The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon

The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's fine. There's a mystery or two and the boys solve them: a stolen car and the contents of a safe. I can barely tell the boys' personalities apart and there's nothing else that jumps out to make it memorable or wonderful.

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The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another 10 stories. Tigger steals the show in this one as his 2 (3?) stories are the best.

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Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ten cute stories. My favorite is the story of Eeyore’s birthday, though the switcheroo of Roo and Piglet has a lot to recommend it.

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Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway

Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good writing but I had to force my way through.

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All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beautiful and so sad. I don’t think I’ve ever read a war novel from the perspective of “the enemy” before though maybe something close to that about the Middle East. So brilliantly written, that I assume the translation is excellent.

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The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the kind of masterpiece that sends me back to my 5-star reviews to demote as many as possible to a humble 4.

“Her religious beliefs went first, for all she could ask of a god, or of immortality, was the gift of a place where daughters love their mothers....”

“He was contemptuous of the great persons who, for all their education and usage, exhibited no care nor astonishment before the miracles of word order in Calderon and Cervantes.”

"... that ghost of a passion which, in the most unexpected relationship, can make even a whole lifetime devoted to irksome duty pass like a gracious dream."

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In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A short story collection that is kind of all over the place. I loved "Cat in the Rain," for what I, in my very modern view, saw as an indictment of the husband in the story, though I suspect less modern readers, and maybe Hemingway himself, saw as an indictment of the wife. On the other hand, "Indian Camp" is unsympathetic horror of a short story. Just a mess. The other stories ranged in between the two extremes for me.

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The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are lots of really beautiful parts to this. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

“You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.
This is but half the truth.
You are also as strong as your strongest link.
To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of the ocean
by the frailty of its foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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What I Believe by Bertrand Russell

What I Believe by Bertrand Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My version contains, “What I Believe,” “The Good Life,” “What is a Christian,” and “Fear, the Basis of Religion.”

The best of the bunch is “What I Believe.” Feminism! Consent! Birth control! In the 1920s! How can you not love Bertrand Russell?

I love his logic, and I agree with a lot of what he says, indeed for years that was all there was to it for me. However now, after much reading, I'm a Christian primarily because I believe in human rights, and justifying it all back through a number of steps that are perhaps not as logical as Bertrand, I arrive at God and agreement with the teachings of Christ. (I am told this is not good enough by my Evangelical friends, but luckily they don't get to decide who is and isn't a Christian. I am equally unimpressed by their version of Christianity.) Although clearly Russell is highly ethical, I don't think he really addresses ethics as the argument for God.

“The Good Life,” is solid but it feels very incomplete to me. “What is a Christian,” is both descriptive and an analysis and I didn’t find it particularly useful. Finally, “Fear,” brings up some solid points but seems to apply not to “religion” generally but Christianity specifically, and while I don’t disagree with his points, it seems unfair in its incompleteness.

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A Lost Lady by Willa Cather

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Listen, Mrs. Forrester is trying to do the best she can in a tough era, and I'm not terribly interested in Neil's indictment of her. As the entire midwest is sliding into shabbiness, Neil is growing up and his view of Mrs. Forrester, who he's put on a pedestal, is rapidly degenerating as well. His negative feelings are barely veiled sour grapes and later also some misdirected Ivy rage.

We never see the world directly from Mrs. Forrester's point of view, but even from Neil's biased view, we learn that Mrs. Forrester is deeply flawed and deliciously complicated. She's the Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary that SURVIVES, and even escapes and blooms again. I give Willa Cather a lot of credit for creating a character like that.

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The Trial by Franz Kafka

The Trial by Franz Kafka
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reminds me of The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol, but I liked that one better. While I appreciate the message about how insidious bureaucracy is, and there was something interesting about the dream-like quality of this novel where nothing exactly makes sense and things happen as if the protagonist conjures up the next act. Still, it simultaneously felt meandering, dull, and absurd.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This story is so magical and moving. The story deals with so many interesting things. Benjamin suffers so much judgment based on his appearance from both those who don't understand him and even those in his family that do. I am not certain what to think about his family's uniform but peculiar reaction of blaming him for something he can't help. There are so many things about his life cycle that aren't different despite the inversion because babyhood and extreme old age have some things in common. In any case, the story gives you a lot to think about. The end of the story really rips your heart out though.

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To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love this book a little, but it also leaves me so sad, and so out at sea - to borrow the author's metaphor. And that's how I already felt even before reading this book, so maybe it's not exactly what I needed.

Also, is it strange that Mr. Carmichael is my favorite character in this book?

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Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf

Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I love Virginia Woolf but this one is not my jam. I don’t care about Jacob or any of the other characters. The concept is interesting: understanding the main character through his life primarily through the eyes of other characters. But for me, it just didn’t work.

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20 Poemas de Amor y Una Canción Desesperada by Pablo Neruda

20 poemas de amor y una canción desesperada by Pablo Neruda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this in Spanish, and I generally enjoy Neruda much more in Spanish. The problem here is that good poetry in Spanish is very difficult for me, and I might be missing something significant here. Ideally, I'd read this in both Spanish in English, so I'm off to find an English copy.


Current favorite line, Poema 14:
"Quiero hacer contigo
lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos."

As an aside, he really loves the word "crepúsculo" which mean twilight in English. Crepúsculo crepúsculo crepúsculo.

Here's an online copy of the poems in Spanish if anyone is curious: https://www.poemas-del-alma.com/20-poemas-de-amor.htm.

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A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a brilliant essay about writing and feminism, and it made me feel like cheering on Woolf. That said, I struggled with the fictional elements inside of the nonfictional essay.

Favorite quotes:

“Possibly when the professor insisted a little too emphatically upon the inferiority of women, he was concerned not with their inferiority, but with his own superiority. That was what he was protecting rather hot-headedly and with too much emphasis, because it was a jewel to him of the rarest price.”

“They start the day confident, braced, believing themselves desired at Miss Smith's tea party; they say to themselves as they go into the room, I am the superior of half the people here, and it is thus that they speak with that self-confidence, that self-assurance, which have had such profound consequences in public life and lead to such curious notes in the margin of the private mind.”

“The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”

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Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At first, I loved this book, and it felt very modern, but as it continued it was just too much sex and conversations about sex. The first few conversations about sex were interesting in that the woman seemed so real and I was impressed with Lawrence's grasp of a modern woman. But later conversations about sex left me feeling like maybe Lawrence was actually missing the boat entirely. Also, it just became overplayed. The over-emphasis on sex made it feel decidedly not modern.

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Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville

Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is actually pretty good because Melville is a deep soul. But I struggled with the beginning, and for such a short book it really took me a long time to force my way through it.

Here's my favorite quote from the book: "Is Envy then such a monster? Well, though many an arraigned mortal has in hopes of mitigated penalty pleaded guilty to horrible actions, did ever anybody seriously confess to envy? Something there is in it universally felt to be more shameful than even felonious crime. And not only does everybody disown it, but the better sort are inclined to incredulity when it is in earnest imputed to an intelligent man. But since its lodgement is in the heart not the brain, no degree of intellect supplies a guarantee against it." - Chapter 13

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Ulysses by James Joyce

Ulysses by James Joyce
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm finished!!!! Oh, happy day!!! Done! Done!

Can't say I enjoyed this work of genius, though the ending was lovely, exhilarating, and terribly sad all at the same time.

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Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Even though I gave this 4 stars, I didn't actually enjoy this book. It just didn't work for me. My husband thinks I need to wait a few years and re-read it, but it was a bit painful. There are beautiful parts and interesting parts, but it wasn't all that interesting to me as a whole. I was reading to get through it.

It reads like someone imagining a story, or just thinking, going back and forth between a few characters without anything actually happening. It reads like a dream with a lot of medium-painful nostalgia and no action.

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