Category: Classics
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: It’s a time machine
A Tree Grows in BrooklynBy: Betty SmithMy Rating: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARSBest for: 16 and up Time travel is real! What defines a Classic Novel? At what point does a story transcend others and become eternal? It’s not age. It’s not genre. It’s not language, length, or style. Check the internet–I’m not the only…
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A Tale of Two Cities: Come join the club!
A Tale of Two CitiesBy: Charles DickensMy Rating: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARSBest for: 16 and up Come join the club! Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities might have been the hardest book I’ve ever read–and I’ve read a lot of hard books. I don’t mean the content was hard. I mean the words…
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Charlotte’s Web: All We Need is Love
Charlotte’s WebBy: E.B. WhiteMy Rating: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARSBest for: All Ages All we need is love. E.B. White was awarded a Newbery Honor for Charlotte’s Web in 1953. It lost the Newbery Medal to a boring little book called Secret of the Andes, which I’m sure is lovely. But it’s no Charlotte’s Web.…
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A Book Club Guest Review of Summer of the Monkeys
Summer of the MonkeysBy: Wilson RawlsGuest Reviewer Rating: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS10 and up Just as good as when I was 10!Guest Review by Julie Hilton A boy grows up fast one summer with a bunch of monkeys, some hard choices, and great lessons. A classic coming of age story I loved as a…
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#Foundation: Ambitious!
FoundationBy: Isaac AsimovMy Rating: Four out of five starsBest for: Ambitious 14-year-olds and up One word? Ambitious. You don’t really review the classics. You just share your experience. I finished Foundation by Isaac Asimov a couple of days ago, and it’s been rolling around in my head ever since. The word my thoughts keep coalescing…
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#TheAndromedaStrain: Impressive Science, Disappointing Fiction
The Andromeda StrainBy: Michael CrichtonMy Rating: Three out of five starsBest for: 14 and up Classic Crichton, Pointless Crichton I’ve read nearly everything Michael Crichton wrote. I read Jurassic Park in high school (before it was a movie) and many times since. I’ve read Airframe, Eaters of the dead, The Great Train Robbery, The Terminal…
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A Book Club Guest Review of Huckleberry Finn
Huckleberry FinnBy: Mark TwainReviewer Rating: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARSBest for: 10 and up The boy who became a hero by doing what he thought was wrong.Review by: Kirsten Johnston Huck is wise in some of the dangers of life, such as alcoholic parents. He is a smart, smooth lier. But in other ways he…
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#TheCalloftheWild: That’s not a BOOK–that’s a TIME MACHINE!
The Call of the Wild By: Jack London My Rating: FIVE out of FIVE STARS Best for: Advanced 12 and up Have you ever wanted to time travel? Read a classic novel. Jack London’s most famous book is a classic in every way. Buck is the four-legged narrator of this wonderful story. When he’s dog-napped…
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#Dune: So, you’ve never read it either?
Dune By: Frank Herbert My Rating: Three out of Five Stars Best for: 14 and up You know how there are some books you hate to admit you’ve never read? That’s me and Dune. Except now I’ve read it. So take that, irrational, self-imposed guilt and embarrassment! Dune, published in 1965, winner of the Hugo,…
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#TheGreatGatsby: IT’S A TIME MACHINE (Also, don’t go in the pool, Jay!)
The Great Gatsby By: F. Scott Fitzgerald My Rating: FIVE out of FIVE stars Best for: 16 and up Well, that was refreshing. This was another buddy read with my HS Senior’s AP Lit class. So often the classic books they read are more literature as art vs literature as escape. Occasionally those lines cross,…
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#AChristmasCarol: Uncultured no longer
A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens My Rating: FIVE out of FIVE stars Best for: 12 and up My first Dickens won’t by my last. A Christmas Carol is charming, easy to read, and a lot of fun to read as the source material for so much of what “Christmas” has become. And under 100…
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#ThePictureofDorianGray: Creepy isn’t the same as scary…
The Picture of Dorian Gray By: Oscar Wilde My Rating: Four out of Five Stars The Picture of Dorian Gray is a perfectly creepy book to read for Halloween. Not scary, just creepy. I’m not about to critique a classic, so I’ll just say that as a story it dragged in quite a few places,…
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#Ender’sGame: My Paradigm Has Shifted
Ender’s GameBy: Orson Scott CardMy Rating: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARSBest For: 14 and up This isn’t the first time I’ve re-read an old favorite and found something new there. But… This is the first time I’ve re-read an old favorite and found something entirely different. Turns out, Ender isn’t cool science fiction about kids…
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#LordoftheFlies: Tell Piggy to watch out for that rock!
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding Team reading this one with my 12-year-old. He doesn’t love it, and I don’t blame him, really. The language and tendency to use a bunch of words with out saying anything is kind of grating. According to my pre-teen: “This author just says ‘and’ over and…
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Treasure Island
Treasure Island By: Robert Louis Stevenson My Rating: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS Best for: 14 and up I love that my 7th grader was assigned Treasure Island for English Class. In school my English teachers did their very best to kill my love for reading. Grapes of Wrath? Snooze. Thank goodness for Cliffs Notes.…
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#WatershipDown: Bloody Rabbits…
Watership DownBy: Richard AdamsMy Rating: FIVE out of FIVE starsBest for: 16 and up May 2016 Re-read There’s not a story I love more than Watership Down. It’s been a while since my last re read, and this time around I was afraid I would find I’ve been fooling myself all these years…that I would…
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Les Misérables
5/5 stars Les Misérables by Victor Hugo A Triumph As so many have discovered in the 153 years since it was written, Les Miserables is a triumph. I had heard it called the greatest story ever told. I doubted. I was wrong. It’s a story of redemption and love told through Jean Valjean, one of…
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Dracula
3/5 stars Dracula by Bram Stoker Highs and Lows, but Still the Original So it turns out Count Dracula never actually says “I vant to suck your blood!” Huh. He does do everything else, however. Turns into a bat. Sleeps in a coffin during the day. Only has powers at night. Hates garlic and crosses.…
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The Outsiders
4/5 stars The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton Somehow I made it through junior high and high school without ever being asked to read The Outsiders. It’s too bad; I think I would have liked it even more then. It’s a great story….it lives up to the hype. The lessons are simple to grasp, and I…
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The Hobbit
5/5 stars The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien Ahh, The Hobbit! This was actually my second time reading it–the first time I was a young teenager. I usally remember pretty well the details of the books I read, but for some reason with The Hobbit I didn’t remember much at all. Most of my memories of…
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The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) by C.S. Lewis
5 out of 5 Stars It’s a classic for a reason.
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The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte CristoBy: Alexandre DumasMy Rating: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARSBest for: 14 and up Well, I just finished writing the book review to top all book reviews for The Count of Monte Cristo and hit save–but the review disappeared. So for now, here’s my abridged review of The Count . . . EPIC?…
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The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
4 out of 5 stars My first classic. If I read it again today I bet I’d find reason to give it 5 stars. Read it.
One Man Book Club 