I have a little bit of a problem with the words 'Modern Classics' usually, but in this case it is appropriate. All five titles are worthy of the prefix.

Midwives is undoubtedly one of the finest pieces of fiction in modern years. Bohjalian mixes suspense with drama to create a masterpiece. Its starts out with a tragic death during labour, which may or may not have been the midwife's fault. As you follow the story through the midwife's daughter's eyes, you discover the truth in what is an interesting finale.

A wonder of translation, The Reader is a fascinating novel of morality and social injustices in postwar Germany, It focuses on the Holocaust through the eyes of 15 year old Micheal, whose older lover Hanna, as it turns out is guilty of unspeakable crimes. Emotional and stirring, The Reader is a must have.

Snow Falling On Cedars is a brilliant mystery set in San Piedro. A Japanese American man is on trial for the murder of a white man. Still reeling from racial distrust, the town is baying for blood, but one man must recover from his own distrust and jilted feelings rooted in his past to discover the truth. Beautifully written and vividly imagined, Snow Falling On Cedars is one of my favourite novels.

Believe the hype, Memoirs Of A Geisha is here to stay. This novel is incredibly popular and rightly so. It uncovers Japan's hidden Geisha trade and stuns us all with its revelations. Through the eyes of Japan's 'most famous Geisha' as we are led to believe, we see it all from the youth up, the training, the social manuevering, the infighting as our very own Geisha struggles with her own morality in her search for happiness.

Cold Mountain is in truth a beautiful love story. Winner of the US national book Award this book is strong, maybe not so as the rest, but entertaining and beautiful in its own right.

And finally, A Lesson Before Dying. Always controversial, this story focuses on a man set for execution. Jefferson is the black man on death row, and as he faces social and racial tensions, his grandmother wishes that someone might teach him to die like a man, and that is where our narrator steps in. Beautiful and poignant, Not to be missed.

So there we have it. Beautiful writing didn't die with Austen, the Brontes and Dickens. 20th century authors may just have what it takes to be classics hundreds of years from now. Read and Enjoy.

This short book is easy to read. However, it took an extraordinary effort to write it. Reading it is a humbling and insightful experience. We read of how a man lost all function, except one eyelid. And despite being seemingly imprisoned in a paralyzed body, he still had an active and free mind. Most of the book tells of how he escaped the drudgery of his overall condition and daily routine by traveling the highways of memories within his mind. He not only reflected on life, but continued to live as best as he could. I am thankful that Mr. Bauby shared his experience w/ others. I found it to be humbling, uplifting and humorous reading.

In December of 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, 43 year old editor in chief of Elle magazine in France, suffered a stroke which severely damaged his brain stem. After several weeks in a coma, he woke to find that he was one of the rare victims of a condition called "locked-in syndrome" or LIS, which had left his mind functioning but his body almost completely paralyzed. In a perverse sense he actually got fairly lucky because, unlike most victims, he was still able to move one eyelid. This allowed him to work out, with a speech therapist, a system of communication which entailed winking as someone slowly read through the alphabet. By using this code, he could painstakingly spell out words, sentences, paragraphs and, finally, this memoir.

The title of the book refers to the metaphors he uses to describe his situation. The physical paralysis leaves him feeling as if he was trapped within a diving bell, as if there is constant pressure pinning his body into immobility. However, at the same time, his mind remains as free as a butterfly and it's flights are as random. In fact, he calls the chapters of this book his "bedridden travel notes" and, indeed, they eloquently relate his journey through memory.

Although Bauby's situation is obviously unique, this book has universal resonance because his condition is itself an apt metaphor for the human condition. It is the essence of Man's dilemma that our infinitely perfectible minds are trapped within such weak containers of flesh and blood. For most of us, at most times, this frustrating dichotomy, between that which makes us godlike and that which makes us mortal, lurks in the background; but the author has it thrust rudely into the foreground, where it necessarily dominates his existence. This makes it all the more remarkable that Bauby is able to "write" about his life with such great humor and generosity of spirit and with so little bitterness.

Public opinion surveys reveal an interesting contrast in modern opinions on the "right to die." Contrary to the accepted wisdom, the so-called right is favored by those who are young and healthy, but opposed by those who are old and sick. The very premise which underlies such a right is the belief that the quality of life experienced by the aged and the ill is so inadequate that they would willingly choose death instead. In fact, the evidence suggests that--despite the anecdotal horror stories with which all of us are familiar--people generally cling to life even in the face of suffering which seems unendurable to the well.

Bauby's book, for all the horror that we naturally feel at his status, is wonderfully optimistic and life affirming. Sure, there are a few moments of well earned self pity, but they are almost completely drowned out by the author's enduring hopes and dreams and memories. Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after this book was published, but in it's pages, he left behind one of the great testament's to the splendor and majesty of the human spirit. In these times when people tend to complain about the pettiest matters, he reminds us that even when life is genuinely difficult, it is still quite beautiful and invaluable and well worth living.

GRADE: A+

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is a dead-on honest book by a man facing an extreme situation unimaginable to most of us, and probably a biggest fear of most of us. Yet Mr. Bauby produces a book (the process of which alone being remarkable) that is beautiful, lyrical and completely without sentimentality. It is my favorite book. I have given many copies to numerous friends and will continue to do so.

Even for a non-believer, like myself, a very interesting book of the Bible. Indeed whether or not you are a Christian, surely the King James version of the Bible must rank as one of the glories of English literature.

I was struck when reading the Book of Job about how much I empathised with Job throughout - he gets a very rough deal. A good man, he is basically beset by trials and misfortunes at the hand of God all because Satan contends with God that Job's is a fair-weather faith.

Thereafter, Job bemoans his lot, despite the efforts of four of his friends to convince him that he should accept his misfortunes (for various unconvincing reasons). This goes to the root of a fundamental question of faith - how can we accept the existence of a benevolent deity when our own and others' existence is beset with woes, and when there is so much (unpunished) injustice in the world?

Part of the answer is belief in redress in the next world. The main counter-argument in the Book of Job, however, seems to be that we cannot possibly appreciate God's reasons for doing things - we are not capable of that. Therefore the answer is a stoical acceptance of our lot and faith that God is, overall, doing things for a good reason. This leap of faith is too much for many (see Camus's "The Myth of Sisyphus" for a critique).

In the Book of Job, God does not answer Job's lamentations at all well. Rather, in a bombastic passage at the end, He boasts about his achievements rather than addressing the philosophical problem - His argument is funadamentally that might equals right.

Fascinating.

For History class, we had to pick a book based on the Civil War for required reading. I decided to choose Cold Mountain because it looked interesting enough, being on top of the suggested reading list, and catching my interest with Amazon reviews online. It was also winner of the National Book Award. After I read it, I was stumbling over why it won this award.
Cold Mountain's plot is about two people trying to reunite after the Civil War. One is Inman, who is basically just wandering around meeting strangers throughout the whole book. Although not very often, he also recollects about experiences he had in the Civil War. This confused me because this book is supposedly about the Civil War, but in reality it was only mentioned it a few times throughout the entire novel. Ada, the other main character, needs help with the farm, which was passed down to her through her father, because she had never worked at a farm before in her life. Luckily, a girl named Ruby comes along and teaches her how to handle the farm. When the book focuses on Ada and Ruby, it is the same thing over and over again, Ada learning how to work on the farm, and Ada thinking about Inman. It all got very boring after a few chapters. Cold Mountain also had some sexuality included, which is inappropriate for middle school.
In conclusion, I thought this book was long and boring. I was hoping for it to mention the Civil War more often, but it rambled on and on with Inman and Ada's very sad lives. I'm still stumped as to why Cold Mountain won the National Book Award. I give this book one out of five stars. The book was so terrible; I used it to put me to sleep every night. Cold Mountain really dragged on about the same subject, which got really boring after the first couple chapters. If you have nothing better to do or have trouble getting to sleep at night, Cold Mountain is the right book for you.

This book is a long, drawn out, meandering, and ultimately disappointing narrative about two people who happen to be living during the American Civil War. The book's best quality is the way it brings to life the forgotten details of life 130 years ago, such as how to churn butter and manually run a farm. But for heaven's sake, if I want to know that kind of trivia, I'll read a non-fiction historical reference. Some have called the narrative "timelessly romantic." Well, I have another word for this book's plotline: "Throwaway." Strip off the facade of irrelevant details about life in the 1800's, and what's left is a relatively shallow soap opera romance. How boring.

(As an aside, I can't help but think that the author's depiction of the Confederacy is way off base. We know the northern states opposed secession; according to this narrative, most people in the south despised it even more (southern soldiers included.) Well, gee... There was SOMEONE in the Confederacy in favor of doing some seceding at some point... wasn't there??? You'd never know it by reading this book.)

Not bad - but so politically correct I nearly threw up. All the men (except for the hero) are idiots; all the women are self-sufficient (eventually) and the last thing they need is a man, except for the bare essentials (which is symbolically illustrated in the lovers one-and-only tryst, which spawns a lovely little girl). Your move.