This last semester I had to read quite a lot of literature whether that was an actual book, a play, or poem. So I thought I would share some of the pieces of literature that I read and give my opinion on them.

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

This is acutally a play tha I read during my English 102 course and probably my favorite. It is set in the Depression period about a mother (Amanda) and her two adult childern, Laura and Tom. Tom is both a character in the play and the narrator. The play is Tom remembering a past event, which is the main plot of the play. Amanda wants Laura to be married and hopes that Tom can help her find a husband. Tom is not happy at the warehouse that he works or at his home and wishes to leave, this idea makes him and Amanda clash a lot. Toward the end of the play a gentleman caller comes over (a friend of Tom) and Laura realizes that it is the same man that she had a crush on in high school. Both Amanda and Laura hope that something can come out of this meeting, but they find out a little too late that the gentleman caller is already engaged. Because Tom had invited the gentleman caller and didn’t tell anyone he was engaged Amanda blames Tom for embarassing them. This last fight between Tom and Amanda drives him to leave and join the merchant sailors nver seeing his family again, although he never does forget his sister, Laura.

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

This book is extremely interesting because when it was originally published people believed that Dante had literally traveled through hell because of the great detailed given in the book. The Inferno, which is actually part of the complete work called The Divine Comedy, is about Dante’s (the character)journey through hell with his guide, Virgil. He travels through hell in hope to reach purgatory and eventually heaven, and the only way to get to heaven is through hell. When I read this one it was quite werid and scary, but defenitely a piece of literature worth reading. In fact there are many authors who have used The Inferno as an inspiration for their own work.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar… by Thomas Cathart & Daniel Klein

I used this book for my Critical Thinking class and it was very unhelpful. It didn’t explain philosophical terms very well and had more jokes in it than actual philosophical ideas. It is supposed to help you understand philosophy through jokes, but it doesn’t! And one thing to be aware in this book is that some of the jokes can be sexually crude or have foul language. Some of the joke were funny, but the book is not worth it. Though one of my favorite jokes had to do with inductive logic and it was:

Holmes and Watson are on a camping tri. In the middle of the night Homes wakes up and give Watson a nudge.
“Watson,” he says,”look up in the sky and tell me what you can see.”
“I see millions of stars, Homes,” says Watson.
“And what can you conclude from that Watson?”
Watson thinks for a moment. “Well,” he says, “astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astronomically, I observe that Saturn in is Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignificant. Uh, what does it tell you Holmes?”
“Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!”

These three were just some of the ones I thought I would give my opinion on. There were a lot more that you can check out.

English 102

• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (this one is really interesting too)
• Death Knocks by Woody Allen (this one is actually really funny!)
• Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (I would not recommend this book, it was about soldiers and what they carried during the war, but it had quite a lot of foul language)
• The Experience by Jill Tweedie
• Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 55 by William Shakespeare
• When Death Comes by Mary Oliver
• One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
• Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas
• Cinderella and The Farmer’s Wife by Anne Sexton
• Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
• The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy
• Five Ways to Kill a Man by Edwin Brock