The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe

The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe

There is a biography at the start. (Poe lived an interesting life with a morbid death.) There are also essays and dramas included. Poe was not a fan of long poems. He was a great, imaginative writer.

Annabel Lee (1849) - a somewhat morbid love poem, unfortunately read with a robotic voice

The Bells (1848) - the repetition of bells makes this one good

The Raven (1845) - Poe's famous poem. Captures his style well

To Helen (1831) - a poem of beauty with Helen of troy and others

A Dream (1827) - a dream, short and sweet

Alone (1829) - a loner in childhood

Fiaryland (1829) - imagery of a land of fairies

What Did You Do?

What Did You Do? by Jeneane O'Riley

The book starts with sex, but actually has a little bit of story to hold it together. There is something about being part human and part magical being. The family has different people and she thought she had powers. Only she didn't. But she did. There is half a heart to recover and conflicted relationships all around. It is very much romatacy, but ha a little bit of believability. 

Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories

Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories by Washington Irving

What stood out most for me was the brevity. The whole point of Rip Van Winkle is made quickly without much fuss. The headless horseman seems to be an incidental character in Sleepy Hollow. The other stories were not bad, but I do not recall many of the details.

"Rip Van Winkle" (1819 from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.)

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820 from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.)

"The Spectre Bridegroom" (1819 from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.)

"The Adventure of the German Student"  (1824 from Tales of the Traveler)

"The Devil and Tom Walker"  (1824 from Tales of the Traveler)

"The Adventure of the Mason" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

"Legend of the Rose of Alhambra" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

"The Governor and the Notary" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

"Governor Manco and the Soldier" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke

Burke was not a fan of the French Revolution. He pointed out many of the problems and did a good job foreshadowing what would eventually become significant issues with the way it was carried out. The French used the guise of a corrupt ruler to overflow the entire system. And in its place, they established "equality" and more corruption. The ended up getting Napoleon (but that was well after Burke's writing.) There was a great deal of arbitrariness on the French side. The church was particularly attacked. There were various excuses given, but in the end it was more a robbery than great morals.

The French Revolution fell the fate of many other revolutions in that one form of known tyranny was replaced with another form. It is hard to get rid of the bad without also hurting the good.

Astoria; Or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains

Astoria; Or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains by Washington Irving

This is a history of the west and more particularly, the Pacific Northwest. These areas were the frontier at the time. Astor financed expeditions to explore and help support his fur business as well as the United State's needs.  This fairly long history captures the events and the times. The book is a narrative that reads well, rather than a well-documented history.

The Old English Baron

The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve

There is a death and an inheritor of the estate of the deceased. Somebody comes in and decides there must have been wrong-doing. After a duel, it is determined that the inheritor ordered the killing of the deceased. The victor spares his life but orders penance. There is also a marriage involved with some of the parties. This is fairly fresh and modern for a book more than two-centuries old. It keeps grounded well in realistic situations.

Our Village

Our Village by Mary Russell Mitford

This work is a collection of sketches of rural life in England two centuries ago. People lived their lives. It was not terribly interesting. It felt hard to relate to them today.

Polly the Party Fun Fairy

Polly the Party Fun Fairy by Daisy Meadows

[Add photo] The seem to have run low on ideas when they title this fairy. Party Fun seems a little odd for a title. The girls are going to camp. However, some things are a bit amiss. Their rafts leak. The eggs for a contest end up hatching into chicks. The girls find Polly and she tells them that goblins have stolen her stuff. They see the goblin, chase after him as he makes a getaway in a frisbee raft, and capture him with a bucket. Things are restored to normal and they can now get ready for the 1000 anniversary party - as well as have fun at camp. The ideas in this book are a little less well done than others.

Storm the Lightning Fairy

Storm the Lightning Fairy by Daisy Meadows

Storm is a more destructive fairy and this book has greater action than other fairy books. The girls all try to go to fairy size to make it harder for the goblin to hit them with lightning bolts. They find that fairy magic will bounce back off mirrors, so they trick the goblin into throwing a bolt at he mirror, causing it to go back and strike him. There is also a "food munching" dinosaur in the museum that helps bring about the goblins demise. 

Dragon and Thief (The Dragonback Series Book 1)

Dragon and Thief (The Dragonback Series Book 1) by Timothy Zahn

A dragon and kid raised as a thief are partners. They survived a spaceship crash. They pretend to be magicians and put on a show - earning a lot of money doing "legitimately" what the kid has done illicitly before. There is more plot and story, but I didn't really catch it.

Narrative of The Life of David Crockett of The State of Tennessee

Narrative of The Life of David Crockett of The State of Tennessee by Davy Crockett

In his autobiography, Davy Crockett paints himself as a barely-educated country kid with strong morals who happens to get thrown into politics. He barely has an education and tries to skip school and avoid corporal punishment. He gets married eventually after being rejected a few times earlier. He ended up in politics somewhat by accident, with people putting him on the ballot without his approval. Once there, he tried to make the best of it and won. He tells of many bear killings. It starts with a few small killings, and then he is killing a hundred in a year. Is this really true or just an exaggeration? His autobiography paints the portrait of an interesting character. It is easy to see how a legend would spin up about his life.

Platinum Pohl

Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories by Frederik Pohl

This is a long science fiction short story collection that spans a half century of Pohl's work.

The works are various lengths and explore different topics. 

A few that stand out: 

"The Day the Icicle Works Closed" - this gave the name to the "Whisper to a Scream" singers. A "company planet" is moved to an economic tailspin when the company's product is no longer needed. All it has left is tourism, and as part of this people rent out their bodies to tourists. The plot covers a lawyer defending some kids that went through lengths to avoid renting their body. He ends up discovering that the products are still needed and that it was just a plot by some to get the company stock on the cheap. It shows stock manipulation gone crazy.

"The Celebrated No-Hit Inning" - a baseball story where a star player travels to a time where sport is played primarily for TV audiences and robots have a role in the game. Robot ball players and games just for TV don't seem too far off today. Heck, this could just be a twitch-streamed videogame play. What seems the most far-fetched is baseball still being relevant in the far future.

"Waiting for the Olympians" - The Roman empire never fell and proceeded to advance to the modern days. People are awaiting extraterrestrials that have been communicating with them. At the last minute they cut off communication and decide not to come. The book focuses on the experience of a writer who had tried writing a novel that made fun of this extraterrestrial olympians. This story is censored. He then decides to write an alternate history novel where Christianity rose up and Rome fell. This has a number of twists with alternate history within alternate history with a mixture of science fiction bits.

There are a number of other good stories in this collection as well as some fairly forgettable ones.

The list of stories (thanks to the Wikipedia page):

• Introduction by James Frenkel
• "The Merchants of Venus", Worlds of If, July/August 1972.
• "The Things That Happen", Asimov's, October 1985
• "The High Test", Asimov's, June 1983.
• "My Lady Green Sleeves", Galaxy, February 1957.
• "The Kindly Isle", Asimov's, November 1984.
• "The Middle of Nowhere", Galaxy, May 1955.
• "I Remember a Winter", Orbit 11, Damon Knight (ed.), 1972.
• "The Greening of Bed-Stuy", F&SF, July 1984.
• "To See Another Mountain", F&SF, April 1959.
• "The Mapmakers", Galaxy, July 1955.
• "Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair", F&SF, October 1983.
• "The Celebrated No-Hit Inning", Fantastic Universe, September 1956.
• "Some Joys Under the Star", Galaxy, November 1973.
• "Servant of the People", Analog, February 1983.
• "Waiting for the Olympians", Asimov's, August 1988.
• "Criticality", Analog, December 1984.
• "Shaffery Among the Immortals", F&SF, July 1972.
• "The Day the Icicle Works Closed", Galaxy, February 1960.
• "Saucery", F&SF, October 1986.
• "The Gold at the Starbow's End", Analog, March 1972.
• "Growing Up in Edge City", Epoch, Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg (eds.), 1975.
• "The Knights of Arthur", Galaxy, January 1958.
• "Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct", Analog, January 1994.
• "The Meeting" (in collaboration with C.M. Kornbluth), F&SF, November 1972.
• "Let the Ants Try", (as by James MacCreigh) Planet Stories, Winter 1949.
• "Speed Trap", Playboy, November 1967.
• "The Day the Martians Came", Dangerous Visions, Harlan Ellison (ed.), 1967.
• "Day Million", Rogue, February/March 1966.
• "The Mayor of Mare Tranq", The Williamson Effect, Tor, 1996.
• "Fermi and Frost", Asimov's, January 1985.
• Afterword : Fifty Years and Counting.

No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart: The Surprising Deceptions of Individual Choice

No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart: The Surprising Deceptions of Individual Choice by Tom Slee

Economics is based on individual choice. People "vote by their feet". If everyone chooses something, that will win. However, it is not so simple. The large corporations have power that make it difficult for others to compete. There is an amalgamation of benefits and costs with an imbalanced relationship. Game theory comes into play. People may prefer to have a vibrant local downtown. However, they also want the lower prices that walmart offer on some things. Alas, by getting those low prices, they decimate the downtown. The book has some interesting cases of how decisions are made for us by the big entities, leaving us with little opportunity. Big movie studios and big businesses make things their way, leaving an illusion of free choice, but providing little of it. The book has interesting thoughts, though does get a bit disorganized.

Pearl the Cloud Fairy

Pearl the Cloud Fairy by Daisy Meadows

Everyone around them has a little "cloud" over their head. Most of the time, this cloud causes them to have bad emotions. They are often grumpy or quick to anger. The girls and cloud fairy find that a goblin has taken her feather and doesn't know how to use it. The goblin is hanging out in the candy factory, eating candy and waving the feather. They get it back from him (after some interesting times getting stuck in a cotton candy cloud). Afterwards, all is happy again. It is just original enough to keep interesting.

Tom Brown's School Days

Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes

This is a pretty well done Librivox book. Tom Brown is a boy going to Rugby school. He plays sports like football and cricket and help boys work together. He is asked to help a young boy who is starting the school. He finds himself defending the boy when he is praying. He does more to work with him and grows as a person. He gains more empathy and appreciation for others. It is a well done and accessible today. It feels like a predecessor of the many "boarding school" stories that have come out since then.

Light Perpetual: A Novel

Light Perpetual: A Novel by Francis Spufford

During World War II, London was bombed heavily. This novel starts with the bombing of London that incinerated a number of people. then it goes to explore the lives of some of the people involved as if they were not killed. I missed out on the key change, and just saw the going forward of people living lives in future London.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

This is an early feminist essay. The discussions include topics which seem almost foreign to us, such as joint education for boys and girls. It advocates greater respect for women and less treating of them as appendages of men. It is a little longer than I expected and does go around a lot of topics regarding women's right.

Kant's Prolegomena and Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science

Kant's Prolegomena and Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science by Immanuel Kant, translated by Ernest Belfort Bax

This book includes a discussion of Kant's life and career and then two of his shorter works.

Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science (1783)

A brief introduction to metaphysics and defense of Kant's writings. This is written as more of a discussion of philosophy and Kant's thought and metaphysics.

Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786)

This shorter work reads more as a math and science book. There are discussions about gravity and other similar physical phenomena and how these are built on metaphysics

Jasmine the Present Fairy

Jasmine the Present Fairy by Daisy Meadows

There is a neighborhood carnival. They notice some fairy magic helps one girl get the present that she wants. Then they notice that for one game, all the prizes end up bad. They think there must be goblin issues going on. There is a goblin hiding there. He tries to take Jasmine's presents. They keep him away and eventually trap him in a box and send him back to Jack Frost. Then they are able to go to the big fairy 1000 birthday party. The book has little drama. My daughter did point out that King Oberon and Titania ar the fairy king and queen from Midsummer Night's Dream.

The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery

The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery by Ross Douthat

The author started to feel some weird medical symptoms. He went to various doctors to diagnose. They couldn't find the cause. He even tested for Lyme disease and came up negative. Many suggested he see a mental health doctor. Eventually he did get diagnosed for Lyme disease. He went through various treatments and saw varying degrees of success. Meanwhile, the family had moved to their "dream" house in the country and later had to sell it to move closer to doctors. The book ends with Covid outbreak. He was prepared. Lyme often has doctors being more cautious with patients requesting more cutting edge or drug-based treatments. There is also some speculation it could have been part of government experiment gone wild.  It is an interesting book that explores personal impact of a disease as well as how it changes world views.

Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company

Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), translated by Alphonse Nahuys

The book is written from the point of view of a coffee broker from canal street. He deals with the Dutch Indonesian colonies. He realizes there is widespread mistreatment going on there. He appeals to authorities, but gets nowhere. The book has a fairly tearse style as if written by a businessman trying to express his points rather than a novel writer. (There seem to be a few different "writers") It is a bit "man against the system" and a bit "exposé of the evils of colonialism. With the reputation of the dutch, it seems odd that they were the ones that were so cruel.

Rilla of Ingleside

Rilla of Ingleside: Anne of Green Gables Series #8

In this novel, Anne is the mother. Most of the action revolves around her children. It is the time of World War I. Patriotism stirs in that part of Canada. People want to go help the British cause. However, things in the war are not going so well. They do wish the Americans would also join in. There are some references to American politics at the time. At home, one girl ends up watching a "war baby". His father is fighting the war, while the mother has dies. This is a significant sublot, that comes to a nice conclusion as he gets an inheritance from an old lady that they had met once. People back home were also interested in coupling, with some weddings made right before they go off. The novel provides a good exploration of what life was like when the Great War was going on.

The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe

The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe by James Belich

Europe went through the black death in the middle ages, severely reducing its population. Then it popped back bigger than ever and launched empires that controlled most of the world. This book starts by looking at the plague. There are evolving explanations for how it occurred and spread. Bubonic plague has gone in and out of favor. There does seem to a connection with rat populations. The black death did strike areas at different times and different mortality. It appears it also struck other parts of the world, such as Asia.

However, the plague itself is only the first part of this book. How did the activities of the various populations react to it? How did it change their behaviors and history? What was the next phase in history after the plague. Europe was even more fragmented than it is now. Economic activity and the associated trading were starting to boom. Some places, like Geneo were heavily involved in financial and mercenary activity. Europe was eager to spread its wings throughout the world. How much did the plague contribute to all these activities? The book paints a very broad picture that is perhaps a little too expansive.

Who Was Rosa Parks?

Who Was Rosa Parks? by Yona Zeldis McDonough

I did not realize that Rosa Parks had a backstory of fighting for rights. There were other black people who failed to give up their seats for whites on Montgomery busses. However, they did not resonate with the general public the way Rosa Parks did. She was an educated, upstanding citizen. She had also worked behind the scenes for civil rights. The bus boycott and fame were challenging for her and her family. Eventually she moved to Detroit with other family members. 

This book is a quality, short introduction to her life and the background of the bus boycott and civil rights movement. It is somewhat sad that it was transportation that was attacked. In the name of improving civil rights we ended up hurting our transportation system. (Next step would be to bulldoze black neighborhoods for freeways.)

Magic Tree House 25-29

Magic Tree House books 25-29 by Mary Pope Osborne

#25 Stage Fright on a Summer Night

They go to Elizabethan England and find people going to a performance. A man hears Jack read and asks him to substitute in the play. The man ends up being Will Shakespeare and the kids perform in Midsummer Night's Dream (with Annie pretending to be a boy dressed as a girl.) They also rescue a bear that was going to be used in a bear fight. This was my favorite of this group of books.

#26 Good Morning, Gorillas

They go to Africa and see gorillas. This was not a very good book.

#27 Thanksgiving on Thursday

They see the pilgrims on Thanksgiving, but don't fit in well.

#28 High Tide in Hawaii

They go to Hawaii and go surfing. They also need to go to high land when a tidal wave comes.

#29 Christmas in Camelot

They go to the imaginary time and find King Arthur and the gang. This was later to become Merlin Missions #1 and another book became magic treehouse 29.