All in The Classics

Slaughterhouse 5

Slaughterhouse 5

Chris Mathers Jackson
The Classics

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 is at once startlingly gritty and wildly sci-fi. Somehow it is both a critical response to the wartime atrocity of Dresden’s bombing, and also a trippy, ironic, even disturbing thought-experiment about the nature of nonlinear time. Originally published in 1969, Slaughterhouse 5 looks back at the end of WWII’s European conflict from the perspective of a handful of American prisoners of war held in Dresden (in slaughterhouse building 5 or, in German, Sclachthof-funf).

The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild

Chris Mathers Jackson
The Classics

Reading The Call of the Wild, originally published in 1903, is fast.  The novella is only 164 (in the edition I read), and yet, its brevity is part of its magic.  Jack London follows the life of Buck, his canine protagonist, from a life of luxury in sunny California, to one of toil in the harsh world of the Alaskan Klondike.

Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy

Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy

Chris Mathers Jackson
The Classics

ristin Lavransdatter is Sigrid Undset’s three-part epic chronicling the life of the titular character from early childhood to medieval old age.  Originally published in 1920-1922 as The Bridal Wreath, The Mistress of Husaby, and The Cross, Undset’s trilogy follows the life of its fourteenth-century Norwegian heroine.  From maidenhood to death, Kristin’s life weaves together details from northern Europe’s medieval history, politics, religion, and family life.

Go Set A Watchman

Go Set A Watchman

Chris Mathers Jackson
Contemporary Fiction, The Classics

Last week I listened to the audiobook of Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman narrated by Reese Witherspoon (HarperAudio, 2015) as I finished a baby quilt.  As I stitched and cut and ironed, Witherspoon’s lovely reading brought Jean Louise Finch to life.  And some of Lee’s passages were so moving, I paused in quilting to listen to them over and over again, writing them out for use here. 

Puritans & Whalers: Reading Coastal Massachusetts

Puritans & Whalers: Reading Coastal Massachusetts

Chris Mathers Jackson
Travel Reading, The Classics, Contemporary Fiction, Nonfiction

In the weeks leading up to Halloween 2018, my family headed east to Boston and coastal Massachusetts. In addition to the Boston downtown (and all its Freedom Trail historical glory), we visited both Salem and New Bedford, Massachusetts. In preparation for our trip I chose to read Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables and Sena Jeter Naslund’s Ahab’s Wife: or, the Star Gazer (1999).

Aloha, Hawaii

Aloha, Hawaii

Chris Mathers Jackson
Travel Reading, The Classics, Nonfiction

While my husband scours the Lonely Planet and Moon guidebooks for the islands and my first grade daughter eagerly listens to geographical and historical information set out in the Hawaii: The Aloha State book (one of a set of the fifty states) she found in the children’s section of our library, I opt for more literary preparation: Sarah Vowell’s Unfamiliar Fishes, The Story of Hawaii by Hawaii’s Queen, Jack London’s Hawaii stories and Mark Twain’s Letters from Hawaii.