My Reading List

Books I Read in 2001

Harry Potter I-IV by J. K. Rawlins [****_]
These books are a wonderful adventure. Rawlins' writing style in the first book is very amateurish, but I was very impressed to find that her skills increased markedly from book to book. By the time she wrote the 4th book, she had attained a mastery of the genre. The movie (the 1st one at least) is wonderfully done. The visuals are enormously rich and the movie is worth watching for those alone. Her characters are very accessible and she is equally adept at portraying characters who draw you in or make your skin crawl.

Books I Read in 2002

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner [****_]
Very strange. So very, very, very strange. I read the book, but I feel I know almost less about it for having done so. I think I have an idea of what went on, but somehow his writing style makes me--for the sheer fact that I dare to believe I understand--doubt that very understanding. If you don't know what I mean, read the book. Or even just a few pages of it.

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut [***__]
What a strange writing style Vonnegut has! I've not seen any other author quite like him. And he spins a relatively captivating story with it, no less.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe [*____]
Stowe's writing is pretty poor. And she is quite the bigot. It's hard to say what is her wild imagination and what was reality. She ruins what could have been a useful historical fiction book. Too much fiction, too little history.

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell [*****]
A truly fun book to read. Much of the book is entertaining, but there are some morals and some lectures sprinkled in.

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse [*****]
Hesse takes the reader on a great journey through the psyche of Harry as he is thrashed about in the struggle between his two halves. I won't spoil the ending, but Hesse makes a wonderful sharp turn at the end, leaving the world with much hope.

animal farm by George Orwell [*****]
A timeless (unfortunately) classic. I had enjoyed it when I read it as a kid and enjoyed it again 18 years later.

Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu [**___]
First of all, it is really only five records--the sixth was lost. Fu's writing is poor (he apologizes for that at the start), but it is still great to see into life in the ancient Chinese court.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin [*****]
This was an excellent book. It chronicles Edna's slow but determined self-discovery. Having lived her life according to the expectations of others and "societal defaults" Edna slowly comes to the realization that she is not necessarily who she should be. She embarks on a path of discovery and is quite amazed at what she finds. Chopin is very successful in her experiment with what would happen to someone given the freedom to reinvent herself in the form of her own choosing.

The English Assassin by Daniel Silva [**___]
It was OK. It could have made a good story, but the author really was using the book as a pulpit from which to denounce the Swiss for the financial assistance they provided Hilter. Valid or not, he was far too heavy-handed in putting the message across and it markedly diminished his story.

The Clewiston Test by Kate Wilhelm [***__]
Ann Clewiston develops a serum that completely blocks pain. The company she works for stands to make a fortune on it if passes the clinical trials. But strange things have been happening to the chimpanzees it was tested on. And now strange things are happening to Ann, herself. Is it a result of her testing the drug on herself? She is recovering from a horrible car accident, so it would not be unlikely. But no. She is only going through a rediscovery of herself and a realignment of what she wants of life--much to the dismay of her husband (she leaves him). The hype on the back of the book made it out to be a gripping thriller--a disservice, as it was anything but. It falls, instead, in the category of self-discovery. If read as such, it is a relatively good and satisfying story, exploring Ann's re-awakening very thoroughly.

The Trial by Franz Kafka [_____]
This book was an enormous disappointment. After reading Kafka's other works, I hoped to find this one just as brilliant. Instead, it seems muddy and without much direction. Either Kafka is writing about a judicial system so far removed from what we have today that it is inaccessible to modern readers or he is writing about a man's slow, chaotic descent into madness. Either way, it did not draw me in. It sounded more like Kafka continually whining about the state of the world, which got old after the first chapter.

The Stranger by Albert Camus [*****]
Many people I have talked to have read this. You should read it again. This is a new, far more accurate translation of the original French work. I was told that I would find Camus' character, Meursalt, somewhat of an ugly person and that I would not always be sympathetic. Surprisingly, much to the opposite, I found Mersault to be likeable though I was not sad for him in his plight (you have to read the book to understand why it would be wrong of me to feel sad for him).

Wild Decembers by Edna O'Brien [_____]
Boy moves to town and meets girl. They fall in love. Girl has a bitterly jealous secret admirer who strives to destroy their romance by poisoning her brother's mind against the newcomer. But it may be unnecessary, as the newcomer's fiancee shows up unexpectedly. Death, madness, and the loss of at least one family fortune ensue. It felt contrived. Especially the actions of the brother. And not only was the murder contrived and trite, but the way it took place it was substantially out of character. The killing fits Camus' Meursalt well, but was ill-suited for the grimly determined, fiercely proud Irishman that the brother had been up to this point. It was as if O'Brien, tired of writing, pulled a stock ending off the shelf, updated the names, and stapled it to the end of her book. A superbly disappointing ending to an otherwise dull book.

Despair by Vladimir Nabokov [*****]
A hauntingly intense book written from the point of view of a madman who has just committed a murder and is trying to relieve himself of its guilty traces by capturing every detail of it on paper. Nabokov has his madman rush headlong through a dizzying variety of topics in his mad writings. Well worth the read.

The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck [****_]
A warm, intimate series of stories about people and families living in a secluded valley in California in the early 1900's. Several generations are born and raised in the valley while Steinbeck's stories wander around, sometimes intertwining with each other with varying outcomes. Many of the stories are sad, dealing with missed opportunities or with misfortune. Still, the people are strong and come through it well so the stories have a reassuring warmth to them.

Twenty Years at Hull House by Jane Addams [***__]
Yes, she is a distant relative of the president of the same name. She founded a settlement house in Chicago that she kept open for twenty years. She created programs and clubs to help educate and entertain the local poor. She also was instrumental in gaining rights and funds for poor people and their section of the city. A very dry book to read, but very illuminating as to the state of labor, government, and social movements of the late 1800's.

Great American Poets - Emily Dickinson edited by Geoffrey Moore [***__]
I was fascinated to learn that Dickinson had written more than 2,000 poems and that none of them were published until after her death. Her poems (at least the selections in this reader) are full of death and sadness images. There are also a lot of religious subjects, but more from a natural view than from a strict church view.

Books I Read in 2003

A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel DeFoe [****_]
A very interesting book. I definitely liked it, even though it was a bit depressing. This is a historical fiction account of what happened in London during the great plague of 1665. He tells it from the point of view of someone who remained in the city during the plague, but who did not contract it. This is the same author who wrote Robinson Crusoe.

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway [*****]
I read this book many years ago, as I find most people have. But, oh how much more I got out of this reading! This is a very moving story. I strongly recommend you [re]read it.

Here Comes Snoopy,
Jogging is in, Snoopy by Charles M. Schulz [***__]
Good, classic cartoons from the 50's.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson [****_]
Always gripping, no matter how many times read.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller [****_]
Scary. Very very scary. What people will do to maintain face and to avoid being caught in a lie is terrifying.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [*****]
Wow! I wish I had read this book 10 years ago. My life might have been quite a bit simpler as I searched for meaning in a seemingly chaotic world. Rand brings it all together in one cohesive theory that deeply resonates with me.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton [***__]
One of the most depressing books I have read in ages. This ranks right up there with Jude the Obscure. Yeah...that depressing! What makes it worse is that I can't figure out any other way the story could have played out. Ethan was trapped from the start.

The Aspern Papers/The Turn of the Screw by Henry James [***__]
The Aspern Papers is an interesting study of how low a person can sink in their effort to acquire something they value. The Turn of the Screw is quite the ghost story. I believe that she really was seeing the 'ghosts', but not in a metaphorical sense--that she was seeing their handprint on the world she had entered.

The Seven Dials Society by Agatha Christie [*____]
A clever twist on the standard murder mystery.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowlins [***__]
Not as good as the fourth book.

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte [****_]
A social commentary on the difficult life of the governess. Written from the point of view of Agnes (a ficticious character based on Anne's experiences). Has all the usual bits, with a very unsurprising ending. I'm sure it caused quite a stir when it was written, but taken in today's context, it comes off a little flat. I wish I had heard about the Nanny Diaries after I had read this, and not before. Now Agnes Grey just seems like a milder attempt of the same story--whereas the Nanny Diaries are really just a modern rehash of this classic.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare [*****]
This is the Signet Classic edition. The explanatory essays are well worth the read. They bring to life so much more of the play than I had ever taken from it before. The essays at the end of the book seem to be tacked on to add to the page count. I guess some people might be interested in whether "Caliban" is a derivative of the word "cannibal," but I wasn't.

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope [*****]
A wonderful adventure novel. And, the first of its kind. Hope is credited as the father of the adventure novel genre.

Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope [**___]
A dark sequel to The Prisoner of Zenda. But overdramatized.

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway [*****]
A wonderful, intimate view into the author's life in Paris and some of his travels. Written in a form alternating between a diary and a series of biographical sketches. The title refers to a quote of his, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

Victory by Joseph Conrad [***__]
Conrad has been a favorite of mine ever since my father introduced me to him at a young age. I find that I am partial to his seafaring works, rather than his tales of human frailties. Bartleby the Scrivner, for instance, was more disturbing than I cared for. Which reminds me of a character I once knew in college who fancied himself to have a good bit of Bartleby in him. It did not present itself as a likeable trait. Ask Ryan or Dave or any of the rest of the 7th floor gang. This novel was certainly good and quite well written, and most engaging. But, it left me with that uneasiness (and strange dreams of it) that novels which take a human attribute and explore it by pushing it to its furthest limits often do.

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter [***__]
A very demented look at virginity, marriage, and sex. Very demented. Werewolves, vampires, murder, self-destruction, redemption through death, etc. Except for the Puss-in-Boots story. That wasn't disturbing--rather it was more like a Chaucer tale.

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler [****_]
A collection of 15 stories told by Vietnamese living in the US. Each is very well done. Poignant. And each is also troubling. Walking away from this book I feel saddened. But not in a tearful way. More in a melancholy way. Subdued. Great reading.

Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy [****_]
Bellamy gives us a utopian vision of what society may someday become. But more than that he gives us a roadmap for getting there from our present-day American condition (actually, from his 1888 society--but the differences between his time and ours are less dramatic than the similarities). Not only does he give a reasonable account of how a utopian society could function, but he wraps it up in a rather readable and even entertaining story. Truly a great writer.

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut [**___]
Why do I read Vonnegut if I don't like him very much? Because his writing style is so unlike any other author I am familiar with. It is refreshing to see such a different style. Even though I don't care for it, the variety alone is enough to make it worth reading.

The News from Ireland and other Stories by William Trevor [**___]
Oddly, many of his stories are not even set in Ireland. Instead, they play out in Italy. And he keeps using French quotes and phrases throughout the stories. It gives him a worldly air, certainly--but that's not what I was looking for. From a book with the title of The News from Ireland, I expect Irish stories about Irish people living in Ireland. But other than this missed expectation, his stories are well told and most are deep enough to linger after the book is put down.

Othello by William Shakespeare [*****]
This is the Signet Classic edition. The explanatory essays are well worth the read. They bring to life so much more of the play than I had ever taken from it before. The essays at the end of the book (unlike those with The Tempest) are wonderfully enlightening. I highly recommend that you read this book cover-to-cover. As a note, the introductory piece, "Shakespeare: An Overview", is the same text that is found in each of the Signet Classics, so if you have read it elsewhere, feel free to skip it here.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer [**___]
Yet another action-adventure-fantasy series. Most of the characters are larger-than-life. They remind me of characters from the Dirk Pitt series. Don't get me wrong. It's still an entertaining read and now that I've been introduced to the characters, I'll probably read the rest of the series (though I have a hunch that the next books won't be as good as this one). One thing that I found very distracting is the author's social commentary. The author kept interjecting (and not very smoothly, mind you) all sorts of commentary on the ills that humans are plaguing the earth with. Boring!

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen [***__]
A tale of two sisters in the eighteenth century trying to accomplish their one purpose in life--marriage. Of course, every other woman in England is trying to do the same thing, making the market quite competitive. Austen satirises the social structure that drives this, sparing no one. All in all, a decent read for learning more about the social customs and expectations at the time.

What Maisie Knew by Henry James [**___]
A too-long story about a young girl who is rudely bounced back and forth between two divorced parents. She exists, to them, only as a means of infuriating the other parent. James tries to make the story sublime by unfolding events only through her eyes, but mostly he just ends up making it confusing. She is not able to understand a good deal of what is going on about her, so it is left up to the reader to infer, from various hints about the scene, what has just taken place. Unfortunately, these hints--as many of them refer to popular practices of the day--have not stood the test of time and were, to me, unfathomable.

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy [****_]
A gripping tale of a young woman's attempt to take the world by storm. Her uncle dies, leaving her a farm to run on her own. She accomplishes this with the help of an old friend. Together they actually do quite well. Where it turns out her weakness is, though, is in relationships and love. A seemingly playful jest of hers one St. Valentine's Day, leads her into a spiral of pain and betrayal she cannot seem to escape from and that she seems extremely ill-equipped to deal with.

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner [***__]
Faulkner spins a tale of a southern gentleman trying to build a dynasty. The story unfolds like the peeling of an onion. Each time it is retold a little more information is added and the reader gets just a little more understanding. It is as if Faulkner took each of his--increasingly formed--drafts, stapled them all together, and called it a book. In other words, the first half of the book was pretty much useless. If you read it, I suggest you start on page 107 (chapter 5) and read from there.
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson [***__]
A timeless work. Parts of the start of it rang very familiar (the battle on the ship for one), so I assume I must have started reading it once before. An interesting adventure story. Probably better for a younger audience. Or for someone looking to learn more about the tenor of Scotland's clan relationships in the 1800's.
The Picture of Dorina Gray by Oscar Wilde [****_]
An engaging read. Supposedly a parallel to Faust (which I have not been able to ever work my way through). A good storyline, but also a good insight into the social structure of the time (with scathing commentary, of course).