bookrblog

British Folktales and Legends

Friday, June 18th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I came across Katherine Briggs as a child with her lovely Dictionary of Fairies. This is a larger sampler of stories, not particularly for children, with a wide variety of tales sorted into categories from Dragons to Jokes to Saints. The stories are all fairly short, some well-known, some ancient, some quite new, some quite new to me. It was incredibly entertaining and very informative, both the wonderful introduction, which really explained the entire science of folk-lore, and the stories themselves which really gave such a good picture of British life. A fantastic book - I read it cover to cover. It was published post-humously from her other writings, but as those books are hard to find, this one is definitely one to get your hands upon.

Rosanna of the Amish

Thursday, June 10th, 2010 | American Literature | No Comments

It’s unusual to find a book about the Amish, by the Amish - in this case, Joseph Yoder was born and raised Amish although as an adult went to college and married “outside”. This was written and published many years ago, probably the ’30s - I came across this second-hand copy in “Shakespeare & Co.” in Paris!

Joseph tells the story of his mother, who was left as a baby to be raised by an Amish woman when her Irish mother died. Rosanna lived her life among the Amish people and by telling her life, Joseph explains a lot of the customs and history of the Amish from his experience, from the beliefs to the music to the habits and some of the mysteries too. It’s a cheerful read, as Joseph despite not agreeing with every belief obviously thought they were a pretty decent bunch of people. A good story.