Victor Hugo‘s The Hunchback of Notre Dame is the story of a man who was cast aside because of his looks… it is a story that challenges us, as readers, as people, to not judge a book by it’s cover, but to delve deeper, to look beyond the surface to the heart of the person, and the story, and find the depth within.
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Some may find it hard to believe that the characters they know and love can be found in stories written by someone who lived (and died) over 300 years ago.
As noted on Amazon: CHARLES PERRAULT (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known of his tales include Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (Little Red Riding Hood), Cendrillon (Cinderella), Le Chat Botté (Puss in Boots), La Belle au bois Dormant (The Sleeping Beauty), and Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard). Some of Perrault’s versions of old stories may have influenced the German versions published by the Brothers Grimm more than 100 years later. The stories continue to be printed and have been adapted to opera, ballet (such as Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty), theatre, and film.
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Moby Dick, whether you have read it before or not, you have likely heard portions of Herman Melville‘s tale before.
As Amazon notes: Despite strange warnings, Ishmael, a young schoolteacher from Manhattan, signs up for a voyage aboard the Pequod, a whaling ship departing from New Bedford, Massachusetts. While on shore, he strikes up a friendship with Queequeg, a tattooed South Seas cannibal. The unlikely friends are hired for the journey—only to discover their commander will be Captain Ahab, a brooding, one-legged, tyrannical old man fixated on avenging Moby Dick, the great white whale who crippled him.
This nineteenth-century classic is at once a thrilling adventure, a timeless allegory, and “the greatest of American novels” (The Atlantic Monthly).
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As Amazon notes: Mix equal parts creativity, bewilderment, and complete nonsense and you have Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. On a day that begins like any other, Alice notices a rabbit—a rabbit with a pocket watch. She chases after it and stumbles down a hole… and keeps falling and falling and falling. That’s when things start to get weird. She encounters a bizarre cast of characters — the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, a pipe-smoking caterpillar, the Pigeon, a Duchess, the Cook, and the decapitation-happy Queen of Hearts. It’s an adventure of completely intolerable logic, as witty as it is completely insane.
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The Amazon description for this edition notes: The Canterbury Tales are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
Copies of the Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
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Among the characters that have captured imaginations for generations are the Three Musketeers… how many children have run around, play acting as those infamous characters, shouting out with their friends, “All For One, and One For All!” A battle cry of loyalty, a reminder that no matter what they would stand together, face any challenge that came their way as one, and in their Union was their greatest strength, and with their friends and true allies at their back they could take on all who came their way.
It is no wonder these characters spawned multiples books, and no multiples movies when their charisma is added to their determination, or at the very least, their friendship.
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Copies of the Three Musketeers Collection have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
Past entries here at CheerUp.Fun have mentioned the relaxing escapist nature of many books… the way they transport us to far off places, and take us on grand adventures… but there is another very wonderful and amazing aspect to books. The fantastic things they teach us.
They share with us the wonders of the world we live in, the lives of those who came before us, the events that shaped the countries in which we live.
Copies of The Solar Eclipse of 2017 Books have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
Utopian novels became their own genre, and were quite popular, but we seem to have drifted away from the Utopian creations, and are currently seeing more of their counterpart, the Dystopian these days.
Readers looking for Utopian works often turn to speculative fiction genres such as science fiction and fantasy as opposed to contemporary works that are typically grounded in every day reality, with a dash on unexpected, or “what if” thrown in to keep the stories alive with possibility and interest.
For many the appeal of Utopian Fiction may seem obvious… the lure of an ideal future or environment. In many ways it epitomizes escapist entertainment. Dystopian Fiction on the other hand can be harder to understand the appeal of… but for many who enjoy it, whether or not they are even aware of it, immersing themselves in a world in which the people are the heroes by the very act of surviving and thriving can be heartening, reassuring and encouraging. It can provide the reader with the belief we will indeed triumph over any obstacle we face, where Utopian literature seems to create the impression that we will mold our environment into our idea of perfection, no matter how much effort is required.
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Copies of Thomas More’s Utopia have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
Today’s selection is by Edward Bellamy. His Utopian vision is presented in Looking Backward 2000-1887. Written in 1888 it captured the minds and imaginations of his audience, most likely for very different reasons than it caught my eye as I was looking for something to add to my infamous to be read stack. They would have viewed everything in here as pure fantasy, idealistic hope (it is a Utopian work after all), and full of predictions of the future. For our modern audience, by contrast, it is a chance to glimpse what someone once thoughts our society would already have been, and be moving beyond. A chance for us to consider all the potential those came before us felt we, and our parents, and grandparents, had. To take a moment to look around, and consider what we are doing with all that we do in fact have, the things even the most creative of authors could not have imagined, as well as those things he might have hoped were coming, and move forward with a bit of thought, deliberation, and consideration.
Perhaps, somewhere out there, an author is considering writing their own Utopian piece… Looking Back 3050 – 2020. What Utopian ideals might we hope it contains, or are we deeply entrenched in a period of dystopian novels/movies and television shows?
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Copies of Looking Backward 2000 to 1887 have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
Ask people who love to travel about their trips, and the things they love most about going to far off places, and it feels like the majority of the ones I have spoken with talk about how their eyes were opened, how they found themselves viewing the world in new ways as another culture showed them different ways of living, different ways of viewing their own every day life, and different and equally awesome scenic vistas made them appreciate their home in an entirely new way, and realize how unique and wonderful the different regions of the world are.
Fairy Tales from around the world can bring these two things together — transporting us into another very real culture here on Earth. Giving us a glimpse of the childhood stories others grew up with, helping us to appreciate the lessons of their youth, and perhaps understand one another in a new way, all while being entertained.
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Copies of Russian and Polish Fairy Tale Books have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
“The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
I could not help but be amused as I found this description of Don Quixote at Amazon – Don Quixote, errant knight and sane madman, with the company of his faithful squire and wise fool, Sancho Panza, together roam the world and haunt readers’ imaginations as they have for nearly four hundred years.
“There is no book so bad…that it does not have something good in it.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Copies of Don Quixote have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
The part of the “ballads and tales” section that leapt out at me is:
Another very popular version for children was Howard Pyle‘s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, which influenced accounts of Robin Hood through the 20th century. Pyle’s version firmly stamp Robin as a staunch philanthropist, a man who takes from the rich to give to the poor.
For those with a keen interest in the Howard Pyle Robin Hood adventures, you may be interested in this collected edition, which brings together 5 stories. Amazon lists it as including: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, Maid Marian, Young Robin Hood, Popular Ballads of the Olden Time
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Copies of Robin Hood have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
Certainly we all seem aware, “All children, except one, grow up.” And there are some adults who have started to understand why that one did not want to grow up.
While some are aware of just one Peter Pan novel by J.M. Barrie, it was in fact part of a series of stories featuring characters and a fantastical environment that captured the imaginations of multiple generations, generating not only movies and television shows, but also further books inspired by Peter, Wendy, the Lost Boys and Neverland itself.
Publication Order of Peter Pan Books
The Little White Bird (1902)
Peter Pan (1904)
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906)
When Wendy Grew Up (1908)
Peter and Wendy (1909)
Chronological Order of Peter Pan Books
The Little White Bird (1902)
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906)
Peter Pan (1904)
When Wendy Grew Up (1908)
Peter and Wendy (1909)
(The Publication and Chronological order lists were found at Book Series In Order – http://www.bookseriesinorder.com/peter-pan/)
Copies of Peter Pan have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
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Copies of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
As Amazon.com notes in their description: The Elements of Style is an American English writing style guide. It is one of the most influential and best-known prescriptive treatments of English grammar and usage in the United States. It originally detailed eight elementary rules of usage, ten elementary principles of composition, and “a few matters of form” as well as a list of commonly misused words and expressions. Updated editions of the paperback book are often required reading for American high school and college composition classes.
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Copies of Strunk’s Elements of Style have been added to the CheerUp.Fun August eBook Club. The first 100 people to join should automatically receive a copy. For more information on how to join the CheerUp.Fun August 2017 eBook Club Click Here.
Amazon.com notes: The classic holiday tale of love, devotion, and the art of giving—written by one of the world’s best-known short-story authors—will delight those both new to and familiar with this timeless narrative.
The Amazon.com listing for a collection of O. Henry writings supplies these further details: William Sydney Porter (1862–1910), known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer. O. Henry’s short stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. Among his most famous stories, Cabbages and Kings was his first collection of stories, followed by The Four Million. The Gift of the Magi is about a young couple who are short of money but desperately want to buy each other Christmas gifts.
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A limited number of copies of The Gift of the Magi have been added to the August CheerUp dot Fun eBook Club. For more info on the eBook Club, and how to join, click here.
Free eBooks as a thank you for visiting CheerUp dot Fun.
We have a limited number of copies of most of the books that have been recommended so far this month on CheerUp.Fun, if you are interested in receiving free books, directly into your Amazon Kindle account it’s quite simple.
Follow the directions at this link to join our book club. For each of the books we currently have in the book club there are 70 or more copies available, so the sooner you join, the more likely you are to receive a copy.
Books include:
The Red Badge of Courage
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg (2 editions)
Bulfinch’s Mythology
Charles Dickens: The Complete Christmas Books and Stories
A Christmas Carol
The Scarlet Letter
Oz: The Complete Collection
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (AmazonClassics Edition)
The Complete Leatherstocking Tales (includes Last of the Mohicans)
The Iliad (AmazonClassics Edition)
The Odyssey (AmazonClassics Edition)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (AmazonClassics Edition)
Tom Sawyer Collection — All 4 Books
Mark Twain 12 Novels, 195 Short Stories
Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook
Spontaneous Activity in Education
Montessori Method Scientific Pedagogy
Gods of Mars
Warlord of Mars
Thuvia, Maid of Mars
Chessmen of Mars
Anne of Green Gables Collection
Anne of Green Gables (#1)
Behind the Scenes: or 30 Years a Slave and 4 Years in the White House
Sherlock Holmes: The Collection
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Slave Narrative Six Pack (includes 12 Years a Slave)
Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay Or, The Disappearing Fleet
Boy Scouts Mysterious Signal or Perils of the Black Bear Patrol
Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone The Plot Against Uncle Sam
Boy Scouts in a Submarine : or, Searching an Ocean Floor
To get copies of books recommended August 2017 by CheerUp.Fun, go to https://whispercast.amazon.com/join/QEYIep2uIkh87x9gC6o4AvnuKFSV3iBD and follow the prompts to join the CheerUp.Fun whispercast BookClub.
The books will appear in your Amazon Kindle Library, and you can go to Manage Content and Devices to send them to wherever you read Kindle Books.
At this time we are ONLY able to offer a Kindle eBook Club. Thank you for your understanding.
The volume selected here is called The Leatherstocking Tales… written by the American writer James Fenimore Cooper, the Leatherstocking Tales is a classic series of five historical novels featuring the hero Natty Bumppo. This collection includes the following:
The Deerslayer
The Last of the Mohicans
The Pathfinder
The Pioneers
The Prairie
While it is true modern society does not look upon single parents, and children born out of wedlock in the same fashion they did during author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s lifetime, he lived between 1804 and 1864, there are other aspects of the story that are still quite relevant. For instance, the father of the child does not wear a Scarlet Letter, in part because of choices Hester Prynne has made, but the fact remains a double standard is revealed within the story. There is also the topic of emotional guilt, and the burden of carrying a secret, things that every generation can relate to, regardless of what the secret is, or what one feels guilty about.
While there are a great many challenges that await any Hollywood production when they attempt to tackle a creative work that started in another medium, the Scarlet Letter may seem easier than most. With few visual effects / special effects to take on, the other world that seeks to be created is our very real past, as opposed to a difficult to imagine and bring to life future. However, I do not recommend those who adore the story of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter watch the 1995 film featuring Demi Moore. While in several places they captured the Puritan environment, and some of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s descriptions of the New World in beautiful technicolor, the film falls short in delivering the full impact of the story, and in many ways neglects to carry through on the painful all too human dilemmas and consequences these characters were subjected to in favor of what, for lack of a better term, could be described as a Hollywood Happy Ending. Then again, if you ever wondered what the Scarlet Letter would have been like with a Hollywood Happy Ending, in place of the author’s envisioning of real life turmoil, perhaps the film is for you.
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It feels like the most prolific author within this sub-genre is G. Harvey (George Harvey) Ralphson, who lived between 1879 and 1940.
From Amazon.com:
George Harvey Ralphson (1879–1940) was a writer of juvenile adventure books in the early 20th century. Best known for his “Boy Scout” series of adventures, he was one of the first American Boy Scouts Masters.
This ebook edition is collection of collected works of G. Harvey Ralphson. The edition comes with eleven books, active table of contents, active navigation.
Included Works:
The Boy Scout Camera Club
Boy Scouts In A Submarine
Boy Scouts In An Airship
Boy Scouts In Mexico
Boy Scouts In Southern Waters
Boy Scouts In The Canal Zone
Boy Scouts In The North Sea
Boy Scouts In The Philippines
Boy Scouts Mysterious Signal
Boy Scouts On Hudson Bay
Boy Scouts On Motorcycles
Because the works of George Harvey Ralphson have gone into the Public Domain, some of his stories (including Boy Scouts in the Northwest Fighting Fores Fires) are available, individually, for free. The edition where the above stories are collected together however, is currently not a free volume.
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