Reading The 1000 Books to Read Before I Die

 An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving A Review by James Romano Hey 1,000 Bookies!!   In honor of Thanksgiving today my blog post takes us to New Hampshire and the Louisa May Alcott children’s story, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.   In the 1880s, Louisa May Alcott wrote a series of short stories and publishing them under the title: Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag .   There were six volumes, and An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving is featured in Volume VI.   Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag had no connection to Alcott’s iconic character Jo March from Little Women , Little Men and Jo’s Boys although she seemed to use the popularity of Little Women to promote sales of her short stories. An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving is a cute tale revolving around one family and their preparations for the big day.   Thanksgiving is a holiday where history and legend collide.   As we all know a band of Englishman unhappy with religious persecution boarded a ship and headed to the New World, eventual...

" If the Devil is poverty, and hunger, and grief, then yes, I think they know the Devil.”  Fleetwood Shuttleworth, The Familiars   The Familiars A Review by James Romano Hello 1000 Bookies!  This week we open our portal and arrive in 1612 Lancaster, England.  The book we are reviewing is entitled The Familiars .  Written by Stacey Hall, this story is a historical fiction account of the Pendle Witch Trial, an actual historical event.  This was the October selection of my book club at work.  Book clubs are fantastic, and they expand our boundaries and horizons. Lancaster, England hosted these witch trials August 18 th and 19 th , 1612 where 11 suspected witches were tried.  10 were found guilty and hung, one of the group was acquitted.  This was 80 years prior to the more infamous Salem Witch Trials which swept through the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Yet as we will see there are several similarities which played a role in the ensuing hyst...

  “We were only a part of our time, it was our illusion that we were the most important part, but most Americans knew that we were not, and they were right” Murray Kempton Part of Our Time Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties Review by James Romano Hello 1000 Bookies!!  Our latest stop on the 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die is 1930s America for a nonfiction book entitled, Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties , by Murray Kempton.  This book is a collection of essays about American Members of the Communist Party during the 1930s. Murray Kempton was a journalist and a social & political commentator.  Mr. Kempton started his career as a copy boy for the great H.L. Menken at the Baltimore Sun.  Kempton's career would eventually take him to the New York Post (twice), the New York Herald Tribune, the New Republic and the National Review.  He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for political and social commentary.  Part of Our Time...

  “ And Sandra's gonna use my brain to make a bigger dummy out of the other dummy." Lou Costello, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Frankenstein Or the Modern Prometheus A Review by Jim Romano Hey 1000 Bookies! Happy Halloween my friends!!!!  Our next stop on The 1,000 Books to Read Before You Di e is Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.  The story is set in Geneva, Switzerland where Ms. Shelly was visiting with her lover and his friends to escape the scandals their affairs produced in England.  The origins of how this story came to be written are more fascinating than the novel itself.  According to Mary Shelley, a contest developed between herself; her married lover and future husband, Percy Shelley; and his friend and the lover of her stepsister (and many others), the famous Lord Byron.  The contest was who could write the best ghost story amongst the three.  Eventually the two men two dropped out of the competition, but Ma...

“Sherlock Holmes is my friend.” John Watson in response to Count Dracula as to why he joined the odyssey against him.  Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula A Review by Jim Romano Hey 1000 Bookies!!  Welcome to Halloween Season.  This week our travels through literature takes us to Victorian England in the late 1890s.  Our portal lands us at Loren Estleman’s novel entitled Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula .  Originally published in 1978, the great detective and his sidekick meet one of the most evil men in literature.  With this time of year, I love spooky books and this novel is quite spooky and of course fun.  The story runs in conjunction with and parallel to Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel, Dracula , which I read (and blogged about) last Halloween (https://www.reading1000books.com/2019/10/i-know-there-is-no-such-person-as.htm).  Holmes and Watson are injected into the fight against Count Dracula.  This story is approximately 200 pages and pretty easy t...

  “ Columbus was never more zealous than when in pursuit of an illusion” Laurence Bergreen Columbus: The Four Voyages A Review by James Romano Hey 1000 Bookies!!  Welcome to Columbus Day 2020.  In honor of this day, I am reviewing Columbus: The Four Voyages by Laurence Bergreen.  Mr. Bergreen is an accomplished historian with volumes on other explorers like Marco Polo and Ferdinand Magellan.  This is the first biography I ever read regarding Christopher Columbus.  As a (proud) Italian American, I have an interest in the history of Columbus. We all learn the mythology--Columbus discovered America, he proved the world was round.  Then in school you learn that Columbus wasn’t the first person to come to the New World, just the first one to record the trips in a meaningful way and begin colonization.  Now of course, Columbus is quite reviled, albeit for good reasons.  In honor of this Columbus Day, I would actually read a biography of him. ...