Blood Wedding

I first read this Spanish play when I was 12. Yes I was a cute precocious kid. It's still good. A bride runs away during the wedding with her ex-lover, the man she really loves who is an enemy of the family. From there violence and death ensued when the bridegroom catches up with the lovers. I need to watch the Carlos Saura version as this would be a good artistic movie. I'm looking forward to reading more from Lorca.

Banshees, werewolves, vampires and other creatures of the night

Ventura's book on vampires and werewolves was better than the one on mermaids. She improved. The stories inside were better for example acclaimed writers like Bram Stoker and William Butler Yeats. It was fun reading the tidbits she provided. This one was a bit eerie but then I am a wuss. I was hoping for more on other werecreatures than werewolves. The back made me think there would be more discussed.

The Witch of Edmonton

This was an ok play written by three playwrights together William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford. It's about a witch, one who sells her soul. There's also other stories going on about like one about a bigamist who murders the wife he didn't care for, who was forced into the marriage by his father. This play was just acceptable. It wasn't a play that made me think I've discovered a lost artificat. Thomas Dekker and John Ford did better work.

The Wizard of Oz

After watching Wicked I decided to go back to the original source. As cute as Wicked is it doesn't hold a candle to The Wizard of Oz. I think it ranks right up there with Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan in imagination and originality. There is something so magical about Dorothy and the three pals and their journey. Plus the phony Oz is hilarious. L. Frank Baum was a genius.

Among the mermaids

This was just an ok book on mermaids. It includes some old tales about mermaids although including Alester Crowley is questionable. The best part is where she goes into random facts about mermaids. I wished the book had contained more of this. But where the book sunk were the recent encounters of people who said they were mermaids, that and the promotion of mermaid merchandise on the internet. Still it got me interested and I'm going to put more interlibrary loans on mermaid books.

The Twin in the Tavern

This was another cute children's book by Barbara Brooks Wallace. It's about an orphan. (Wallace likes to write about them.) He works for two scummy villains and finds a boy need Beetle who works for them. The two of them barely live off the scraps of the place. Taddy remembers something he heard about him having a twin. But not everything is as it seems. The ending was wrapped up nicely. I read Wallace's Cousins in the Castle, which had an ending which wrapped up nicely too. Except this time there's a nice twist about the twin part of the story I wasn't expecting. There's a lot of chemistry between the characters Beetle and Taddy.

A Woman Killed with Kindness

This was a play written in the 1600's about a man's friend who has an affair with his wife. The husband sends her away to live in isolation where she stops eating as a way to redeem herself from the sin. Guilt is the way that the wife is killed with kindness. In its own way it's a horrific death. There is a subplot of a brother selling his sister for a night to wipe away his gambling debts. Yes there were better plays written around this time but it was ok.

Cousins in the castle

This was a cute children's book that had an ending but wrapped up everything nicely. Amelia goes from being rich to roaming the streets. She becomes an orphan and she comes across a bunch of unsavory adults. The only person who seems decent is the kid Primrose. The gender roles with that character were interesting. I'm interested in reading the author's The Twin in the Tavern and am happy my library has some of her books.

The Black Death

I learned a lot from this short history book about the black death. At the time people thought it was the smell which caused it so they started a trash system. This took care of some of the smell belief anyway. This book makes clear that if anything the black death made people take care of themselves more not only the trash system but with the pasteurization of milk and other advancements. This book was pretty informative and a quick read.

Lucy Runs Away

Catherine Storr's sequel to Lucy would not be published today as it encourages kids to run away. But then this was written in the 1960s. It's innocent though. Not only does Lucy have adventures but she also saves two lives. In the original Lucy wanted to be a boy and this book addresses her as he many times which I thought was interesting. It's cute but not one of Storr's best.

Rufus

This was an ok Catherine Storr book about a boy who is able to go to another time because of a knife. His sister and him are orphans except she gets chosen to belong in a home. He stucks in a school where a bully starts making him do things against his personality like stealing. Eventually he conquers his fear of the bully and is a better person in the end. I like the representation the book had on the power bullies have over people and I couldn't help but feel sorry for Rufus.

On Tangled Paths

This book by Theodor Fontane was ok but there was something missing. It could have been something great. It's about a couple Lene and Botho. Their love is brief and can't last because of their social status since she is just a poor seamstress. Eventually Botho marries a shallow woman and realizes just how great Lene was but gives her blessing to her new husband Franke. Fontane's book Effi Briest is a more popular classic. I'm curious about it since it's had multiple movie adaptations. I'll have to read that some time.

History and Mythology for Kids

This was an ok mythology book for children separated in three sections Norse, Egyptian, and Greek. There were also a couple of pages about Roman and Celtic mythology. I learned about Egyptian history in sixth grade so it's been a while. This book was a nice refresher. It could have used a few more pictures, preferably in color. It was a little steep in price though $30.

Lucy by Catherine Storr

This was an ok book by Catherine Storr about a girl who wants to be a boy and a detective. Her dream kind of comes true. She catches a couple of thieves and because of it gets accepted by the neighborhood boys. This wasn't essential reading. It was just an ok way to pass an afternoon. Still it was better than Storr's Vicky.

Vicky by Catherine Storr

I consider Catherine Storr to be an underrated children's writer. I read her book The Chinese Egg twice. It was an imaginative adventurous book with likable characters. Then I learned it had a sequel which was very out of print. I tracked it down for a reasonable price. Then I read it and was let down. It was about Vicky finding her biological mother and father. Not much happens in the book. There's no adventure involved in the search either. The characters Stephen and Chris were barely in the book. Then there was a hint of an inappropriate romance that pretty much destroyed the book for me. I suggest you read Marianne Dreams or The Chinese Egg again instead.

No Clock in the Forest

I decided to give this out of print fantasy book a chance. It's a Christian book influenced by Narnia. There's nothing wrong with being influenced as long as you try to bring something of yourself to the table. It wasn't my thing.

The Chinese Egg

Catherine Storr was a children's writer most known for her awesome Marianne Dreams which was later made into the movie Paperhouse. Marianne Dreams was by far her masterpiece but I liked The Chinese Egg as well. This is more young adult though. It's about a boy who finds an egg in an antique like place. Only he ends up breaking it but by doing so he unleashes its magic. It gives him and another local girl Vicky supernatural powers. I like the dynamic between Stephen and the sister Chris and Vicky. Chris is the beautiful one and the one he is drawn to at first but by the end of the book he is falling for Vicky. Through Vicky and his foresight they are able to see into events concerning the kidnapping of a baby. The kidnapper is an abusive man and I couldn't help but feel for Maurren, the dumb overweight girl who is there to take care of the baby and along for the ride. She hates living wtih him but doesn't have the guts or the brains to leave the situation. I like how the police force is handled, their skepticism of the situation but in the end how they decide to take a chance on the teenagers. I didn't expect the ending. Overall it was a good read.

The Knight from Olmedo

This was a play from the Spanish 1600's playwright Lope de Vega. Like his play Fuenteovejuna this was loosely based on a real life story. It's a typical love story about a man in love with a woman engaged to another. But then it takes a more interesting turn he starts to get premonitions of his murder. We think it is going to be the bull fight coming up but really it's the jealous fiance of the girl he is loved with. He wants revenge. This was a pretty cool play. Why haven't I heard of this playwright?

Jakob von Gunten

I tried reading this in my 20's and lost interest. I'm in my 40's and now finally did. It's always been a book I've been meaning to read. It's weird how time can change things. It's dreamlike. This boy joins a school for servants. The writer himself joined a school for servants and was a butler once. The headmaster falls for him. Actually I need to read a biography of Robert Walser because he spent some of his life in mental institutions. He sounds like an interesting guy. I thought the writing was unique and wonder if he continued this atmopshere in his other writings. The Brothers Quay did a movie of this except it's called Institute Benjamenta.

Poor Deer

For some reason I got this from the library thinking this was a children's book which it definitely is not. It's disturbing, grim, but it was well written. It's about a young girl whose friend dies in a cooler when she is four. The relationship with her mother worsens as her mother more or less blames the girl Margaret for it. (The mother's love interest turned on her with the death of the young girl. That is just one of the many reasons.) The real problem is Margaret trying to rationalze it. She does this with a mythical creature a poor deer that talks to her who is more or less a bully. This carries into her teenaged years when she steals a car and goes on a journey to try to make sense of it all. What the author really got down was the rationalizing the girl has with religion, trying to make sense of it all. I've done it myself with some of the trauma of my life. It's not a light story but it was worth a read.

Awake and Sing

This was a pretty good play from Odets from the 1930's about a dysfunctional Jewish family during the depression. It shows the clash between idealism and realism in a family as one of the characters Hennie becomes pregnant and how she should consider her life from then on. The family is quite controlling when it comes to Hennie's position. The part of the play that I thought was the most interesting was Moe. He's a cripple is just enamored with Hennie. But really he comes across as a jerk and is afraid to show his real emotions. Out of the Odets plays I've read I've liked Golden Boy the most as I think it would be the best to translate to screen. I need to see the movie.

Golden Boy

This was a pretty good play by Clifford Odets. I would have loved to seen it in person as Frances Farmer played Lorna. An Italian American boy named Joe becomes a star boxer. He falls for his manager's girl who is just the other woman. Although the manager makes way for Lorna to be his wife she falls for Joe. Joe resents Lorna's commitment to the manager Moody. Then tragedy strikes in the ring. The ending was not what I expected but it also wasn't some trick surprise ending. So far this is my favorite play from Odets. It was made into a movie with Barbara Stanwyck who also would have been a good choice. I need to watch it.

Waiting for Lefty

This was a play inspired by a labor strike that had happened in 1934 among cab drivers. There are also stories of discrimination tied within the play like a Jewish doctor who is not allowed to operate on a patient who dies as a result. This play takes place during the Great Depression so desperation is at its highest. I know I said when I read The Country Girl that I thought Odets had done better. I still feel this way, that Odets wrote something better than both plays and I've yet to read it. Something about this play felt dated. I just thought it was ok.

Heartbreak House

This was an ok George Bernard Shaw about the upper class during World War I and the disguises they use.The plot involves Ellie Dunn and her love triangle with a married man and a man who it turns out isn't as rich as he pretends to be. The plot also concerns a burglar. It was more eccentric than the other Shaw plays I have read but I liked it better than Man and Superman because it didn't have an unnecessary act that came out of nowhere. I doubt I'll read it again. I would have liked to see Orson Welles as Captain Shotover. He was in a production in this play in in the 1930s.

The Country Girl

A director tries to revile the career of a drunken actor. He believes all of his problems lie with his wife, only he falls in love with the woman herself. She's pretty much the glue that holds the actor together. At the end she has to make a decision between what man to stay with. I need to watch the movie. I can see both Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly really digging into the roles. This is my first introduction to playwright Clifford Odets. It was good but I have a feeling that he's written better.

The Good Apprentice

This was one of Murdoch's later novels. I liked Under the Net and especially The Bell more. However, this was good. It deals with a young man who gives his friend a drug as a joke which results in the boy's death. He goes in search for the father he never knew. His father is a somewhat famous artist and Edward becomes friends with his sisters who are a bohemian bunch. Edward's stepbrother Stuart is looking for a deeper meaning in life. In a subplot a woman Midge falls for Stuart. This is despite the fact she is already involved with another man and her husband. It was over five hundred pages so it took me a while to read. The Kate Winslet movie Iris was a real disappointment. Someone needs to give the writer more justice. I would like a documentary.

Prizes

Janet Frame was a writer with an interesting life. She spent some of her life in mental institutions. Her writing saved her life because it got her out of a lobotomy. This is a collection of her short stories. The beginning short stories are good but the stories I like the best are the ones that make up The Reservoir . I have aspirations for writing so to me "The Triumph of Poetry" was a horror story. I don't know if I liked it. I liked "The Teacup", the story of a girl fondling over a man that her roommate is really dating. Some of the stories deal with madness such as in "How can I get in touch with Persia?" when a man can't accept his mother's death. The later stories are more depressing as we find Janet Frame thinking about death which only makes sense since she was getting older. There's a sense of humor here especially "A Relative of the Famous". I thought Wilfred was funny. I recommend this although I heard that Janet Frame's short stories weren't what she was best at.

An Inspector Calls

This was an entertaining 40's supernatural play. It deals with an inspector who reveals to a family just how awful they were to a woman until she reached the point of suicide. The father cut off her employment, the mother refused her aide in her charity, the brother knocked her up. Or was it really an inspector from the police department? It went by pretty fast. I was disappointed to see that youtube didn't have the original old movie. That would have been fun to watch. It looks like there has been multiple versions done of this play on film though.

Two sisters and a piano

This play was pretty good. I read a play by Nilo Cruz last week and decided to read another one. It's even better. This is about two sisters on house arrest during tough political times in Cuba. The lieutenant overseeing them falls for the writer Maria. He's been reading the love letters she's been writing her husband during the arrest. The lieutenant is pretty unlikable. The other sister loves to play piano and there's a subplot about a piano tuner. I need to read the play Cruz read the Pulitzer prize for.

Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams

This was an ok play written by a Pulitzer prize winning author. It deals with a brother and sister Luca and Luciana who got separated from childhood. There's also a subplot about Luciana's friend Hortensia and her troubles with her museum of dreams where she collects miracles. The incest I felt was more for shock value. I would have liked this play more without it although the play did have a poetic beauty to it. 3/5

Man and Superman

This is the third play I've read by George Bernard Shaw and my least favorite. It was interesting but it felt like more of an experiment. It's about a woman Ann whose father's will leaves her in care of two men. One of them is a young man with daring ideas. Ann ends up dumping the guy who has pursued her for this man. This play is based on Nietzsche ideas and has the Don Juan theme. The third act also called Don Juan in Hell is sometimes cut from productions. It drifts from the plot. It's about Don Juan and the devil and while intriguing it feels like a separate play on its own. There's a subplot about a rich woman Violet marrying a poor man and keeping it a secret that I liked as well.

Six Characters in search of an author

This play shows that a good translation can make all the difference. I put this 1920's Italian play on interlibrary loan and received a wretched translation job that included modern pop cultural references. I didn't like the play at all but then I realized it was probably just the translation. I wasn't giving it a fair chance. So I bought the translation job done by Eric Bentley on Amazon and he did a good job. It's an unique play, kind of avant=garde. It received mixed reviews at first but went on to become a classic. It's about six characters, a family who want their life stories to be done by the cast at the theatre. Gradually family secrets come out as the play enfolds resulting in tragedy. The playwright Luigi Pirandello later won the Nobel Prize.

Spring Awakening

Man this play was controversial. It wasn't performed for years after it was written in the late 1800's. It concerns teenagers and involves abortion, suicide, and rape. I thought it was good but it was not an easy read. If anything this play really promotes the need for sexual education. Some of the characters are hurt by their ignorance. For example the girl doesn't understand why she became pregnant. I really read this because the writer's Lulu plays inspired Pandora's Box, one of the all time great silent movies. This was later made into a musical but to be honest I've had enough.

Mrs. Dalloway

This is my first introduction to Virginia Woolf. It was ok but it was hard to follow. It was inspired by James Joyce's Ulysses by its stream of consciousness. It took me a while to figure out just what was going on. It's about a middle aged woman thinking of her past loves and homosexuality. It also concerns a suicidal veteran suffering from trauma. I'll eventually read another book by Woolf but so far I think the legend is more interesting than the works.

Fuente Ovejuna

I've never heard of the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega. I read this play from the 1600's completely on a whim and I liked it. It's supposedly based on a true story. It's about a town Fuente Ovejuna where there's a vile commandeer. The town rebels and kills him each taking an oath with each other that the town committed the murder and not just an individual. This is even when they get tortured. They stick by it each other. It was interesting. I will read other plays by this author. There are so many classic plays from the past that I have yet to read.

The Gammage Cup

This was a good children's book that became a Newberry medal book. The plot concerns a group of people called the Minnipins. Despite being kicked out of their land everuone unites to fight off the bad guys the Mushrooms. The book deals with themes like conformity. There was a lawsuit later on against Harry Potter and another author over the name Muggles. But this book preceded them all with that name. The author of this book Carol Kendall didn't care that they stole Muggles which I think it is funny. It was probably just a coincidence anyway. Carol Kendall didn't write that many books for children which I thought was disappointing. I'll interlibrary the sequel sometime. It was a cute book and it was imaginative.

Murphy

I didn't care for the play Happy Days but I decided not to give up on Samuel Beckett. I decided to look into his prose. I enjoyed this early cynical work of his. At the time it barely made any sales. It's about a man who spends his days naked in his rocking chair who works at a mental hospital. There is a patient he plays chess with at the hospital. Murphy also has a love interest with a prostitute. Samuel Beckett wasn't one to write conventional fare, always experimenting. The good thing is that this is a short work so if you don't like it then not much is lost. It's worth at least trying.

Writers

This was an ok book on short biographies of writers. There's the usual like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Virginia Woolf. There were some I didn't know though like Hwang Sok-yong. I was annoyed that Jean Paul-Sartre was mentioned not to say he's not a good writer but DK already mentioned him in their philosopher book, give another person their due. It seemed like the end of the book was mostly dedicated to Nobel Prize winning authors. I wish they got more clever. It was weird seeing major writers like Sylvia Plath and J.D. Salinger just being given a paragraph. Still I liked it. It was a quick read. Don't buy the Kindle version. There's problems with it. It's a ripoff.

Come back Little Sheba

This was William Inge's first play. It was much better than his later play A Loss of Roses. It's about a chiropractor who used to be an alcoholic. He wishes that he had made more of his life. They have a female college boarder. She represents the child his wife and him couldn't have. He has unrealistic expectations of this girl which is one of the reasons he goes off the wagon. He is one mean drunk and kind of psychotic. Little Sheba refers to their dog that ran away. I need to watch the movie again. I imagine that Burt Lancaster did a good job but Shirley Booth was the one who won all of the awards, the Tony and the Oscar. 3/4

The Language Archive

 

I liked this play. It wasn't pretentious and it gets its message through clearly. A man who works in languages knows little about human relationships. His own marriage is falling apart from a wife who suddenly has a need for independence. His lab assistant has a crush on him but is afraid to tell him about it. What I liked most about this play was the plot containing unrequited love because I've had a few. The play takes a different direction on that. I was glad about it because Hollywood's treatment of it is always boring and trite.  

The House on Parchment Street

 

I love giving chances on out-of-print children's books. This one is by Patricia McKillip who later became a fantasy writer. Apparently from the reviews I've read she got a billion times better later on, so I'll have to give her fantasy work a chance. This didn't change my life, but it was ok. It concerns a girl who moves to England to live with family. She and two boys there meet a ghost in the cellar and solve the mystery of the house. I put this on interlibrary loan which is usually the way to go with out-of-print children's books. Sure, you may get denied from time to time but it's better than taking a chance on a book that is worth more than $50. 

No Exit

 

This play was better when I read it when I was 11. This is where the quotation "Hell is other people" comes from. I felt that way when I was being bullied in elementary school, so it was more prominent then. It's still a good play though, three people are trapped in hell together and being with each other is their punishment. One is a tough guy who is really a coward, and one of the women killed a child. This one act play is riveting and depressing as they come. I've started reading another play of his The Flies this week.

A Loss of Roses

 

This was a disappointing William Inge play. It's not a classic like Picnic not even as good as The Dark at the Top of the Stairs although there were some things about it that I liked. It's about a gas station attendant still living with his mother during the depression. He is too close to his mother and it's not surprising that he starts a relationship with his mother's friend Lila who is rooming with them. Lila has dreams that he'll be the hero who will save her in the end. Things don't quite work out that way. I liked Lila's vulnerability. Warren Beatty was cast as the son and that really is perfect casting. It's too bad I couldn't have seen that production. He would have done a good job. 

Volpone

 

Ben Jonson was one of William Shakespeare's rivals at the time. Although this play is good there is just something about Shakespeare that is untimely. But then he just wasn't the best playwright of his time period, he is arguably the finest playwright in general. I guess it's an unfair comparison. In Volpone there is no likable character. It's about a rich man Volpone who sets out to dupe three men into thinking that they will be his heirs through deceitful means. Only he is cheated in the end by his servant Mosca who has been helping him all along. This would have made an awesome silent movie with someone like Conrad Veidt in the lead. It's a shame that no one envisioned this. 

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

 

I loved William Inge's Picnic. I read it a few times when I was 11 and 12. I was thinking about that and decided to read another play from Inge. This one deals with the marriage of a salesman and his wife. After the salesman leaves after a fight, she is left with the possibility that it might have been for good. This leads to the wife begging her sister to let her family move in with them. In the family also their teenaged daughter has a tragedy happen with a friend and the lonely son is preoccupied with movies. It's too bad that the movie of this isn't available on amazon or YouTube. It didn't blow my mind like Picnic but this was a good play. I just interlibrary loaned a lesser-known William Inge play. We shall see if it is also good. 

Washington Square

 

This was a pretty good Henry James novel. I like the ending but the movie The Heiress gave it more of a dramatic justice. The book concerns a plain woman named Catherine and a charming handsome man who goes after her solely for the inheritance. But her father sees right through the man and warns that he was leave his daughter with nothing should they marry. All the characters have major flaws. The girl is too naive, the father is too much of a bully, but the most annoying character of all is the aunt who keeps correspondence with the dashing man and meddles in everyone's affairs. For me the most brutal thing in the book is when the daughter realizes her father doesn't even like her. It's heartbreaking. He just sees her as an inferior version of his late wife, no intelligence or beauty. This isn't an enjoyable read but it does live up to its reputation as a classic. 

Poor Things

 

I read this over fifteen years ago and with the movie out I decided to revisit it. The book was pretty fun. It's about Bella, a woman who has been revived from death. It concerns unreliable narrators. What Bella says later in the book doesn't coincide with what the first narrator said. One of the faults with the first narrator is that he's in love with her and frankly is jealous of the man who gets her. There's a definite sense of humor in the book especially with the book she later writes. I can see this on the screen and imagine it would be a visual treat. The plot may be borrowing off Frankenstein but it's really unique on its own. 

The Ghost in the Swing

 

I saw this on someone's forgotten children's book list, so I put it on ILL. It's from the 1970's and it had a charming quality about it. It concerns a girl who helps a ghost solve the story of her own murder. Nothing really surprised me, but it was fun to flip with through.  The writer only wrote one other book which I think is a shame. I think she had potential. 

Wide Sargasso Sea

 

A relative of mine was going on about how this book is none other than fan fiction. It was really unfair. I've never read fan fiction that was a classic in its own right. The reason why this pre-Jane Eyre works so well is that the author made it personal. The first half deals with her life of growing up poor and white in Jamaica which is talking about Jean Rhys background. Then we get the other parts of the book where the crazy wife in the attic meets Mr. Rochester. At first it is passionate, but he turns icy once he learns about her family mental illnesses. Then she starts to derail. The movie was NC-17. I can see how you could do that but it's really unimaginative and does shame to the book turning it into complete smut. The cool thing about this book is that Jean Rhys wrote her masterpiece when she was elderly. Most people only care about what you have to say when you are young, so I'm glad this book refutes that. I reviewed a biography of Jean Rhys earlier and she was an interesting lady.