For Whom the Bell Tolls

Title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Pages: 16 discs

Genre: Classic

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Robert Jordan is an American in the International Brigades and is in the mountains of Spain working with an antifascist guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930's. Robert Jordan is an explosives technician and needs to put together a team of guerrilla fighters that he can trust to help him blow up a critical bridge at the start of a battle. While entrenched in the mountains, Jordan falls in love with the beautiful Maria, a young Spanish girl.

My Review: I love to be pleasantly surprised by a classic novel that I end up really enjoying. I love Hemingway's honest writing that seems to expose the characters. In this book, I really liked the Spanish phrases interspersed with the English writing, even though I don't speak Spanish.  It helped to remind me about where this book what set.

Green Hills of Africa

Title: Green Hills of Africa

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Pages: 208

Genre: Non-Fiction, Travel

Grade: B

Synopsis: This is the non-fiction account of Ernest Hemingway's two-month hunting safari for big-game animals in East Africa, in the shadows of Mount Kilimanjaro.  He and his companions are hunting rhinoceros as well as other animals in the deer and antelope families (such as kudu).  This book documents their hunting excursions and interactions with the natives.

My Review:  I imagine that this book was a hit back in the 1930s when it was released. Now, with rhinos and some of the other animals very endangered I found the stories a little depressing.  I guess that you could say that hunting is not in my blood.  Generally the book was interesting and kept my attention, but there were parts that were a little dry.