Tips for Tuesday - Books: The House is On Fire & The Red Ear Blows Its Nose

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Books: The House is On Fire and The Red Ear Blows Its Nose

Today we are recommending The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland. This story is a novelization of the horrific Richmond theater fire of 1811 in which 72 people including the Governor of Virginia were tragically killed. Some of the characters in the novel are loosely based on real people. Others are completely made up. 

The book is absolutely riveting and unputdownable. It will have you hanging on every word anxious to see what happens next. On the one side are the good and likable characters like the slave Gilbert who helps several women escape from the fire and Sally Henry Campbell with her devotion to helping care for her injured sister-in-law,  Margaret, and others as well. On the other side are the hateful and unlikeable characters like most of the theater troupe members who want to spread a malicious rumor blaming the fire on an attempted slave revolt and Margaret's husband who insists that Margaret's badly broken leg be set even though she would have a better chance of surviving if it were amputated because he only wants her whole. Very few characters have shades of good and bad most are either one way or the other. Jack, a young stagehand torn between his loyalty to the theater troop and his desire to do the right thing both for the people killed in the tragedy and the blameless slaves by telling the truth about what happened is one of the few.

In fact, the good people in this book are mostly the slaves and the women. The men want to be in charge and make the decisions but the decisions they make are detrimental particularly to the women and the slaves who have no say in them. However, of course, when there is credit to be taken for doing what is right the men are always there to accept it even if they are not the ones who rightly deserve the credit. Most of the men in this story and their actions are absolutely infuriating. The book is a perfect allegory for the current time we are living in which some people want to control the lives of others in ways that are not only none of their business but not necessarily best for the people whom they are trying to control. If reading this book doesn't stir up your anger, maybe you should examine your own morals.

This book will be released on April 4, 2023.

Today we are recommending The Red Ear Blow Its Nose. This absolutely delightful book of poetry is perfect for fans of Shel Silverstein. It is full of short amusing poems about such subjects as noses, animals, poetry, and more even completely nonsensical things like red ears blowing their noses. If you read between the lines there are some important truths in some of these poems about gratitude, self-respect, and more, but the lessons are imparted in such a fun way that they are easily digested without the reader (or listener) necessarily knowing that they are actually learning lessons, especially if that reader or listener is a young child. However, you don't have to be a kid to enjoy this book, it is appealingly amusing for every age.

This book will be released on April 1.

And that's our view. Tune in tomorrow for Where-To-Go Wednesday.