Loretta Mason Potts

I got this because I was curious about Mary Chase, the author of the wonderful "Harvey."  It's ok but it could have been better.  Loretta's brother Colin finds out that he has an older sister he never knew about.  She moves in and she's spunky.  I wanted to find out more about her.  I wanted there to be adventures with Colin and Loretta.  Instead, it brought in a fantasy world that I didn't really care about.  I liked the first part of the book so much more.

The Yellow Sofa

A husband comes home and finds his wife in the arms of a colleague.  The protagonist does contemplate fighting a duel.  After all, he is angry.  Gradually though he forgives them.  This novella is the second work that I've read from the Portuguese writer.  The first was The Crime of Father Amaro.  That was more original and I rated it higher on Goodreads. Yet this piece has less of an agenda.  Also, this doesn't have the after taste of The Crime of Father Amaro.

The Liars' Asylum

I'm so busy reading short stories from the 1950's and 1960's I rarely look at what is written nowadays.  I picked this up and am glad I did.  The first story "Bait and Switch" was the best.  It's about an aunt who wants her niece to help her pick up a man.  The girl gets a job helping the guy adding details to plants.  It's kind of strange.  I liked the last story "The Liar's Asylum" mainly because it didn't end in the usual predictable manner or even a twist ending. I'm going to read another book by Appel soon.  I thought it was an interesting book, kind of eccentric.  

Life is a Dream

This is an interesting piece from Spain's Golden Age of Drama.  It's about Segismundo who has been imprisoned his whole life.  The king decides to give him a chance.  He releases him.  Only his son turns out to be the tyrant that was foreseen.  Thus they try to convince him that everything he just saw was imagined.  The play makes you think of the difference between dream and reality and how thin that can get. The theatre class I took at BYU Idaho is ending.  However, I liked reading plays.  During the class, I took notes on what other plays I should read.  I now have an extensive list that will take me a while. 

The Golden Compass

I was raised in an active Mormon household.  I have to admit that when I first heard about the book as an atheist Narnia I wasn't thrilled.  I watched the movie and that didn't help.  It was so bad. However, the HBO show "His Dark Materials" looks interesting and people say it does the books justice.  I've seen ads across the internet.  So I decided to investigate it.  Is it going to change me going to church?  Do I think it as highly as Entertainment Weekly who put it on the best book list of all time? The answer to both is no.   Despite this, I think it's well written and it maintained my interest throughout. The plot is about a girl named Lyra who finds out that her world is being destroyed by gobblers who steal children away. In her world, people have a daemon a lifelong animal who stays with them. Something called dust stops the daemon from changing their animal appearance as the children grow up. I'm going to try the sequel.