Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved By Beauty, An Intimate Portrait of My Grandmother by Dorothy Day's you gest granddaughter, Kate Hennessy. Mostly a summary of existing biographies and memoirs at first, it becomes a not-bad memoir in its own right once it covers the years the author was present.
True, this thread is down a bit. I haven't posted much because I am having a hard time finishing anything. I have started four books that were Christmas gifts but haven't finished a one. Very disappointing... And we've also lost Ismitje for a while. He had one of the iconic, super cool avatars here at BS, but I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing him for a while. I think he lost an internet bet...
Time Management: An Introduction to the Franklin System by Richard I. Winwood is a short book copyrighted in 1990 that I found on my floor. I don't remember reading it in school and I don't know how I got it. The last digit of the ISBN number in the book is different from what www.barnesandnoble.com says.
Memoirs of Montparnesse, the autobiography of a Canadian who headed to Paris in 1928 at the age of 18 with dreams of literary glory, by John Glassco. There are hundreds of such memoirs in English, and I've read many of them. This one is unique in that it was written pretty much as it happened -- the first three chapters within weeks of his arrival, and the rest in 1932 as he is waiting to undergo, then recovering from, an operation that saves his life (most such books are written from the perspective of middle age or older). This book wasn't published until 1970, though, mainly because, like most 20 year old men, he spends a lot of energy on trying to get laid. He went on to be a respectable Canadian poet, which is not what seemed to be in the cards.
Finally finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969571-ready-player-one TL: DR This is a good story, really 3.5-4 out of 5 stars. That it took me two months to read, going days between sittings, says a lot about the story having problems. If you are willing to tolerate immersion in 80s geek culture you will enjoy the story. If you love 80s geek culture you will adore the story. If you would find 80s geek culture tiring, you will give up by the end of the first chapter. ------ It is a very well done story, in the end, but, I want to caution reader: You have to be very willing to be near-bombarded with '80s geek references, particularly in the early parts. It is infused with the personal computer revolution and home game console developments of the 1980s. Games (computer, table-top role-playing) and films beloved by nerds are name-dropped at such a rate that I found it distracting, even annoying, even though I lived through that era as a young adult. It feels at times as if the author wants to prove his own 'cred' as a top class nerd of the era. Everything is the mysterious deceased benefactor's favorite, most played, most watched, top-ranked... It grows tiring and imponderable. The romantic story was weak through the middle portions because it was idealized and obvious even considering the obvious ways for a story occurring largely within the fictional virtual universe of OASIS. I literally skipped about 50 pages in the middle in which the central character is filled with angst and lost. It's not that I'm unwilling to read stories in which characters have such difficulties. I just felt that part of the story was immaturely presented. What works is the main story arc of a young late teen in dire circumstances of a future America in which current income inequality trends have reached their natural conclusion. He lives a life in which his talents are not recognized or respected by a family which appears to hate him (Harry Potter?). He obsessively works to crack the code of a game released on the death of the inventor and driving philosopher for OASIS, a virtual world in which everyone is, essentially, directing a Dungeons and Dragons type of avatar using a variety of interfaces from simple tablet to full body suits. The winner of this world-wide game will inherit control over the OASIS corporate and virtual world, and the riches that come with that position. Our hero is the first to crack the first puzzle and test of the game, makes virtual friends along the way, fights corporate evil who both in the virtual world and real world try to kill him and others. That story works so well that the book is definitely a winner. Nit pick: Our hero's initial living situation is preposterous (trailer homes stacked 6 or more high in the tornado alley of Oklahoma City... I almost stopped reading in the first chapter because my eyes rolled so hard at that idiotic idea).
His Invention So Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren by Adrian Tinniswood This was a Christmas gift from (A) someone who hasn't read the book, and (B) someone who thinks that after 25 years of marriage, I still need an "introduction" to my wife's family. Her moither's side of the family is directly descended from Christopher Wren's brother. Wren was a true Renaissance Man, a man who was a great astronomer and physicist, medical explorer and mathematician before finally being corralled by family back into the endeavor his family always wanted him to enter: architecture. And pretty nice career he had in that: St Paul's cathedral is really stunning. The fact that this is what London looked like some 300 years later makes Wren's contributions seem almost blessed by God. Once a personal note, I almost went to William and Mary and for years the school has trumpeted the Wren Building, which is the oldest building on any college in the US, as having been designed by Wren. The school doesn't assert quite so forcefully anymore, using waffling terms like "probably designed". Tinniswood doesn't even address it here. Ultimately, I don't care as much for biography. The book/writing is OK, the subject is inspirational, and yet, this was a slog for me. I've been lugging this bad boy around with me for two months. I've been to St Pauls. I spent an entire day there. I would rather have that memory, plus the read of Wren's wikipedia page than the many hours I spent gutting my way through this work.
Farewell to the East End -- Jennifer Worth OK, I am reading backwards here, this being the third of Worth's memoirs, but it is the one my daughter left behind on her most recent visit. Wirth's first memoir is, of course, Call the Midwife, and all three books are the basis for the show, Call the Midwife. Like many on here, I presume, I almost always think that books are better than the TV shows and movies they inspire, but here, the singular stunningness of the show means that they are my point of reference, not the books. This work is light and breezy and extremely accessible, but when it tries to go deeper on some aspect of delivery or post natal care, it just sounds a bit preachy. It's been fun to see how the show has managed to avoid the same pitfall. Jennifer Worth, and her story, are worthy of the acclaim they've received. Worth chose to go into midwifery in a postwar London slum seemingly unchanged from a Dickens novel because she longed for adventure. I'm a former missionary who married a former missionary and we were street workers in the District. But the wife and I, who also saw it as an adventure (along with the hundreds of similarly-minded workers) had a faith to sustain us. I was hoping to see what sustained Worth in the books, but it's not here. That she was able to survive for four years without a moral or ideological underpinning is significant. I don't much care for memoirs, but this one is significant. I've been trying for years to convince one guy, any guy, to watch Call the Midwife. To the best of my knowledge, I've failed. Maybe I'll have better luck trying to convince a reader to give this a go...
Anthony Trollope -- The Small House at Allington I read the first four of the Chronicles of Barsetshire back in '08 and '09. I very much enjoyed them all, but have not read any Trollope since. I'm about 1/3 through this one. It's beautifully written, but it seems we're headed toward unhappiness and heartbreak all around. I was pleased to read the one-chapter look-in at Septimus Harding, the lead character of The Warden.
Being Geniuses Together 1920-1930 a memoir of the expatriate scene in Paris by Robert McAlmon, revised and supplemented with new chapters written by Kay Boyle. An interesting book. McAlmon's personal estimation of his own genius erred a bit into the "generously overestimated" zone, but he's a decent enough memoirist (He's most famous for marrying rich women and living off their family's money: Ernest Hemingway thus called him "Robber McAlimony."). Boyle is a pretty competent novelist, and her experiences are interesting as well: while modernism was more open to women's contributions than most movements, there aren't a lot of memoirs written by women from this era.
The Lost City of Z(ed) by New Yorker writer David Grann. Heard an interview with this guy about his new book (which just turned up on the hold shelf at the library for me) AND saw a trailer for the movie. A good book about an English explorer who disappeared in the Amazon on his third or fourth attempt to find a lost city, and about the several people who went in search of him and, in the case of about 100 or them, also disappeared. The movie is going to be a field day for make-up and special effects people, since there are A LOT of diseases the affect the explorers and their animals, and quite a few parasites, many of which ARE VISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE!!!!! I always thought that, had I ever been destined to be an explorer, I'd be more of a tundra/arctic guy, certainly NOT a tropic/rainforest guy. This book confirms that suspicion.
A.J. Liebling -- The Jollity Building The first part, dealing with the Jollity Building, was an enjoyable look into a mostly vanished subculture, but I was particularly amused by the second section, which relayed the life and times of Colonel Stingo. Great fun. Overall, the work felt to me like something that would be at home on the shelf next to Innocents Abroad and Roughing It.
I finished reading the Dr. Suri novels and then moved into a five week period of 80-85 hour work weeks in which I didn't even have time to read the daily paper. Things have normalized a bit. In advance of the launch of the Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods I re-read the book, this time the author's preferred version. I was curious if I could tell where the 12,000 extra words were; there was one section where I thought I could. But neither was it ever noticeably too much or overdone. I had to take a couple of flights recently and picked up Andy Weir's novel The Martian. Pretty amazing that it started off as self-published and an e-book; it's terrific. Couple of weeks and I get to go check out a dozen or so books at the library, and I cannot wait.
It's not just beginners and/or people aren't famous who self-publish. I heard that Stephen King self-published.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by the guy who wrote the last book I read, New Yorker contributer David Grann. Basically, a true crime book from the 1920s, when several members of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma (who were quite wealthy because of oil rights revenue) were murdered with near impunity. Like, possibly 100 or more. Haven't gotten to the part about the "Birth of the FBI in the subtitle yet.
Ten Walks and Two Talks by poets Andy Fitch, with Jon Cotner joining him on two talks. Very short, quite interesting for me. Also... Entheogens and the Future of Religions edited by Robert Forte. I was very careful to keep the title concealed since I do about 80% of my reading in the two hours I have for "office hours" at the local coffeeshop, which is across the street from the courthouse, which means a lot of law enforcement types stop by for coffee. Also there are an assortment of hipsters, and I don't want them to think I might be holding, either.
Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady - Samuel Richardson "If you have once thoroughly entered on 'Clarissa' and are infected by it, you can't leave it." - Thomas Babington Macaulay
DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences, a book which I first heard referenced (multiple times) on Joe Rogan podcasts by Rick Strassman. It's basically a psychedelic version of Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams. The last part, which I'll probably get to tonight, seems to be a lot more autobiographical, focusing on the problems faced by a researcher in this field at the present time.
Insert "written by" in front of Rick Strassman. It was referred to multiple times by Joe Rogan and a few guests.
The Best Minds of My Generation: A Literary History of the Beats, a collection of transcribed lectures about his writer friends, esp. Kerouac, Burroughs, Corso, and himself, as well as influences like Oswald Spengler and William Carlos Williams by Allen Ginsberg.