Books that Form Us – #2.

Second in a Series of My Book Reviews.

 Good books do more than entertain; they shape the soul in ways that are subtle yet profound.  Here are the extensive books I read in May and June 2026.

Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England transcribed by John W. Parker and Son (1857).

✒️ Each of these 108 ballads, poems, and songs in this collection were written in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and compiled into this 1857 transcription by John W. Parker and Son.  This became a lengthy reading foray for me, not only because of the number of works, but also due to the language style that I needed to adjust my understanding of the writing style especially.  This is a very good book if you enjoy this sort of language arts.

Silent Struggles by Ann S. Stephens (1865).

✒️ Wow . . . what a lengthy novel filled with sea adventure!  Admittedly, this took me a couple of weeks to read, and I am a fast reader.  I somewhat enjoyed it, mostly for the themes of bravery and fate.  Amid a violent Boston storm, a young man and an aging minister, strangers to one another bound by an uncanny sense of fate, wait on a hill for a troubled ship to reach the harbor.  Their connection deepens when they witness a desperate escape at sea: Barbara Stafford, a courageous young woman fleeing mortal danger.  As the storm intensifies, both men show remarkable resolve, and the youth ultimately plunges into the raging waters to save her.  Their collision of among these lives sets the stage for a story shaped by bravery, destiny, and the unexpected ties that form in moments of crisis.

Jingle in the Jungle by Aldo Giunta (1957).

✒️  This is a short story that proves not every written tome had clean language back in the 1950s.  I dumped this story because of the taking of God’s name in vain.  I didn’t get past the second page.  This science fiction shortie was first published in “If Worlds of Science Fiction,” June 1957.