classic Archives

Beautiful and Damned, The

"Things are sweeter when they’re lost." Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Following The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitz Gerald published several more books, including The Beautiful and Damned, focusing on the decayed indolence of the spoiled rich. Here, we follow the toxic love story of Anthony Patch, who plans to inherit his uncle’s immense wealth, and the beautiful, social princess, Gloria. The couple meet and woo during the Jazz Age, and they are both inspired by the freedom of a life devoid of work and true calling. They party, they philosophize with cynical friends, they drink, they assuage boredom with endless social debaucheries, [...]

Frances Carden2024-04-13T15:03:50-07:00April 13th, 2024|Tags: book review, classic, Jazz Age, read, reading|

Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

A Disconnected, Yet Still Sublime C.S. Lewis Addition Author: C.S. Lewis Letters to Malcom: Chiefly on Prayer is a posthumously published collection of Lewis’s letters to a fictional friend. It is written not as an instruction, but more as a meditation, a collection of private notes and asides. Lewis thoughtfully discusses prayer with his fabled friend, Malcom, taking prayer out of the rote asking, while admitting to our imperfections and desire to be better than we are. Lewis shines a light on the relationship prayer invites between ourselves and God, like talking to a friend, and notes some basic dos and [...]

Frances Carden2024-02-14T17:49:37-07:00February 14th, 2024|Tags: book review, C.S. Lewis, Christian, classic, prayer, read, reading|

Grapes of Wrath, The

A Nihilistic Classic Author: John Steinbeck Tom Joad, convicted murderer, is walking the long, dusty road to his Oklahoma home. He doesn’t regret what he did – he would do it again. But he does miss his family and wonder what happened to them while he was in jail. What he finds, after teaming up with an ex-preacher (Casey) on the road, is his family preparing to abandon their only home, the farm that has been with them for generations. It seems that there is hope, there is money, to be made in California. The government is taking over the farms, [...]

Frances Carden2023-12-08T16:24:56-07:00December 8th, 2023|Tags: book review, classic, grapes of wrath, historical fiction, history, read, reading|