Day, by Elie Wiesel (review)

I have now completed my tour through the trilogy that is not a trilogy. Day is the third of Elie Wiesel's books that are named with vague time references. As far as I can tell these books are lumped together because a) they are all written by the same auther, b) they are all about the same subject matter, and c) they do follow life chronologically even if they are not all about the same person growing older. Day is about a middle aged man (?) who has just been in a serious accident and is recovering. It is the symbolic final chapter in what is a loose story of life after concentration camps—the chapter in which our hero (who is different in every book) is struggling for a final time with his images and view of life and death. The accident itself brings this struggle to a head by almost, but not quite, ending his life, and then bringing him into contact with his antithesis: a doctor who loves life completely and without caveat. While I was not a big fan of Dawn, I was able to enjoy Day a little more, if enjoy is the right word for such a dark book.

Book 23 on my way to 52

Weekly book shelf, 6/4

Calvin is still reading through the Wizard of Oz, and still leafing through the Wizard of Oz pop-up book. His birthday is this week and we are celebrating with family next weekend in a full Wizard of Oz (the books, not the movie) party as planned by Calvin himself. I think it will be a riot!

One morning this week, as I was just waking, he brought me Over in the Jungle. It's one that we read to him when he was pretty young, but not much since. I love rediscovering books that are still on his shelves through his own reading. He was pretty excited about this one in part because of the animals, but mostly because of the pictures, which are reliefs, staged using polymer clay and then photographed. The images were one of the reasons I picked this book when I did—because it was so different from all the others we already had. Otherwise the book is based on the "over in the meadow" song and rhyme but uses rainforest animals instead. The animals are really brought to life not only by the unique art, but also by the use of realistic/scientific yet melodic language. It's a simple book, but a true winner.

He was also reading Animalia this week. Beautiful illustrations—thank you Graeme Base. And Little goat's New Horns is a Reader's Digest Kids book from the Little Animal Adventures Series. We have several of these books, all picked up from book sales and garage sales. They were printed in the early 90s and are cute anthropomorphic tales with a strong dose of animal facts thrown in—in this case Little Goat is comparing her almost non-existent horns with those of other animals and learns that every animal she comes across has unique and important characteristics.

And we are just about finished with The Magical Monarch of Mo.

On my bookshelf for this week...I am still reading Proust. I think I will be saying that for many, many weeks, but one of these days I'll finish. I did finish Night and Dawn, by Elie Wiesel, and am now almost done with Day, the final book of that "trilogy".

Weekly book shelf, 5/28

A quote to share, from a letter to readers in L. Frank Baum's Magical Monarch of Mo:

"It is the nature of children to scorn realities, which crowd into their lives all too quickly with advancing years. Childhood is the time for fables, for dreams, for joy."

The last thing I believe is that children scorn realities, or that realities cannot be a part of childhood joys, but I do value worlds of magic and wild imagination as well, and what better place to find those than in a good book.

Anyhow, here's what we've been reading this week.

Here's some of what Calvin was reading by himself this week. We read The Wizard of Oz together last fall (reviewed here) and have been making our way through the series ever since. Now we're waiting for the next book to come in at the library, the first in the series as written by Ruth Plumly Thomson, and in the meantime Calvin decided to re-read the Wizard of Oz all by himself. This is by far the longest, most advanced book he's read by himself as yet, but he's having no trouble whatsoever.

  

Some picture books we read together. Bamboo Valley has long been favored around here. There's nothing particularly stunning about it, but it's a mixture of endearing and realistic. Like Bird, Butterfly, Eel it's the real story of this majestic animal, mostly devoid of anthropomorphism. Then I'm not a huge fan of Jan Brett, but Town Mouse Country Mouse is one that I do just fine with. Lastly, The Great Kapok Tree is a parade of beautiful rainforest animals arguing for the life of their forest. This one I love not only for its message, but also for the beautiful illustrations.

While we wait for the next Oz book to come in at our library we've been reading the short stories of The Magical Monarch of Mo, also by L. Frank Baum, written before the Oz series. I'm still in love with Baum. And Jon has been reading The Arabian Nights with Calvin, too.

 

On my bookshelf this week... for fiction I've started Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, in which I'm still on Swann's Way. In non-fiction I finished In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson, and am starting on Night, by Ellie Wiesel.

Weekly book shelf, 5/21

Here's some of what Calvin was reading by himself this week:.

Jon and I read a number of picture books with Calvin this week, too. Bird, Butterfly, Eel is one of our favorites. It's a year-in-the-life story of the eponymous animals, following their life and travels from their summer homes in New England to their winter homes, in three different locations, and back. It's an endearing story, completely devoid of anthropomorphism, accompanied by beautiful illustrations. Calvin loves it.

And we finished Glinda of Oz, but are still reading our way through the Aeneid.

On my bookshelf this week... in fiction I just finished Shogun, by James Clavell. My copy of Beasts in the Garden arrived so that's my new non-fiction, but I haven't picked my next fiction yet.

Glinda of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (our reviews)

This was the last Oz book written by Baum. He died shortly after writing it, and I wonder if perhaps some of it was even finished by another writer, because in places it sure felt like he was filling space by repeating facts and introductions well known to all Oz fans, and never before revisited. But that really didn't take away from the book much, it just made for some pages I would have skimmed quickly if I hadn't been reading it out loud. Otherwise, I'm still very in love with this series, and worried about how that might change when we read our first non-Baum written book next.