Peppermints in the Parlor

This is another Wallace book about an orphan but she does such a good job at it. Emily comes to live at a mansion only it doesn't have the memory she once had of it. She becomes a servant at what is now an old folks home. She and a boy Kipper begin to form friendships with the old folks and yes there is a subplot about peppermints. This wasn't my favorite Wallace book but it was all right. People compare it to A Little Princess a lot on the internet but come on so many books are.

Maurice

I watched the movie when I was a teenager. I also read A Passage to India when I was 14 but it's been a long time since I've read Forster. It's always been something I've been meaning to do. Maurice is crushed when his lover decides to go straight. Eventually Maurice finds happiness in a person of a lower station. E.M. Forster didn't get this book published when he was living. It would have destroyed him but it's one of best homosexual love stories I've read. You can tell that this all probably happened to Forster. The feeling involved hardly seems like fiction. The movie did a good job adapting the book.

Girlfriends, Ghosts, and other Stories

This is a collection of 2-3 page short stories from Robert Walser. They're more of a writing exercise not much happens. When I first attempted Jakob Von Gunten in my twenties I didn't finish it. I didn't care for the book. I tried it in my forties and I liked it. Things change. His dreamy writing style embracing monotony is interesting. I have to give it to New York Review Books for releasing his books. What I really would like to do is read a book about his life.

The Chrysalids

This book about mutants kind of reminded me of the Netflix show I just watched Sweet Tooth. (Sweet Tooth was more sentimental though.) This is a book about a group of mutants who eventually have to run from their community. Nothing stops the hatred of them. Even their own blood turns against them. The book begins with a boy seeing a girl with six toes and then he gradually realizes he has a mutation too except it is one in his mind. His father is a psychotic religious figure and terrorizes even family that breed mutants. Soon he and his friends have to run from the place where they live into the fringes. I felt the book dragged when they went to the fringes. It's a good book but not as good as Wyndham's other books like The Day of the Triffids and especially my favorite Chocky. Wyndham and Theodore Sturgeon are my favorite science fiction writers from the 1950s.

The Book of Mysteries, Magic, and the Unexplained

This was a fun juvenile book with great illustrations. It simply goes over aliens, witchcraft, fairies, Bigfoot, and other unexplained phenomena. It's basically just an introduction to the world of the weird for kids. Still there were somethings I didn't know about and it was a quixk page turner.

Mermaids by Skye Alexander

This was an ok book with some information about mermaids. It was better than the Among the Mermaids book I read earlier. It discusses how mermaids have gone from from the image of being terrifying sirens to sex symbols. I'm still looking for a mermaid book though that isn't new agey.

Dealer's Choice

This is Patrick Marber's first play. He is most known for Closer. It was ok. It deals with Carl, a compulsive gambler who has a debt to play. So he lets Ash, a professional gambler into his father's poker night. The tension is high as a group of men already want to deal physically with Carl. Ultimately this play is about family. I didn't like the use of coarse language involved but then the word of poker is not a friendly one. It was ok for a debut and showed promise.

After Miss Julie

I read Miss Julie last week and was looking forward to a modern adaptation but this was a let down. Marber is most known for Closer. This was a cruder adaptation of Miss Julie except it takes places in the 1940s. There were less options for women in the 1800's so Julie was far more trapped and this wasn't taken into consideration. I also read Marber's Dealer's Choice which I thought was ok. I'll review that next week. I think he has talent but not here.

Miss Julie

I haven't read this play since I was a child. I was more impressed this time around. Maybe because I understand the social structures of society better. It's about a wealthy woman who has a brief relationship with a servant in her household. He is bethrothed to the cook of the household. Although the two discuss plans to be with each other it becomes clear that it could never really happen. The play explores themes of the social structures of society and feminism. Miss Julie comes across as desperate and a coward at times. The characters aren't one note. It's a short play that packs a lot of punch. I remember liking the 1950's movie of this as a kid as well and I need to revisit it.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

This was a pretty cool science fiction book that received mixed reviews in its time and has gone on to become a classic. It's post-apocalyptic but this was before it became a cliche since this was written in 1959. The four stories are concerned with the writings of a saint named Leibowitz. They're all very different stories though. I have to say the last part Fiat Voluntas Tua was a page turner for me. It was about a nuclear fallout and the fight between a doctor and a priest for the destruction it caused. It was very against euthanasia, a controversial topic. I think it made its argument well. The author didn't write much after this becoming a recluse which I think makes this book even more fascinating. This isn't your standard bestseller. This is one that actually has thought to it.

House of Bernarda Alba

I wonder if Thomas Cullinan, the writer of The Beguiled, read this play. I actually liked it just as much as Lorca's Blood Wedding. It concerns a controlling widow whose husband has just died and her household of repressed spinster daughters. Eventually a few of them go crazy about a guy in town and it eventually leads to tragedy. It took me a while to get into it but I found the play entertaining. Lorca was a pretty good playwright whose life was cut short by an assassination. It's terribly tragic since the man was so talented. I need to give his poetry a chance now.

Robinson Jeffers

When my twin sister was in the sixth grade her class was doing a poetry unit. She had a poetry phase for a while. My sister had to memorize a poem and she chose a poem by Robinson Jeffers. His poetry is mostly about nature and how people should stop what they are doing and look at its wondorous nature. My favorite poem here was Roan Stallion about a woman in an abusive marriage and her relationship with a horse.

Yerma

This was an ok play by Federico Garcia Lorca. It means barren. It's about a barren woman whose desperation leads eventually to tragedy. It's her obsession and the only function in society she can think of. She resorts to witchcraft, pretty much anything. It's sad because the ending was nearly a happy one.