Aww yeah! Here's a massive list. Here they are sorted by how I liked them. I kind of sorted these in order, but it's so hard to compare certain books in a ranking: -=-=-= Excellent! =-=-=- "The Stories of John Cheever" (★★★★★) by John Cheever "The Things They Carried" (★★★★★) by Tim O'Brien "A Clockwork Orange" (★★★★★) by Anthony Burgess "Life of Pi" (★★★★★) by Yann Martel "Harry Potter Series" (★★★★★) by J.K. Rowling "In Cold Blood" (★★★★ 1/2) by Truman Capote "The Pearl" (★★★★ 1/2) by John Steinbeck "White Teeth" (★★★★ 1/2 ) by Zadie Smith -=-=-= Not bad =-=-=- "David Copperfield" (★★★★) by Charles Dickens "The Iliad" (★★★★) by Homer "The Divine Comedy" (★★★ 1/2) by Dante Alighieri "The Art of War" (★★★) by Sun Tzu "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (★★★) by Harriet Beecher Stowe -=-=-= Most Nontriumphant =-=-=- "The Red and the Black" (★★ 1/2) by Stendhal "The Handmaid’s Tale" (★★) by Margaret Atwood "Her Body and Other Parties: Stories" (★★) by Carmen Maria Machado -=-=-= Bogus =-=-=- "The Steppenwolf" (★ 1/2) by Hermann Hesse "The Reivers" (★) by William Faulkner "The Stories of John Cheever" enters my Pulitzers-read list at #2, which I didn't think any book would manage. I put it just slightly better than Updike's "Rabbit at Rest" (gasp!) and "The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead, both of which I love dearly. It's very hard to choose between Cheever and Updike. Cheever's advantage is that he's telling dozens of stories and so has dozens of arcs and reversals. His skill with easy description, effortless characterization, and strange drama is something else. Updike can do it too, and Updike excels at description, but Cheever is near perfect. Lots of stories about New Yorkers having Old Fashioneds and doing things they shouldn't. "The Things They Carried" is a pretty intense Vietnam war story. It's an homage to the author's fallen friends. Very powerful. Not as brutal as "Birdsong," but it pulls no punches. An exquisitely written confessional. "A Clockwork Orange" is badass. Not for those who get offended at ultra-violence. The MC is meant to be loathsome. It amused me to no end when the scientists interview the MC and ask each other, "Why does he sound like this?" Because he does sound odd, my droogs. What's fascinating is that in reading the book, you're being programmed too, similar to his fate. I mean that, you start to understand his strange speech and a point arrives where you feel it perfectly. There's a metatextual trick going on. "Life of Pi" has the feel of an old adventure story, like something from Kipling or Jack London. It's probably the most accessible of the great books I read. Well, that and Potter would be. "Harry Potter" Series. I give it 5 stars overall. Rowling's strengths are standout dialog, imaginative description, chapter arcs, and an overall story that is near perfect in form. Her weakness is a weird tendancy toward amateur mechanics, that quite frankly, surprised me. I'm rethinking if this is just a YA form . . . I don't know. The other women authors I read after this (HB Stowe, Atwood, Machado) did not do this at all, so I don't think it's a feminine style. It did decrease by the final book, but it never went away. . . (shrug). Sometimes I read kids' books and I'm too old for them to like them much (The Wizard of Oz). This series held though or I would have quit after book one. You probably haven't heard of this little known book but I'd recommend you try it out. The longer books are the strongest because the stories need room to breathe. "In Cold Blood" is the first true-crime book. You know who committed the murders and why, and you get to see the detectives track them down, catch them, and then follow the prosecution and execution. This is the book Norman Mailer imitated with "Executioner's Song," but let me tell you, this book is far, far better. It deserved a Pulitzer far more than Mailer's work, which I put very low in the Pulitzer list. "The Pearl." Classic Steinbeck. I know I've read it before. Probably back in school. Steinbeck understands easy elegance. Just beautiful throughout and an easy read. A man finds a pearl of great value. Is it a blessing or a curse? "White Teeth." A unique tale of two unlikely friends who fought in WWII and then about their children. The first half was so, so good. The second half lost a bit of that momentum, I thought, but I still liked it a lot. ------------ Some of those middling books are 5 stars in importance (Uncle Tom's cabin, The Divine Comedy, Art of War), but . . . they're difficult for me just because of strange form, poetics, or lack of narrative. They're worth reading though. I liked Dante's Purgatorio better than Paradiso because it had more grief. "David Copperfield" was best in the early chapters where there was real conflict. It always struck me as strange that the villain, Uriah Heep (queue '70s music), was obviously evil because of his countenance. I thought there was a reversal coming and Copperfield would be exposed as being judgmental, sort of a Professor Snape turnaround. The science of physiognomy was pretty accepted at the time, I guess. No such reversals happened. ----------- The not so great . . . "The Handmaid's Tale" was ridiculous. It earns two stars because it is solidly written at the sentence level. I only read it because everyone else did (such a follower, I am). I felt like I was reading a Unabomber manifesto. It was the fever dream ravings of an unhinged hysteric, and I use that last word in the literal, derived sense. I guess it works as a cult story, not a political story, but it just doesn't make sense and ends in a double whimper. The plot plods along like a retarded kid in a pity race and then shits itself at the finish line. I cannot believe people like this book. "Her Body and Other Stories" had one story that was genius. It was written as a series of CSI episode synopses, like something you'd read in an old TV guide, and a very strange story carried between the summaries. It was eye opening and full of dark dread. The rest though . . . yeah, not for me. I don't mind lesbian-themed horror (in the social, not titillating sense, sorry fellas), but my god, give it a rest. I must have read 50 times in that last story about "my wife," who wasn't even really in the story. It was like a vegan constantly reminding you that she only eats vegetables, bringing it up every 5 minutes, or in this case, every 5 paragraphs. The author needs to be able to write more than one character. A shame, because the writing itself was fluid. Her Robert Aickman meanderings didn't work for me either. That's another horror style I don't care for. It's too loose and nebulous. It's always: 1) you're in a new place, 2) you wander about without plot, 3) something weird happens, 4) it may have been ghostly, or it may have just been weird, 5) you return to the modern life, forlorn. Eh, just read the book for that one CSI story, you'll know the one when you see it. "Steppenwolf" went nowhere (queue more '70s music). "The Reivers" felt like half the story was missing. It didn't deserve a Pulitzer either and entered my Pulitzer list near the bottom. I think it was number 39 or 40 which I've read. It won simply on Faulkner's name recognition, I believe. The reigning Pulitzer Heavyweight Champ. The most perfect voice ever committed to paper.
I am about to embark on Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. How could anyone resist a title like that?
Perhaps it’s written more in the style of a British female author. The later books seem to be stylistically different from the earlier Harry Potter books but she also kills off a lot of important characters in those ones. That got some of them almost rebranded to the “adult” genre because it’s a much heavier read for younger fans. I see nothing wrong in indulging with children books. Some of them have the most humorous and most creative ideas. They could get very imaginative. I’ve been considering this one
My favorite YA is this one: Good lord, that thing's funny. I didn't realize it was YA until I was too far into it. I laughed during every page. But man, the larger structure of Harry Potter is flawless. It's a Roald Dahl setup, with cartoonishly evil overseers, and then the kid escapes to the world he wished he had, which as the reader understands, is the world he deserves. It's not a perfect place, and it's filled with danger, but he dares the impossible and earns true respect. It's a Bildungsroman work; so is James and The Giant Peach. It's about adversity bringing out the best in a kid and the world becoming a better place because of him.
It’s because his countenance is a symbol, and the novel was written before the subversion of every symbol became normative.
Right now I'm reading Hyperion. I was a bit disappointed now at the beginning that there were Earth animals on a new planet. Will see how it develops and if there will be more interesting creatures down the line.
Holy crap, Crying in the Bathroom was good! two essays in particular ("La Mala Vida" and "Do You Think I'm Pretty? Circle Yes or No") had me close to tears by how relatable it was I dont care too much for the author as a narrator.... which is surprising because I enjoyed her interview when I watched her live (infact, her interview is what made me pick up the book!), but i enjoyed the book nonetheless
Vengeance Flight by T.R. Matson. I enjoyed his previous book, Treason Flight (which this one is a sequel to), so I'm going in completely blind as to the plot. I find it's much more enjoyable that way. But at present, the only authors I do that for are Matson and CW Lemoine.
After finishing my reread of Torch of Freedom, I’m working my way through Cauldron of Ghosts by David Weber and Eric Flint. I originally bypassed this one on my way to Uncompromising Honor, since Shadow of Victory filled in most of the blanks, but I want the full picture before diving into To End in Fire.
Elements of Style (the illustrated version, which tickles me to no end) and U is for Undertow. I'm closing in on the end of Sue Grafton's series. May manage to finish by the equinox if work or something equally annoying doesn't get in the way.
I've read like 90% of those. If the chickens were still around we'd be scraping you off the windshield for your Handmaid's take, haha.
My daughter gave me that illustrated Elements of Style for my last birthday. I keep it next to my unillustrated third edition, from 1979.
Reading Charles Fourier's The Theory of the Four Movements which can be found for free online. He's usually called a "utopian socialist" but this label really doesn't begin to do justice to his wildness. Intergalactic feminist socialist eroticism? His social ideas are of course wonderful and radical- and his critique of civilization is pretty spot on- but one must also acknowledge his minutely imagined cosmology of sentient copulating planets, reincarnation, and of course the infamous lemonade-flavored ocean teeming with new and helpful sea creatures which we will enjoy when the northern ice cap melts.
"Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens (★★★) "Andersonville" by MacKinlay Kantor (★★★★★) "Now Is Not the Time to Panic" by Kevin Wilson (★★★ 1/2) "Trust" by Hernan Diaz (★★★★) "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner (★★★ 1/2) "The Odyssey" by Homer (★★★★) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens (★★★) Lovable scamp, Oliver, wanders through the world, running in with thieves and people who despise him. My favorite parts are when the characters get mad at each other and cut each other down with awesome sarcasm. Dickens is a sarcastic mastermind. The story is a bit melodramatic, but you have to keep it in its era. It's fair. (David Copperfield would beat Oliver Twist in a fistfight.) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Andersonville" by MacKinlay Kantor (★★★★★) This counts as a village novel. In this case, the village is the Confederate prison known as Andersonville and the story examines perspectives of all the people around it. The Yankees live in absolute misery. There are some revolting scenes. I see that parents didn't want this read in schools back in the day, and I don't blame them. This is not for kids. You would have to be out of your mind to assign this reading to kids, Pulitzer or not. The prisoners suffer in great detail. Extreme starvation, disease, violence, and nauseating reveals. It's interesting to me that the prison commander is German, and I wonder if this is meant as a WWII metaphor. It's its own story, but the parallel is there. Since this was written in 1955, such things are very much on people's minds. This is the best Civil War Pulitzer I've read so far. ("March" is the worst. "Gone with the Wind" was the former best. I haven't read "The Killer Angels" yet. It's on my list though.) The strength of this book is when it starts exploring characters in detail by showing their past. It's almost written as a series of separate short stories, and those interludes get better as the book goes along. My favorite two were the soldier who falls in with the bandits, which was written like a Paulo Coelho adventure, and the kid who played the fife, which was incredibly depressing and emotional. Those characters really had impact. You could almost pull their stories out as excerpts from the novel and they would hold on their own. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Now Is Not the Time to Panic" by Kevin Wilson (★★★ 1/2) Two teenagers come up with a seemingly harmless slogan and paste it all over their town. It takes on a destructive life of its own. I liked some of the interactions. It was a pretty good book. "Family Fang" and "Nothing to See Here" are still the best books by this author. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Trust" by Hernan Diaz (★★★★) Another Pulitzer read. 2023 is the only year to feature dual winners. I suppose I prefer that to the zero winner years though it is still weird. This story is told in three main acts. The first section is a fabricated account of the characters' lives, those being a genius stock magnate and his wife in the early 20th century. The second section reveals the previous section as a fiction and a woman is hired by the magnate to rewrite it. The wife was shown as an insane invalid and the female author must set the facts straight. The final section is the truth she finds as told by the wife. I'm reading along and treated to possibly the only sincere conservative opinion I've ever read in a Pulitzer novel. Very rare to see such a thing stated sincerely. Almost like a Thomas Sowell explanation of conservatism. My suspicion then was that the character would wind up being a villain. . . and the character wound up being a villain and an exploiter. I don't know . . . I'd give the first section 5 stars, the middle section 4 stars, and the final section 3 stars where the girl boss makes her absurd appearance. Quite the opposite of Andersonville, which got stronger as it went along. This book metamorphed into a 2023 cliche. Too bad. Still a good book though. We'll see how 2023's other winner fares when I get to that. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner (★★★ 1/2) Here's the best Faulkner book I've read. It's about a mother who just sort of decides it's time to die. She does. Her final request is to be carted to the family plot, which is miles and miles away. The family loads her up into the wagon and hauls her bloated corpse to its final rest. There's buzzards following the cart, haha. The family wrecks the cart on a submerged bridge and the mother's corpse is in the river. People are threatening to drive the funeral procession out of their town because of the stench. Meanwhile the daughter wants to pay for an abortion while the older brother is a pyromaniac loon. It's not exactly "The Waltons." The POV jumps about. Not so bad as "The Sound and the Fury," but still a challenge of sorts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "The Odyssey" by Homer (★★★★) I liked this better than the Iliad. The best part are the parts with the monsters, Cyclops and such. Odysseus sure does score readily with goddesses. He's such a Chad. The last half of the book is just him plotting the slaughter of the dudes in his house, kind of a narrative slowdown, but hey, the story is defining the form. I thought there would be more of a Trojan Horse making its appearance. I guess that's in the Aeneid.
The commander of Andersonville was in fact a Swiss-German and he was one of the very few Confederate war criminals to actually be held to account. Actually he is probably more of a scapegoat, as his superiors shared his responsibility at the very least. The role of German immigrants in the US civil war is very interesting. Many of them were "Forty-Eighters," leftist veterans of the failed revolutions of 1848, and as such some of the Union's and Republican Party's most militant supporters. Among them were communists, some of whom became officers in the Union army, including August Willich, possibly the USA's only communist general.
Genghis by Conn Iggulden. It is a well researched series of historical fiction. He uses historical records, for the mile post events, and aspects of Mongolian customs, to craft his fictional tale. Book one of the series, starts with childhood, and goes through uniting the tribals. Book 2, is the conquest of china.
