Book review: World Without End by Ken Follett

Ken Follett pulls no punches when it comes to describing the raunchy goings on of English society in the 14^th century. World Without End is full of murder, deception, rape, fornication, masturbation, ejaculation, and farting. What we consider impolite now, was just normal behavior back then. Let’s face it; farting loudly is no big deal. I mean, we’ve all done it, right? But this novel makes one wonder what it meant to be a good person in the 14^th century. If you called someone a ‘bad’ person today, that someone may take offence or even feel downtrodden by the comment. But if you were to call someone ‘bad’ in the Middle Ages, they wouldn’t know what you meant. To use one’s strength, cunning, or status to get ahead in life at the expense of others wasn’t considered wrong, it was the way the world operated. The church held sway over the monarchy, and the king ruled all, and if you were a peasant and a serf, then so be it, that was your lot in life, and you’d just better accept it.

Book review: Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt

When we see the outcome of a performance, we sometimes overlook the concept beneath the tip of the iceberg. The tip being the culmination of thousands of hours of intense work and weaved among all those hours are the personal experiences and momentous efforts of the artist. Hard work equals skill acquisition, and the application of skills can percolate to talent development and these mechanisms of intense practice are easier to understand now thanks to publications like Atomic Habits, Grit, and other science of expertise books.

A Week Aboard the Al Andalus: Sevilla, Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada.

There was an era when travelling for pleasure was a privilege of the upper classes and the most comfortable mode was always by train. Hollywood sold us the sensual image of train travel; the damsel in diamonds and fur enveloped by the rising steam of the engine, blowing kisses and waving a reluctant goodbye from the window; the attendant in his pill box cap calling for all aboard and swinging a lantern.

Book review: Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe

Anybody who knows Tom Wolfe the journalist and novelist will always remember the skinny guy in the white suit as the arbiter of new journalism and social commentator with satirical fiction like Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full. Not the most prolific novelist out there, he only produced four novels during his long career, and although I can’t remember much about Man, I do recall that I loved it when I read it many years ago.

Book review: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

This novel appears on a list of the 100 best of all time. Lists don’t really mean anything, but we are meant to believe that the most important lists of the best of the best are vetted by people who are supposed to know about these things.

Book review: The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

Although it seems like a cliché, finding oneself is a bigger challenge than it may seem. The protagonist of this novel, Larry, is a young man and veteran of WWI who leaves his comfortable life behind in Chicago and heads to Paris to read and think about life and what’s important. He is of the upper classes and grew up among snobs and wealth but after a traumatic experience in the war, he decides to go in search of something else – the acquisition of knowledge. When we meet him, he spends an entire day in the library of a gentlemen’s club reading The Principles of Psychology by William James.

Book review: I Am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche

If my reading habits came down to a desert island choice; you know, what kind of reading material would I take with me: genre fiction, literature, or non-fiction – I’d have to go with non-fiction. I’m picky when it comes to genre fiction; if I’m not hooked right away, I abandon. I’ll never read everything I want to in this life so no time to waste. As much as I love literature, sometimes it’s just too much trouble, therefore, I have to go with non-fiction as my desert island choice.

Book review: The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco made an interesting comment about this novel during an interview. He was speaking about the narrowness of love: if I love you, I want you to love me, and I don’t want anyone else to love you and I want you to feel the same way about me. But hate is generous. It’s a simple idea but he’s right. Haters love to hate and spread it around liberally. Haters hate whole generations, nations, and ethnicities equally; their hatred doesn’t discriminate. The narrator of The Prague Cemetery is a hater for the ages. He’s Italian by birth but considers himself French; he has a bit of Hannibal Lecter in him – he is hyper-intelligent, well-educated and loves fine food but hates everyone, especially the Jews.

Book review: Moon Palace by Paul Auster

I can’t remember when I started reading Paul Auster, but he has been one of my favorite authors ever since. I’ve started re-reading some of his work recently and am reminded what makes him such a great writer. Auster has a distinct narrative style; the narrator’s voice always seems familiar whether it’s in the first or third person. I think Roland Barthe’s, The Death of the Author, and his concept of the author’s narrative voice disappearing from the text has never happened with Auster; his voice is alive and well and front and center.