Eden's Outcasts

Eden's Outcasts by John Matteson

2008 Pulitzer for Biography

Eden's Outcasts is the story of the lives of Louisa May Alcott and her father Bronson Alcott. Bronson was a teacher and writer. He was a philosopher and abolitionist. He tried to run schools and utopias. But he wasn't very good at supporting his family. Of course, after Louisa started writing things got better for the family. But Louisa had no choice in becoming an intellectual. Bronson ran with the likes of Hawthorne, Emerson and Thoreau.

Eden's Outcasts was a good book. I learned a lot about someone whose books I've always loved. And I learned about a fascinating man I'd never heard of. One who deserves to be remembered.

Booking through Thursday-Best Reads

Booking Through Thursday-Recent Best

I have to say it's The Stories of John Cheever. I haven't read many short stories and the wonderful tales in the book have opened up a whole new genre for me.

The Short Stories of John Cheever

The Stories of John Cheever

1979 Pulitzer

This was my first foray into short stories (except for Stephen King) and I loved them. There are 61 stories in the order he wrote them. The earliest are set around WWI and the later stories are in the 70's. It was interesting to watch the changes in society as they occurred.

Most of the stories are filled with sadness and disappointment. Some are full of anger, crime, adultery, and all kinds of dubious behavior. Others deal with the randomness of fate.

I've become a fan of short stories with this one book. I'll never overlook the genre again.

Eleanor and Franklin

Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph Lash

1972 Pulitzer for Biography

I read this with Pulitzer_literature on Yahoo. Or tried to. Only a couple of us went past the point of pain and no one was able to finish it. Joseph Lash was a friend of Eleanor's. He was a reporter she met through a youth organization. So the book is 90% hero worship of Eleanor. And since it was written by a reporter it reads like a newspaper article...a looong article. It's full of names, dates and places but there isn't much personality.

About halfway through the book I skipped about a chapter and a half by accident and didn't even know it. So about 3/4's of the way in I realized it when someone asked Eleanor about Franklin's polio. I didn't know he had it yet. I'd read a quarter of the book and Lash mentioned crutches once but I thought he was talking figuratively.
You'd assume polio would have a greater influence on their lives than Lash indicated.

This book was a waste of time.

Strangers

Strangers by Dean Koontz

All over the country are suffering from fear. Bone-chilling terror strikes them. And they don't know where the fear came from. Some of them suffer in their dreams, some while awake. Some are triggered by harmless objects, and some become obsessed with the moon. But slowly, hidden memories are beginning to leak through and lead them all to the Arizona desert. But finding the truth doesn't bring peace.

Sci fi disguised with suspense. Really cool. It's a big book, but the suspense keeps the pages turning.

Born to be Wild

Born to be Wild by Catherine Coulter

Born to be Wild is a very lightweight mystery. Mary Lisa Beverly is a soap opera star who someone is trying to kill. She is almost run over by a car and goes to her Oregon hometown. With no interesting men in L.A. she is pleased to find two at home. The town's D.A. and Chief of Police both get involved in the L.A. crime while they are also investigating a local murder.

Mary Lisa also has drama with her family. And scenes from her soap opera are played out. All-in-all, this story is all over the place. Nice time-killer, but no deduction skills are needed.

Cloudsplitter

Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks

"Cloudsplitter" is the story of abolitionist John Brown as told from his son Owen's point of view. Owen is writing a letter to a reporter who had tried to interview him about his father. Feeling remorse for being rude, Owen decides to cooperate with a written statement. He follows his life with John Brown through childhood through the raid on Harper's Ferry.

The book is very long-winded. Owen repeatedly spends pages writing about his fathers philosophy and influence on other people. He comes across as a little awestruck by John.

Banks straight-out tells you it's a work of fiction. He changes facts, adds events and changes the sequence of events to fit his literary needs. Personally, I felt there was too much fiction. I think you should be able to learn a little something with books. But with "Cloudsplitter" you need to read the book with an encyclopedia nearby to separate fact from fiction. I've read too many fictionalized stories to think you have to rewrite someones life so completely. Either use the life as a basis for a fictional book or write a fictitious original character. Don't try to mix the two.