Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Some Interesting New Classic Books

By Leticia Jensen


Books are among the very first forms of entertainment; people have read them for hundreds of years. But only some books stand out as true classics and these have stories that transcend all times, cultures, and human experiences. These classics surpass others in plot, character, emotional connection, and conflict. Any work that fit this category forms both old and new classic books, with some written decades ago while others were published just last year.

Take some time to discover the following examples of classics, keeping in mind that, even old classics are still considered new because of their timeless qualities. For adults, a range of classic books clamor for attention. Here are some of the choices out there; this is by no means an exhaustive list.

A great one is the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingslover. Its setting is in Belgian Congo in the year 1959. In this piece, Nathan Price is on a mission to snatch uncivilized souls in this country, Congo, from eternal fire. Accompanied by his four young daughters and wife, his efforts are frustrated as the country witness tragic political fallout with Belgium. The fiery Baptism missionary and family is trapped in this bloody fallout.

Other celebrated classics are collections of short stories by Lorrie Moore, Alice Munro and Jhumpa Lahiri. These authors have put together the Birds of America, Selected stories and Interpreter of Maladies respectively. These are among the best classics one can talk about today.

An interesting read is the novel Life of Pi written by Yann Martel. In this book, Pi Patel, a sixteen-year-old boy, and his family board a Japanese cargo ship to leave behind their old lives in India and begin new ones in North America. His father, a zookeeper, brings aboard his zoo animals. Pi possesses a vast knowledge of animal behavior and a voracious appetite for stories. When tragedy strikes and the ship sinks, Pi ends up in a lifeboat accompanied by wild animals only. Among them is an injured zebra, 450-pound Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger, an orangutan, and a hyena.

Pi relies on his knowledge of tiger behaviour to escape death from claws of Parker. The surprising bit is that they later coexist at the sea for close to 230 days. However, Parker gets lost into the jungle once they reach the coast of Mexico. Pi is questioned by Japanese authorities on his extraordinary survival only to realize that they do not agree with his account. This leaves him with no choice but to make up a story that they could believe. Readers have to discover on their own if this could be the true encounter.

For young adults, the choices are just as wide and varying. Long-time classics that are making the new list; due to their timelessness, are The Chronicles of Narnia, Little Women, A Wrinkle in Time, The Giver, The Diary of Anne Frank, and To Kill a Mockingbird. More recent books that have made the classics list are the Harry Potter series, The Book Thief, and The Hunger Games series.

With so many classics to explore, readers young and old will never run out of entertaining reads. All you need is to visit your nearest bookstore and find out what they have. Such good reads are also available online, both in hard and soft copy.




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