A compendium of book links for Monday:

I found this publishing imprint, called Persephone Books, via Danielle Torres, A Work in Progress. Persephone claims to reprint “forgotten classics by twentieth-century (mostly women) writers. Each one in our collection of seventy -two books is intelligent, thought-provoking and beautifully written, and most are ideal presents or a good choice for reading groups.” Persephone sees itself as a “feminist press,” but “our titles are different from those of other feminist publishers in that they are more accessible, more domestic, the feminism is ‘softer’.”
The books look to be, therefore, more accessible to traditional homemaking moms such as myself who want something to make us think , but not something designed to indoctrinate us in the dogma of the feminist cause. Just in a quick perusal, I found a novel called The Home-maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, an adult novel by Noel Streatfield about the family stress cause by the dislocations of World II (Saplings), and Good Things in England, a compendium of historical and literary recipes for traditional Britsh dishes such as frumenty and beef broth.

A list of LaShawn Barber’s favorite books.

Mother Reader gives us Twenty-one Ways to Give a Book. You know, you can give books anytime . . .

David Mills comments on Children of Men by P.D. James, both the book and the movie. Or there’s this scathing review of the movie by a fan of the book, Anthony Sacramone at First Things. The movie version is available on DVD now. I think it’s worth the time if you can tolerate the violence.

Marshall Zeringue muses on twice-told tales, novels based on other authors’ novels or plays. Eldest Daughter gave me a copy of Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike. I’m sure it will show up here on the blog after I’ve read it —unless I hate it. I’m trying to think of books that I like that are take-offs from other people’s books. I did enjoy the Nero Wolfe books that were written by Robert Goldsborough and the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Jill Paton Walsh. Both of those authors made a special effort to take the beloved characters of the original authors and remain true to the original while involving them in further adventures. If you’re going to put a new twist on an old story, either in a book or in a movie, you must know that you’ve taken on a huge task. I think movie makers are not as good about giving credit and even homage to the original work while changing and extending it to fit their own vision. West Side Story was a great version of Romeo and Juliet, but it may be the exception rather than the rule. What books based on other books or movies based on books have you enjoyed? (I’m making a distinction here between faithful, or not-so-faithful, adaptations, such as LOTR (good) and Children of Men (maybe not so good), and completely new works that are based on older works, such as Joyce’s Ulysses or the movie O, Brother, Where Art Thou?, another version of the Odysseus story.)

In Newbery news, Nattie Writes has a Newbery Challenge —to read six Newbery Award books by the end of the year. Also, children’s literature fans need to check out The Newbery Project for more reviews of Newbery Award winning books.

The Carnival of Children’s Literature is up for May at Chicken Spaghetti. Don’t miss the fiesta!

Scroll down or click here for the Saturday Review of Books, May 19th. We’ve got reviews of all sorts of books, children’s literature and adult reading, fiction and non, classics and hot-off-the-presses.