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 –…
by J.R.R. TolkienBBC Audiobook This book brings about the trilogy’s climax – when the ring leaves Frodo’s hand into the fire of Mordor with a special literary twist. However, this climax occurs relatively early in the third book. Like most wars (or football games), the victory is apparent much earlier than the end. The tale must continue as all of the intricate details must be tied up. Such is the case with The Lord of…
by Edith WhartonWritten in 1920. This tale spans 20-30 years, two continents, and the hearts of two women and one man. Newland Archer is engaged in pre-World-War-One New York City to May Welland. However, he falls for May’s cousin Ellen who is fresh off a separation from her marriage in Europe. Ellen seems to respond (however subtly) to Newland’s flirtations and overtures. Newland seems torn between his two lovers and seems to prefer Ellen over…
by J.R.R. TolkienBBC Audiobook This second retelling of Tolkien’s masterpiece trilogy of The Lord of the Rings contains more of the same. Like all middle-pieces of trilogies, tensions are unresolved and themes are explored more deeply. Middle-pieces of trilogies are never completely satisfying. The reader does not discover something new (that is left for the first book), and the reader does not come to an end (that is left for the third book). Instead, there is…
by Gore VidalCopyright (c) 1984 Lincoln is our nation’s savior and helped free an entire race of people from slavery. As such, he has risen to near-saint status. Most books by American historians – and even those takes like that in the British HG Well’s A Short History of the World – essentially form a hagiography. Fortunately, our age has Gore Vidal’s work of historical fiction, which places Lincoln as a politician and lawyer first. Lincoln,…
by J.R.R. TolkienBBC Audiobook How to review a narrative that has been a turned into classic tetralogy and a well-funded multimillion-dollar movie trilogy? I’ve chosen to do so via a trilogy dramatized and produced for radio by the BBC. In a few hours’ time, I let my mind recess into listening to words of fantasy. British accents and the deep tradition of the English language adorned my rides home. An escape was the result –…