Watership Down

I first read this amazing book when it come out in the 1970s, as a teenager. I loved it then and I still love it now. At least once a year for the past three or more years I pick it up and read it again. That's what I'm doing now, reading "Watership Down" again. A fantastic story about the lives of rabbits as a certain number of them leave their warren to find a new home, as one of them, Fiver is his name, has a premonition of "bad things to come." Fiver's brother, Hazel, leads them on a journey to a new home, with a lot of adventures along the way. This story "humanizes" the rabbits, we see them as having fears, and emotions such as we humans have. This is a classic, if you're never read it, you'll be hooked by this fantastic story.

The Devil in the White City

This spring I read a great book called "The Devil in the White City" and it's an historical book about the building of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, revolving around two main real life persons, Daniel Burnham the architect behind the design of this World's Fair, and H.H. Holmes, probably America's first serial killer, who was doing his bad deeds in southern Chicago at the time leading up to and during the Exposition of 1893. There was no real connection between these two persons, they just happened to each have been doing "big things" in Chicago at the same time. Very fascinating story, and a true one. The book reads like a great novel, but the fact that it's all true is even more compelling.

Pride and Prejudice

Believe it or not, although I was an English major in college, and have read many many classics during that time, and in my personal life, I have never read a Jane Austen novel. Well, that is now changing. I picked up "Pride and Prejudice" along with two other of her novels and am enthralled. Of course I've seen the movie version of a number of her novels, but reading them is so different. The characters are so much more rich and engaging, of course. "Pride and Prejudice" is an excellent love story and an excellent fall out of love story, or will love happen story. The character of Mr. Darcy, for one thing, is much more than what I've seen him portrayed in film versions of this story. Is he basically kind of a jerk or just misunderstood/misrepresented? I'm almost through with this story, and will probably move onto "Sense and Sensibility" next. Stay tuned...