More Of What I Have Read This Year

Earlier this year I started reading the Barnes and Noble Classics series, and realized I have failed to update my progress through that "noble" list (forgive me, as I didn't get much sleep last night!).

Recent Barnes and Noble Classics readings:

"The Metamorphoses" by Ovid. I have a version in verse that I would recommend over this prose version of the classic Roman (and Greek) myths.

"The Magnificent Ambersons," by Booth Tarkington. I was so impressed by this book that I wish the discussion on the Barnes and Nobel University web site could have continued past 5 weeks. It is a coming of age story, for the main characters and the United States in the early years of the 20th century. However, as usual, not all the change is good. If Jane Austen thought she had written a book about a heroine only she could love, Tarkington's Georgie Minafer is a male Emma in spades!

"O'Pioneers," by Willa Cather. Not her best book IMO, but interesting in that many see it as a Greek tragedy on the high plains, and I think that is a good assessment.

"The Return of the Native," by Thomas Hardy. I reviewed this book in a recent post.

"Emma," by Jane Austen. Again, reviewed in an earlier post.