Books (as if I blog about anything else)

Soon I will have some fun relating student work to you--from their Scarlet Letter papers. But, until then, you must be satiated with my comments on books:

The Portable Dorothy Parker: The Portable series is wonderful. They are handy anthologies of an author's work or on a specific topic. I haven't read all of the Parker work, but I've read enough to know she is fabulous--in small bites. Her book and play reviews are wonderfully biting and wry. Her poems are ironic and self-deprecating. Her stories make idiots look like ... idiots. I don't think I could read the anthology cover-to-cover, but I will keep it around to nibble at occasionally.

Brisingr: I really like the Inheritance cycle (it used to be known as the Inheritance trilogy, until Christopher Paolini, the author, couldn't fit it all into three books and spilled into four). This one, the third, reads as a middle novel. Like The Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers, it is good, but cannot be enjoyed alone.

Shakespeare: This is Bill Bryson's biography of the Bard of Stratford. They market it as "Bill on Will." It is short, sweet and to the point. Bryson separates what is known about Shakespeare and what is only suspected or imagined. If you are interested in Shakespeare, this is a great place to start. If you are a fan of Bryson, this is another lovely addition to the catalog.

Wicked: You'd think that I'd like this book (the inspiration for the famous musical) considering how much I love both musicals and the L. Frank Baum books. However, I just can't get into this one. I'm going to give it a little more time, and then I'm dumping it.