The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a very good coming-of-age YA in a poetic prose style. The scene with her mother at the end, this was so my mother, minus the religion.

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By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño

By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As far I can tell, the surface of this story of a jerky priest who has literary interest and regrets his complicity with the Pinochet regime at the end of his life. Overall, it seems a condemnation of intellectuals who just go along with repressive regimes even if they are opposed to them. This also appears to be written in a way in which only an intellectual could stomach reading so... maybe Bolaño didn't want to openly critique intellectualism, perhaps because it is not the problem on its own.

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Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Read this mostly in English. I recommend reading Tlon, Herbert Quain, The Library of Babel, The Garden of Forking Paths (maybe), Funes, and The Secret Miracle. The rest I could have lived without.

1. Tlon (5 stars)- Fantasy about an alien world which is really a commentary about our own.

2. The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim- I can't even rate this one because it went completely over my head. Completely.

3. Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quijote (2 stars)- Interesting idea, but mostly hated reading this story.

4. The Circular Ruins (3.5 stars)- This is a very "La Vida es Sueno" type story. It's lovely though not earth-shattering.

5. The Babylon Lottery/ The Lottery in Babylon (3 stars)- More of the ideas of infinite choices and possibilities expressed in The Library of Babel and The Garden of Forking Paths. This is not my favorite execution of Borges's ideas about possible futures and philosophy.

6. An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain (4 stars)- Another review of a fictional author's work like in "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim." I like that he got to write about super interesting plot lines without actually having to write them. Borges describes a detective story "The God of the Labyrinth" in which the solution given is wrong, but the reader can figure the real solution out from the clues. I also like the idea of "April March," a novel with nine different beginnings going backwards in time.

7. The Library of Babel- (5 stars) Amazing thought experiment/ work of philosophy. (Note: The library in The Magicians anyone?)

8. The Garden of Forking Paths (4 stars)- One of the things that is particularly interesting to me about this story is that its concept of time has been hypothesized by the multiverse theory of physics. The first person to propose information that would later lead to the multiverse theory was Erwin Schrödinger, in 1952, some years after Borges wrote this story.

9. Funes (5 stars)- Love hearing about a completely different way of perceiving, understanding, and analyzing, but in real life memory experts do employ similar tactics to Funes. See eg, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.

10. The Forms of the Sword (4 stars)- An interesting story about cowardice, Christianity, and shame with a Borges ending. Though I was surprised Borges spelled out the ending so clearly even though it was already clear. He usually trusts his reader more.

11. Theme of the Traitor (3 stars) - Ha! Clever and politically astute.

12. Death and a Compass (3 stars)- Read in Spanish and in English. Erik Lönnrot tries to solve murders which seem to follow a kabbalistic pattern. This one seems to be a favorite as it appears in all three of my Borges anthologies, but it's not one of my favorites. It's tricky and clever but I don't get much more from it.
"... la realidad no tiene la menor obligacion de ser interesante."
"... reality does not have the slightest obligation to be interesting."

13. The Secret Miracle (5 stars)- I read this in Spanish and English. It is my favorite Borges story and it has stayed with me since I first read it in maybe 1998. I love its conception of reality, time, God, purpose, and the ephemerality of our work on Earth.

14. Three Versions of Judas (2 stars) - There's not too much I can say about this one.

15. The End (2 stars)- Just sad and weird.

16. The Sect of the Phoenix (2 stars)- Another not-good one.

17. The South (3 stars)- I read this in Spanish and in English. It's sad and and a strangely normal story for Borges.

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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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Love Poems by Pablo Neruda

Love Poems by Pablo Neruda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this in English and in Spanish, and I wasn't crazy about this collection. I thought the poems were just a little better in Spanish. I especially liked the laughter poems in Spanish better. I find the English easier to understand because I'm more comfortable with it, and the Spanish a bit more musical, but there's not a huge difference in these particular poems for me. Love is a maybe the most difficult topic for poetry, and this just left something missing for me.

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Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges

Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Borges writes philosophical fantasy and sometimes mystery stories.

1. Borges and Me/ Borges y Yo (4 stars)- I've read this one in both Spanish and English. I don't prefer a version. It's a simple short story about Borges's identity as a person versus as a writer that I enjoyed.

2. The Garden of Forking Paths (4 stars)- One of the things that is particularly interesting to me about this story is that its concept of time has been hypothesized by the multiverse theory of physics. The first person to propose information that would later lead to the multiverse theory was Erwin Schrödinger, in 1952, some years after Borges wrote this story.

3. Man On Pink Corner (5 stars)- Rosendo Juarez, men and dogs respected him. A fun little murder mystery. Pay close attention!

4. The Library of Babel- (5 stars) Amazing thought experiment/ work of philosophy. (Note: The library in The Magicians anyone?)

5. Death and a Compass/La Muerte y La Brujula (3 stars)- Read in Spanish and in English. Erik Lönnrot tries to solve murders which seem to follow a kabbalistic pattern. This one appears to be a favorite as it appears in all three of my Borges anthologies, but it's not one of my favorites. It's tricky and clever but I don't get much more from it.
"... la realidad no tiene la menor obligacion de ser interesante."
"... reality does not have the slightest obligation to be interesting."

6. The Lottery in Babylon/ The Babylon Lottery (3 stars)- More of the ideas of infinite choices and possibilities expressed in The Garden of Forking Paths and The Library of Babel. This is not my favorite execution of Borges's ideas about possible futures and philosophy.

7. The Maker (3 stars)- Very short, and I didn't get much from it.

8. The Zahir (3 stars)- Whatever this metaphor is I missed it.

9. The Encounter (3 stars)-Knife-control? Didn't love this story either.

10. The Circular Ruins (3.5 stars)- This is a very "La Vida es Sueno" type story. It's lovely though not earth-shattering.

11. Shakespeare's Memory (5 stars)- I love a lot about this story. I love Borges's conception of personhood. I love Shakespeare. I love the way Borges blatantly shows off his literary chops. Like many of his other great stories, you start to inhabit the story as if you are dreaming it and you lose sight of the real world around you.

12. August 25, 1983 (4 stars)- Hello me, it's future you. Don't you have anything useful to tell me? Nope.

13. The Immortal (5 stars)- As above, I am lost in the dream.

14. Parable of Cervantes and the Quixote (3.5 stars)- A bit of a spin on Borges y Yo basically.

15. The Story from Rosendo Juarez (3.5 stars)- Sequel to a Man on a Pink Corner!

16. The Aleph (5 stars)- What a super amazing story of romance. It is an insane work of fantasy. It's an interesting work of spirituality and philosophy. I love the ending. My heart might explode.

17. Dreamtigers (2 stars?)- He really was obsessed with tigers though. It's in almost all the stories.

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Vista del Amanecer en el Tropico by Guillermo Cabrera Infante

Vista del Amanecer en el Tropico by Guillermo Cabrera Infante
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very short stories about the history of Cuba. One story is so short that it's a sentence- almost a one-liner joke. Except it's not a joke, it's a horrifying truth. It goes" "The general asked the time and an aide-de-camp approached quickly and whispered: "Whatever time you want, Mr. President." [Translation my own as I have a Spanish copy and might suffer from some small Spanglish issues as I'm out of practice.]

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The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Miguel Ruiz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's fine. It gives some standard self-improvement advice. But I get really bored by the generalized examples. In general, fluffy examples is why I'm not a fan of self-help writing.

Chapters 2-5:
1. Be impeccable with your word- To Ruiz, it doesn't mean "be perfectly honest" like I thought it would, but rather, don't have sin in your speech. Don't say mean things to people or about them.

2. Don't take anything personally- Okay, the example where someone who doesn't know you calls you stupid is silly. Of course, that's not personal. But if you have a meaningful relationship with someone, say a parent or a partner, it would be extremely difficult not to take it personally. And perhaps you shouldn't just dismiss it without consideration. "You're making a lot of noise," says your roommate. Oh that's just about them, not about me you think, and keep making a racket. I'm being a little silly in my example, but I think Ruiz is exaggerating the relevance of Agreement #2. It's not terrible advice in certain situations, but definitely not in all.

3. Don't make assumptions - Okay wasn't Agreement #2 one huge assumption? This one is generally good advice.

4. Do your best. Okay, now I'm bored. We all know this one, right? Plus in this section is a quote I actively disagree with: "You don't need knowledge or great philosophical concepts." Really, why are we even reading this book then? Also, maybe this book would have been better if the author had valued philosophical study.

Chapter 6 was all over the place, but I did like the small section on controlling your emotions (p. 119). The only problem is that it runs counter to the previous section in the same chapter that talks about how completely free children are with their emotions. But whatever, it's still a decent little section. I also liked the section on preparing for death although there were contradictions in that part as well.

Chapter 7 and the Prayers section are inspirational and the part I'd be most likely to reread for a refocus.


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One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The writing is so beautiful. I love magical realism done well, and I think this is the best version of magical realism I've read. I also love sweeping fictional family histories.

My biggest complaint is the characters. The matriarch Ursula is a fully formed character and really the heroine of the book. Her daughter Amaranta is a spectacularly strange villain, and her son Colonel Aureliano is at least multi-faceted. Most of the other characters fall flat for me and not just because of the repeat names. I went through quite a bit of trouble to keep them straight in my mind but most of them just had shadows of personalities. For example, who is Santa Sofia, really? She barely gets involved with her bizarre daughter Remedios the beauty and doesn't react when her daughter ascends into heaven? Who is Jose Arcadio Segundo besides someone who resembles Aureliano Segundo?

But I do also object to the repeat names. It is a common Hispanic naming convention to name a son for his father and even a daughter for her mother, but this often remedied by an aggressive use of middle names and nicknames, such as when Renata Remedios (who actually does have a unique name) goes by Meme instead.

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