Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door by Lynne Truss

I finished this book yesterday morning. It was extremely good, but not quite as good as Eats, Shoots and Leaves by the same author. Maybe because of the subject matter. This book was about how the public has gotten ruder as the years have passed, and how everyone now walks around in their own little bubble and don't pay attention to anybody else. It was quite clever, like her other books, but had less of the little sarcasms and more of her thoughts on the matter, which were interesting. I suppose I'm not as glowing about this one as her other book, but it was quite interesting and it was all very true.

The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Written in 1855, The Song of Hiawatha is an epic poem about an Indian named Hiawatha who is a great warrior and about his love for Minnehaha. I read it some time ago, and it was quite good. The meter of the poem was magnificent; I love trochaic tetrameter. There wasn't much of a plot that I can remember. It's amazing how a book in poem can be so interesting. I thought it would be a hard read, and in fact, it was rather easy. Hiawatha was immortalized, of course, being less of a character than a hero, but you liked him immensely, anyway. I'd never read an epic poem and this was extremely good. 

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

This was an excellent book. The hero, David Balfour, is a Lowland Scottish lad whose father died and is being cared for by a Campbell priest, who he very much respects. He sets off in the world to find his uncle who lives at the House of Shores (I'm not sure that I spelled that right). When he asks questions about directions, people give him strange looks and act like he's crazy; when he finally knocks on the door of his uncle's mansion -- in the middle of the night -- his uncle appears out of the window and tells him he has a gun and asks gruffly what he wants. David tells him who he is and is invited in. He's surprised that someone who inherited such great fortune lives so poorly. His uncle tells him that his share of the family fortune is at the top of an old tower, and David goes up the stairs in the middle of the night to find the chest of money. He gropes his way up the steps until, when lightning lights up the stairway, he realizes that he has been tricked and the stairs are not finished. If he had not seen that they were unfinished, he would have fallen to his death. He dashes back down and accuses his uncle, who acts innocent all the way through. The next day, his uncle tells him that he's got business down at the shore and that he should come with him. David complies, and is introduced to the captain of a ship. They go aboard, as the captain is apparently his uncle's old friend, and the uncle, unbeknown to David, leaves in a rowboat. He is kidnapped.
The rest of the events of this book are many and quite exciting. They all speak in faint brogue, which is a bit hard to read at first, but you get used to it. David is a wonderful character who is very normal, which is always good for a book, in my opinion. It has a sequel called David Balfour: Part Two, which I started and didn't like because it's all about some girl he starts following around.
Anyway, it was a great book and I hope to read it again someday.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss

This clearly isn't a classic, but it's a great book. Originally published in England, it became a bestseller and moved on to America. There were too many British things in it, such as her saying 'jolly' as an ejaculation and the 'petrol' station, so they didn't change it a bit for the American audience. They also call periods 'full-stops' and parentheses 'brackets'. It was a book about punctuation and was tremendously funny. I couldn't help laughing out loud all the way through it. She's clearly a stickler for correct punctuation, and this is one of my favorite kinds of books. I wish she had written another about grammar. Unfortunately, it's a library book, and I'll have to return it someday......

The Pathfinder (or The Inland Sea) by James Fenimore Cooper

This one took me quite some time to read, as I left off for a few weeks several times. But I just finished it yesterday, and it was quite a book, if somewhat predictable at points. The Pathfinder is a great character, honest and simple as you can get.
It begins with The Pathfinder and the Great Serpent, his Indian friend, leading a young woman, Mabel Dunham, and her uncle, whom they call Cap, through the forests near the Great Lakes. They meet up with an Indian called Arrowhead and his wife, Dew-of-June, and another young fellow named Jasper Western, but known by the Indians as Eu-douce. (Not quite sure what that means, but I'm sure they told me and I forgot). They go on to encounter many Indians and end up in a camp of British soldiers containing the person Mabel Dunham wanted to reach, Sergeant Dunham, her father. Then another twist of plot happens, throwing everyone into chaos, and it becomes very interesting.
It's a rather old book, so they use the word burthen instead of burden and such. It seemed rather long, but I couldn't quite tell, as it was on my Kindle and they don't tell you how long it is, but it was about the same length as the Cardinal of the Kremlin. Pretty long. But, on the whole, it was an excellent book, and I'm planning to read the whole series, if I can figure out which one comes next.....

At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald

The hero of this book is a boy named Diamond, named after his father's horse. He is a very young child when the book begins, but it never specifies how old he actually is. He hears a voice that wakes him and replies, and it announces that it is the North Wind. The North Wind wants him to come with her. He does as he is told and they fly about during a storm. She is 'sweeping the cobwebs from the sky'. This book is less about things happening than Diamond and the North Wind talking. She says things like "How many ways must I appear to you before you know me?". At this point, he hears someone mention something called the Back of the North Wind and asks North Wind if she can take him there. 

George MacDonald is a genius. I believe he wrote all his books in Brogue, so they had to translate them somewhat. I had never read a George MacDonald before and this one was excellent. 

Men of Iron by Howard Pyle

I finished this book just a couple of minutes ago. Howard Pyle is a wonderful writer, eloquent almost to excess. It was the sort of book where all the characters speak in old English, which is brilliant and fun to read.
The story is of a boy named Myles Falworth, the son of a blind lord who is hidden away in the countryside, living on the charity of others. Myles, of course, as a young boy, doesn't realize this, and thinks he is in the best of circumstances. He is sent off to the house of an Earl, where he learns all the services of a squire. But when he learns why his father is hidden away, and who is attempting to hunt him down, he must rise to the occasion and ready for the saving of the reputation of his father and of himself.