The House on Mango Street

I enjoyed The House on Mango Street, but I probably would have enjoyed it even more if I hadn't read it right after reading The Frozen Thames.

Both are short stories and both are worth the read. The House on Mango Street is vignettes from a young girl's year living in a house on Mango Street, a poor area of Chicago.

Some of the passages are so beautiful.

"People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth."

"She [her grandmother] looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best of what she got or was she sorry she couldn't be the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window."

The Frozen Thames

I just adored this book.

The Frozen Thames is a collection of short stories set during each freezing of the Thames from 1142 until 1895. (The Thames probably won't freeze again because of the structure of the current bridge.)

I'd been waiting for this book for ages on paperback swap. When you wait for a book for a long time, it can be a disappointment if it doesn't live up to what you'd hoped. Luckily, The Frozen Thames was even better than I was expecting.

I'm not a big fan of short stories, but thought this sounded interesting as it was historical fiction related to an event that occurred 44 times.

The book itself is gorgeous. It's small. The pages are glossy and have full color illustrations. The pictures are works of art of the Thames from times when it froze. My picture below is terrible, but hopefully you can get the idea.


A review on the back of the book calls it "sparse but satisfying." I'd say it's sparse, but oh so satisfying. Everything about this book is beautiful.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

I'd read this book of Sherlock Holmes stories when I was 12 or 13. I recently reread it and remembered many of the stories. How could you forget The Speckled Band?

My family and I visited London when I was in middle school. We visited 221B Baker Street. I picked up a cool illustrated copy while we were there. I also remember listening to the audio versions of the stories while we'd lay out on our deck and look at the stars.

Sherlock Holmes stories give me warm fuzzies from these memories.

I enjoyed the reread. The mysteries were really fun. I remembered a couple of the outcomes, but not all of them. I like how they are told from the view point of Dr. Watson, who despite seeing Holmes solve mystery after mystery, is constantly in awe of his methods.

If you haven't read them and like mysteries, I highly suggest any of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries.