Razkolnikov's head at the very beginning of C&P. Not pleasant.]]> 4.21 1864 Notes from Underground
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1864
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: read-in-translation, russian
review:
This was...something. The rambling narrator is screwed-up to an absurd degree, but I doubt I'll ever forget him.



There are a couple of reasons why I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as the two full-length Dostoevsky novels I've read. First, being essentially a study of one individual, it largely lacks the memorable contrasts and confrontations between characters. Also, it completely lacks any sort of real hope, which was a powerful element of both Crime and Punishment and Brothers K. This is like being perpetually stuck in Razkolnikov's head at the very beginning of C&P. Not pleasant.
]]> The Mayor of Casterbridge 56759 Librarian note: The same ISBN is now being used here with a new cover.

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled â€A Story of a Man of Characterâ€�, Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town.]]> 393 Thomas Hardy Hadley 4 audiobook, ouch Me: The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Sister: What's it about?
Me: A guy who makes essentially the same mistake over and over again.
Sister: Does he learn from his mistakes?
Me: He tries to, but doesn't succeed in any meaningful sense.
Sister: Oh...Is he okay?
Me: ...No. He isn't okay in the slightest.

I don't think I would have read this if not for Hardy's writing, which is extremely good in a difficult-to-quantify way. The characters are also well drawn. Very depressing ending. This despite, or even because of, the presence of a happily married young couple at the end. Far from the Madding Crowd ended with happiness despite tragedy, but the ending here feels like tragedy despite happiness.

Maybe I'll read Tess of the d'Urbervilles eventually, but frankly I'm scared of it.]]> 3.85 1886 The Mayor of Casterbridge
author: Thomas Hardy
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1886
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: audiobook, ouch
review:
Little sister: What book are you reading?
Me: The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Sister: What's it about?
Me: A guy who makes essentially the same mistake over and over again.
Sister: Does he learn from his mistakes?
Me: He tries to, but doesn't succeed in any meaningful sense.
Sister: Oh...Is he okay?
Me: ...No. He isn't okay in the slightest.

I don't think I would have read this if not for Hardy's writing, which is extremely good in a difficult-to-quantify way. The characters are also well drawn. Very depressing ending. This despite, or even because of, the presence of a happily married young couple at the end. Far from the Madding Crowd ended with happiness despite tragedy, but the ending here feels like tragedy despite happiness.

Maybe I'll read Tess of the d'Urbervilles eventually, but frankly I'm scared of it.
]]> The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 26027451
The Penguin Classics edition of Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has been designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith and is edited with an introduction and notes by the novelist Stevie Davies.]]> 576 Anne Brontë 024119895X Hadley 4 Charlotte and Emily had a Romantic/Gothic streak.
Emily and Anne described abusive relationships with a lot of detail.
Anne and Charlotte wrote novels that it's very difficult to imagine a man pulling off.

I do see why Anne Brontë isn't as famous as the other two; this is less finely crafted than either Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. But it's well worth reading, particularly for those who appreciate pre-first-wave feminism or unconventional Victorian romances. Note that it's pretty unsettling in places.]]> 4.20 1848 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
author: Anne Brontë
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1848
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: feminist-ish, christian-themes, ouch, well-written-romance
review:
Thoughts on the Brontë sisters:
Charlotte and Emily had a Romantic/Gothic streak.
Emily and Anne described abusive relationships with a lot of detail.
Anne and Charlotte wrote novels that it's very difficult to imagine a man pulling off.

I do see why Anne Brontë isn't as famous as the other two; this is less finely crafted than either Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. But it's well worth reading, particularly for those who appreciate pre-first-wave feminism or unconventional Victorian romances. Note that it's pretty unsettling in places.
]]> War and Peace 9141165 1350 Leo Tolstoy 0199232768 Hadley 5
This enormous book is utterly worthwhile. Tolstoy gives such a vivid sense of Russia during the napoleonic wars, getting into the heads of everyone from random privates to his carefully crafted protagonists to Napoleon himself. It's rather philosophically deep, which I liked. Tolstoy's tangents get a bit annoying when they interrupt the plot, but they're well done as essays and everything else is amazing.]]> 4.44 1869 War and Peace
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1869
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: read-in-translation, ouch, russian, well-written-romance
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)

This enormous book is utterly worthwhile. Tolstoy gives such a vivid sense of Russia during the napoleonic wars, getting into the heads of everyone from random privates to his carefully crafted protagonists to Napoleon himself. It's rather philosophically deep, which I liked. Tolstoy's tangents get a bit annoying when they interrupt the plot, but they're well done as essays and everything else is amazing.
]]> <![CDATA[Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #10)]]> 13623994 528 Dorothy L. Sayers 0062196537 Hadley 5 This is one of a long series of Golden Age detective novels, set at a Oxford women's college in the 1930s. It's not as much of a mystery as Strong Poison and Have His Carcase, earlier entries which set up some of the characters well (though this could work on its own.) Instead, is is: a loving, though nuanced, portrait of a place; a refreshingly feminist novel which manages to be thoughtful without bitterness; a delightfully witty and literary novel of manners; an unconventional, very satisfying romance; a very nerdy book which gives John Donne the recognition he deserves.]]> 4.15 1935 Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #10)
author: Dorothy L. Sayers
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1935
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/01
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: feminist-ish, well-written-romance
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
This is one of a long series of Golden Age detective novels, set at a Oxford women's college in the 1930s. It's not as much of a mystery as Strong Poison and Have His Carcase, earlier entries which set up some of the characters well (though this could work on its own.) Instead, is is: a loving, though nuanced, portrait of a place; a refreshingly feminist novel which manages to be thoughtful without bitterness; a delightfully witty and literary novel of manners; an unconventional, very satisfying romance; a very nerdy book which gives John Donne the recognition he deserves.
]]> Persuasion 2156 249 Jane Austen 0192802631 Hadley 5 well-written-romance 4.15 1817 Persuasion
author: Jane Austen
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1817
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: well-written-romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems]]> 58220856
The Corvey library was built during the last half of the 19th century by Victor and his wife Elise, both bibliophiles with varied interests. The collection thus contains everything from novels and short stories to belles lettres and more populist works, and includes many exceedingly rare works not available in any other collection from the period. These invaluable, sometimes previously unknown works are of particular interest to scholars and researchers.

European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection includes:

* Novels and Gothic Novels
* Short Stories
* Belles-Lettres
* Short Prose Forms
* Dramatic Works
* Poetry
* Anthologies
* And more

Selected with the guidance of an international team of expert advisors, these primary sources are invaluable for a wide range of academic disciplines and areas of study, providing never before possible research opportunities for one of the most studied historical periods.

Additional Metadata

Primary Id: B0111700
PSM Id: NCCOF0063-C00000-B0111700
DVI Collection Id: NCCOC0062
Bibliographic Id: NCCO001771
Reel: 149
MCODE: 4UVC
Original Publisher: Printed for Taylor and Hessey
Original Publication Year: 1820
Original Imprint Manufacturer: Printed by Thomas Davison


Subjects

English poetry -- 19th century.]]> 208 John Keats 1375057251 Hadley 5
The first thing in here is Lamia, a narrative poem about a snake-woman which feels lovely, indulgent, a bit twisted, and tragic. It's technically written in heroic couplets, but never feels stiff at all.

The next is Isabella: a charmingly told, if rather light, tale of ill-fated love. The concept is rather bizarrely macabre but not original to Keats.

Then follows The Eve of St. Agnes. Despite the impression given by the title, it isn't religious at all, but rather little-r romantic. Gorgeously vivid if scant on plot.

After these three comea a set of shorter poems. Among these are all the 1819 odes (except Ode on Indolence for some reason), which never fail to enchant me. The four other poems are all written in the same meter--a fast one--and are easily the most forgettable parts of this collection. Several almost feel too cute.

At the end is what exists of Hyperion, an abandoned epic poem in the style of Milton. Full of memorable imagery, it's better read as its own thing than as a Paradise Lost fanfiction. Oh how I wish the rest of it existed. (If one must break off mid-line, though, one could choose worse words than "celestial.")]]> 5.00 1820 Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems
author: John Keats
name: Hadley
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1820
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: poetry-or-verse, for-mythology-lovers
review:
I'm giving this five stars because Keats is probably my favorite poet (despite his arcaism) and this collection, published in 1820, contains most of his best work.

The first thing in here is Lamia, a narrative poem about a snake-woman which feels lovely, indulgent, a bit twisted, and tragic. It's technically written in heroic couplets, but never feels stiff at all.

The next is Isabella: a charmingly told, if rather light, tale of ill-fated love. The concept is rather bizarrely macabre but not original to Keats.

Then follows The Eve of St. Agnes. Despite the impression given by the title, it isn't religious at all, but rather little-r romantic. Gorgeously vivid if scant on plot.

After these three comea a set of shorter poems. Among these are all the 1819 odes (except Ode on Indolence for some reason), which never fail to enchant me. The four other poems are all written in the same meter--a fast one--and are easily the most forgettable parts of this collection. Several almost feel too cute.

At the end is what exists of Hyperion, an abandoned epic poem in the style of Milton. Full of memorable imagery, it's better read as its own thing than as a Paradise Lost fanfiction. Oh how I wish the rest of it existed. (If one must break off mid-line, though, one could choose worse words than "celestial.")
]]> Villette 26805367 Villette, Charlotte Brontë reached the height of her artistic power. First published in 1853, Villette is Brontë's most accomplished and deeply felt work, eclipsing even Jane Eyre in critical acclaim. Her narrator, the autobiographical Lucy Snowe, flees England and a tragic past to become an instructor in a French boarding school in the town of Villette. There she unexpectedly confronts her feelings of love and longing as she witnesses the fitful romance between Dr. John, a handsome young Englishman, and Ginerva Fanshawe, a beautiful coquette. The first pain brings others, and with them comes the heartache Lucy has tried so long to escape. Yet in spite of adversity and disappointment, Lucy Snowe survives to recount the unstinting vision of a turbulent life's journey - a journey that is one of the most insightful fictional studies of a woman's consciousness in English literature.]]> 619 Charlotte Brontë 0241198968 Hadley 4 well-written-romance Like in Jane Eyre, there is a romance with quite a large age gap, but this one has fewer weird elements and is, in my opinion, rather cute.
The ending is exquisitely exasperating.]]> 3.77 1853 Villette
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1853
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/09
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: well-written-romance
review:
This was extremely good, if not quite as powerful as Jane Eyre (the plot is much less focused). I think Charlotte Brontë is now one of my favorite authors. The prose is elaborately descriptive but quite enjoyable. Lucy Snowe, the protagonist and narrator, is vividly real. I found her frequently relatable, though she's definitely more unhappy and judgemental than one should aspire to be.
Like in Jane Eyre, there is a romance with quite a large age gap, but this one has fewer weird elements and is, in my opinion, rather cute.
The ending is exquisitely exasperating.
]]> Lavinia 2214574 In a richly imagined, beautiful new novel, an acclaimed writer gives an epic heroine her voice.

In The Aeneid, Virgil's hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.

Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner--that she will be the cause of a bitter war--and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. And so she tells us what Virgil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life.

Lavinia is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers.]]> 279 Ursula K. Le Guin 0151014248 Hadley 4 Le Guin does both the character and the poem justice. Her interpretation of the poem (outlined in the afterword of this novel) largely aligns with mine, and she is a lovely, vivid writer.
This book does have some slight weirdnesses, such as a rather inconsistent treatment of the supernatural (not exactly to my taste) and some fourth-wall-breaking appearances by Virgil himself (unexpectedly moving). Overall, however, this gave me everything I hoped for in the premise. I'd recommend it to anyone who appreciated the beauty of the Aeneid.]]> 3.82 2008 Lavinia
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/03
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: feminist-ish, for-mythology-lovers, ouch, well-written-romance
review:
I wanted to read this book before I even knew it existed. Lavinia has such an odd presence in the Aeneid--crucial yet blank--that her story and viewpoint fascinated me.
Le Guin does both the character and the poem justice. Her interpretation of the poem (outlined in the afterword of this novel) largely aligns with mine, and she is a lovely, vivid writer.
This book does have some slight weirdnesses, such as a rather inconsistent treatment of the supernatural (not exactly to my taste) and some fourth-wall-breaking appearances by Virgil himself (unexpectedly moving). Overall, however, this gave me everything I hoped for in the premise. I'd recommend it to anyone who appreciated the beauty of the Aeneid.
]]> North and South 156538
In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.]]> 521 Elizabeth Gaskell 0140620192 Hadley 4 well-written-romance 4.14 1855 North and South
author: Elizabeth Gaskell
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1855
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: well-written-romance
review:
A really interesting mixture of romance and social commentary. There were a few points where things dragged a tad, and other things that could have been fleshed out more, but this was overall a great read that came together nicely at the end.
]]> <![CDATA[If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho]]> 150253 416 Sappho 1844080811 Hadley 4
The poems themselves--what's left of them--are lovely. I see their influence on those such as Horace, but they're more consistently sincere. They possess a delicacy and elegance one could perhaps call "feminine", though I get the same feeling from certain male poets as well.

Despite what some of the other reviews might suggest, this isn't a volume brimming with same-sex desire. Eros and other women both appear, but rarely if ever linked explicitly.

Of course, the state of these poems makes it difficult to get more out of them than isolated moments which feel rather like shards of a broken window in colored glass. Such a tragedy.

Perhaps all this is rather vague; I'd just suggest reading Sappho if one's curious about her work. The shortness of the excerpts is convenient at times.

As for this particular volume, it's great. Carson translates literally but smoothly. Putting the Greek text on the opposite page makes the precise state of the surviving manuscripts veru clear. Her notes are also extremely informative, explaining allusions and providing ample quotes from the classical Greek authors who actually knew all of Sappho's work. She never really speculates, which I appreciated.]]> 4.44 -550 If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
author: Sappho
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.44
book published: -550
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: read-in-translation, poetry-or-verse, for-mythology-lovers
review:
This was an unusually many-layered reading experience; Sappho's legacy is significant and her work is sadly fragmentary.

The poems themselves--what's left of them--are lovely. I see their influence on those such as Horace, but they're more consistently sincere. They possess a delicacy and elegance one could perhaps call "feminine", though I get the same feeling from certain male poets as well.

Despite what some of the other reviews might suggest, this isn't a volume brimming with same-sex desire. Eros and other women both appear, but rarely if ever linked explicitly.

Of course, the state of these poems makes it difficult to get more out of them than isolated moments which feel rather like shards of a broken window in colored glass. Such a tragedy.

Perhaps all this is rather vague; I'd just suggest reading Sappho if one's curious about her work. The shortness of the excerpts is convenient at times.

As for this particular volume, it's great. Carson translates literally but smoothly. Putting the Greek text on the opposite page makes the precise state of the surviving manuscripts veru clear. Her notes are also extremely informative, explaining allusions and providing ample quotes from the classical Greek authors who actually knew all of Sappho's work. She never really speculates, which I appreciated.
]]> <![CDATA[Sense and Sensibility [Audible Edition]]]> 46260793 Gone Girl) narrates one of Jane Austen's most beloved works, Sense and Sensibility. In this timeless tale of misguided romance and heartbreak, two teenage heroines must overcome the pitfalls of Georgian England's high society in order to achieve the love and happiness they seek. The admiration that Pike has for Austen's work is shown clearly through this passionate delivery of Austen's first published novel.

“The more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love.â€�Ěý

Jane Austen's first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, tells the classic tale of love and heartbreak in late 18th-century England. The story follows the romantic trials and tribulations of the daughters of the recently widowed Mrs. Dashwood as they encounter, and learn to handle, the emotionally reckless male characters of Georgian society. In order to find happiness, the two teenage heroines (Marianne and Elinor) must each learn to navigate through a life where status and money govern the rules of love.

A true classic of English literature, Sense and Sensibility is written with all the hallmarks of Austen's style, providing strong female protagonists, great irony and wit, and showcasing her superb talent for character creation and dialogue.

About the Author

Jane Austen is one of the most influential and celebrated novelists in English literature. The daughter of a Hampshire clergyman, she was the seventh of eight children and was, from a young age, an avid reader and writer. After graduating from Oxford, Austen survived typhus and embarked on a literary career seeing her works published anonymously throughout her life.

Best known for Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816), her six full-length novels have rarely been out of print and have spawned numerous film, television, and drama adaptations. Rich in satire, romance, and wit, Austen is renowned for her critiques of 18th-century British high society and the role of women within it.

About the Narrator

Rosamund Pike is an acclaimed English actress most recognized for her breakthrough role as a Bond girl in Die Another Day (2002), where she won the Empire Aware for Best Newcomer, and her towering lead performance in Gone Girl (2014), which won her an Empire Award for Best Actress. A graduate of English literature from Oxford University's Wadham College, Pike began her career in stage productions and television appearances before later transitioning into film. Having often spoken of her admiration for the works of Jane Austen, Pike played Jane Bennett in a 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice as well as providing narration of this novel for Audible in 2015.]]> Jane Austen 179972008X Hadley 5 4.20 1811 Sense and Sensibility [Audible Edition]
author: Jane Austen
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1811
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: audiobook, humorous, well-written-romance
review:
Austen really is the perfect writer....But now I’m sad that I'll never again have the experience of reading one of her six complete novels for the first time.
]]> Meditations 30659 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. While the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation and encouragement, Marcus Aurelius also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a timeless collection that has been consulted and admired by statesmen, thinkers and readers throughout the centuries.]]> 254 Marcus Aurelius 0140449337 Hadley 0 4.29 180 Meditations
author: Marcus Aurelius
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.29
book published: 180
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: assorted-nonfiction, audiobook
review:

]]> Le Tour du monde en 80 jours 1452956 Le Tour du monde en 80 jours notamment, sont conçus comme des machines théâtrales. Tout y est calibrĂ©, ajustĂ© pour tenir le lecteur en haleine, l'Ă©tonner, le distraire ou le prendre Ă  contre-pied. On est en pleine esthĂ©tique romantique, celle de Dumas en particulier, avec qui Verne collabora un temps. Mais le Tour du monde c'est aussi l'avènement du monde industriel, le culte de la machine, de l'efficacitĂ©, le pointage horaire Ă©tendu Ă  une Ă©chelle universelle. Culte portĂ© jusqu'Ă  l'outrance, avec un humour fĂ©roce, une ironie mordanteĚý: Verne n'est pas dupe. Et s'il agite ses personnages comme des marionnettes prises de frĂ©nĂ©sie, c'est pour, en sourdine, articuler un discours de rĂ©volteĚý: PhilĂ©as Fogg n'est pas si loin de NĂ©mo l'anarchiste, nouveau Faust moderne, et ce texte Ă©blouissant cache bien des profondeurs. --Scarbo]]> 331 Jules Verne 2253012696 Hadley 0 to-read, read-in-french 3.81 1872 Le Tour du monde en 80 jours
author: Jules Verne
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read, read-in-french
review:

]]> The Echo of Greece 57932819 Book by Edith Hamilton Edith Hamilton 0786107464 Hadley 4 3.70 1957 The Echo of Greece
author: Edith Hamilton
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1957
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: audiobook, assorted-nonfiction, school
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Nose (Penguin Little Black Classics, #46)]]> 24874312
With this pair of absurd, comic stories Gogol indulges his imagination and delights readers.

Contains 'The Nose' and 'The Carriage'.]]> 53 Nikolai Gogol 0141397527 Hadley 4 humorous, russian 3.77 1836 The Nose (Penguin Little Black Classics, #46)
author: Nikolai Gogol
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1836
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: humorous, russian
review:
Surreal, satirical, and hysterical.
]]> <![CDATA[The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind]]> 59019846
What shaped the mind of this great thinker? Jason Baxter argues that Lewis was deeply formed not only by the words of Scripture and his love of ancient mythology, but also by medieval literature. For this undeniably modern Christian, authors like Dante and Boethius provided a worldview that was relevant to the challenges of the contemporary world.

Here, readers will encounter an unknown figure to guide them in their own journey: C. S. Lewis the medievalist.]]> 0 Jason M. Baxter 164091918X Hadley 4 4.49 2022 The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind
author: Jason M. Baxter
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: living-author, audiobook, christian-themes, assorted-nonfiction
review:

]]> The Greek Way 57718868
CONTENTS:
Preface
East & West
Mind & Spirit
The Way of the East & the West in Art The Greek Way of Writing
Pindar, the Last Greek Aristocrat
The Athenians as Plato Saw Them Aristophanes & the Old Comedy Herodotus, the 1st Sight-Seer Thucydides, the Thing That Hath Been is That Which Shall Be
Xenophon, Ordinary Athenian Gentleman The Idea of Tragedy
Aeschylus, the 1st Dramatist Sophocles, Quintessence of the Greek Euripides, the Modern Mind
The Religion of the Greeks
The Way of the Greeks
The Way of the Modern World]]> Edith Hamilton Hadley 4
I don't agree with everything here--Hamilton tends to make sweeping generalizations--but it's well-written and thought-provoking, as well as a good review of some major writers of the period. ]]> 3.75 1930 The Greek Way
author: Edith Hamilton
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1930
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: assorted-nonfiction, school, audiobook
review:
The Athenian Way, really.

I don't agree with everything here--Hamilton tends to make sweeping generalizations--but it's well-written and thought-provoking, as well as a good review of some major writers of the period.
]]> Hadrian's Wall 35960093
Stretching eighty miles from coast to coast across northern England, Hadrian's Wall is the largest Roman artifact known today. It is commonly viewed as a defiant barrier, the end of the empire, a place where civilization stopped and barbarism began. In fact, the massive structure remains shrouded in mystery. Was the wall intended to keep out the Picts, who inhabited the North? Or was it merely a symbol of Roman power and wealth? What was life like for soldiers stationed along its expanse? How was the extraordinary structure built -- with what technology, skills, and materials?

In Hadrian's Wall , Adrian Goldsworthy embarks on a historical and archaeological investigation, sifting fact from legend while simultaneously situating the wall in the wider scene of Roman Britain. The result is a concise and enthralling history of a great architectural marvel of the ancient world.]]> 192 Adrian Goldsworthy 1541644425 Hadley 4 assorted-nonfiction 3.62 2018 Hadrian's Wall
author: Adrian Goldsworthy
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: assorted-nonfiction
review:
Recommended to anyone who wants a well-written, comprehensive overview of the Wall's archeology and history.
]]> Beethoven 1249027 400 Maynard Solomon 002872240X Hadley 4 assorted-nonfiction 3.94 1977 Beethoven
author: Maynard Solomon
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: assorted-nonfiction
review:
Readable and informative, by an author who's careful with sources and does the music justice. The Freud stuff isn't nearly as prominent as some reviews might suggest.
]]> Le Testament Français 7204530 Le testament français et Confessions d'un porte-drapeau déchu

«Je me souvenais qu'un jour, dans une plaisanterie sans gaîté, Charlotte m'avait dit qu'après tous ses voyages à travers l'immense Russie, venir à pied jusqu'en France n'aurait pour elle rien d'impossible [...]. Au début, pendant de longs mois de misère et d'errances, mon rêve fou ressemblerait de près à cette bravade. J'imaginerais une femme vêtue de noir qui, aux toutes premières heures d'une matinée d'hiver sombre, entrerait dans une petite ville frontalière [...]. Elle pousserait la porte d'un café au coin d'une étroite place endormie, s'installerait près de la fenêtre, à côté d'un calorifère. La patronne lui apporterait une tasse de thé. Et en regardant, derrière la vitre, la face tranquille des maisons à colombages, la femme murmurerait tout bas : "C'est la France... Je suis retournée en France. Après... après toute une vie."»]]> 355 Andreï Makine 2724294319 Hadley 4 Weirdly relatable in some ways, though I could have done without the treatment of adolescent male sexuality.]]> 3.89 1995 Le Testament Français
author: AndreĂŻ Makine
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: living-author, read-in-french, russian
review:
An elegant, slightly melancholy novel, reflecting on the complex connections between upbringing, family background, nationality, aesthetic appreciation, perception of historical tragedies and beauties, and the passage of time.
Weirdly relatable in some ways, though I could have done without the treatment of adolescent male sexuality.
]]> <![CDATA[The Divine Comedy III: Paradise]]> 24163841 Librarian's Note: Alternate cover edition for ISBN: 0140441050 / ISBN13: 9780140441055

In Paradise, having plunged to the uttermost depths of Hell and climbed the Mount of Purgatory, Dante ascends to Heaven, continuing his soul's search for God, guided by his beloved Beatrice. As he progresses through the spheres of Paradise he grows in understanding, until he finally experiences divine love in the radiant presence of the deity. Examining eternal questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, Dante exercised all his learning and wit, wrath and tenderness in his creation of one of the greatest of all Christian allegories.

Dorothy L. Sayers's landmark translation follows Dante's terza rima stanzas and brings his poetry vividly to life. Her work was completed after her death by Barbara Reynolds, who provides a foreword on the importance of the translation and an introduction on Dante's view of Heaven. This edition also includes a new foreword, updated further reading, notes, appendices, a glossary, diagrams and genealogical tables.]]> 400 Dante Alighieri Hadley 0 to-read 4.25 1320 The Divine Comedy III: Paradise
author: Dante Alighieri
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1320
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn't Help]]> 2583623
From Machiavelli's The Prince to Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male , from Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto to Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa , these "influential" books have led to war, genocide, totalitarian oppression, the breakdown of the family, and disastrous social experiments.

And yet the toxic ideas peddled in these books are more popular and pervasive than ever. In fact, they might influence your own thinking without your realizing it.

Fortunately, Professor Benjamin Wiker is ready with an antidote, exposing the beguiling errors in each of these evil books.

Witty, learned, and provocative, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World provides a quick education in the worst ideas in human history and explains how we can avoid them in the future.]]> 260 Benjamin Wiker 1596980559 Hadley 3 3.39 2008 10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn't Help
author: Benjamin Wiker
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: living-author, audiobook, christian-themes, assorted-nonfiction, school
review:
Some interesting thoughts, but a lot of overly general and strong statements. Probably wouldn't recommend.
]]> <![CDATA[Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage]]> 139069 The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure stories of the modern age.

In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.

In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton's fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age.

First edition: here.]]> 282 Alfred Lansing Hadley 4 4.42 1959 Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
author: Alfred Lansing
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1959
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: audiobook, assorted-nonfiction, school
review:
An excellent book. Well-written, and the story is truly remarkable--it's still hard to believe that everyone survived. (The audiobook I listened to was also quite good.) My one issue is the abruptness of its ending; I wish there had been an epilogue with more elaboration on the men's subsequent fates.
]]> Kidnapped 18635351
Tricked out of his inheritance, shanghaied, shipwrecked off the west coast of Scotland, David Balfour finds himself fleeing for his life in the dangerous company of Jacobite outlaw and suspected assassin Alan Breck Stewart. Their unlikely friendship is put to the test as they dodge government troops across the Scottish Highlands.

Set in the aftermath of the 1745 rebellion, Kidnapped transforms the Romantic historical novel into the modern thriller. Its heart-stopping scenes of cross-country pursuit, distilled to a pure intensity in Stevenson's prose, have become a staple of adventure stories from John Buchan to Alfred Hitchcock and Ian Fleming. Kidnapped remains as exhilarating today as when it was first published in 1886.

This new edition is based on the 1895 text, incorporating Stevenson's last thoughts about the novel before his death. It includes Stevenson's 'Note to Kidnapped', reprinted for the first time since 1922.

About the For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.]]> 256 Robert Louis Stevenson 0199674213 Hadley 5 audiobook, humorous 3.51 1886 Kidnapped
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1886
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: audiobook, humorous
review:
Maybe five stars is a bit much, but I love this book just as much--or more--as I did at age nine. It's a finely-crafted example of its genre. The writing is never less than excellent, and the pacing is consistently solid as it passes between a great many situations, from quasi-gothic creepy old uncle to brutality at sea to unexpected flight from the law. I'm currently just the age of David Balfour, and he's a very believable seventeen-year-old. And his interactions with Alan Breck--I just love Alan. I was surprised at the number of times this book made me laugh out loud. Stevenson was really a marvelous writer and storyteller.
]]> <![CDATA[Hard Times (Macmillan Collector's Library)]]> 28260624
Hard Times is perhaps the archetypal Dickens novel, full as it is with family difficulties, estrangement, rotten values and unhappiness. It was published in 1854 and it is the story of the family of Thomas Gradgrind, and occurs in the imaginary Coketown, an industrial city inspired by Preston. Gradgrind is a man obsessed with misguided â€Utilitarianâ€� values that make him trust facts, statistics and practicality more than emotion and is based upon James Mill (the Utilitarian leader). He directs his own children, Louisa and Tom, in this same way: enforcing an artless existence upon them. Contemporary critics such as Macaulay savaged the book for its supposed â€sullen socialismâ€� but it has become well thought-of since the favour of George Bernard Shaw.

Illustrated by Harry French, with an afterword by David Stuart Davies.]]> 416 Charles Dickens 1509825436 Hadley 4 school
But this is nonetheless a fundamentally different novel, well worth reading in its own right. Dickens's writing can be exceptionally funny, and its whimsical nature makes a striking contrast to the overall bleakness and blandness of the setting. He's trying to make a point here about Utilitarianism and imagination, which the story communicates effectively despite a certain annoying didacticism. The plot may not be as elaborate as in other Dickens novels--it's really quite short when compared to them--but the cast of characters is as colorful and memorable as ever. Especially notable are two young women who are actually pretty well written, in different ways. I didn’t think Dickens was capable of such a thing, and he proved me wrong.]]> 3.77 1854 Hard Times (Macmillan Collector's Library)
author: Charles Dickens
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1854
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: school
review:
I must say, it was odd reading this book just a few months after Gaskell's North and South, and concurrently with watching the miniseries of that novel. These books share a time (1854) and place (fictionalized Manchester) as well as such story elements as unionization, self-made factory owners, and brother-sister relationships (amidst others too spoilery to list here.)

But this is nonetheless a fundamentally different novel, well worth reading in its own right. Dickens's writing can be exceptionally funny, and its whimsical nature makes a striking contrast to the overall bleakness and blandness of the setting. He's trying to make a point here about Utilitarianism and imagination, which the story communicates effectively despite a certain annoying didacticism. The plot may not be as elaborate as in other Dickens novels--it's really quite short when compared to them--but the cast of characters is as colorful and memorable as ever. Especially notable are two young women who are actually pretty well written, in different ways. I didn’t think Dickens was capable of such a thing, and he proved me wrong.
]]> The Sorrows of Young Werther 7244633 014044503X

The story of a young man driven to suicide by an unhappy love affair, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) is the first great tragic novel of European literature.

Based partly on Goethe's unrequited love for Charlotte Buff and partly on the tragedy of Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem, who killed himself out of love for a married woman, the gained a reputation as the first great achievement of what a later age was to call 'confessional' literature, and Goethe himself spoke of a sense of freedom and deliverance on completing his novel.

The success of Werther was rapid and immense, and a cult quickly grew up around it. Parodies, operas, poems and plays based on the story appeared; in some areas it was seen as scandalous and banned because it seemed to 'recommend' suicide. Today, however, we can isolate the novel from the original events and see Goethe's artistry on its own terms. It is, as Michael Hulse says in his Introduction, a work of exhilarating style and insight. Its sensitive exploration of the mind of a young artist at odds with society and ill-equipped to cope with life lends it the status of a tragic masterpiece.]]> 144 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Hadley 4 read-in-translation, ouch I read this book because it had a major influence on the Romantic movement. Now I understand why it was one of the books Frankenstein's monster read, and why it was so important to him. Werther is very much a Romantic hero, with his contemplativeness, disgust with high society, and deep love of nature. One could read this as a cautionary tale of too much Romanticism.
Werther is definitely an exasperating individual, and I feel absolutely horrible for Lotte. He's extremely self absorbed--something which the epistolary format suits very well. He constantly takes the position that emotion and passion are like a sickness, unable to be truly regulated. This is actually something I've seen in myself to a less intense degree; I thus have a fair amount of sympathy for Werther and a *little* bit more understanding for the love-suicide trope, though I still really dislike it.
I would probably only recommend this book to those with an interest in this area of the literary tradition. Werther's letters are full of abstract philosophizing, and while this is interesting and believable, it does lessen the emotional tension somewhat. Certain subplots are also contrived.

In sum, though, my final emotion after this book is :(]]> 3.69 1774 The Sorrows of Young Werther
author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1774
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: read-in-translation, ouch
review:
For those unfamiliar: It's about a young guy so deeply in love with an unavailable woman that he eventually commits suicide. (This is one of those old, famous, books where any spoiler policy makes no sense.)
I read this book because it had a major influence on the Romantic movement. Now I understand why it was one of the books Frankenstein's monster read, and why it was so important to him. Werther is very much a Romantic hero, with his contemplativeness, disgust with high society, and deep love of nature. One could read this as a cautionary tale of too much Romanticism.
Werther is definitely an exasperating individual, and I feel absolutely horrible for Lotte. He's extremely self absorbed--something which the epistolary format suits very well. He constantly takes the position that emotion and passion are like a sickness, unable to be truly regulated. This is actually something I've seen in myself to a less intense degree; I thus have a fair amount of sympathy for Werther and a *little* bit more understanding for the love-suicide trope, though I still really dislike it.
I would probably only recommend this book to those with an interest in this area of the literary tradition. Werther's letters are full of abstract philosophizing, and while this is interesting and believable, it does lessen the emotional tension somewhat. Certain subplots are also contrived.

In sum, though, my final emotion after this book is :(
]]> <![CDATA[The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding the Concepts that Shaped Our World]]> 273400 224 R.C. Sproul 1581341725 Hadley 0 4.18 1988 The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding the Concepts that Shaped Our World
author: R.C. Sproul
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: audiobook, christian-themes, assorted-nonfiction, school
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Comedy of Errors (Folger Shakespeare Library)]]> 26121751 Comedy of Errors is the slapstick farce of his youth. In it, the lost twin sons of the old merchant Egeon—both named Antipholus—find themselves in Ephesus, without either one even knowing of the other's existence. Meanwhile, Egeon has arrived in search of the son he thinks is still alive—and has been sentenced to death for the "crime" of being from Syracuse.

To add to the confusion, the two Antipholuses have twin servants, both named Dromio. As the four men unwittingly encounter each other, the play is crammed with wildly escalating misunderstandings before the truth emerges and Egeon is pardoned.

Shakespeare bases his story on Plautus’s Menaechmi, a play about identical twins who accidentally meet after a lifetime apart. He borrows from another Plautus play by having Adriana, the wife of one Antipholus, entertain the other. The spirited Adriana often gives speeches evoking strong emotions—as do other characters at times. Even here, Shakespeare suggests complexities beyond the farce.

The authoritative edition of The Comedy of Errors from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, is now available as an eBook. Features include:

· The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference
· Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation
· Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
· Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
· Scene-by-scene plot summaries
· A key to famous lines and phrases
· An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
· Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
· An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play]]> 272 William Shakespeare Hadley 4 3.73 1594 The Comedy of Errors (Folger Shakespeare Library)
author: William Shakespeare
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1594
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves: humorous, school, poetry-or-verse
review:
This may not be a particularly profound work, but it sure is hilarious. Mostly appropriate for my 7yo sister, too.
]]> Mrs. Dalloway 13613209 ISBN 0156628708.]]> 194 Virginia Woolf Hadley 0 to-read 3.84 1925 Mrs. Dalloway
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism]]> 298058
In this newly revised edition of Fighting Terrorism, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel's Likud Party and a noted authority on international terrorism, explores the old and new terrorist threats. Citing diverse examples, Netanyahu demonstrates that domestic terrorist groups are usually no match for an advanced technological society. But he sees a potent threat in the new international terrorism that emerged in the 1900s and is increasingly the product of Islamic militants. Netanyahu concludes by suggesting how democracies can defend themselves against this new threat.]]> 0 Benjamin Netanyahu 0786196394 Hadley 3 2.67 1995 Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism
author: Benjamin Netanyahu
name: Hadley
average rating: 2.67
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: assorted-nonfiction, audiobook, school, living-author
review:
Interesting, but old (pre-9/11) and somewhat surface-level. It's definitely weird reading this given current events; some things feel on point, others not so much.
]]> The Inspector General 142262 The Inspector General skewers the stupidity, greed, and venality of Russian provincial officials. When it is announced that the Inspector General is coming to visit incognito, Anton, the chief of police, hastens to clean up the town before his arrival. Local officials scurry to hide evidence of bribe-taking and other misdeeds, setting the stage for the arrival from St. Petersburg of Ivan, a penurious gambler and rake who is promptly taken by the townspeople to be the dreaded Inspector General. Ivan, and his servant, Osip, soon take advantage of the situation with hilarious results. First performed in 1836, the play transcends regional and national boundaries to offer a biting, highly entertaining glimpse of universal human foibles and failings.
]]> 80 Nikolai Gogol 0486285006 Hadley 0 to-read 4.03 1835 The Inspector General
author: Nikolai Gogol
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1835
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Quatrevingt-Treize 1829581 Quatre-vingt-treize est la dernière Ĺ“uvre de l'exil, une vaste fresque historique publiĂ©e enĚý1874, entre la première Ă©dition des °äłóâłŮľ±łľ±đ˛ÔłŮ˛ő et la dernière sĂ©rie de La LĂ©gende des siècles. C'est donc une Ĺ“uvre de la maturitĂ©, celle d'un homme Ă©prouvĂ©, fort de ses combats, de ses engagements, de sa rĂ©putation, au sommet de sa puissance dramatique.

Comme son titre l'indique, Quatre-vingt-treize est l'Ă©popĂ©e de la RĂ©volution française, racontĂ©e Ă  travers trois personnages symboliquesĚý: un vieil aristocrate, le marquis deĚýLantenac, son neveu, Gauvain, un noble rattachĂ© aux humbles, et un homme du peuple, Cimourdain, père adoptif de Gauvain. C'est donc les liens familiaux qui unissent ses personnages avant de les voir plonger dans la tourmente des Ă©vĂ©nements, et lutter les uns contre les autres. Soit par convictions de rang et de classe, soit par raison, soit encore pour un idĂ©al. Dans l'effervescence des actes sanguinaires, seul le peuple, consciemment ou inconsciemment, semble s'imposer en hĂ©ros. RĂ©sonnant comme en Ă©cho aux turbulences de la Commune, l'Ĺ“uvre dĂ©livre les prĂ©occupations sociales et humanistes d'Hugo, son idĂ©e de la fatalitĂ©, dans une imposante lutte entre le bien et le mal. --CĂ©line Darner

]]> 575 Victor Hugo 2253160784 Hadley 0 to-read, read-in-french 3.94 1874 Quatrevingt-Treize
author: Victor Hugo
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1874
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read, read-in-french
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Promise (Reuven Malther, #2)]]> 11499 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Young Reuven Malter is unsure of himself and his place in life. An unconventional scholar, he struggles for recognition from his teachers. With his old friend Danny Saunders—who himself had abandoned the legacy as the chosen heir to his father's rabbinical dynasty for the uncertain life of a healer � Reuven battles to save a sensitive boy imprisoned by his genius and rage. Painfully, triumphantly, Reuven's understanding of himself, though the boy change, as he starts to approach the peace he has long sought…]]> 368 Chaim Potok 1400095417 Hadley 3 ouch My main problem with this book is the use it made of its length. Its fairly slow pacing would be completely fine with someone like Charlotte Brontë, but while a good writer, Potok isn't quite *that* good. And it could have done a little better with its subplots. One, centering on a mentally ill teenager, made a good counterpoint to the main story but felt too unresolved at the end given all the time spent on it. The other, a romance between Danny and the cousin of that aforementioned teenage boy, was very sweet but disappointingly thinly-sketched.]]> 4.18 1969 The Promise (Reuven Malther, #2)
author: Chaim Potok
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves: ouch
review:
This is fairly good sequel to The Chosen, which expands the world of the characters and the general look at mid-20th-century Jewish-American life. It's definitely much more Reuven's story than Danny's. His arc was pretty unpleasant to read at times; a lot of the issues he struggles with are things I'm very much in the thick of.
My main problem with this book is the use it made of its length. Its fairly slow pacing would be completely fine with someone like Charlotte Brontë, but while a good writer, Potok isn't quite *that* good. And it could have done a little better with its subplots. One, centering on a mentally ill teenager, made a good counterpoint to the main story but felt too unresolved at the end given all the time spent on it. The other, a romance between Danny and the cousin of that aforementioned teenage boy, was very sweet but disappointingly thinly-sketched.
]]> <![CDATA[The Practice of the Presence of God]]> 19248756 60 Brother Lawrence 1441238921 Hadley 0 4.38 1692 The Practice of the Presence of God
author: Brother Lawrence
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1692
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: christian-themes, assorted-nonfiction, read-in-translation
review:

]]> Eugene Onegin 27822 Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s Russia, Pushkin's verse novel follows the fates of three men and three women. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it also portrays a large cast of other
characters and offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein. Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's own favourite work, and this new translation conveys the literal sense and the poetic music of the original.]]> 240 Alexander Pushkin Hadley 4 4.11 1833 Eugene Onegin
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1833
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: read-in-translation, poetry-or-verse, ouch, russian, humorous
review:
Witty, irreverent, and amusing at times, yet lyrical, sincere, and sad at others. And it all fits together well. Despite the last stanza's advice, though, I rather wish there were more of it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Tales of Belkin (Hesperus Classics)]]> 3756178 124 Alexander Pushkin 184391185X Hadley 4
The Shot was a convoluted depiction of dueling whose purpose, I think, was to highlight the absurdity of it all.

The Blizzard was my favorite. It was a purposefully stereotypical romantic drama with a wacky twist at the end.

The Undertaker was an amusing little ghost story, but very predictable.

The Station-Master well demonstrated Pushkin's ability to induce laughter and sadness within just a few pages, though I doubt the plot will stick in my memory very strongly.

The Young Lady Peasant was a delightful reworking of She Stoops to Conquer. There were so many allusions to Anglophilia I kept expecting the text to actually mention Goldsmith's play, though that never occurred.]]> 4.02 1831 The Tales of Belkin (Hesperus Classics)
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1831
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: read-in-translation, russian, humorous
review:
More of a "fluff" read than I’d expected, but each tale was tastefully-crafted and my desire to read more Pushkin has not lessened in the slightest.

The Shot was a convoluted depiction of dueling whose purpose, I think, was to highlight the absurdity of it all.

The Blizzard was my favorite. It was a purposefully stereotypical romantic drama with a wacky twist at the end.

The Undertaker was an amusing little ghost story, but very predictable.

The Station-Master well demonstrated Pushkin's ability to induce laughter and sadness within just a few pages, though I doubt the plot will stick in my memory very strongly.

The Young Lady Peasant was a delightful reworking of She Stoops to Conquer. There were so many allusions to Anglophilia I kept expecting the text to actually mention Goldsmith's play, though that never occurred.
]]> Moby-Dick or, The Whale 153747 "It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it."

So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.

This edition of Moby-Dick, which reproduces the definitive text of the novel, includes invaluable explanatory notes, along with maps, illustrations, and a glossary of nautical terms.]]> 720 Herman Melville 0142437247 Hadley 5 ouch, humorous
I don't really recommend reading it one chapter a day like I did. It can suit the whale tangents to be divided up into delightful little doses, but the plot-filled sections, particularly towards the end when the tension builds, are annoying to divide. I did, in fact, read the last three chapters at once.]]> 3.53 1851 Moby-Dick or, The Whale
author: Herman Melville
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1851
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/12
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: ouch, humorous
review:
This book has so many things and they are all wonderful: humor, solemnity, memorable characters, a compelling plot, and above all beautiful writing. It never got boring for me, even when Ishmael/Melville waxed ridiculously eloquent on sperm whales. This book made things fascinating I'd never have expected.

I don't really recommend reading it one chapter a day like I did. It can suit the whale tangents to be divided up into delightful little doses, but the plot-filled sections, particularly towards the end when the tension builds, are annoying to divide. I did, in fact, read the last three chapters at once.
]]> Le Tartuffe 2741491 Le Tartuffe ou l’Imposteur est une comĂ©die en cinq actes et en vers de ˛Ń´Ç±ôľ±Ă¨°ů±đ, et une des plus renommĂ©s. Elle Ă©tait condamnĂ©e et c’était interdit de la performer pendant cinq ans sur l’initiative des « dĂ©vots », qui Ă©tait très influents a la cour du roi du temps de ˛Ń´Ç±ôľ±Ă¨°ů±đ. Tartuffe est une satire sur l’hypocrisie religieuse. L’Imposteur religieux Tartuffe, un vaurien sans un centime, aveugle le riche commerçant Orgon avec sa « dĂ©votion » religieuse et son faux zèle et se glisse ainsi dans ses affections et son mĂ©nage. Il parvient presque de sĂ©duire l’épouse d’Orgon, de se marier avec sa fille et de chasser son fils avant qu’il soit finalement dĂ©masquĂ©.]]> 200 ˛Ń´Ç±ôľ±Ă¨°ů±đ 2038713154 Hadley 4 3.61 1664 Le Tartuffe
author: ˛Ń´Ç±ôľ±Ă¨°ů±đ
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1664
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/02
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: poetry-or-verse, read-in-french, humorous
review:
Quite funny at times, though I could have done without the Virgilian homage to the current monarch.
]]> Familiar Dialogues 212865305 147 Jacques Bellot Hadley 0 2.00 Familiar Dialogues
author: Jacques Bellot
name: Hadley
average rating: 2.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves: to-read, assorted-nonfiction, read-in-french
review:

]]> Hamlet 1432 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN13:9780743477123, Hamlet.

Hamlet is the story of the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father's murder.

Each Folger edition includes:

- Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
- Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
- Scene-by-scene plot summaries
- A key to famous lines and phrases
- An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language
- An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
- Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books]]> 342 William Shakespeare Hadley 4 school, poetry-or-verse I feel bad not giving this five stars, but it was frankly confusing at times. Darkly humorous in a way that surprised me.]]> 4.05 1601 Hamlet
author: William Shakespeare
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1601
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/01
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: school, poetry-or-verse
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
I feel bad not giving this five stars, but it was frankly confusing at times. Darkly humorous in a way that surprised me.
]]> Ramona 33313655 This is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 13: 9780451528421

A beautiful half Native American, half-Scottish orphan raised by a harsh Mexican ranchera, Ramona enters into a forbidden love affair with a heroic Mission Indian named Alessandro. The pair’s adventures after they elope paint a vivid portrait of California history and the woeful fate of Native Americans and Mexicans whose lands and rights were stripped as Anglo-Americans overran southern California.]]> 402 Helen Hunt Jackson Hadley 3 I read this because it's a rare 19th century novel which treats native peoples, and their wrongs, with respect. It disappointed me in other ways, however. It doesn't give as vivid a picture of a time and place as I'd hoped, and the romance was stereotypical. Ramona herself is a blandly beautiful and perfect heroine of a type I formerly thought to appear only in the works of male authors. Overall, the novel was fine, but no more than that.]]> 3.42 1884 Ramona
author: Helen Hunt Jackson
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1884
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/01
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
I read this because it's a rare 19th century novel which treats native peoples, and their wrongs, with respect. It disappointed me in other ways, however. It doesn't give as vivid a picture of a time and place as I'd hoped, and the romance was stereotypical. Ramona herself is a blandly beautiful and perfect heroine of a type I formerly thought to appear only in the works of male authors. Overall, the novel was fine, but no more than that.
]]> La Nuit 864516 La Nuit, écrivait Elie Wiesel en 1983 est un récit, un écrit à part, mais il est la source de tout ce que j'ai écrit par la suite. Le véritable thème de La Nuit est celui du sacrifice d'Isaac, le thème fondateur de l'histoire juive. Abraham veut tuer Isaac, le père veut tuer son fils, et selon une tradition légendaire le père tue en effet son fils. L'expérience de notre génération est, à l'inverse, celle du fils qui tue le père, ou plutôt qui survit au père. La Nuit est l'histoire de cette expérience.

"Ce que j'affirme, c'est que ce témoignage qui vient après tant d'autres et qui décrit une abomination dont nous pourrions croire que plus rien ne nous demeure inconnu, est cependant différent, singulier, unique... L'enfant qui nous raconte ici son histoire était un élu de Dieu. Il ne vivait, depuis l’éveil de sa conscience, que pour Dieu, nourri du Talmud, ambitieux d’être initié à la Kabbale, voué à l’Eternel. Avions-nous jamais pensé à cette conséquence d’une horreur moins visible, moins frappante que d’autres abominations, � la pire de toutes, pourtant, pour nous qui possédons la foi : la mort de Dieu dans cette âme d’enfant qui découvre d’un seul coup le mal absolu ?"
François Mauriac]]> 199 Elie Wiesel 2707319929 Hadley 0 to-read 4.38 1956 La Nuit
author: Elie Wiesel
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel]]> 175980
Born into an aristocratic Catholic family, Donne joined the Church of England at the age of twenty-one out of fear of persecution. At the age of forty-three, he gave up his preoccupations with secular prestige and devoted himself utterly to religion. It was eight years later when, battered with fever, the deaths of his beloved wife, several of his children, and many dear lifelong friends, he composed Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. There is both trauma and great drama in this extended meditation on the meaning of mortality, the possibility of salvation, and the true nature of the passage of eternal life. With a new introduction by poet and biographer Andrew Motion, one of the most revered books of Christian devotion speaks to us again of the higher aspirations of man and the always-present possibility of a relationship with God.

This long out of print edition also contains Donne's last sermon, "Death's Duel" as well as the short colorful biography of him written by his contemporary Izaak Walton.]]> 234 John Donne 0375705481 Hadley 3 4.18 1630 Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel
author: John Donne
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1630
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: christian-themes, assorted-nonfiction
review:

]]> Samson Agonistes 258123 170 John Milton 076618952X Hadley 4
Nonetheless, this is Milton. The poetry is amazing and the themes are deep. I can't give this fewer that four stars.]]> 3.73 1671 Samson Agonistes
author: John Milton
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1671
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/13
date added: 2024/06/13
shelves: christian-themes, poetry-or-verse
review:
This little closet-drama has some serious issues. Milton takes away from Samson a major character flaw clearly displayed in the biblical text (namely, that he's a womanizer). There's more explicit misogyny even than in Paradise Lost. And this is no Sophoclean tragedy.

Nonetheless, this is Milton. The poetry is amazing and the themes are deep. I can't give this fewer that four stars.
]]> <![CDATA[The Romance languages (The Great languages)]]> 5085708 573 W.D. Elcock 057104820X Hadley 4 assorted-nonfiction
All that said, however, this was an extremely thorough and informative book which taught me a lot.]]> 4.50 1960 The Romance languages (The Great languages)
author: W.D. Elcock
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1960
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/08
date added: 2024/06/08
shelves: assorted-nonfiction
review:
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone not interested in the early development of the Romance languages. It's not particularly well structured as a book; the chapters vary from 30 pages to 130, and there are long passages of dry historical or grammatical detail. A reader would also benefit from some familiarity with Latin and a willingness to occasionally look up grammatical terms. This definitely isn't a popular account (though it's accessible with a little effort).

All that said, however, this was an extremely thorough and informative book which taught me a lot.
]]> <![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 58699229 158 Alexander Solzhenitsyn Hadley 4 read-in-translation, russian 3.98 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Alexander Solzhenitsyn
name: Hadley
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/25
date added: 2024/06/01
shelves: read-in-translation, russian
review:
Exactly what it sounds like; both rough and matter-of-fact. One of those rare works which carefully presents characters and a setting, yet lacks any plot.
]]> Dubrovsky 2651456 185 Alexander Pushkin 0828526338 Hadley 0 4.00 1841 Dubrovsky
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Hadley
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1841
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/01
shelves: read-in-translation, to-read, russian
review:

]]>