Reviewing "Moon of Israel" by H. Rider Haggard

After the colossal disappointment that was She, I was dubious about trying another H. Rider Haggard novel that wasn’t part of the Allan Quatermain series. It was a pleasant surprise, then, when I read Moon of Israel: A Tale of the Exodus. In fact, I was immediately impressed when I read Haggard’s forward, which detailed where he got his historical information for this story from Sir Gaston Maspero, Director of the Cairo Museum and one of the first "serious" Egyptologists (as opposed to tomb raiders and sensational adventurers). As an Egyptology geek this intrigued me.

Reviewing "The Little Book-Room" by Eleanor Farjeon

I really liked Eleanor Farjeon’s Humming Bird, a novel geared toward adults. In a completely different way, I also like The Little Book Room, a collection of Farjeon’s short stories for children—most of which are fairy tales.

Like any collection of short stories, some chapters are better than others. Some were sort of sad, like The Miracle of the Poor Island, which reminded me of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. Others (and these were the ones I preferred) were witty and tongue-in-cheek, similar to E. Nesbit’s Melisande. Here are my three favorite entries: 

Reviewing "Humming Bird" by Eleanor Farjeon

Whether or not to continue reading a book that seems “just so-so” is a delicate balance. I’ve heard arguments from both side of the spectrum:

On the one side, there’s the sentiment that “Momma Didn’t Raise No Quitter”—that even bad books (for whatever reason, whether boring or poorly-written or offensive) should be read to completion. I tend toward this side because sometimes I want to review these books to point out the specific things that make these books “bad,” and it wouldn’t be fair-minded to give a poor opinion of only a piece of a work.

On the other side is the equally valid philosophy that “Life is Too Short to Read Bad Books.” In general I do this by not even beginning books that don’t interest me, no matter how much other people may recommend them. Horror novels or novels that are gruesome or depressing don’t appeal to me, so I skip them in favor of other genres.

The best approach is probably a middle-of-the-road one, but there is something to be said for sticking to a book one is not necessarily enjoying. Yes, there have been times I wished I could demand a temporal refund, that there were hours of my life wasted. But there have been other times that the end of the book (or, at least, a good halfway through) was a vast improvement and made all the slogging through initial chapters worthwhile.

Perfect Little Protagonists: from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “Little Lord Fauntleroy”

 Little Lord Fauntleroy is a quintessential rags-to-riches story of an American boy named Cedric becoming the heir to an English Earl. His father was the disowned son of the current Earl, a crotchety, proud, and selfish man. Through Cedric’s pure-hearted love and generosity, the Earl turns over a new leaf.

Basically, it’s Annie with a British Daddy Warbucks.