Tag Archives: classics

Mrs. Craddock, by William Somerset Maugham

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Thistle

When Bertha Ley falls in love with a farmer on her family’s land, Edward Craddock, she flies against convention to marry beneath her. Her love is passionate, violent, and irrational, while Edward’s love for her is calm, sensible, and steady. … Continue reading →

Posted in 2011, Adult, Prose | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Stories, by Vladimir Nabokov

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Thistle

Nearly 70 short stories fill this volume, which is supposed to be all of Nabokov’s known short stories. I read most of these over the last few weeks of December, leaving only a handful to finish up in 2011. I’ve … Continue reading →

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Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Thistle

Nineteen year old Flora Poste has just been orphaned. She doesn’t want to work – why work if you can easily live off others? – so she sets out to mooch off her extended family until she decides to marry, … Continue reading →

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Christmas Holiday, by William Somerset Maugham

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Thistle

Charley Mason, part of a fairly well-to-do family in England, goes to Paris for his Christmas holidays to visit an old friend and have a bit of fun. Everything changes, though, when Charley’s friend (Simon, now very changed) introduces him … Continue reading →

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Returning to Haifa, by Ghassan Kanafani

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Thistle

My sister recommended three novellas by Ghassan Kanafani, and so I read all three. This was the last of them. In this story, Said and his wife Safiyya are going back to their home town Haifa twenty years after they … Continue reading →

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Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov (audio)

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Thistle

I first read Lolita about a decade ago. It was my first experience was Vladimir Nabokov, and what made me fall in love with him. I decided to revisit this novel on audio, a second read. Here, I’m going to … Continue reading →

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Men in the Sun, by Ghassan Kanafani

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Thistle

My sister recommended three novellas by Ghassan Kanafani, and so I read all three. Men in the Sun was the second I read. This is the story of three desperate men from Palestine trying to make their way to Kuwait … Continue reading →

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All That’s Left To You, by Ghassan Kanafani

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Thistle

My sister recommended three novellas by Ghassan Kanafani, and so I read all three. This was my sister’s favorite of the three, so I read it first. It follows several different stories, offset by type (bold, italics, normal) to differentiate … Continue reading →

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Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Thistle

“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine.” So goes the first line of Austen’s semi-satire of the old Gothic novel tradition. We follow Catherine as she goes … Continue reading →

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If Not, Winter, by Sappho

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Thistle

If Not, Winter is a collection of all the fragments of poetry that remain from Sappho’s great body of work. Sappho was a singer and songwriter on the island of Lesbos, a woman who explored love with both men and … Continue reading →

Posted in 2010, Adult, Poetry | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment