The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton "His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen."
I liked Rabbit, Run in college. Tried The Centaur over summer, but DNF. Can't remember why. The Bardo of Waking Life, the image of which was hard to find because the movie Waking Life was directed by Richard Linkletter, who shares the same first name of the book's author, Richard Grossinger, and a lot more people look for the movie than for this book.
Funny, because I went to read The Centaur last year as my second in this volume, after Of the Farm, but DNFed it then. I started again recently after reading the other two and am more into it this time.
Several years ago I read the most realistic, edge-of-my-seat time travel story, Connie Willis's multiple award winner Doomsday Book about both a modern-day pandemic and a time traveler ministering to people during the Black Plague. It's phenomenal. Last week, I read another of her books in the same general universe (that is, time travel centered out of Oxford) that has quickly become one of my all-time favorite books. To Say Nothing of the Dog really shows the author's range, because where the first book was as heavy and often hopeless (and full of true bravery as the caregivers of plague victims keep at it), this one is light and delightful and hopeful. It's flat-out fun. I am not sure I've read two so closely related books that are as different in tone as these two, or as equally wonderful in their own way.
I seldom read love stories. Two months ago, I read "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami. I really enjoyed it. So I decided to read more books about love. Paul Coelho's "Eleven Minutes" was about desire, love, sex, loneliness, etc. Was I enlightened by tis book? Paul Coelho's books are easy to read, but I probably did not grasp the true meaning of this novel. In the middle, there was a lot of sex scenes. I am not the type of guy who usually got repulsed by sex, but I skipped the description of the sex scenes. In fact, I did read reviews on amazon.com that some reviewers thought the book was all about sex. I can see why some people would dislike the book.
The Kill Chain -- Christian Brose This is a thoroughly depressing book. It is mostly about how the US is about to fall behind China in a new, high tech, arms race. America, after two stunningly successful major campaigns against Iraq, has not modernized at all and would prefer to fight the next war like the previous two. In other words, with secure forward staging bases, clear (and largely unearned) air superiority, and with a few "heritage" platforms leading the way. China, on the other hand, was scared shitless by America's success and realized they couldn't meet the US on the same battlefield, so they have developed a distributed network of thousands of drones, sensors, cruise missiles and satellites. They developed the first ever anti-ship cruise missile -- the DF-21 with a 1000 mile radius -- designed to attack the crown jewel of America's force projection arsenal: the carrier. Of course, the US military has been aware of the threat for quite some time, but the usual suspects will keep us from adapting. The US is doubling down on the sleek, stealth-looking Large Surface Combatant (in otherwords, a cruiser) and will maybe get a dozen of these things when we ought to get 100 self guided Orca subs. There's very little prescriptive in the book. Washington, the Pentagon and Silicon Valley need to do a better job. But how likely is that going to happen? Hence the pessimism on the part of author and reader. Sigh.
Visions of Copy - Jack Kerouac "I see Cody's face occupying the West Coast like a big cloud and that must be because after him there's only water and then China out there for me or he represents all that's left of America for me." It took me more than 3 months, but I finally finished this. Whew!!
I do not know how many Americans were required to read this in the Middle School, but I read this for 7th Grade back in 1983. This book changed my life. Before this, I had never read an entire book. Reading was boring or the "uncool" thing to do. Then, I went on to read all of SE Hinton's novels.... my mum was impressed. I became a lover of books ever since. 'Grease" came out in 1978. Many American kids of my generation probably would have seen that movie and then, read this book a few years later in the Middle School. Even as a 13 years old, I wondered how this book and the movie "Grease" would shape my life. On of my first music album i ever bought was Stray Cats' "Built up for Speed". IThey were a rockabilly band with songs about "gang fights", etc. Nope. I never joined a gang. I was nerd.... and unpopular in High School
Rereading a book that bigsoccer's search function tells me I read 7 years and 51 weeks ago to the day, shortly after we first moved to NEPA. Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by American scholar and translator (who translates under the name Red Pine) Bill Porter. Holds up well. It was the first book I checked out of the Scranton Library, and when it re-opened recently, I thought I'd start where I started the first time.
At least give us a clue. Is the 3rd the one who tries to look disinterested while the others have a knee on his neck?
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc - Mark Twain "I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none."
I noticed that Martha Wells - author of the quartet of novellas in the Murderbot Diaries series - published the first full-length Murderbot book, Network Effect. I liked it but there was something "less" in Wells' account even though there was more in terms of quantity. I still really like the protagonist, and will keep reading for sure. @BalanceUT methinks you liked the novellas too.
Thanks! I think I have it in my 'to be considered' cart on Amazon. I'm really not reading anything but work stuff right now. With everything going on I want my entertainment to be VERY lightweight. I couldn't even watch Theory of Everything. I'm watching old Monks. LOL! Murderbot may fit the bill.
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump. The #1 bestseller at the moment, it's written by Donald Trump's niece Mary. She details the dysfunction in the family.
Dante and Islam, a collection of essays that I'm reading because I'm teaching The Divine Comedy (all of it) in an introductory literature class this semester, and there are three Muslim students enrolled, edited by Jan Ziolkowski. Given that Dante is less than charitable in his placement of Muhammad in Hell, it's good to be prepared.
I read that this year as well. Easily one of my favorite books on the historical figure that interests me the most. And that quote may be the best of any quote I've read from an author about his/her work.
The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy -- Edited by Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson As you can tell from the subtitle, this book was a labor of love for the contributing writers and it was a joy to read. And from the cover you can tell it was published in the middle of the LotR movie madness, knowing that they were going to capitalize on the newfound fame of the trilogy. So the pieces are short, bite-sized even, and it's perfect for reading before going to bed. I have a history and government major's knowledge of philosophy and this was edifying with out being too hard. An enjoyable read.