Selfless by Brian Lowery
★★★☆☆ | Psychology | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
The main premise of the book is that our “self” is not contained in our body, but is instead formed by relationships with others.
…Reading
Caesar and Christ by Will Durant
★★★★★ | History | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Volume III of the eleven-volume Story of Civilization by Will Durant. I knew so little about the rise and fall of Rome and the formation of Christianity before reading this. I feel so much more informed. My favorite so far!
There is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned or oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with a fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known. Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.
A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
★★★★☆ | Spy-Detective | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
A long, meandering, indulgent spy novel by an author whose prose is typically tight as a drum. This novel felt intimate and autobiographical, as if Le Carre were explaining the abuses he endured as a child through a novel. It wasn’t what I expected, which is OK. I’m not sure I would consider this one of his best novels. 3.5 stars?
Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King
★★★★☆ | Horror | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
A short novella. I read it in one sitting. Good retelling of the classic werewolf myth.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
★★★☆☆ | Mystery-Suspense | Audio | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
An OK book. The unreliable narrator was unlikeable, which I guess in the end was intentional.
Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive, and will come forth later, in uglier ways. —SIGMUND FREUD
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
★★★☆☆ | Horror | Audio | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Continuing my quest to read all of the books by Stephen King. I listened to this one to start and then finished it on Kindle. We follow the story of a lost nine-year-old through the forests of Maine and New Hampshire over the course of a week, using the innings of a baseball game as chapter markers. Trisha McFarland is a diehard Red Sox fan and closer Tom Gordon is her favorite player. You can tell King is going through a baseball phase as he uses this story to share is love for the game though this precocious little girl.
…I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore
★★☆☆☆ | Literary Fiction | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
What to make of this confusing, author-indulgent, stream-of-continual-banter-and-bullshit book? Not much.
There are two stories that intersect in the most obscure ways: grief, longing for loved ones, perhaps a connection to the conspiracy beliefs of our modern day unreliable narrator? And what in the hell were we supposed to make of Lily, our bizarre and self-absorbed ghost?
…I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie MooreRead More »
The Life of Greece by Will Durant
★★★★★ | History | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I paused reading this history to read The Odyssey by Homer to give me a better insight to that classic’s role in Greek history.
My mind seems most interested in philosophy these days, so my notes and highlights below tend to center on that area of the book vs. historical events, of which there were many.
…How Do We Know Ourselves by David G Myers
★★★★☆ | Psychology | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
We perceive reality not exactly as it is but as our brains interpret it. (Page 15)
…Between the idea and the reality … Falls the Shadow.
— T.S. Eliot
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
★★★★★ | Mystery-Suspense | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Mary Pat Fennessy is one of the most compelling characters I’ve encountered in a while. She made the bleakness of the story worth it. And yes, the story is bleak!
Dennis Lehane is a terrific storyteller.
…The Deep Blue Good-by by John D MacDonald
★★★★☆ | Spy-Detective | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
My first John D. MacDonald novel–this one with his famous protagonist Travis McGee. I liked the Florida boat setting and MacDonald’s frequent use of sharing his opinions on excess consumerism, “normal” 9 – 5 living, and the vagaries of human nature. The writing about women is so dated, but this was written in 1964.
…The Rubber Band by Rex Stout
★★★☆☆ | Spy-Detective | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
The third installment of the Nero Wolfe mystery series. A muscle man who’s quite a thinker himself is the protagonist in these books. Wolfe is the enigma that we collectively marvel at for his brilliance and idiosyncrasies. Reading this book after just finishing Storycraft by Jack Hart forced me to look at the joinery work and finishing of the plot and how it moved along. One of the downsides of studying the craft of writing is that some of the enthralling magic of the story fades away as you better understand what the author is doing.
…Storycraft by Jack Hart
★★★★★ | Writing | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
One of the best, most practical writing guides I have ever read. I read Hart’s WordCraft ahead of this one. Really great.
…Lisey’s Story by Stephen King
★★★★☆ | Horror | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
This is my sixth Stephen King book I’ve finished over the past month.
Lisey’s Story started slowly and was confusing at times with so many flashbacks (including flashbacks within flashbacks, which can’t be easy to pull off as a writer). While there is a supernatural element, the book centers on rebounding from grief, in this case, the death of Lisey’s husband.
…The Colorado Kid by Stephen King
★★★☆☆ | Mystery-Suspense | Audio | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I listened to this on audiobook and was put off by the strong Maine accent of the narrator — too heavy to be understood at first — but it slowly grew on me.
This is one of Stephen King‘s Hard Case Crime books (Joyland and Later were the other two and I’ve read them both). I’ve wanted to buy a slew of books of this mystery/crime series just to have on the shelf for when I need a quick read. I still might.
Spoiler follows …
…Night Shift by Stephen King
★★★★★ | Horror | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
An amazing collection of early short stories. My favorite — because of the utter difficulty I had in reading it — was The Ledge. The story involves the protagonist having to climb over a balcony railing on the 43rd floor of a luxury apartment building onto a 5″ ledge that he must use (without handholds) to climb around the entire building. Gusting winds and pecking pigeons make him stagger and sway, along with his antagonist who is there watching and taunting him. Mr. King tapped directly into my singular fear. I had to stop reading at different times and remind myself that it was fiction. I am sure my blood pressure was spiking. I tried to close my eyes a few times, but it’s awful hard to read with your eyes closed. What a storyteller!
…Wordcraft by Jack Hart
The Odyssey by Homer
★★★★★ | Ancient | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
It was high time I reread this classic. I found the story much more engaging that The Iliad — crafty Odysseus and his wily ways. There are so many stories in this epic that are embedded in our literary subconscious — Circe, Calypso, the Sirens, the Cyclops, revenge against the suitors, etc. Because of its legacy, I can’t rate this any lower than a five. And yet, I didn’t find myself rooting for Odysseus after all his hubris and, in particular, thinking of all the grieving fathers who lost sons during his exploits. And what for?
…Elevation by Stephen King
★★★☆☆ | Horror | Audio | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I’m not sure what to make of this Stephen King book. Mr. King narrated the audiobook, and he did a fine job. The premise was interesting: the main protagonist mysteriously began to lose touch with Earth’s gravity. Besides this supernatural twist, the book dealt with the poor treatment of a LGBTQ couple in a small Maine town. There were some fine moments of paradigm-shifting moments among the characters in the novel as they embraced inclusion. I can’t quite figure out the meaning of the main character’s elevation in the end.
Cujo by Stephen King
★★★★★ | Horror | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
This book stressed me out! I swear my blood pressure would creep up as rabid Cujo set about to do his evil. I even woke up in the night with images of the huge dog staring at me through the car window, waiting to tear me to shreds.
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