Sounder by William H. Armstrong

Sounder by William H. Armstrong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is not a book about a boy and his dog. It ripped my heart out. The writing is excellent. It feels too heavy and possibly subtle for children, but maybe for high schoolers.

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The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The writing is 5-star writing, but to me, the message of the book is 1-star. Noboru espouses a very non-Judeo-Christian view of the world, and while I am a student of languages, cultures, and foreign relations, a world view that privileges Greek and Roman-style daring and machismo above basic Golden Rule-type goodness -- is precisely the reason that I have become philosophically Christian. To my mind, the sailor Ryuji Tsukazaki is an admirable man. But to Noboru, and indeed likely to the author Yukio Mishima, he is soft and romantic and deserves what he gets. What a horror. Add to that the book's little dash of misogyny, like a cherry on top of the murder sundae.

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Stoner by John Williams

Stoner by John Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is wonderful and the character of William Stoner is so delicately and lovingly written. I have some reservations about the character and possibly the author, but I can't let that stand in the way of how much I loved this book. The character lets himself off entirely too easily, especially for the fate of his daughter Grace. He fought Lomax tooth and nail over pure principal, but he couldn't fight his wife for his daughter's soul and future? Complete cop-out.

Possibly some spoilers here, but it's not really that kind of book: My husband read this book too, and he argued that Edith's character isn't well-written because she exists purely to foil her husband, but I don't especially agree with that. Edith is obviously really excited to go to Europe and is disappointed that even this small life ambition is obstructed by a proposal she feels obligated to accept, possibly due to her desire to escape her home. She obviously has some serious issue with her father, as shown when he dies later. And for whatever reason, possibly the typical Christian upbringing of equating any non-procreative sex with sin and duty to one's husband, or the era's not-so-feminist views of consent and female pleasure, or even maybe stemming from whatever her issue with her father is, she deeply despises sexual contact. She doesn't take care of her baby and we're not told why there seem to be at least two possibilities: she might suffer postpartum depression, or she is just a deeply controlling person- which might also stem from her more general lack of control of her life in that era. She is happiest when she able to live her life as much like a single European artist and is even sometimes pleasant towards her husband when he is most emotionally independent of her and even physically missing. Alternatively, she is kindest when she thinks she risks losing her husband whm she depends on economically. And finally, she takes care of him at the end. Yeah, she sucks, but I think there are a lot of clues in the text as to why she sucks, and those clues make her sufficiently interesting to me.

The ending is maybe a bit too existentialist for my taste, or maybe not existentialist enough, I can't decide. I think that if you're going the existentialist route, you should at least commit. Possibly Stoner is somewhat existentialist precisely because he's failed to live his life with courage. He's definitely not alone in that. If I should die tomorrow, I don't think I would be pleased with my lifetime level of courage or lack thereof, but I'm aware that I'm not the center of the universe. I would hope that a professor of literature would see beyond himself to decide what does and doesn't matter.

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The Magus by John Fowles

The Magus by John Fowles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel was very weird, and I was on board for that. It was literary the best possible way and examines truth, performance, beauty, and love. But. Even though the point of this book was partially anti-misogyny since the main character is misogynistic and racist, it was sometimes a lot to get through. Also, the book was way too long. I kept thinking, how is this not the end? How is this not end? When he introduced another character Jojo nearly at the very end, I groaned out loud. Finally, I think absolutely everyone in the book misunderstands love. The main character is supposed to misunderstand it, but I get the sense that even the author is off-base. I never for one second got the sense he loved Allison. Not even close. So why would I root for their love? I didn't. Even though it's a big topic of the book, in my opinion, there is no love in this book.

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2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To me, this reads more like a short story collection than a novel. There are beautiful parts and really interesting parts, and Clarke was prescient about some technology. But overall, I felt it dragged from scene to scene. Some of the other reviews suggest to me I might enjoy it more one day.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is amazing but often excruciating to read, especially at the beginning when it’s slow, and the end when it has become clear what is going to happen. Also it hasn’t aged well and the misogyny and racism feel brutal.

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A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is almost an allegory which I'm not the biggest fan of generally. To make matters worse, it's a super disturbingly violent allegory. And like with most allegories, if I don't agree with the central concept which the author is trying to cram down my throat, then I can't really enjoy the book. No, I don't think it's better to be able to choose good and evil in the name of free will. I prefer that people not commit evil in the form of rape and murder. I don't care why they don't do it. That's between them and their God. What concerns me is the NOT raping and murdering.

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Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a great weekend read. Didion's writing is so good it's not fair to everyone else. How did she write this well in her early 30s?

The collection is mostly essays about California in the 60s, Didion really puts you there, even if, like me, you've barely ever been to California. What she failed to explain to me is why people live in a state that is so clearly hostile to humans and human settlement. Besides the earthquakes-- which she barely mentions, there are the mudslides, fires, deadly rivers, snakes, desert everywhere, and an entire essay is dedicated to the maleficent Santa Ana winds. She does dedicate an entire essay to why living in New York City when you are no longer young is crazy, with no special reasons except her own depression and cold weather. I am not the biggest fan of New York City either, but the ground in New York rarely tries to eat people alive.

Spoiler alert: In real life, she moves back to New York. Is there an essay about that?

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The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark

The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I picked this book because I like Muriel Spark and this book is short. This was not a good one. I'm not sure if I properly understood this book, but contrary to a lot of the other reviews I don't think Dougal Douglas is actually responsible for everything (anything?) that happens. It seems to me like the residents of Peckham are very deeply flawed all on their own and just blame the new Scottish guy in town. Granted Dougal is a jerk and "likes taking the piss" but this hardly seems to make him responsible for everyone else's choices. Note that at the very beginning of the book Dixie even blames Dougal for Humphrey not being a germaphobe, but in fact, Dougal hates sickness.

"I feel as if I've been married 20 years instead of 2 hours." - Dixie

Well, I feel like I've been reading this book for 20 years instead of 2 days, so I can relate.

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Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a long collection with a lot of short stories. They're all at least pretty solid, and some of them I love. I think my favorite- and I suspect this is a strange choice is "Who Am I This Time?" which I find to be exceptionally odd and romantic in a novel way.

The title story, "Welcome to the Monkey House" is very rapey and doesn't hold up to modern scrutiny at all, so it's really a shame that the entire collection is named this. Not surprisingly it was first published in Playboy. Ugh, boys and men growing up in the late 60s were reading this story basically justifying rape.

I particularly enjoyed the futuristic sci-fi/fantasy stories like "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" and "Unready to Wear." ("Harrison Bergeron" on the other hand seemed a little bit juvenile to me as a rather simplistic dystopian realization of liberal ideals.) The last story, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" could have been a full-length dystopian novel but maybe it would have been too big a bummer and is kind of darkly humorous as a short story.

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The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finally read this feminist classic. The first half was super interesting both from a historical perspective and for the eerie feeling that it was describing my current life despite the fact that I have complete freedom to go back to work. Regarding the latter issue, I wonder how much housewife despair is actually the luxury and time to contemplate the lack of objective meaning in life. Is the distraction of work really the answer? Sooner or later we have to come to terms with meaning or lack thereof- may be at retirement or on our deathbed. I suppose if there is no answer, distraction is an adequate enough solution.

I especially liked how Friedan tied the oppression of women to the overall issues of labor and corporate abuses.

The second half the book suffered from a number of problems. As a number of other reviewers mentioned the comparison to Holocaust camps (to demonstrate the negative feelings of lack of control over one's own life) is inappropriate. Couldn't Friedan just have studied or discussed the effects of lack of control on regular prisoners? Or even on dependent elderly adults? The second half also had a lot of dated and strange views about homosexuality the book would have been better without. Finally, it got really repetitive.

Overall, well worth reading and contemplating how far we have and haven't come.

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In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The events are horrific and reading about it is tortuous, but the book is so well-written it is just bearable.

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The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I like this book because it totally immerses you in a strange world as an alien trying to understand- but not completely understanding everything. That strikes me as particularly realistic because it takes a really long time to understand a foreign culture, and probably you never fully get it.

I also like the way the main character develops a complicated friendship with a person of such a dissimilar culture, becoming deeply bonded while still not fully understanding each other.

Finally, the whole exploration of a gender-neutral society so far in advance of the gender nonconformity movement we are currently living through is really interesting, and particularly strange as seen through the eyes of a vaguely sexist but still open-minded main character.


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City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin

City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a thousands-of-years-later sequel to Planet of Exile, so I recommend reading that one first, though it's not strictly necessary, as all the Hainish Cycle books stand alone pretty well. The beginning is a pretty straightforward adventure fantasy book with a hero on a quest, but soon becomes more of a puzzle that the reader has to engage with, while simultaneously pondering what constitutes a person's identity.

Le Guin wrote books 3-5 of the Hainish Cycle first: Rocannon's World (1966), Planet of Exile (1966), and City of Illusions (1967). I've read those and the prequel (book 1) The Dispossessed. So far this is my favorite in the Hainish Cycle. I'm going to read The Left Hand of Darkness (book 6) next.

RIP Ursula K. Le Guin. Thank you for all the books.

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Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara

Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There were lots of parts I loved, but more that I struggled with. I suspect that part of my problem is that I don't read enough poetry yet, so I'll keep trying and hopefully revisit this one later.

Here are my favorite bits:

From "Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul," p. 35:
“the only thing to do is simply continue
is that simple
yes, it is simple because it is the only thing to do
can you do it
yes, you can because it is the only thing to do”

From "Steps," p.58:
“oh god it’s wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes
and love you so much”

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Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune by Frank Herbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nearly perfect fantasy-scifi book except for the kind of weird vaguely political ending. I especially enjoyed the numerous strong interesting female characters that play important roles in the action. This is one of those books that when I finally read I regret waiting so long to read.

Also, this is the 100th book I read from my dad's inherited collection.

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Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein

Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fun idea for science fiction and interesting religious metaphor. People aboard a generational ship forget everything about Earth, science, and technology, and as the areas with windows to the outside are shut off, they forget even that they are on a ship, but begin to think the ship is all of existence. It's a brilliant concept and I would have loved to see how StarTrek (STNG) would have handled it. Unfortunately, Heinlein's version is not very deeply thoughtful. The characters are not developed very deeply, the society is very primitive and extremely stubborn, and most disappointingly, the women never get revenge for all the sexism inflicted on them. The mutated humans are a fun twist, especially since Siamese twins Joe and Jim. While Joe-Jim is not treated with a lot of dignity by other members of the crew, they are accorded a fair amount of respect by Heinlein, at least relative to the other characters.

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Capitalism by Ayn Rand

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I did not give this 4 stars because I agree with most of it or even half of it. I gave it 4 stars because I do think she did a good job of conveying her ideas, and the essays made me think about my views and examine whether they were based on faulty assumptions. Also, I found this book much easier and more entertaining than other Rand books I've read.

Here are just a few issues I had with Rand's ideas. She seems to willfully ignore basic economic concepts such as the tragedy of the commons. ToC is basically the worst world-wide threat right now. Global climate change invalidates so many of her arguments right off the bat. She ignores how money can generate more money without any innovation or hard work. Modern research in the irrationality of man also disproves many of her arguments. Her arguments against anti-trust laws can be effortlessly dismissed by anyone who has previously paid for cable or an internet connection. I think she terribly discounts the good that labor unions have done for working people. Now that labor unions have lost power in many industries I think we've all felt some of the negative effects both in the economy, politics and in loss of our leisure time, though we may not all associate it with that cause. And OMG did she honestly try to make an argument in favor of child labor? That's when you know that unfettered capitalism has really jumped the shark. As an aside, her attack on altruism is diametrically opposed to both Christianity and the current science of happiness.

There were also interesting parts that challenged me to think - and occasionally I even agree with some things. For example, I agree that many government subsidies are a horror. I have long had an intense dislike of the corn subsidy and its terrible results for both our economy and health. Nor am I a fan of train subsidies. Clearly, the price point for trains should be in between buses and airplanes? Yet trains often cost the same or more as a flight. I am also interested in Rand's argument about unemployment being related to government interference in the market. That seems plausible when government interference in immigration is considered, but I don't know enough about the research and numbers - and a fully mobile world labor market doesn't seem likely anytime soon. She appears to be mostly right about the hypocrisy of both political parties with regards to religion and reason.

Rand makes the argument that it's not true that too much of a good thing is always bad, and that's correct that it's not ALWAYS true. But it is sometimes true. (Even excessive water consumption can kill you.) I don't think she succeeded in proving that unfettered capitalism is better than capitalism with regulation.

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Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin

Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this one. It was short and focused on the dynamics between two groups of alien people at different places in their scientific development. It's interesting both as a thought experiment and also because of the personal relationships in the story.

The planet is Werel, and it takes 60 Earth-years to go around the sun, and it's about to have another really long (15-year?) winter. The main characters are Wold and his daughter Rolery who are members of the group of Tevarans. Might have been easier if they were called Werelians but actually, there's another group of invading Werelians called The Gaal. The other main character is Jakob Agat from a colony of Earthlings that got stuck and left behind on Werel. The two groups descended from the Hainish people originally, but they evolved separately for so long that they can't have children with each other.

Apparently, this planet is renamed from Werel to Alterra in Left Hand of Darkness?


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After the Fall by Arthur Miller

After the Fall by Arthur Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the strangest things I've read. Parts of it are amazing. Other parts are confounding or infuriating. It's impossible to describe beyond that the main character examines his three marriages- one of which appears to be based on Miler's real-life marriage to Marilyn Monroe. It's also about McCarthyism and the Holocaust. Um, yeah, that's a lot. It's messed up.


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