Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum and Roughing It

During a recent trip to Iowa I couldn’t resist stopping in Hannibal, MO on the way home. Mark Twain’s hometown includes a slew of monuments and museums dedicated to his work. In the Mark Twain museum there is a gallery of Norman Rockwell illustrations of his books, sculptures of Twain, some of his books and clothing, etc.

The street where Twain grew up is preserved for visitors. It includes his childhood home, his father’s law office and even a statue of Tom and Huck. It was a literary treat to see it all, though I couldn’t help but wonder what witty comment Mark Twain would have about it.

Roughing It by Mark Twain

★★☆

I had high hopes for this one, but I found that most of it lacked Twain’s incomparable wit. Much of it is a straight forward description of Twain’s travels out west in his youth during the mid-1800s. He traveled all over the west, even out to Hawaii. He describes gold and silver mining and the wild west in detail and has some incredibly strong feelings of dislike for Mormons.

There were bits in the second half that I enjoyed more that the first half. Apparently the first half is based on this brother’s journals of the trip (I didn’t find that out until I’d finished the book) and that would explain why it comes across and a bit dull. If you can make it through those bits it picks up and fans will recognize Twain’s clever style. I loved his description of attempting to work as an editor. He has the job for only seven days before quitting. He decided it was much too hard to come up with something new to write about each day.

Twain’s anecdotes about his travels are wonderful. I particularly loved a story about planning his first public lecture. He was so nervous he took every possible precaution to ensure he would receive some laughs.

BOTTOM LINE: I would recommend only if you are a huge Mark Twain fan or if you love reading about the development of the west. Otherwise I would highly recommend most of Twain’s other work, including Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Prince and the Pauper, etc.

Photos by moi. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! 

I hope tomorrow is filled with joy for all of you.

I'm going to take a week off from the blog but I will be 

back January 1, 2014. I've just found out that everyone 

in my office lost their jobs because of outsourcing. 

I will be spending the next week job hunting and 

taking breaks to spend time with people I love. 

Hope you all have a Happy New Year as well

and I'll see you in 2014!

 

Photo by moi. 

 

Mini Reviews: Gulp, The Egypt Game and The March

Gulp  
Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
by Mary Roach
★★★☆

I’m a fan of Roach’s writing. She manages to take any subject and make fascinating and hilarious. The alimentary canal is no exception. Roach begins with the mouth and follows the path of food all the way through the process. The results is a book that is both absorbing and disgusting. I definitely enjoyed the first half more than the second. It turns out my threshold for reading about poop is lower than I might have guessed. 

BOTTOM LINE: Interesting, gross, funny; I learned a lot. Definitely don’t listen to it at work or around your grandparents!

The Egypt Game

by Zilpha Keatley Snyder 
★★★☆

A young girl, April, moves into a new neighborhood after her actress mother decides to leave her with her grandmother. April finds a kindred spirit in her neighbor Melanie when they realize they are both fascinated by Egyptian culture. They create a game based on their interest and soon other kids join in the fun. All the while a local tragedy has everyone on edge.

I think I probably would have loved this one as a kid. Unfortunately I just read it for the first time. I still enjoyed it, but the fantastical elements of creating a world from your imagination wasn’t quite as powerful as an adult.

I loved that this story encourages kids to use their imaginations instead of relying only on TV and set games for entertainment. Embracing a different culture and learning about their traditions is a great lesson as well.

BOTTOM LINE: A good kids' chapter book with a few scary parts. A great focus on using your imagination.

The March

by E.L. Doctorow

★★

This is a fictional account of General Sherman’s march through the South during the Civil War. It covers the issues of freed slaves, captured Confederate soldiers and abandoned plantations.

The main problem I had with the book is that there’s no grounding center to the story. We get a glimpse at the lives of many people in the south, but we don’t really get to know any of them. We spend the most time with Pearl, a young African American girl named Pearl whose skin was so light that she passed for a white drummer boy. She’s an interesting character, but I never felt like we got to know her or any of the other characters very well.

BOTTOM LINE: I wanted more, more depth in the characters, more historical details, etc. The book felt like it barely skimmed the surface and I was never invested.

“The wretched war had destroyed not only their country but all the presumptions of human self-regard. What a scant foolish pretense was a family, a culture, a place of history, when it was all so easily defamed.”