Goodreads Of July 2021

I had enrolled in a writing course recently. It was an online reading course where every week they used to add new chapters along with interesting assignments. July month’s reading was pretty much from those assignments.

I read 5 classic short stories in digital format and a book from the library.

The Story of an Hour is interesting with a unique ending. It’s about a woman who after finding out about the death of her husband behaves so strangely, that even she is surprised. Her emotions are righteous or not, there is a conflict. What happens at the climax gives the story a unique twist. It’s an impactful short story on feminism and also my Second Pick of the month.

The Gift of the Magi is a classic short story about a loving couple who want to give Christmas gifts to each other and for that, they sell their most prized possessions. It’s a lovely story beautifully portraying human emotions and love.

The Yellow Wall-Paper is a psychological short story about a lady who is living at a place away from her house for a change of air. Her doctor-husband takes care of her and he is hopeful she will be recovered from her depression soon. Social bondages, extreme care, and her mental state are beautifully described in the story. The reader will also find some elements of horror in the depiction.   

S. No.	Title	Author	Format	Genre	Rating
1	The Story of an Hour	Chopin, Kate	Digital	Classics	4/5
2	The Gift of the Magi	Henry, O.	Digital	Classics	3/5
3	The Yellow Wall-Paper	Perkins Gilman, Charlotte	Digital	Classics	3/5
4	A Christmas Carol	Dickens, Charles	Digital	Classics	5/5
5	No Beast So Fierce: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Man-Eater in History	Huckelbridge, Dane *	Book	Nonfiction	3/5
6	The Masque of the Red Death	Poe, Edgar Allan	Digital	Classics	3/5

A Christmas Carol is about Ebenezer Scrooge – a miser who is always bitter and rude to everyone around him. When he gets invited to dinner for Christmas Eve by his nephew, he simply declines the invitation saying that what good is there to celebrate. To add that he also curses the underprivileged people saying they are just burdens. People around him just ignore his meanness.
The same night he is visited by his dead business partner’s soul who asks him to be ready for 3 more such visits. Further, he is visited by the Ghost of Christmas past, present, and future. Scared to death he spent time with ghosts and visits different places with them.
The idea of all those visits was to give him a perspective about life, about the Christmas spirit, and to see goodness in people around him. This would be my First Pick of the month.

No Beast So Fierce is written in a documentary fashion about a man-eater Bengal tigress who ruled the regions of Nepal and India with kills over 240, more than any other creature across the world, at least in records. The author covered every essential part while telling this story – loss of habitat, reasons for becoming a man-eater, ease of killing humans as compared to animals, the role of Mughals in hunting, the impact of colonialism by British, respect of locals for forest and animals, the background of Jim Corbett and at the climax, a face-off between both hunters. The book is beautifully written, I got completely immersed into it. 

The Masque of the Red Death is a short story about a prince who along with his associates hides at a secret place to avoid the plague spreading in his city. Even after having all safety measures, would he be able to defy Death? Situation changes when an anonymous guest breaks into that secret palace. The story is interesting and makes a lasting impression on the reader’s mind.

Let me know if you have read any of them and how much you liked them?

Happy Reading! Keep Traveling !!!