As a writer with a comedic bent myself, I enjoy reading the works of other humorists, and Leacock was one of the best.
The subtlety and wit, and the clever use of the language are like a tonic. Also, as a lover of history, I appreciate the glimpse of the fictitious town of Mariposa from a bygone era.
Affectionately combining both the idyllic and ironic, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a colourful, imaginative, and thoroughly entertaining portrait of small town Ontario. This is Stephen Leacock at his best--now available as a Penguin Modern Classic.
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, which first appeared as a newspaper serial, chronicles life in the fictional community of Mariposa, modelled on Orillia, Ontario, where Stephen Leacock spent many summers. It's a brilliant satire about small towns, small-town people, and small-town occurrences. Life in Mariposa is never dull or ordinary. It's a town full of eccentrics, where boats sent to rescue…
I love history and Historical Fiction is largely what I write, so Hemingway’s book about the Spanish Civil War seemed like a good fit, and I was right. To my mind it was superior to Farewell to Arms.
What gripped me was the cruelty and hatred that Spain was gripped with during that time. It causes me to wonder how much of that lingers to this day. Such strong emotions don’t disappear overnight.
Inspired by his experiences as a reporter during the Spanish Civil War, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls tells the story of Robert Jordan, an American volunteer in the International Brigades fighting to defend the Spanish Republic against Franco. After being ordered to work with guerrilla fighters to destroy a bridge, Jordan finds himself falling in love with a young Spanish woman and clashing with the guerrilla leader over the risks of their mission.
One of the great novels of the twentieth century, For Whom the Bell Tolls was first published in 1940. It powerfully explores the brutality of…
I love history, but I will rarely read historical non-fiction because they’re usually so dry and don’t often delve into the lives of those caught up in the events being described.
With Keegan I’ll make an exception. He’s one of the most brilliant historians of our time and his narrative of three major naval battles is second to none. The accuracy of what he relates is beyond question, and his descriptive prose catches you up in the heat of battle as well as any writer I’ve ever read.
Military historian John Keegan's gripping history of naval warfare's evolution.
In The Price of Admirality, leading military historian John Keegan illuminates the history of naval combat by expertly dissecting four landmark sea battles, each featuring a different type of warship: the Battle of Trafalgar, the Battle of Jutland in World War I, the Battle of Midway in World War II, and the long and arduous Battle of the Atlantic.
"The best military historian of our generation."-Tom Clancy
"The Price of Admirality stands alongside Mr. Keegan's earlier works in its power to impart both the big and little pictures of war."-The…
A farmer and his pig set off on an extraordinary quest across war-torn Eastern Europe.
Entangled in a savage war, the country of Xoraina is fighting for its very existence; but to Yuri, a simple peasant from a remote mountain village, it seems all but certain that the invading Zlaimperians must ultimately prevail. Not that it is of any consequence to him, of course. In Yuri’s view, every form of government is equally bad, so it makes very little difference who holds the reins of power. Indeed, throughout time, the only things that have ever really mattered are that the soil be tilled, the cows milked, and the pigs shipped to market, all in a timely fashion.
But when an exorbitant new tax threatens that philosophy, he sets off with his pig across the war-ravaged land to the Capital in order to fight the injustice. In the process, their journey becomes a road to a terrible enlightenment, causing Yuri to question his deeply seated beliefs. But only when he and his pig find themselves placed squarely in destiny’s path is there any hope of those questions finding answers.
