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No, not the setting of the book, although that is important, too… I am sure other readers, when a book is mentioned, think back to where they were or their personal circumstances when first encountering that work. I was able to go hiking and exploring this past weekend thanks to my wonderful wife. Images similar […]
Robinson Crusoe first edition (1719) Picture sourceA story can be so firmly cemented as a cultural touchstone that you think you know it without having ever read it. Part of my interest in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe comes from wanting to see what is consistent and what is different from my expectations. I was planning […]
Convergence combines career advice with commercial fiction in a novel about 4 young scientists striving for academic success. Each journey takes many twists and turns as these researchers make significant discoveries, under impossible conditions, while dealing with unscrupulous colleagues. To keep their careers alive, however, they are in the end forced to consider something that […]
George Washington by Gilbert Stuart (1795)Picture source Yet another history book…one I’ve intended to read since its release… Joseph J. Ellis’ biography on George Washington weighs in at around 275 pages, which is a change from recent (literally) weighty tomes on the founding fathers. Ellis keeps the work shorter by summarizing surrounding historical details, going […]
A street artist portraying Unamuno, Barcelona, 2006 Photograph by luna (follow the source link for more pictures) Picture sourceI didn’t provide any online resources for Unamuno or Mist, but hopefully I’ll get to more of his works soon and can do so at that time. Links for posts related to Mist: Mist discussion Quotes from […]
I don’t feel too bad “giving away” the ending or the plot twist in previous posts since Unamuno talks of Augusto’s death in the Prologue as well as begins the author’s playful take on the blurring fiction and reality. Unamuno has one of his characters (Victor Goti) write the Prologue, which allows the author to […]
The character Augusto Pérez, upon feeling suicidal, visits author Miguel de Unamuno: ”Very well, then. The truth is, my dear Augusto,” I spoke to him the softest of tones, “you can’t kill yourself because you are not alive; and you are not alive—or dead either—because you do not exist.” “I don’t exist! What do you […]
I have made a few posts on nonfiction I’ve read this year (The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss and A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro), and thought I would add a few more nonfiction books I’ve enjoyed recently. The biggest joy has been rediscovering Barbara Tuchman. I received A […]
In which I give away the ending and hint at a major plot twist in Mist: And I even suspect that while I have been explaining and commenting this Life of Don Quixote, I have secretly been visited by the two of them, and that without my being aware of it they have unfolded and […]
How do we face life’s seemingly insurmountable problems? For Stephen Monroe, an unsuccessfully self-employed typesetter still in love with his ex-wife, Mary, the only acceptable thing to do is to hang in there and fight — for love, for what he believes in, and for the voice inside him that’s struggling to be heard. With […]