The Yearling isn't so much flawed as it is, well- just there. The tale of the young boy in Florida is a cute, well-told tale that comes off as a bit simple. While the title obviously suggests a book about a boy and his deer, the more interesting parts of the book revolve around the boys neighbors and the politics of sparce living. But Rawlings retreats to the boy and his wild pet as the vignette for the book's lessons, and you can guess what happens there.

While a good (not a great) book, I have to wonder if a tale this bland would ever win the Pulitzer Prize now.

The sometimes overlapping stories of Vinnie Miner and Fred Turner, two Americans conducting literary research in London, prove entertaining, even if a bit contrived. The earlier portions of the stories are much better at communicating the tongue-in-cheek narrative on American perceptions of England (and American perceptions of America) and some of the dialogue and musings that Lurie provides for Miner are down right hysterical.

This is very easy and pleasant read. The strength of this book is Lurie's ability to provide satirical and witty commentary on life in general and on life abroad. The power of this is diluted as the focus of the book changes from that commentary to the details of a story which become overdramatized. In doing this, Lurie loses much of the cleverness contained in the first three-quarters of the book.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I do not know as much about the Civil War as I would like, but even so, this story about the Battle of Gettysburg was written in a way that made it easy to understand.

The numerous tales that are told are each gripping in their own ways. Michael Shaara brings them all together in a way that is elegant- but knowing what end the soldiers are approaching, the author also provides the momentum of the tragedy of Gettysburg.

In addition to great style, the story is very even-handed in its protrayal of the soldiers. Often, war stories are told from the point-of-view of one side. The Killer Angels is very balanced in its political portraits and creates a sympathy for nearly all of the soldiers not often found in war novels.

Reading this book is like watching a car crash. It is so powerful and oddly attractive- but the tragedy takes hold when its inevitability begins to sink in.

The story is of a Jewish man wrongly accused of the murder of a young boy. It takes place before WWI. So many things about this story made me feel helpless and insignificant. If only "this"...or if only "that" would have happened, perhaps the situation would not have become so dire.

I felt helpless reading this story. But more significantly, I felt frightened. While its easy to characterize the sentiments of pre-WWI Kiev as "another time" or "a different era," it was a world entirely too close in proximity of time to shrug off that easily. The pockets of hatred in this world now (which includes the United States) are still as palpable as then- whether anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia- and this story serves to show us what can happen if those malicious "beliefs" or "perspectives" (if they can be labeled as such) go unchecked.

This was a simply frightening, extremely well-told story.

I was a bit underwhelmed by this book- although that might have been part of the point. As it gives us a glimpse in to the tragic lives of a few locals, it also gives us a taste of their aimlessness, their rage, and their sorrow.

You cannot help but sympathize for the characters (which almost feels condescending), but also it made me wonder: how close are all of us to the edge? What might happen in my life that might cause me to become lost? If anything, this story shows that no one can ever really know what their future holds, and that we should appreciate what we have because it could ALWAYS be worse.

This book is captivating. Its reflection on a history that too many people have forgotten (or at the very least pretend happened longer ago than it did) is something that people should be required to recollect. The perspective that Styron gives through the eyes of slave revolt leader Nat Turner is chilling- regardless of to what degree it reflects the "real" perspective of Turner. The truth is that we have no idea how closely it resembles Turner's perspective. But to have perhaps been given a glimpse of such an interesting piece of American history is something to not be missed.

If you do nothing else, pick up this book and read the first two paragraphs of Part III (Study War). Not only is it an excellent example of Styron's ability to write gracefully, but the content left me speechless. It is beautiful and frightening and enlightening.

Purposeful or not, the stories get progressively better as you move through the collection. But that does not mean that they do not start off well.

The three stories that made the biggest impact on me, however, are the last three. In particular, Enough for the City, a rumination on life and love, is enchanting and complex, and it is quite unbelievable that McPherson was able to achieve those qualities in so few pages. Perhaps the most manipulative of McPherson's stories, it is nonetheless clever and contemplative.

Take time to sit with this collection of short stories. I am quite certain that there are many aspects of the book that I missed, but will hope to gain a better understanding of the lives described as I think more about it.

Not only are the stories important tales to be told, they are also incredibly pleasant to read- with some very witty lines- such as the Southern African-American child's mother who suggested that if you work hard at being a good and upstanding individual, it meant that when you died, you would finally make it to......New York.

A feel a bit negligent for writing a review without having neither read nor watched King Lear- but, nonetheless, here I go-

I admit that the beginning of the book begins in a slow manner that did not much excite me. Not one of the characters was particularly likeable. And even when the characters were despicable they were not even clever enough to appreciate. But as the story become unmistakably more Shakespearean, I quickly became more interested. The characters quickly took on a new complexity that made me want to continue reading.

Because am not familiar with the play, it is difficult for me to discern which character developments were purposefully patterned after those in King Lear and those that might just have been lacking. For instance, everything is there for the daughter living in Des Moines (Caroline) to be more layered, but there is little development there. Perhaps it is also a function of who Smiley chose as the narrator.

Regardless, it was a fine read that is more complex than I can speak to. And while it starts out slow, it is something to stick with.

Not since Clarissa walked onto her steps in "The Hours," have I immediately loved a character as I did Susan Ward. The life of Susan, as told by her grandson, starts out with much vibrance and excitement. But the parallel story of her grandson's life gives the story an edge- and a glimpse into why he is in pursuit of understanding (and documenting) his grandmother.

The conclusion of these lives (to which we are privy) is not simple nor cheap. But it does stand apart from the rest of the novel. And it does not offer comfort- but rather a glimpse into a set of lives that might be more real than we'd like to admit.

Ernest Poole's 'His Family' focuses on the latter year's of Roger Gale's life as he attempts to pursue his wife's dying wish: for him to live on in their children's lives. The children, three daughters (Edith, Deborah, and Laura), encompassed three different lives which Roger valiantly tried to embrace. Edith- committed to a family life with room only for her children. Deborah- committed to public service and the 'tenement children' in need of schooling. And Laura- committed to the "new world" and the modern woman.

Instead of succeeding at understanding any one of his daughters completely, he seems to connect with them each only moderately and only on a few, isolated occasions.

I am usually enamored by stories of a family growing old. This tale captured that nostalgia and sentimentality. However, while still pleasant to read, the story never seemed to grab me. As the first piece of literature to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (then referred to as the "Novel" award), I guess I was hoping for something more dazzling, or at least emotionally gripping (as were the two successive winners, The Magnificent Ambersons and The Age of Innocence).

In all fairness, though, the characters are generally likeable and believable, and Poole does an exceptional job of highlighting some familial dysfunction, illustrating that although your feelings and thoughts might be clear, the relative roles that people take in a family can force even the patriarch to act in ways other than he thinks best.