Monthly Archives: September 2017
Uhuru means “Freedom” in Swahili. The novel Uhuru is loosely based on real events that took place during the uprising of black Africans in Kenya in the 1960s. The book Uhuru is seldom mentioned today but in 1962 it remained on the New York Times Best Seller List for six months. Dubbed as “a massive explosive novel, a high voltage shocker”… it was indeed! ★★★★★ Read Review
Roots is the story of Kunta Kinte- a black West African teenager- who is kidnapped at age seventeen and is sold to a white slave trader. The abduction occurred in 1750 after which Kinte survived the treacherous four month journey to the United States. Suffering inhumane and unsanitary conditions in the dark hull of a ship, he survives shackles, near starvation, and regular beatings only to be purchased by a plantation owner… Read More
Readers familiar with Virginia Woolf’s writing will likely suspect there is not much of a plot to Mrs. Dalloway. It’s the early 1920’s in Westminster, London. The war is over, the sun is shining, flowers are in bloom, and Mrs. Dalloway- an upper-class socialite- is preparing to host a party that very night. ★★★ Read Review
Sense and Sensibility is a story of two sisters searching for love. Jane Austin was a pioneer in women’s literature. This novel was first published exactly 200 years ago and gives the reader a genuine experience of the past. ★★★+ Read Review
Freedom is a contemporary novel about two young people who meet and fall in love during their college years. As the novel begins they are in their mid forties- are living in a typical American suburb, struggling to raise their two teenaged children. Franzen has a talented way of taking a very commonplace plot and producing a diverse group of richly developed characters. ★★★★+ Read Review
Sinclair Lewis’ controversial novel Babbitt depicts life in an American mid-western city in the 1920’s. Amidst the political unrest, class division, and social angst – conservative Republican, George Babbitt has a mid-life crisis. ★★★★+ Read Review
Lois Weisberg Book Reviews 
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