Steven E. Wedel's Blog, page 24

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,300 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Review: The Cricket on the Hearth

The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Charles Dickens gave us some of the best books ever written in English (David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol). He also gave us a few clunkers (Old Curiosity Shop), and some middle-of-the-road stories. The Cricket on the Hearth is one of those middling stories.

For a while I thought Dickens had gone against his usual type and cast a woman we first thought was his standard perfect young devoted wife and made her an adulterer....

Review: A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There isn’t much I can say that hasn’t already been said about this book here on GoodReads. I enjoyed it, though it lacks the cohesion of the movie A Christmas Movie, which I think is one of the best Christmas movies ever.

A couple of big events from the movie aren’t included, including the tongue on the flagpole. I did like the last segment, which gives a lot of back story on the Bumpus family … a family way too much like some neighb...

Why buying for Dad is so difficult

I’m two days away from my 47th Christmas and only have one gift left to buy. It’s for my dad. He’s going to get the same thing I’ve gotten him the last two years, something inexpensive, consumable … something that I know he’ll like, but maybe isn’t what he wants. How do I know? Because my own kids are having the same problem buying for me.

What do I want for Christmas? How does one explain it? And kids, they wouldn’t understand it if I told them. I didn’t understand it, not until a few years a...

Review: Summer of Night

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this book a whole lot more than I did. It had been a while since I read a straight-up horror novel and I wanted that visceral experience, that suspense, that fear of the unknown.

But what I got was pretty much a cliched story about a group of boys fighting evil with no help from clueless adults. The whole novel seemed like a Bradbury wannabe in which the author trotted out all his best childhood memories and assigned them...

Equal under the law

There was a time I’d use my blog for political purposes, but polarizing people isn’t good for book sales. haha However, I think this might be an issue that reaches across party lines. I just sent the following message to Oklahoma’s two U.S. senators and the House representative for my district. If you agree, I would encourage you to do the same for your congressional delegation. Click here for help finding your public servants.

Sen. [NAME],

I respectfully ask you to introduce a bill that would...

Review: The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh. My. Gosh. This is an amazing book. Just amazing. I don’t think I’ve had such an emotional reaction to a story since my first reading of Where the Red Fern Grows, and that was about 35 years ago.

Our narrator, Death, wastes no time slashing us with his beautifully sharp words. He meets Liesel while taking away the soul of her poor dead little brother as they travel with their mother on a train. Their mother was taking her children to l...

Open Letter to My Students, Past, Present, Future

I suppose every teacher faces the question, “Why do we have to learn this stuff?” Lord knows I asked it enough when it came to math. I get it a few times each year in my English classes, especially regarding the literature we read. I’d like to answer the question here.

History, science, and yes, math, will teach you facts. Some of those facts may benefit you later in life. Some won’t. Literature will teach you about truths. If you open your mind to it, literature will teach you things you can...

Review: Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another year of reading Oedipus Rex with my AP Literature and Composition students. As always, the play was a hit. Who can resist a story about a dude icing his daddy and making babies with his mama? The kids’ favorite line is always the one about Jocasta being a “twice-plowed field.”

If you’re looking for modern subtle storytelling, you probably won’t like this. But if you want a seminal Greek drama that gets right to the point and will make y...

Review: Bilbo’s Last Song

Bilbo’s Last Song by J.R.R. Tolkien

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I typically skip over the songs when I read The Lord of the Rings. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that, but I do. I just don’t really care for them and they seldom move the plot along. And, while I think Tolkien was a master storyteller, I don’t think his poetry is all that good.

But when I saw this slim little volume on the shelf at Half Price Books today I couldn’t resist it. The scene where Bilbo (and Frodo and the others) leave the Grey...