Welcome back to the StoneGate Apartment Homes Blog! September 8th is International Literacy Day. It was created to promote literacy for everyone everywhere. Annual celebrations focused on literacy education are held throughout the world on this day. For our part, we’ve collected a selection of classics from around the world with reviews from Goodreads.com to share. So head to your favorite Williamsville bookstore or library, or plan to visit the bookmobile which will be here at StoneGate on Tuesday, September 18th from 1:45 pm to 3:15 pm. Another option is to find books available on the internet to read this month.
From Russia
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Tolstoy clashed with its editor Mikhail Katkov over issues that arose in the final installment; therefore, the novel's first complete appearance was in book form.
Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel. . . . The character of Anna was likely inspired, in part, by Maria Hartung (1832–1919), the elder daughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Soon after meeting her at dinner, Tolstoy. . . once had a fleeting daydream of "a bare exquisite aristocratic elbow", which proved to be the first intimation of Anna's character. . . .Fyodor Dostoevsky declared it to be "flawless as a work of art". His opinion was shared by . . . William Faulkner, who described the novel as "the best ever written".
From France
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas' epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.
From Spain
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Lucia Graves (Translator)
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
Who is your favorite international author? Get a copy of one of these titles, settle into your favorite reading nook at your StoneGate home, and learn about another culture via the pages of a book. We hope you enjoy our Western New York autumn! Thanks for stopping by the blog.