Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) Race is a topic I’m reluctant to even approach here on the blog. I’m mindful of my privileged status and hesitant to make any pronouncements about people whose experience I cannot truly share or comprehend. However, I do not think it’s helpful to isolate ourselves in separate racial camps and […]
B. A. Shapiro, The Art Forger (2012) For my blog anniversary this year, I celebrated with a Make Me Read It giveaway, meaning the winner got to select a book from my TBR pile for both of us to read. Congratulations to R-J, who chose to receive a copy of The Art Forger, which I […]
Nancy Isenberg, White Trash (2016) J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy (2016) This is part 5 in an ongoing series exploring books that address the current political, social, and economic situation in the US. Part 1: The Unwinding Part 2: Dark Money Part 3: Strangers In Their Own Land Part 4: Listen, Liberal Also posted as part of […]
Thomas Frank, Listen, Liberal (2016) Listen, Liberal, my latest read from the NYT list of “Six Books to Understand Trump’s Win,” can be summarized as follows: 1. Our country is screwed. 2. Don’t go blaming those crazy Republicans for this mess. Democrats (or at least the higher levels of the Democratic Party and especially the […]
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) Frankenstein is one of those stories that everyone knows, even if you haven’t read it. Except once you do read it, you realize that the version in the popular imagination has little to do with Mary Shelley’s actual creation. There, you will find no mad scientists robbing graves for body parts; […]
Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) This year, I decided to add some categories to my Classics Club list. Though I’m still aiming to read 50 books in 5 years, there are now 80 books on my list from which I can pick and choose. This helps me feel a little less constrained. One […]
Everyone has an individual way of dealing with all the bad things going on in the world. For me, it’s very important to stay connected to a spiritual point of view, which helps to restore perspective, awaken hope, and foster joy and gratitude in the face of darkness and despair. In fact, it’s been a […]
Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche (1921) After watching the 1952 movie of Scaramouche, with its brilliant fencing matches between Mel Ferrer and Stewart Granger, I became curious to read the book. How would the author deal with these exciting action sequences? And would the book give more context and background for the historical and political aspects of […]
George Packer, The Unwinding (2013) This post is part of a series based around the New York Times’s list of “books to understand Trump’s win.” Rachel of Hibernator’s Library suggested doing a readalong of these six books, and I thought it was a great idea. So did several other people, and I hope that we’ll […]
Junichiro Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters (1943) I’m not very well-versed in world literature, and when I do read works in translation they tend to be from Europe. But I really want to do something about that, and as I looked for great novels from other continents to broaden my horizons, The Makioka Sisters kept coming […]