The Vulgar Eclectic

Tag: book jots

  • This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

    I just finished reading This One Summer (2014), a graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. It is a realistic coming-of-age story focused on two friends and their respective families during an annual summer trip to a lake. I found the characters complex and interesting and the artwork fantastic. Many of…

  • The Book-lover: A Guide to the Best Reading by James Baldwin

    I recently read The Book-lover: A Guide to the Best Reading (1885) by James Baldwin. This book begins with numerous quotes about reading and the love of books, before transitioning into a discussion of choosing what to read, ways of reading, and the value of libraries. The latter part of the book is a series…

  • At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs

    I recently finished reading At the Earth’s Core (1914) by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This is the first of the Pellucidar novels, a series that went on to include seven books in which the protagonist David Innes and others explore a Hollow Earth setting. Reading this was a classic ERB experience. Action, adventure, creatively imagined creatures,…

  • Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol

    A book jot from February, 2021: I finished reading Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol, translated by Peter Constantine. This is an unusual book. It follows the titular character and his two sons, Cossacks from the historical past, in the 16th or 17th century. It reads almost like an epic folktale, with beautiful passages of descriptive…

  • The Hard Switch by Owen D. Pomery

    I finished reading The Hard Switch (2023), a graphic novel written and illustrated by Owen D. Pomery. It’s a science fiction tale set in a world in which interstellar travel has long been an established reality thanks to a mineral called alcanite. However, the end of such travel is fast approaching, as the finite galactic…

  • The Arctic Prairies by Ernest Thompson Seton

    I just finished reading The Arctic Prairies (1911) by Ernest Thompson Seton. This memoir is an account of a six month journey by canoe Seton took into northern Canada in 1907. Seton was an artist, writer, and naturalist who undertook the trip in hopes of finding bison and caribou and, in his words, “the chances…

  • Alone by Megan E. Freeman

    I just finished reading Alone (2021) by Megan E. Freeman, a young adult novel in free verse. It is narrated by a young girl, 12 years old in the beginning, who finds herself in a very serious survival situation after waking to find herself completely cut off from human contact. It is an extremely compelling…

  • My Crowd by Charles Addams

    I just read My Crowd (1970), a collection of cartoons by Charles Addams. It’s the first time I’ve read one of his books and I found a lot of it hilarious. It reminds me very much of The Far Side…both share a similar sense of the absurd. I would definitely like to read more of…

  • Galactic Warlord by Douglas Hill

    I finished reading Galactic Warlord (1979) by Douglas Hill. I’ve read it once before; this time I read it aloud to my daughter. She very much enjoyed it and wants to start the second one in the series right away.  It’s a young adult science fiction novel that unfolds at a rapid pace with a…

  • Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform by Will S. Monroe

    I finished reading Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform by Will S. Monroe (published in 1900). John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), sometimes referred to as the “father of modern education,” was referenced in something else I was reading. When researching who he was, I ended up coming across this book and decided to check it…