You are browsing archives for
Joseph Heller This 20th Century 1961 classic-fictional account of WWII up close will always be timely, because it deals with a universally timeless subject: war. It was written by Joseph Heller, a Jewish-American born in Brooklyn, a bombardier in WWII (who flew over 60 missions), a Fulbright scholar at Oxford, and a sometimes English teacher […]
J. D. Salinger Among the best-selling novels of all time, as first published in 1951 and made timely again by the death of the author in 2001, Catcher in the Rye (“Catcher”) has been banned by schools, libraries, churches, etc., due to is presumed immorality (profanity, sexual content, rejection of America’s 1940’s mores, etc.), but, […]
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), of peasant stock, is among the Russians’ most beloved authors of short stories and plays. His most famous are The Sea Gull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, all of which are included in the above book. To ignore Chekhov is to admit to a degree of illiteracy and […]
Luis de Bernieres Published by Pantheon Books Corelli’s Mandolin is a novel that covers some 50 years of life on the tranquil Greek island of Cephallonia. If you wish to revisit WWII, the Germans, and the Russian Commuism that followed, as seen through the eyes of the gentle, loving soul, Corelli, and to savor the […]
Abraham Verghese Abraham Verghese, a Stanford professor and medical doctor, an essayist, short story writer for The New Yorker and many others, authored CUTTING FOR STONE (CS), his first novel, published in 2009. It was made into a movie into 2011 and was widely praised by reviewers. Although heavily medical, it is a sheer delight, […]
Edmond Rostand Cyrano de Bergerac (CdB) is sheer delight to read; it overflows with silken poetry of easily comprehendible and sonorous phrases, laced with positive philosophy. One could delight in reading the entire play aloud (and it wouldn’t take more than two hours), just to listen to the sound of Rostand’s soothing words. It is […]
And Other Poems Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), the writer of a half dozen well-regarded novels and The Darkling Thrush and considerable other poetry that is still admired, writes classic, metered and rhymed poetry that concentrates on nature, and especially on birds. My problem with it is its […]
By Givonni Boccaccio [Bo-cahtch-chee-o] No book has been ever been plagiarized more often or by more authors than The Decameron, which loosely means ten days in Greek. Written in 1353, it provides 100 novellas, as told (ten each) by seven young women and three young men, who fled the Black Plague to Fiesole, a then […]
Eric Larson When you read Eric Larson, you read history (a.k.a. “narrative history” or “historical novels”), cloaked in the spell biding intrigue of real human lives, fleshed with dialogue that actually occurred (which was extracted from court transcripts, memoires, newspaper quotations, Scotland Yard depositions, etc., of the speakers or those listening to them); Larson thus […]
Dante Alegheri (1265-1321) Every self-respecting reader must read this book. There is no option. Sixteen years in the writing, it was released in 1555, one major part at a time and each part was an instant “great book”, as The Church proclaimed, as it felt that […]