by Sandra Newman
A fun way to pass a little time, The Western Lit Survival Kit is like the survey course you never had (or maybe you did) with a dash of humor and lightheartedness. More than a dash. It's a cute book and it might make a cute stocking stuffer for a teenager or something. It was funnier in some places ...
The Western Lit Survival Kit is a whistlestop tour through Western Literature from the Greeks to the twentieth century. The sections on each author include a brief biography, a summary of major works and then a rating for importance, accessibility and fun. Designed for the non-expert, it's all writt...
Don't let that rather pedestrian first line put you off; this is an irreverent yet avowedly geeky look at the canon of Western European literature. Beginning with the ancient Greeks and ending with the Modernists, Newman provides pithy summaries of famous works with humorous ratings (by importance,...
I’m (probably) in the middle of my “middle-age years,” and I’ve definitely been feeling the “so many books, so little time left (SMBSLTL)” pressure, particularly when it comes to classic literature. Outside of educational settings, the Western canon hasn’t played much of a role in my adult reading l...
Rating: 4* of fiveThe Book Report: The author, a novelist and humorist, takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of Western literature, from The Odyssey through Ulysses and beyond. In her fast-talking tour guide patter, she offers up a large amount of information about each era covered, a medium amount ...
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