The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Often, I read National Book Award winners from yesteryear, but I don’t follow great writers who are currently alive. I decided that I wanted to buck that trend by reading this work. It tells about an everyman’s search for social justice amongst Native Americans. The story spans the distance from North Dakota to Washington, D.C.
Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant
While reading a previous biography on Grant, I was impressed with Grant’s decency. I had been taught (wrongly) that he was a drunkard who had an axe to grind towards the American South, but I found the opposite was the case. I wanted to hear more from this man who was a savior of the American Union and emancipator of the slaves. His memoirs, which contain some of the best military histories ever written in English, provide me with an opportunity to get inside his head through his words.
Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hawthorne is most well-known as the author of The Scarlet Letter. In his novels, he chronicles the history of New England through its Puritan forebears. The remainder of the United States has picked up Puritan themes most pronounced in New Englanders. This work provides a series of short stories that discuss various aspects of Puritan life – and thus American life.
The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton
G.K. Chesterton was a prolific English author in the post-Victorian age. He wrote both fiction and non-fiction, mostly about themes of Christianity triumphing over growing secularism. (Gilbert was a convert to Roman Catholicism – then a rarity in fiercely Protestant England). This work is an epic poem that delineates the English King Alfred’s triumph over the invading Danes in 878. For Chesterton, it symbolizes the triumph of the Christian soul over a chaotic world.
The Castle by Franz Kafka
Kafka is most-known for his work The Metamorphosis. His stories also include two works that have caught my eye – The Trial and The Castle. It talks about the struggle with a faceless authority – a theme I relate to. I hope many others can relate to such in our modern world.