“The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Associated Content” plus 2 more |
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Associated Content
- Book Shelf Recommendations: 10 Worthwhile "Off the Map ... - Associated Content
- Book reviews: Young baseball fans will enjoy books - Deseret News
| The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Associated Content Posted: 04 Apr 2010 09:15 AM PDT A young woman, Skeeter, returns home to Jackson Mississippi from Ole Miss in 1960 to find that the black woman who raised her, her family's maid, Constentine, was no longer with her family. Her Mother will not explain, just that she is gone to Chicago to be with her daughter, a daughter Skeeter never knew she had. Skeeter goes about her life, attending bridge parties and Junior League meetings with her friends from college, most of whom have married and have children of their own. Skeeter begins to notice how her friends are treating their house help, the black women who are raising their children for them. She listens with disgust as they discuss building separate bathrooms in their garages for the black help, discuss trying to make it a law, for "health reasons." She wonders about Constantine. Skeeter wants to be a writer. A senior editor at Harper in New York becomes her gruff and nearly silent mentor, telling her to find a job writing, then telling her to come up with original idea. As Rosa Parks decided she didn't want to sit in the back of the bus, as the South became the focus of Civil Rights, Skeeter began to talk with the women who worked for her friends. She sent an idea to New York, to interview twelve maids about their lives. With only a thread of encouragement, Skeeter joined forces with two maids and, with more than a little assistance from them, began to write their stories. Then more stories, then more. And then the consequences of the telling. A well-done tale of class distinction and prejudice and of love and devotion that transcends racial and social boundaries. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Book Shelf Recommendations: 10 Worthwhile "Off the Map ... - Associated Content Posted: 04 Apr 2010 09:15 AM PDT At times I feel that there are only two types of book recommendations: the classics list and book reviews. Books that make the "classics" list are automatically recommended by virtue of being "classics". These are books like Heart of Darkness and War and Peace. Then we have book review recommendations. The New York Times and the LA Times and Harper's and many other publications participate in the marketing of new novels every week and every month. This is how I came across Laurie Moore, the brilliant writer who recently published A Gate at the Stairs. Finding her work has been rather enlightening. But I also was pointed to Cavalier & Clay (M. Chabon) through a book review, to my mild (500-pages-of-wasted-time) chagrin. Recommendations from these two sources are often fruitful, but they are limited. Book reviews are almost always focused on newly released publications while the classics are focused on books that have stood the test of time - old books, in other words. Though these are the main voices of recommendation, there are myriad ways to stumble onto books. You can blindly buy books or check them out from the library. You can pick up books at your local thrift store and give them a chance. However, one of my favorite ways to learn about new books is to look at a friend's bookshelf. In hopes of helping widen the purview of readers across the country, here are ten books on my bookshelf that are too old for book reviews and that are not (yet) on the classics list: The Deer Park - Norman Mailer Another Country - James Baldwin The Flood - Robert Penn Warren Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller Everything That Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Connor The Road to Los Angeles - John Fante A Death in the Family - James Agee A View from the Bridge - Arthur Miller Waiting for the Barbarians - J.M. Coetzee The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Book reviews: Young baseball fans will enjoy books - Deseret News Posted: 03 Apr 2010 04:47 PM PDT It's that time of year. The snow is melting — hopefully — and the grass is greening up. And to the great relief of millions of Americans, baseball season is about to begin. In celebration of the season's opening, a number of new books for young readers, including one by perennial favorite Mike Lupica, have hit bookstores. "THE BATBOY," by Mike Lupica, Philomel, $17.99 (ages 9-12) It's the mark of a good writer when he can make a subject that doesn't appeal to everyone interesting. Such is the case with Mike Lupica's latest book for children, "The Batboy." For many, baseball is the quintessential American sport. For others, it's a trip through tedium. But Lupica's book is anything but tedious. Here, he has made baseball exciting for even the most apathetic of sports fans. Brian Dudley eats, sleeps, talks and does just about everything else baseball. His dad used to be a pitcher in the majors, and now Brian has the chance to see the game from the inside, working as a batboy for the Detroit Tigers. The job is everything he's ever dreamed of. He has a front-row seat for the best team and game in the world. But beyond that, Brian thinks it can bring him and his dad closer. After all, his dad left his family for his career, and this may be the thing that brings them back together. When Brian's hero, Hank Bishop, returns to the Tigers, Brian knows the summer is going to be perfect. At least that's what he thinks until meeting Hank, who it turns out isn't so different than his dad. There's a heart to "The Batboy" that one would not immediately expect for a sports book. Here, Lupica has captured the excitement that many experienced as children playing the game themselves. Lupica has also managed to make baseball accessible to even those who know nothing about the sport. And while "The Batboy" is about sports, it's also about family, work ethic and learning one's own value. More baseball books young readers may enjoy: Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Book-Reviews - Bing News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment