I reviewed this novel earlier in this blog. I also wrote a lengthier review at the Englewood Review of Books that was just published. I’d be honored if you checked it out!
As one reads through history, it’s hard not to think that life in ancient Japan would be fairly mundane. Samurais ruled the country, and the social order, at first glance, seems fairly set into stone. Sam Browne’s first book of historical fiction calls this narrative into question. This coming-of-age tale follows the life of a samurai named Tanaka as he learns how to balance his lifestyle as a ronin (a traveling samurai without a set…
Have you ever felt like your life is an unsolved mystery, full of dispersed, broken parts that need reassembling? Have you ever felt like a sense of truth and order – indeed a sense of God – was far away and like chaos was all too near? That’s the situation that faces the main character in Morrison’s masterpiece. Milkman Dead – yes, that’s his real name – is confronted by a world in which everything…
by Harper LeeHarperCollinsCopyright (c) 2015ISBN13: 9780062409850Page count: 278Genre: Fiction, Sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee is famous for writing only one novel – the blazingly successful To Kill a Mockingbird. This work, published decades after TKAM, is a sequel that was written before. On its own, it is not a strong literary work and was rejected by publishers. Fortunately for us, the publisher suggested that she explore the circumstances that would make this…
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton My rating: 5 stars This book tells the story of apartheid in South Africa. It tells an eye-opening and beautiful tale in succinct and beautiful English. I read this 300-page book in about 24 hours because I enjoyed it so much. I appreciate Paton’s short sentences that communicate well through good verbs. The book is divided into three parts, each with its own focus. Written in 1948, it…
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood My rating: 4 of 5 stars This dystopian story tells is exceedingly odd – which Atwood turns into a strength of the book. In it, the entire legislative and executive branch is killed in a mass execution on Presidents’ Day. The Constitution is suspended, and the country is transformed into a country called “Gilead.” Pollution reigns, and women are oppressed into being valued only for their sexual organs. Sexual…
Foundation by Isaac Asimov My rating: 3 of 5 stars Asimov is obviously quite brilliant. His books took a “quantum leap” forward in the integration of science and literature in the 1950s. His success can be seen in the fact that his books do not seem all that impressive today. Indeed, stories about nuclear power, holograms, and power through knowledge are normal today – thanks in no small part to books like the Foundation. Like…
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov My rating: 0 of 5 stars This book from the 1950s is one of the most respected works of science fiction in the English language. It tells the story of how “robots” (what we’d probably now call computers and artificial intelligence) end up taking over the world. Fortunately, Asimov’s dystopian tale has ended up not becoming true – in the timespans described by the book, at least. Computers are often…
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton My rating: 0 of 5 stars This book, widely recognized as a classic – or perhaps the classic – in the field of mythology, provides not just Hamilton’s scholarship over a lifetime of classical myths; it provides Hamilton’s outlay for how to live the good life. She respects and admires the Greek and Roman cultures whose myths she portrays – so much so that she…
by William M. Thackeray Written 1847-1848 This novel, set in part around the famed Battle of Waterloo in which Napoleon gets his ultimate defeat at the hands of the British, goes through 66 chapters of set up for a tumultuous (and brilliant) final chapter in which every supposition in the prior chapters is set on its head. As a whole, this book is witty, wonderful, and enchanting. It is fit to be a classic –…