Reading

I came across Place of Tides in a local bookstore. I believe it was displayed on a prominent table as one of the staff picks and the cover was what caught my attention. The cover was a photo of a coastal scene of mostly grays and whites with some splotches of green and a small bright red barn that may or may not have been on the brink of collapse. The picture felt stark and cold and lonely and I could almost smell the saltiness of the ocean.

I hadn't read any of James Rebanks's other work. I don't know if I'd pick up another one of his books. But I felt a connection to the world and the struggle that Rebanks shares with us in Place of Tides. As I read I saw the coastal village my mother grew up in struggling with the survival of its culture and way of life. Wealthy seasonal residents suck up properties that lay vacant for most months of the year or even for years on end but kept in proper order by local caretakers.

Meanwhile the lobsterers battle for their generational ways of life amid tightening regulations often driven by ecological and environmental challenges caused by industrial scale decimation far removed from the local natural and human ecosystems.

And the new wealthy coastal landowners try to block shore access where clammers, naturalists, and anyone else have had and still legal rights to the shore and all it's riches.

But The Place of Tides is not a simple recounting of such a common modern theme in these centuries-old communities. Those themes are certainly present. But the book is very simply a beautifully written story about being human, getting old, wisdom, contentment, the raw magnificence of nature, and many things in between.

It was a wonderful read and I was not disappointed in my impulse buy at the bookstore. That said, it's not for everyone. The story moves slowly much like the fading world that Rebanks explores and the main focus of his fascination but it's probably worth the read if you've gotten this far in my post here.

What to say about Moby Dick? I've read it three or four times now and it's still good. The best part about it might be that after reading it the first time you can start reading pretty much anywhere in the book and go. But it's certainly not for everyone - not for most people probably - but it's something extraordinarily unique and chaotic and beautiful. But, perhaps like Ahab, you have to pursue it and plod through it and battle with it to get to through to the end.

The first time I read Moby Dick I was just out of college, or maybe it was during that final summer of wide open freedom before my senior year. That was probably it, actually. At that point I was a committed English literature major and finally understood how to really read a book. I was spending the summer in an old house on the coast in downeast Maine with my cousin, an old house build in the 1850s by, no shit, a sea captain. It was an old copy, probably bought by my grandfather, and I found it on the bookshelf in the bedroom I was sleeping in.

I won't be reviewing Moby Dick here. I've outgrown the possibly hubristic 21 year old who first picked up the musty copy many years ago in Maine. I now have enough humility to doubt that I can add any fresh new insights or perspectives that haven't already been explored by the professional critics, academics, literary buffs, and Nobel laureates who've read, analyzed, and reviewed Moby Dick. But, given the spirit of this website, I've obligated myself to write up something about it.

The writing of this post follows what I believe is my 3rd reading of Moby Dick. With various things pulling at my attention, most notably a 4 year-old in the house, my reading time in general has shrunk. And Moby Dick is of a physical size that it isn't something I'll always throw in my carry-on to bring with me on a trip (I do have Moby Dick on my Kindle but it seems to me that something is lost in the digital experience - Moby Dick benefits from the tactile experience, the feel of the pages, the smell of a physical book).

It took me a solid six months to get through it this time. I picked it up from time to time in between reading other things and read maybe a chapter at a time before bed. And it was still worth it.

Some people say you have to get through the first third or half of the book to really get into it. I disagree. The early chapters are a seamless experience of world-building. Only authors like Tolkien and JK Rowling and the few other true masters have dome better. We're dropped into this unique historical niche in the world unlike any other and I am immediately immersed in it. New Bedford, Nantucket, the inn, the church, the wharves, the first taste of the Pequod. We're there smelling the air and feeling the breeze and being pulled along by Ishmael into this adventure.

I think you probably have to be committed to reading Moby Dick the first time and probably for most people it's a one-time experience. "I've climbed the mountain! ...now what's next?"

But for a smaller set of readers it inspires revisiting, albeit after a long enough break to recover from the event, much like a marathon or thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail where only a minuscule number of possibly deranged outliers would run marathon after marathon or finish the Appalachian Trail at the peak of Kahtahdin and turn around to head south after a short break for a power bar (in fact, I've never heard of such a thing but I'm confident someone has tried).

Moby Dick is this sprawling adventure, unlike anything else I've ever read and to me it invites the question of whether authors consciously create symbolism and inject meaning into their work, or whether we readers, with our enjoyably creative minds, ascribe meaning and depth independently. After all, Hemingway's oft-quoted response to a question from a critic about The Old Man and the Sea was, "There isn't any symbolism. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man, the boy is a boy and the fish is a fish." And he also said, "symbolism that people say is shit."

Hemingway may not be the most reliable narrator here but I like the perspective and I tend to believe that many great authors aren't conscious of the symbolism when they write but have a deep sense of humanity and meaningfulness that seeps into their work, regardless of explicit intent.

In keeping with the theme of the sea being the sea and the fish being the fish I enjoyed this most recent read of Moby Dick for the read itself, for the adventure and the wandering, sprawling chapters, the random few chapters that unexplainably switch to the form of a theater script. Utter chaos! But what fun. And the famous Cetology chapter where we learn of all the types of whales and their personalities and value to the whaling industry, yet with the limited knowledge of the time which gives us a sense of a time when many parts of the world were still a deep mystery and there was still so much to be discovered in our backyards. And the dropping of the whaleboats, with the precise descriptions of each role in the boat and yet it's not an academic tome, so Melville also somehow guides us to feel for each character on the ship.

And they are indeed characters. They are larger than life with characteristics and mannerisms that are overemphasized. But not overemphasized in a comical way, but rather in a way that helps us understand their essence and their humanity and their struggles.

And I haven't yet mentioned Ahab and the Whale. And maybe they symbolize something, maybe they don't. To me they do, and it's interesting to read Moby Dick at different stages of my life when that meaning shifts and evolves through multiple readings and more and more life experience.

All of this and more make Moby Dick a favorite read of mine, though one that needs a long break between visits. I know it's considered a intimidating, boring, confusing, chaotic. But I think it is indeed something everyone should tackle at least once, if only to say you've climbed the mountain.

Great book if you're a product manager or work in the world of technical product development (engineering, design, etc.).

It's not groundbreaking (so few business books are) and it's probably more of a 50-page book but the publisher required 200 pages to print and sell it. That said, Torres's professional experience and background provide a really great perspective for product folks to bring into their worlds.

I think a lot of ideas and processes proposed these types of books are really only truly executable by team and organizational leaders. It's great material for individual contributors and team leaders, but to truly change the product processes in the ways that are proposed in this book required buy-in from product, engineering, and design leaders and can cause significant process and delivery.disruption to mid- to large- organizations.

That said, the methodologies included in this book are great additions to any product person's toolset and presented in a succinct way that makes it pretty easy to apply in the areas that someone may be able to apply them!

Quiet is, essentially, about introverts in a society built for extroverts. I found the first two thirds of the book enlightening and really interesting. I find myself to be more introverted than extroverted and feel that I was sort of forced into learning some extroversion just to get through in my social life growing up and in school and work. This book captures that struggle in a really insightful way. And I found it a great read/listen when thinking about how our kids are and their personalities.

The author dives into research and anecdotal data about the topics and I really think it's a great framing of this aspect of humanity and how it interweaves with culture, education, work, and more. However, she ends up focusing a lot on Asian culture (Japanese and Chinese, primarily) and the differences between Western and Eastern culture in the area of extroversion/introversion. In many ways she upholds Eastern education and business culture as superior to Western (at least in regards to introversion/extroversion) but, having lived in Japan and worked in education there, I think she failed to discuss the challenges in some of the Eastern culture in these areas. In my opinion it was slightly unfortunate angle but it didn't take away from the core message and value.

If you consider yourself introverted or have a kiddo who isn't an outgoing, rambunctious social dynamo I'd highly recommend this one.

I first read Blood Meridian 15 or 20 years ago. Prior to picking up Meridian I was introduced to McCarthy in a North American literature class in college where we read All the Pretty Horses. McCarthy is simply an astonishing writer. Some people find his prose and writing style off-putting. I love it -- it's like reading art almost, but in the hands of anyone just slightly less skilled it would be unreadable. Critic Harold Bloom considers McCarthy one of 'the four major living American novelists' and considers, along with other critics, Blood Meridian to be one of the great American novels.

But it is a brutal read. I'd forgotten how deeply dark and disturbing the path of the main characters is, softening some as the Kid parts ways with the gang and becomes the Man, but reaching a final, uninterpretable climax of violence and symbolism that left me sitting silently, book in hand, feeling my heartbeat, trying to sort out what I'd just read and getting lost in thoughts I didn't quite understand. There are layers upon layers of symbolism, philosophy, religion, and violence.

The violence is unquestionably unsettling. It comes in waves, with McCarthy easing you down but then, suddenly, you're caught in a new crescendo, more intense and disturbing than before. It was uncomfortable to read on a couple of levels: the first being the raw human depravity McCarthy depicts, and the second being the complete disregard for political correctness (...proudly un-woke, perhaps?). I believe it could not be read aloud in today's climate and only a brave professor might dare teach it in a college class. It almost feels as if it was an act of courage just to write the tome itself.

But it is in that violence that the story's greatness lies. The vast majority of us live in a highly sheltered, safe world. McCarthy forces the reader to reckon with the reality of humanity -- a reality which we are protected from and which most people wish to believe doesn't exist. McCarthy based the the gang that the Kid takes up with on a real gang of scalp-hunters in the American West who perpetrated unspeakable acts. And in the end of it all, McCarthy leaves the reader with an ending and an epilogue that are both, ultimately, uninterpretable.

If you pick this book up it will be a difficult but rewarding (and disturbing) read. Best for literature fans, western fans, and people interested in reading novels that delve into the human condition...

If you're going to read one parenting book out there, or use one book as a jumping off point, this is the book. We bought and were given enough books on childbirth, raising kids, childhood development, sleep training, etc. etc. that we could fill a shelf or two on our bookshelf. Most of them were, unfortunately, relatively worthless. However, Cribsheets, which a guy I work with recommended, was an absolute gem. Why? Primarily because it wasn't a 'how to' that put forth particular opinions on how to do anything.

I'll skip the details on the author and the book, as you can do a quick search for either and get the general idea of her credentials and background and the summary of the book itself elsewhere. The value that we found was that it was an actual science/data-oriented book that helped summarize a lot of different questions and challenges. There were no deep-dives into particulars, but rather it gave us a very good understanding of different data and opinions surrounding, let's say, sleep training, and what things are supported by actual studies/data and what that data suggest. And almost universally the answer was: there's not one answer. Yet I felt more informed and resourceful having read this than anything else.

If you're having a baby, first or subsequent, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

I'm a definitely a fan of Asimov -- his creativity and prolificness is so impressive. The Robot and Foundation series' are certainly my favorites. I received The Gods Themselves from a bookseller I'd bought a collection of Hemingway's journalism from. He threw in a paperback of The Gods Themselves along with a couple other gifts (thanks @kayoulerarebooks!). I'd never heard of the novel, but the cover of the version he sent proclaims that it received "Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year Award" and, according to the back cover, the Philadelphia Bulletin declared it to be "A tour de force unlike anything Asimov has done before...The Gods Themselves is definitive science fiction...well worth reading," and according to Wikipedia it was Asimov's favorite sci fi novel. So I picked it up.

It's a page-turner if you are a science fiction fan. But it's also weird. The novel has three sections and the middle section tells us about aliens from another universe (a para-Universe) who need a three-way relationship to reproduce, the relationship consisting of a Rational, an Emotional, and a Parent which are, essentially, three different species. There's lots of alien sex that Asimov somehow was able to make a bit erotic (amazing!), and also a fair amount of thought put into what the human mating tendencies might be for a human population living on the moon, including the effects of low gravity on the aesthetics of the human body. It was hilarious! (Though perhaps that wasn't Asimov's intent...)

Along with the very fun creativity and what I would imaging were basically thought experiments about para-Universes, alien sex and reproduction, and lunar living, there's a very hard science component to the novel that explores the consequences of inter-universe nuclear physics, of which I could follow to a degree, but was a bit over my head. Nonetheless, the plot progressed well enough to keep it a page-turner.

I found the alien sex and lunar semi-nudity in The Gods Themselves to slow the story down a little too much, but overall it was a fun read that was refreshingly creative and out of the ordinary. It's a fast, relatively easy read (if you're into the science side of it) and probably a good gift for someone interested in world-creation type fiction, hard science fiction, any Asimov fan, and, of course, aspiring writers wondering how to write about three-way alien reproduction (or just creative writing students...).

I bought Le Carre's first Smiley novel on my Kindle while I was browsing around the Kindle store looking for something light to read at night before bed. I've always liked spy-type movies and shows (while living in Japan I watched every episode of Alias, which was available on DVD at a Blockbuster in a nearby city...I also hit up all episodes of the X-Files, but that's not quite as relevant), and had never picked up a Le Carre book. On the plus side, he's just a great writer and the books were super fun reads. On the down side, they were not ideal for reading before bed, as quite often I found myself reading far longer than I should have and needed an extra coffee the next morning.

I think of Le Carre similar to J.K. Rowling or Stephen King -- their pure talent as both storytellers and authors are not given full credit because they are genre writers. Though some of the Smiley novels become a touch repetitive at time or wander off in directions that aren't necessarily as engaging as his best work, overall they are rewarding reads. Le Carre is really a great writer and he's capable of creating deep characters that, as a reader, you become connected to and you begin to care about their stories and challenges while moving the plot along at breakneck speeds, he can touch on challenging human issues with subtlety and complexity, and his narration can be nothing short of brilliant. Consider the following:

"It is also the pardonable vanity of lonely people everywhere to assume that they have no counterparts."

“A lot of people see doubt as legitimate philosophical posture. They think of themselves in the middle, whereas of course really, they're nowhere.”

“We lie to one another every day, in the sweetest way, often unconsciously. We dress ourselves and compose ourselves in order to present ourselves to one another.”

“Smiley was soaked to the skin and God as a punishment had removed all taxis from the face of London.”

These novels are great beach reads, summer reads, books for people who want to be writers, espionage or cold war enthusiasts, and Anglophiles.

I believe Audible recommended The Way Home to me because I'd previously listened to The World-Ending Fire, which is a collection of amazing Wendell Berry essays (which I can't recommend enough). The Way Home was quite a different exploration of technology and nature. The author, who is also a contributor to The Guardian, wrote the book (as far as I can tell) as a kind of journal of his exploration of giving up technology and living as entirely without technology and fiat money as possible. As far as I can tell, he's still living off-grid and without money at the time of this post (at least according to The Times).

Boyle is Irish and the narrator of this audio version is Gerard Doyle (oddly similar last names...), whose parents are Irish and who went to school in England. Simply listening to the accent and cadence of Doyle's narration is calming and almost meditative. The story itself is fascinating. Boyle weaves together his personal observations on nature, technology, society, economy, and humanity with philosophy, the challenges (aka frustrations) of building a house and growing sustainable food supplies, and the experience of a pint at the pub in a refreshingly earnest exploration of the challenges presented by modern technology without participating in the currently popular sport of bashing everyone over the head with his personal values.

One of the parts I most enjoyed was his process of determining what line he would draw in relation to technology. For example, a pencil is indeed technology, as is a ballpoint pen -- not using a computer was a simple decision, but if he was going to write, what limit does he set for himself? What about notebooks and paper? And what is the implication of sending his stories to a newspaper (which obviously uses endless modern technology) through the postal service? He discusses this in detail, and also the amusing negotiation with his editor at the newspaper who wasn't thrilled about receiving handwritten drafts through the mail and then needing to send back edits, again via the mail.

This is a wonderful read (listen) for anyone who likes to think about the topics described above. Boyle is a great writer and discusses his topics of interest with both depth and levity. It's a great read for any luddite, naturalist, or someone wrestling with the tensions between technology, nature, and society.

I forget how I came across Forever Employable--I think I heard about it on a podcast at some point--but I bought it about a year ago and got around to reading it this past week. It's short, only 106 pages, and it's a very quick and easy read. The book is basically a how-to guide to creating a niche for yourself in whatever industry you believe can become an expert. The ultimate objective in this journey is to become a wanted entity in your area of expertise, and thus shift from a beggar's situation (my words) to that of a self-perpetuating income generator (again, my words). In the book, Gothelf recounts his own crisis/awareness in his mid-30s about his career potential moving past 40.

The book is simple, has some good insights, and is a fun read. It's not groundbreaking from any vantage point and may be overly-driven by some of the privileged assumptions of the tech world (not everyone has the background, education, experience, etc. to build what he describes), yet in his attempt to elucidate the process he went through, he does indeed offer some good insights and a simple, practical framework to chunk through his defined steps and see if you can build some results. The biggest missing piece is that he does not dive into the underlying tools to build discipline, persistence, or consistency -- he seems to assume that the fear of pending irrelevancy in your 40s should be enough fuel to drive the discipline.

This is a good book for someone looking for a kind of simple guidebook to shifting out of an 'employee' mentality and into a more entrepreneurial, independent mentality and generating some non-traditional income streams over time. Despite my notes above, I did like it and it brought some ideas into focus in a very clear, reproducible way.

It is beyond my modest skill as a reader and writer to do justice to The Shadow of the Wind. Like a Russian doll, it was a tragic and beautiful series of stories within stories, though to me a rabbit warren might be a more apt description, as I found that I got lost in the different stories that Ruiz Zafón so deftly weaved together with characters seeming to meld together as I read.

I actually put the book down about halfway through, having got lost in the story and a little bored, but a couple weeks ago I picked it back up and as I got back into it I could barely put it down. Though I'm reading a translation, the prose is simply beautiful. It's rich and textured and as I read I could almost feel the grittiness of the world Ruiz Zafón paints. If you read about Ruiz Zafón, he's most often compared to his countryman Cervantes, which is, of course, no small comparison. But he reminds me more of Gabriel García Márquez with the depth and texture of his writing and the subtle magical realism that always seems to be lurking in the background.

The story itself is both sad and sweet with betrayal, Shakespeare-esqe loves, crumbling families, slow burning vengeance, friendships of a depth I wish I understood, and the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. I can't recommend this book highly enough, but it's not for the faint of hear, and you need patience and you need to enjoy stories with both depth and complexity.

I bought The Data Detective after listening to an episode of Harford's podcast, Cautionary Tales (side note: very enjoyable podcast), where he read a selection from the book. He'd hooked me immediately. In The Data Detective Harford, an economist and journalist, dives into the value, dangers, and history of statistics and big data, bringing in events and narratives (current and historical) to elucidate the points he's making,

It was a great listen. He dives into how easily the average person can misunderstand data that's presented to them, how the media can, intentionally or unintentionally, misrepresent data, and how scientists, companies, and governments can, again intentionally or unintentionally, misrepresent and misuse data. On the flip side, he explores the great value big data and statistics can create when looked at critically and objectively and when the base, underlying assumptions and datasets are made clear. The writing is excellent and Harford skillfully brings the reader (or listener) through challenging, multi-dimensional issues with balance and clarity.

I'd highly recommend The Data Detective for anyone interested in data privacy, big data (ex: Google, Facebook, Apple, etc.), statistics, and even government policy in relation to data [mis]use.

I love Sapkowski's stories and storytelling, and The Tower of Fools only supports that feeling. This one is a much bigger novel than any of the Witcher series novels (almost 600 pages), but it moves quickly and nimbly through a fun, if light, story based in the early 1400s in what is now primarily eastern Poland, overlapping into the Czech Republic and Germany. Like the Witcher books, there are too many slavic names, places, and history for me to keep track of, and the story moves quickly. But despite that, it's a wonderfully fun read. A world of magic and demons is persistently haunting the periphery of the story, influencing bits all along the way. The characters are fun (if a bit underdeveloped for a 600-page tome) and it was a bit hard to track some of the reasoning behind the decisions and motivations of each of the troupe of heroes, but nonetheless, it's a well-written, good read and I'm looking forward to the English translation of Warriors of God, the next installment in the Hussite Trilogy. This is a great gift for someone who likes historical fantasy and myth. It's a great summer or vacation read.

I'm actually 3/4 of the way through Tyll, but I put it down and I'm not sure when or if I'll finish it up. The story is based "on the folkloristic tales about Till Eulenspiegel, a jester that was the subject of a chapbook in 16th century Germany" (Wikipedia). The novel is well-written and I loved diving into a realm of folklore and history that I have hardly any exposure to. The story was dark but the writing was lucid and rich.

The challenge I had was that the sections of the novel (of which there were seven) were not temporal, each being it's own novella to a great degree--and you could certainly read each section independently and feel that you'd just read a fully encapsulated story without the need to continue, which is essentially what I did after the fifth section. The sections jump around in time and narrative voice, some focusing on the character of Tyll and others only seeming to have a tangental relationship with him. It may be that tying together a truly folkloric subject clashed too much with the way the novel was structured for me, where I was expecting a more traditional narrative. Part of me very much wanted to finish the story, as the writing was rich and fluid and the subject matter was fresh ground to me, but it lost me along the way.

I think someone who loves folklore and historical fiction will enjoy this book quite a bit, but they'll probably need to want more depth and complexity that a straight plot and traditional storytelling structure.

Everything I've read thus far (short stories and novels) in the Witcher series is great fun! As I've alluded to previously, Sapkowski's story-telling is refreshing in a genre overpopulated with mediocre fare and I won't cover things I talked about in my previous review here.

In my opinion, one of Sapkowski's great talents is presenting the challenges of racism, hate, and other prescient culture issues in a way that is a lynchpin to the story and is baked in to the world he creates and he does it in a way that presents these issues in a very real way, where there isn't a clear right and wrong, where the history of the different sides informs the current tensions, and where individuals are torn between their own opposing values, desires, and fears. He does this all in a way that isn't overtly blunt melodramatic, whereas in much writing today I find writers adding such themes to a story as clearly extraneous material, ultimately irrelevant to the story, plot, and even to the characters.

I found that Baptism of Fire was a little simpler to follow than the previous books in the trilogy. We're on an adventure with our main characters while the world is in the throes of a massive war. There are riots, benevolent dwarves wrestling with their own fallibility, a megalomaniacal village priest, a vegetarian vampire, raging battles, love and loss, compassion and redemption.

Ultimately, this is a great series of books for anyone who loves the fantasy genre, is a Tolkien fan, or just likes a good, fun story.

So I had started watching the Netflix Witcher series when it came out, and I liked the potential of it, but the story was a bit lost on me. It was as if the series writers were trying to squeeze too much in to a short series and I gradually lost interest and didn't finish the season. Then I read a couple tidbits about the books (and the following the books had developed), so decided to pick up the Witcher short stories over the summer. They were great. After finishing the short stories, I immediately picked up the novel trilogy.

The first novel in the trilogy, Blood of Elves, was excellent. The story and world-building was fresh and Sapkowski brought new life and a unique vision to a world of elves, dwarves, humans, folklore, and magic on a grand scale. It's so hard to find truly well-written fantasy and Sapkowski takes us on an adventure through a magical world roiling with racism, hints of genocide, terrorism, political intrigue, magical creatures, assassins, and more stuff I can't recall at the moment. It's a very well-crafted story and was a great read. I'd recommend it for anyone who read Lord of the Rings as a kid or who likes gritty fantasy-type stuff.

I believe Dr. King is one of the most important, heroic figures in our modern history. His character, compassion, empathy, eloquence, and wisdom are, in my opinion, unparalleled in American history and he's certainly one of the people I most admire. It's impossible not to see the parallels between the challenges he faced during his lifetime and in today's national and global events, yet we lack leaders, nationally and internationally, with even a few of the qualities of Dr. King

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., published in 2001, should be required reading in high school, college, and graduate school around the world. It contains letters, essays, speeches, and other writing from early in his adult life to the very end and I could not help but feel the pain of our collective loss as I read through the book. It is heartbreaking, yet at the same time awe-inspiring and humbling and caused me to reflect on the character of the life I'm living and also how we, as a collective community, are handling the challenges we face today. I wish everyone could read, or at least listen to, this book. A bonus of the audio book version is that it contains a lot of the live recordings of Dr. King...in listening to them, it seems clear that we've lost the gift of oration today...

My brother recommended The Historian to me. It's basically a modern Dracula story and it's really well done. Kostova tells a complex story, narrated through multiple timelines and points of view (much of the story in the mode of letters read by the narrator) and she does a very enjoyable job tying everything together. It's a fun, modern detective story weaving through the world of Dracula (this is NOT a vampire story, but rather a Dracula story). It was a great, fun read, great writing, not too deep, but a complex story. It got a little slow at parts, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

This is a great book for someone who enjoys complex stories and realistic monster stories.

I've always wanted to read Camus and as the Covid-driven social isolation escalated, I pulled The Plague off our shelf. And it was so goddamned good. I'd never ready any Camus before and I had no idea what I was missing. I've found the Nobel winners can be hit-or-miss in terms of actual non-academic readability but Camus' prose was so fluid I found it hard to put the book down at night. The story he tells, along his his portrayal of the human struggle, is both tragic and beautiful and the surface subject matter is, of course, prescient. For reasons I can't quite put my finger on, he reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

This is a great book for someone who loves literature that explores the human condition.

So these two books were bizarre and awesome. But they're only really for people with certain tastes, and you really have to read both to get the story sorted out. But I loved them. Simmons studied literature and was an elementary school teacher before he became a full-time author and his love of the literary world is woven into the fabric of these stories. The format of Hyperion is based on The Canterbury Tales, with different characters in the story telling their stories to each other, each in their own chapter, while on a space-pilgrimage, and one of the key characters in the broader world he's created is John Keats, or, rather, some kind of ghost of Keats, so to speak. Through the story, he challenges the reader with indirect questions about religion, humanity, technology, and all kinds of philosophical ideas. But it's also just a damned good story if you don't want to think about these things. All that said, it's a challenge to get through the first book and keep track of what's going on, but if you do, it's a great reward. And the pure creativity and quality of world-building Simmons achieves is a rare find. It actually brings Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to mind, strangely enough -- very, very different, but at it's core it challenges the reader to reflect on what it means to be human.

This is a great book for any big sci-fi fan or possibly someone interested in technology, religion, and philosophy. It's not for someone who needs to understand everything going on...

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. was a great, fun read. I like a lot of Neal Stephenson's work but he has a tendency to slide into overly intellectualized details (I've tried to get through the first book of the Baroque Cycle twice now and just got bored...) and Nicole Galland's talents reign that in quite a bit and the result is a very fun, fast-moving story about time travel, witchcraft, and government corruption (of sorts). They established the story and hooked me in within the first few paragraphs, to such a skillful extent that I went back and reread the first few pages three or four times just to see how well they get the story going so quickly. I've recommended this book to anyone who just loves to read. And it's one of those books that you can only do justice by reading (the audio book won't do it justice). The story is simply insane, but it's so well written that you'll completely suspend disbelief without any effort whatsoever. It's smart, funny, moves quickly, and is very well-written.

I'd give this to anyone who just loves to read; someone who wants a good, well-written story but wants something light and fun too.

I didn't finish Pillars...I've put it down and I don't know if I'll get back to it. It's a good story, definitely dark, but relatively well-written and fun to read. Follett keeps things moving well and the world he's created is rich and complete. The thing is, I just couldn't get into the story...It didn't hold me enough. I may pick it up again but it's just not what I'm looking for right now...

I think it'd be a great beach/vacation read.

[Note: a full review may or may not be forthcoming. I'll never do it justice. The TL;DR; is - Read this. It's amazing. It's beautiful. It's tragic. It's the best stuff I've ever read.

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway - The Finca Vigia Edition contains some of the best literature I've ever read. It's a monster -- the hardcover version is 650 pages long and contains 60 stories in total, including seven stories not previously published. Three friends of mine and I read through it together, as an informal book club, aiming for one story per week. It ended up taking us over two years to finally get through every one of them.

Finishing the final story felt like finishing Moby Dick, both in terms of the undertaking itself, but also because of the significance of its place in the canon of American and English language literature. Though Hemingway's style and (possibly self-aggrandized) persona have become their own cliches, his prose speaks for itself. Yes, it's sparse, journalistic, and declarative as everyone knows, but what makes it so moving is how he can explore the depths of the human condition, the deep pains of humanity, and that he can somehow force you to feel it deeply with both what's said in the prose and, indeed, what he hasn't said.

Some of the stories in the collection -- mostly those from earlier in his career -- are the most profound stories you'll read in the English language. 'Hills Like White Elephants', 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place', 'Indian Camp', 'Up in Michigan', 'Big Two-Hearted River', and 'The Killers' are just a few.

It's not just the story -- it's what he's able to do with the language in just a few pages!