Number Eleven: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is undoubtedly one of the most classic children's books of all time and not without good reason.  The big question when reading a children's book is whether or not there is anything of value to an adult, but in this case that question has a very simple answer: YES!  This book is an exceptionally well written adventure which, although written using language a child can understand, contains ideals which can have application for everyone.  In this book, Twain manages to pull together an incredibly fun story which teaches children and adults alike the importance of maturing (both mentally and physically) and helping others to mature.
The obvious theme of this book was the idea of maturation.  At the start of this book, the characters in this book were as immature as possible.  Tom played jokes on everyone who cared about him and switched girls every other day (while claiming to love each of them).  By the end of the book, everything was different.  Tom had become a young man who took responsibility for his actions.  He cared enough for his girl at the end that he was quite willing to sit in a cave and die with her.  When he and Huck discovered where the secret treasure was, Tom used it to try to help Huck grow up in a good home and learn how to be a gentleman himself.  Truly, across this book, Tom grew up.
Now the question which is undoubtedly being asked right now is how exactly this theme is helpful to adults.  Well the truth is that everyone, young and old, has areas which they need to grow up in.  Also, the world today has taught people to NEVER grow up.  People now do not learn how to be adults and take responsibilities for their actions until they are extremely old.  This trend in society is extremely troubling and people could learn a valuable lesson from this book.
This book really was an extremely good book both for pleasure and for purpose.  I would recommend this book to just about anyone.  It is easy to read and has very few problems.  The only issue that I found in this book is a slight racist tendency indicative of the time in which it was written, but this tendency is not severe and can be relatively easily ignored.  I would recommend to parents of younger children reading this book that they remind their kids that attitudes like this are wrong, but that's my only caution.
Once again, hoping you are all out there reading these,
Jodath

Number Ten: A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is both one of the most popular and wonderful books ever written.  Admittedly, when I started this book I was very unenthusiastic about reading it.  Having just finished The Three Musketeers, which was exciting and easy to read, I was not excited about reading a much more poetically written book with an immensely more complicated plot line.  Even after starting this book, I still found this book extremely difficult to follow, but when I had finally gotten to somewhere near the middle of the book, I was hooked.  At that point, the book was utterly captivating and had one of the most important messages in any book that I have ever read.
The extremely clear message in this book was, cheesy as it seems, Love.  Now Love is an extremely common theme in books, but I have never seen it portrayed in such an amazing way as this.  One of the main characters of this book, a man named Sydney Carton, appeared at the beginning of the book to be relatively pathetic, a man with no course in life who spent all of his time drinking.  This man was in love with a woman who loved another man.  She married the other man and Sydney accepted it.  A few years passed and the woman's family was drawn into the revolution going on in Paris.  The woman's husband was accused of a crime and sentenced to death.  Sydney took the man's place at the guillotine.  He died not for the woman who he loved but rather for the man who she was in love with.  Now that is True Love.
In the many books I have read, I have never seen a picture of love which measures us to this one.  To stand in line waiting for death knowing that a single word could save your life yet standing there nevertheless because it is the only way to save the heart of the woman you love is incredible.  Many people would have taken advantage of the demise of his rival but Sydney didn't do that.  Just before he died Sydney was able to say truly "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is to a far, far better rest i go to, than I have ever known.
This book is undoubtedly one of my favorites.  It is true that I did not enjoy the first half of this book because of the complex language, but the second half of the book infinitely more than makes up for the first half.  The complex language does make it difficult to understand and I would definitely not recommend this book to younger people, but if someone is old enough to understand it then they should definitely recommend that they read this book ASAP - it really is one of the best books that I have ever read.

Begging you to read this book,
Jodath

Number Nine: The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas is one of the most classic stories that has ever been told.  When I started this book I was a little afraid of the length, but the fame of this book dispelled most of my fears.  Everyone knows about The Three Musketeers, and I was excited to read it.  I was certainly not let down by this book.  The most important theme that I found in this book was one that I really did not expect at all.
There are tons of wonderful themes in this book, but the one that made the biggest impression on me was the theme of true, pure evil.  Never before in any book have I found a character so devoid of virtue and so consumed by evil as Milady de Winter.  She really is the embodiment of evil who is capable of turning all but the best man to evil.  She kills and destroys people for the mere pleasure of it.  She is capable of making the most trustworthy man entirely untrustworthy with a few words from her mouth.  She is an adversary like no other.  Truly, death was the only solution to a disease such as her.
This depiction of evil is so vivid and so valuable that it has helped engrave much of this book into my mind.  When I consider evil, I think about that character every time.  Even with this picture of evil, most of this book was just plain fun.  With exceptional depictions of swordplay and jocularity, most of this book was exceptionally light.  The only problem that I had with this book was the relatively limited moral content.  Certainly courage, friendship, and sacrifice were very well depicted in this book, but adultery is considered to be quite normal in this book.  The protagonist, D'Artagnan, spends much of this book attempting to seduce a married woman and another main character, Porthos, spends much of this book manipulating another married woman, who he is already having an affair with, to give him tons of money.  The author does make a note early in the book that behavior such as this is quite unacceptable but it is still quite prevalent throughout the book and I did not approve of major characters acting like this.  Despite any problems I had with this book, I still highly recommend this book to anyone old enough to get through it, and especially to people old enough to really understand it.  This book was one of the most fun books I have ever read and it is one of the books which sticks out in my memory the best.

Really hoping that all of you will read this great book,
Jodath

Number Seven: The Red Badge of Courage

The Red Badge of Courage by Steven Crane is a pretty interesting book.  When I read this short book, I really didn't know anything at all about it so I had very little idea of what to expect.  As it turned out, this book was actually quite interesting.  It certainly did have an excellent message to it.
Obviously given the title, the major theme of this book is courage.  As the protagonist, Henry, learns how to behave on the front lines of The Civil War.  In the first skirmish Henry participates in, he sees the enemy coming and he does not believe that they can be stopped so he runs away. When he runs away, Henry runs into many other Union soldiers fighting on different fronts and he realizes that others are not fleeing but rather fighting till the last breath.  Henry is quite shamed when he realizes that he is a coward.  He realizes that it would have been better to die than to run away.  He sees wounds received in the line of duty as "red badges of courage" and he realizes that they really are evidence of courage and they are preferable to running.  Eventually Henry returns to his men and fights alongside them again, but now he is fearless as the enemy comes.  Rather than fleeing Henry became the most courageous of the men there.
Undoubtedly the theme of this book is very good.  Courage is something that everyone needs to learn to understand.  I would definitely recommend this book to a somewhat older crowd because many younger children would neither understand nor enjoy a lot of the symbolism in this book.  This book is also a little gruesome for younger children.  I cannot say that I loved this book, but it was a pretty good read with a great message.

Recommending that you get out there and read it,
Jodath

Number Six and Eight: The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume One and Two

Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is undoubtedly one of the most renown characters in fiction.  In each of these four novels and fifty-six short stories, we learn a little more about this astounding character.  I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful journey through Holmes various cases as the reader discovers the secrets of his amazing logic together with his astounding morality.
Holmes is the very picture of logic.  He is able, throughout each of these stories, to completely read situations and people with mere observation.  While his incredible memory and thorough education in nearly every subject are priceless in his investigation, his instinct is by far his most valuable tool.  Holmes can, quite literally in many cases, determine much of the life history of someone through a mere glance at them.  He really is amazing at investigating, but his nobility and morality are equally as important to Holmes character.  Holmes is not a police officer and he does not behave like one.  On more than one occasion throughout these stories, Holmes actually let the guilty party escape because he decided that their crimes were justified.  Holmes works for free for people who are unable to pay.  Holmes's supposed death at the end of The Adventure of the Final Problem came as he refused to give up his case against a vicious murderer even at the cost of his own life.
There can be no question whatever about the inspirational qualities of Holmes's character in these stories.  I would highly recommend this collections to anyone of any age group.  They are exciting, easy to read, and they have wonderful morals.  My only warning would be against reading all of them very quickly as I did.  There are just so many stories and each of them is so wonderful that it is a shame to read through them very quickly.  Also, if they are read too quickly then they do become slightly repetitive by the end.  Either way, they are simply wonderful stories.

Hoping that everyone will get out there and read these ones,
Jodath