★★★★★ | History | Print + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
The tenth volume of the incredible Story of Civilization series by Will and Ariel Durant. This one, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968, provides an immensely readable history of Europe leading up to the French Revolution. Reading this series has been such an education. My only wish is that I had read them sooner.
…★★★★☆ | Writing | Print | Own | Goodreads | StoryGraph
It took me months and months to finish this book, and I think that’s the right pace for something like this. This book can only be appreciated in print form. The pictures and notes would not work at all on Kindle. The challenge of the book is that it’s almost impossible for creative people to articulate how they created their work, and this problem pervades the book. Moss takes this in stride, but there are few eureka moments that feel at all instructive. Still, it’s alway fun to get a glimpse into how artists work. If there’s a theme here, it’s art is hard. Keep trying.
…★★★☆☆ | Travel and Nature | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
This one didn’t meet my high expectations. The essays feel too forced and contrived, like the author is trying too hard. Lots of handwringing. Her circle of concern is very very large. I don’t know how many essays reference the sad departure of her children from her once full home. I have no patience for mourning the loss of a child who has simply moved across town. If only. I read a half dozen of her short essays in the hot sun, wanting to be done with the book and move on to something more comforting. The essays went down easier out of doors, even if I don’t subscribe quite so much to her views.
You can’t come back to something that is gone. — Richard Powers, The Overstory
Sometimes the only cure for homesickness is to enlarge the definition of home.
★★★★☆ | Fantasy | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
A wonderful little snippet of a fantasy story. It could have been chapter one of a 500 page fantasy novel. Yet, one to read every Christmas eve.
One should be patient with saints, I suppose. Though the trouble with being patient,” she said, “is that, generally speaking, there’s no one to see you doing it.
★★★☆☆ | Writing | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Book Notes
Divide writing time into thirds:
Three rules for ordering of arguments:
★★★★☆ | Literary Fiction | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
An innovative retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. There are some brutal, hopeless sections of this book that gutted me. There is some humor, but mostly this is a dark, dark book. The ending of vengeance and violence doesn’t feel consistent with Jim’s character, but a man can take only so much.
★★★★☆ | Mystery-Suspense | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
What a crazy rollercoaster ride through Harlem in the 1950s. I’m just now catching my breath!
There were more bars on his itinerary than on any other comparable distance on earth. In every one the jukeboxes blared, honeysuckle-blues voices dripped stickily through jungle cries of wailing saxophones, screaming trumpets, and buckdancing piano-notes; someone was either fighting, or had just stopped fighting, or was just starting to fight, or drinking ruckus-juice and talking about fighting.
★★★☆☆ | Horror | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Another completion in my quest to read every Stephen King book. This one missed the mark for me. To execute the pretty good idea for this horror tale, King had to involve way too many characters — almost the entire town of Castle Rock. With so many characters, I had a hard time connecting with any of them. Any other author would get a two stars, but King gets a pass.
…★★★☆☆ | Writing. | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I learned at least one thing from reading this book: I have not been doing the Zettelkasten thing right. Mr. Doto here provides a practical guide on how it’s supposed to be done, and in reading it, it helped me conclude decisively that this kind of note-taking is absurd and in no way how I want to take notes.
…★★★★★ | History | Print + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Continuing my quest to read all eleven volumes of Will Durant’s Opus, The Story of Civilization. Volume IX centers on science and philosophy overtaking religion through thinkers like Voltaire and Diderot. The church did its best to stop it, but in the end, the French Enlightenment steered the faithful away from religion toward the beginnings of existentialism. While this movement addressed religious corruption and the horrors of inquisitions, there is also a feeling of great loss as civilization let go of its rudder of morality and faith.
…★★★★☆ | Essays, Writing, Memoir | Audio + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I enjoy Ann Patchett’s novels, but I love her essays. She writes with such clarity and compassion. My first book of her essays was These Precious Days, which was written upfront as a collection of essays. This one came together after the fact as a compilation of essays Ann had written in magazines over many years. Only later did she decide to publish them as a book. As a result, there isn’t much of an underlying theme, other than Ann herself. I came for the essays on writing, but stayed for her views on RV life, dogs, opera, marriage, friendship, and defying all odds, the opening an independent bookstore in the post Amazon era. Ann narrated the audiobook, which added to the personal voice of these essays. After reading this and These Precious Days, I will basically read anything she writes.
…This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann PatchettRead More »
★★★★★ | Literary Fiction | Print + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Stegner must be my spirit author. The Big Rock Candy Mountain affected me on a deeply emotional level because of the many similiaries from my own life that that novel explores. This one touched me as well, but for diffrent reasons. The narrator is 69, retired to his dream home in California, and deeply unhappy. He looks back on his life as pointless, a spectator.
…The truest vision of life I know is that bird in the Venerable Bede that flutters from the dark into a lighted hall, and after a while flutters out again into the dark.
★★★★☆ | Travel and Nature | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I enjoyed these episodic adventures in the wilds of South Africa amongst elephants and the incredible struggle to preserve and cohabitate with these massive and intelligent animals. An Immense World by Ed Yong introduced me to the ways in which elephants see the world from a scientific basis. Here, the author tells the story from practical experience.
…★★★☆☆ | Horror | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
My journey to read all of Stephen King continues. Normally, I enjoy the supernatural aspects of King’s novels. In this case, I think the story would have been better without any of the other-world part. Rosie is an abused woman who digs deep and finds strength to leave and ultimately confront her abusive husband with the help of her new friends. Having to rely on the supernatural powers to ultimately defeat her beast of a husband felt like a let down.
…★★★★☆ | Spy-Detective | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
The fourth Slow Horses book was fun. These books follow a formula, yet are so well written. These aren’t the kind of books you analyze for themes or highlight many passages. They’re just good, well-written entertainment. It will be interesting to watch Season Four on TV now that I’ve read the book. Maybe there will be more departures from the book?
…★★★★★ | History | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
My straight-through reading of this mammoth 11-volume history continues. Volume VIII shares a detailed view of Europe in the 17th Century. So much war and bloodshed and atrocity, and yet brilliance too.
Let us agree that in every generation of man’s history, and almost everywhere, we find superstition, hypocrisy, corruption, cruelty, crime, and war: in the balance against them we place the long roster of poets, composers, artists, scientists, philosophers, and saints. That same species upon which poor Swift revenged the frustrations of his flesh wrote the plays of Shakespeare, the music of Bach and Handel, the odes of Keats, the Republic of Plato, the Principia of Newton, and the Ethics of Spinoza; it built the Parthenon and painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; it conceived and cherished, even if it crucified, Christ. Man did all this; let him never despair.
Will Durant
★★★★☆ | Literary Fiction | Digital. | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
A fun, palate-cleansing read.
Themes: living with your mistakes and regrets, starting over. It’s never too late to begin again on your own terms. Also: how awful family can be. How awful people in power treat their subjects. The ending was jolting, but comforting in a way.
…★★★☆☆ | Writing | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
An amusing mishmash of quotes and editorializing on the benefits of showing up and sharing your work, including the messy sausage making process. I read this on a Kindle, so may have missed out on the visual aspects of Kleon’s work. But to me, it felt more like a commonplace book of inspirational (and sometimes disconnected) quotes.
…★★★☆☆ | Essays, Memoir | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I loved Lamott’s Bird by Bird memoir on the writing craft. The writing here was good, but forced. Too many similes, too many quotes from others. Great life advice: be kind to yourself & others, all we need is love, etc., but it felt repetitive to me. Her advice on sobriety and community is heartfelt and immensely quotable.
…★★★★☆ | Literary Fiction | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I’ll read anything that Amor Towles writes. He’s one of my favorite living writers. This collection of six short stories and a novella hit the mark, though each left me wanting more, to know happens next. A master storyteller.
