Martha is a mouse who befriends the movie man. She enjoys watching the movies. However, she gets chased out when she makes a sound and scares the other patrons. However, she is later redeemed when she entertains them during a film failure. She then becomes famous. It is a cute mouse story.
The Twits, The Minpins & The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
The Minpins (1991)
Billy lives a controlled life. He ends up discovering the Minpins and then helps rid them of their enemies, making him well respected.
The Magic Finger (1966)
A girl has a "magic finger" which causes things to happen to people she is upset with. She has little control of the finger does. She sees some neighbors be cruel to animals as they are hunting them. When they get magic-fingered, they turn into the ducks and the ducks move to inhabit their house. After he experience, they get greater respect for animals and stop hunting for sport. At the end it is implied that another family will soon get the finger.
Magic Finger was my favorite of the books in this series. I got a little lost with Minpins.
College admissions and the Public Interest B. Alden Thresher
This is available as a free PDF from the College Board. This talks about how college admissions should be organized to most benefit the public. It was written a half century ago. Some of the discussion seems quite current, while other parts seem dated. It remains a challenge to attract some people that could benefit to college. People continue to be attracted to colleges that are not necessarily best for them just because of the names and reputation. It includes some testimonials at the end of college admissions officers. It is still a wake up call to colleges that get lost in the arms race and forget to focus on benefitting society.
Amelia Bedelia (1963)
Thank You, Amelia Bedelia (1964)
Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower (1966)
These are the first Amelia Bedelia book. She takes everything literally and gets in all sorts of trouble because of it. However, she is also a great cook, and the delicious food always manages to save her. The third book is a bit different. Here, it is the literal understanding of "shower" and the spray with water that helps cure a headache. The food is incidental. These originals are better than the derivatives.
Curious George (1941)
Curious George Takes a Job (1947)
Curious George Rides a Bike (1952)
Curious George Gets a Medal (1957)
Curious George Flies a Kite (1958)
Curious George Learns the Alphabet (1963)
Curious George Goes to the Hospital (1966)
This collection has all the original Curious George books. They are of a higher quality than the newer stories by other authors. They also have various elements that would not be considered appropriate today. In the first book, George is found by the Man with the Yellow Hat in Africa. He smokes a pipe and then eagerly goes to the zoo. In all the books, George gets in trouble in various ways due to his curiosity. However, he always manages to get out of the trouble - often by using some of the same skills that got him in trouble in the first place.
These stories are quite old. Some look data. In Curious George Gets a Medal, George is the first animal to bail out of a rocket in space. This was before the space program had really taken off. In others, they just show a time of the past. In Curious George Rides a Bike, George gets a bike that he rides around. He later takes over a friends paper route, breaks his bike, and then joins an animal circus. He gets banished from the circus, then rescues a bear and gets to join. Everyone in the town knows each other and forgives him for not delivering their papers.
While he sometimes seems to be in a bucolic small town, other times he is in the middle of a big city. However, everyone still seems to know each other.
The collection includes CDs that include the audiobook versions of the stories. These include background music for almost the entire time.
The "Learns the Alphabet" was my least favorite. It seemed to be too slow and the pictures formed with letters was forced. For my favorite, I'd pick the first, though the early ones were all good.
The Master and Margarita is weird. Part of it is the story of Pilate at the time of Christ. There is also many events taking place in "modern" Moscow. The devil appears and recruits people. One man ends up in a mental institution because he is seen as crazy - but is he witnessing real events? There is a book that resembles the book. And just to liven things up, there is also a talking cat. People are drawn to do crazy things, that may often involve an unexpected lack of clothing. People randomly die in weird ways. Did I mention a talking cat? It is difficult to tell what is intended to be "real" and what is delusionary. In some ways it doesn't matter. It can be read as a societal critique or just as something weird.
Notes from the Century Before explores some of the more remote areas of British Columbia. It starts in Telegraph Springs. There towns were built up for the telegraph stations - only to see the need for telegraphs go away. Outwardly, he is exploring some of the land. However, he spends most of his time focused on the people there. They are not "hillbillies", but people that deal with the struggles of isolation in different ways. The Indians also have their experience colored by their history. He also brings his history and longings to the forefront as he uses his experiences with these people to explore his past failings.
Flowers for Algernon is written as a series of first person "progress reports" written by Charlie Gordon. Charlie is a hard-working, mentally retarded young man who wants to be smart. He is chosen to be the first person to undergo a radical new procedure that can help him gain and retain intelligence. The experiment had previously been performed successfully on mouse, Algernon, who was able to gain and retain intelligence. 
The moon is an oppressed penal colony. With the aid of a supercomputer, some residents plan a rebellion. A lot of time is spent discussing the details. Through some chance events, the revolution gets started. Then they attempt to be recognized by earth. Their "recognition" comes in the form of an attack. They defeat the invaders, and launch an attack on earth. After this attack, earth countries recognize the moon's independence as legitimate.
While the plot can be easily explained in a paragraph, the real purpose of this book is for Heinlein to describe his libertarian philosophy. The moon society operates largely without formal laws. The experience as a colony with limited control has lead the residents to act in their best, societal interests. Family structure involves complex, multi-generational families. While there are no formal marriage laws, the structure dictates what can be done. Similarly, other "crimes" are often punished by elimination rather than formal rules.
Heinlein sees government as an entity that usually mandates what had previously been permitted. Instead, he would like for government to create a constitution dictating what the government could not do, rather than what it could do. Its those "do-gooders" that keep trying to inflict their will on others that cause all the problems.
It makes anarchy seem nice and dandy. However, the revolution could only be carried out with the help of a quasi-sentient computer. The computer rigged the elections, "made speeches", launched the missiles, and pretty much did everything else that needed to be done. It seems that what Heinlein is really after is a "computeraucracy". Luckily, Heinlein's computer seems to disapear as soon as the revolution is "won". Philip K. Dick has written similar stories about computers that "control" the life of humans long after the battle is over. Alas, that would have ruined Heinlein's libertarian utopia.
