en-US Mon, 04 May 2020 04:00:01 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 4953 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read for decades to come.]]> 530 Dave Eggers 0375725784 Brian 3 3.70 2000
author: Dave Eggers
name: Brian
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2020/05/04
date added: 2020/05/04
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]]> 7090447
On Christmas Eve, Sadie and Carter are reunited when their father brings them to the British Museum, with a promise that he's going to "make things right." But all does not go according to plan: Carter and Sadie watch as Julius summons a mysterious figure, who quickly banishes their father and causes a fiery explosion.

Soon Carter and Sadie discover that the gods of Ancient Egypt are waking, and the worst of them—Set—has a frightening scheme. To save their father, they must embark on a dangerous journey—a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and its links to the House of Life, a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.]]> 528 Rick Riordan 1423113381 Brian 0 to-read 4.10 2010
author: Rick Riordan
name: Brian
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 753314 202 Walter Ciszek 0898705460 Brian 5 4.59 1973
author: Walter Ciszek
name: Brian
average rating: 4.59
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/03/18
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]]> 164230
During his tenure as track coach at the University of Oregon from 1949 through 1972, Bill Bowerman won 4 national team titles, trained dozens of milers to break the 4-minute barrier, and his athletes set 13 world and 22 American records. Single-handedly he helped turn the college town of Eugene, Oregon, into the running capital of the world.

In Bowerman: The Wings of Nike, Kenny Moore, a world-class marathon runner and one of Bowerman's Oregon men, tells the story of his mentor and hero, drawing on years of taped interviews and the full cooperation of the Bowerman family and Nike, the company that Bowerman helped to found through his invention of the waffle-soled running shoe.

Whether providing a fresh look at the tragic siege at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, where Bowerman coached the track and field team; offering a close-up view of the coach's relationship with runner Steve Prefontaine (subject of the movie Without Limits, co-written and co-produced by Moore); or exploring Bowerman's role as a Nike innovator, this illuminating portrait is compelling reading throughout—ample evidence of why Bowerman's widow, noting how well the author understood her husband, said: "If anyone should write Bill's life story, it's Kenny Moore."]]> 448 Kenny Moore 1594861900 Brian 0 to-read 4.22 2006
author: Kenny Moore
name: Brian
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> 68210 Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations, from the Civil War to the 20th century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. In the words of Kirkus, it is a novel "as big as a nation, as quiet as thought, and moving as prayer. Matchless and towering." GILEAD tells the story of America and will break your heart.]]> 247 Marilynne Robinson 031242440X Brian 0 to-read 3.84 2004
author: Marilynne Robinson
name: Brian
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/07/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 25489625 “This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.�
Ěý
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,� a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Ěý
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.]]> 152 Ta-Nehisi Coates Brian 0 to-read 4.40 2015
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Brian
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 106613 384 Kathleen Norris 1573227218 Brian 0 to-read 4.08 1998
author: Kathleen Norris
name: Brian
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 7090193
How do you fight despair and learn to meet the world with a loving heart? How do you overcome shame? Stay faithful in spite of failure? No matter where people live or what their circumstances may be, everyone needs boundless, restorative love. Gorgeous and uplifting, Tattoos on the Heart amply demonstrates the impact unconditional love can have on your life.

As a pastor working in a neighborhood with the highest concentration of murderous gang activity in Los Angeles, Gregory Boyle created an organization to provide jobs, job training, and encouragement so that young people could work together and learn the mutual respect that comes from collaboration. Tattoos on the Heart is a breathtaking series of parables distilled from his twenty years in the barrio. Arranged by theme and filled with sparkling humor and glowing generosity, these essays offer a stirring look at how full our lives could be if we could find the joy in loving others and in being loved unconditionally. From giant, tattooed Cesar, shopping at JCPenney fresh out of prison, we learn how to feel worthy of God’s love. From ten-year-old Lula we learn the importance of being known and acknowledged. From Pedro we understand the kind of patience necessary to rescue someone from the darkness. In each chapter we benefit from Boyle’s wonderful, hard-earned wisdom. Inspired by faith but applicable to anyone trying to be good, these personal, unflinching stories are full of surprising revelations and observations of the community in which Boyle works and of the many lives he has helped save.

Erudite, down-to-earth, and utterly heartening, these essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love in difficult times and the importance of fighting despair. With Gregory Boyle’s guidance, we can recognize our own wounds in the broken lives and daunting struggles of the men and women in these parables and learn to find joy in all of the people around us. Tattoos on the Heart reminds us that no life is less valuable than another.]]> 240 Gregory Boyle 1439153027 Brian 0 4.48 2009
author: Gregory Boyle
name: Brian
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> 4406
Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.]]> 601 John Steinbeck 0142000655 Brian 5 4.41 1952
author: John Steinbeck
name: Brian
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1952
rating: 5
read at: 2016/07/09
date added: 2016/07/09
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]]> 7099273 Ěý
Selected by Stephen Curry as his “Underrated� Book Club Pick with Literati

The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.

In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore.Ěý

Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting Who are you? How did this happen?

That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered thatĚýthe other Wes had had a life not unlike his BothĚýhad had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.

Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.]]> 233 Wes Moore 0385528191 Brian 0 3.85 2010
author: Wes Moore
name: Brian
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> 399729 336 Paul Bernier 0896225364 Brian 4 3.76 1992
author: Paul Bernier
name: Brian
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/27
date added: 2013/01/27
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This book really made me stop and think about the Church and ministry as we know it today. Superbly written, it is a book of which my only real critique is the relative lack of attention paid to the meaningful influences made by the religious priesthood or lay movements. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in acquiring a solid foundation of history in preparation for having a meaningful dialogue about the status of the Church and ministry today.
]]> 227216
This book is for those searching to understand what Christian spirituality means and how to apply it to their own lives.ĚýĚýRolheiser explains the nonnegotiables--the importance of community worship, the imperatives surrounding social action, the centrality of the Incarnation, the sustenance of the spiritual life--and how spirituality necessarily impacts every aspect of human experience.ĚýĚýAt the core of this readable, deeply revealing book is an explanation of God and the Church in a world that more often than not doubts the credibility of both.]]> 272 Ronald Rolheiser 0385494181 Brian 5 4.05 1999
author: Ronald Rolheiser
name: Brian
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/07/23
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]]> 175078
The Seven Storey Mountain tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-six, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders—the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it. At the abbey, he wrote this extraordinary testament, a unique spiritual autobiography that has been recognized as one of the most influential religious works of our time. Translated into more than twenty languages, it has touched millions of lives.
Ěý]]> 467 Thomas Merton 0156010860 Brian 5 4.05 1948
author: Thomas Merton
name: Brian
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1948
rating: 5
read at: 2010/07/22
date added: 2010/07/23
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]]> 163362
James Martin has led an entirely modern from a lukewarm Catholic childhood, to anĚý educationĚýat the Wharton School of Business, to the executive fast track at General Electric, to ministry as a Jesuit priest, to a busy media career in Manhattan. But at every step he has been accompanied by some surprising friends—the saints of the Catholic Church. For many, these holy men and women remain just historical figures. For Martin, they are intimate companions. “They pray for me, offer me comfort, give me examples of discipleship, and help me along the way,â€� he writes.

The author is both engaging and specific about the help and companionship he has received. When his pride proves trouble­some, he seeks help from Thomas Merton, the monk and writer who struggled with egotism. In sickness he turns to Thérèse of Lisieux, who knew about the boredom and self-pity that come with illness. Joan of Arc shores up his flagging courage. Aloysius Gonzaga deepens his compassion. Pope John XXIII helps him to laugh and not take life too seriously.
Martin’s inspiring, witty, and always fascinating memoir encompasses saints from the whole of Christian history� from St. Peter to Dorothy Day. His saintly friends include Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, Mother Teresa, and other beloved figures. They accompany the author on a lifelong pilgrimage that includes stops in a sunlit square of a French town, a quiet retreat house on a New England beach, the gritty housing projects of inner-city Chicago, the sprawling slums of Nairobi, and a gorgeous Baroque church in Rome. This rich, vibrant, stirring narrative shows how the saints can help all of us find our way in the world.

“In a cross between Holden Caulfield and Thomas Merton, James Martin has written one of the best spiritual memoirs in years.�
—Robert Ellsberg, author of All Saints

“It isn’t often that a new and noteworthy book comes along in this genre, but we have reason to celebrate My Life with the Saints. It is earmarked for longevity. It will endure as an important and uncommon contribution to religious writing.�
—Doris Donnelly, America

“An account . . . that is as delightful as it is instructive.�
� First Things

“In delightful prose Martin recounts incidents, both perilous and funny, that have prompted him to turn to the saints, and in doing so shows us a new way of living out a devotion that is as old and universal as the Church.�
—Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, Fordham University

“An outstanding and often hilarious memoir.�
� Publishers Weekly

“Martin’s final word for us is as Jungian as it is God does not want us to be like Mother Teresa or Dorothy Day. God wants us to be most fully ourselves.�
� The Washington Post Book World]]> 432 James Martin 0829420010 Brian 0 4.18 2006
author: James Martin
name: Brian
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2010/07/16
date added: 2010/07/16
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]]> 143036 Leadership makes great companies, but few of us truly understand how to turn ourselves and others into great leaders. One company—the Jesuits—pioneered a unique formula for molding leaders and in the process built one of history’s most successful companies.In this groundbreaking book, Chris Lowney reveals the leadership principles that have guided the Jesuits for more than 450 self-awareness, ingenuity, love, and heroism. Lowney shows how these same principles can make each of us a dynamic leader in the twenty-first century.ĚýĚý]]> 336 Chris Lowney 0829421157 Brian 0 3.97 2003
author: Chris Lowney
name: Brian
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2010/07/16
date added: 2010/07/16
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]]> 4016794
Originally self-published in 1978 and sold at road races out of the trunk of the author's car, the book eventually found its way into the hands of high school, college, and postgraduate athletes all over the country. Reading it became a rite of passage on many teams, and tattered copies were handed down like sacred texts from generation to generation. It ranked as the number one most sought-after out-of-print book in the United States in 2007.

Once a Runner is the story of Quenton Cassidy, a collegiate runner at fictional Southeastern University whose lifelong dream is to run a four-minute mile. He is less than a second away when the political and cultural turmoil of the Vietnam War era intrudes into the staid recesses of his school's athletic department. After he becomes involved in an athletes' protest, Cassidy is suspended from his track team.

Under the tutelage of his friend and mentor, Bruce Denton, a graduate student and former Olympic gold medalist, Cassidy gives up his scholarship, his girlfriend, and possibly his future to withdraw to a monastic retreat in the countryside and begin training for the race of his life: a head-to-head match with the greatest miler in history. This book is a rare insider's account of the incredibly intense lives of elite distance runners; an inspiring, funny, and spot-on tale of one man's quest to become a champion.]]> 272 John L. Parker Jr. 1416597883 Brian 4
I could see myself going back to read those last few chapters again and again. For the first time, I was engrossed. Only someone who truly loves and gets running could have pulled off the conclusion. ]]> 3.90 1978
author: John L. Parker Jr.
name: Brian
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at: 2009/10/24
date added: 2009/10/24
shelves:
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A very fun and inspirational read--but not sure if the appeal would translate with someone who isn't into the chromosomes of running and of training. Nothing groundbreaking for literary merit, for sure, but it was definitely enjoyable to read a chapter of this at a time.

I could see myself going back to read those last few chapters again and again. For the first time, I was engrossed. Only someone who truly loves and gets running could have pulled off the conclusion.
]]> 865 197 Paulo Coelho 0061122416 Brian 3
]]> 3.85 1988
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Brian
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at: 2009/08/05
date added: 2009/08/07
shelves:
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For no particular reason did I read this a day after finishing The Time Traveler's Wife, but after finishing The Alchemist, they seemed to fit together in a way that was to me interesting. The story itself was just exotic enough to counteract being too syrupy, but Coelho's contention that we need to get past our concept of time rotated the prism shining forth light from Niffenegger's book.


]]> 14050 537 Audrey Niffenegger 0965818675 Brian 4
I'm glad to have joined Henry and Clare on their "timeless" experience, and even felt that the fervent sexuality of the pair was indeed beautiful, given Henry's otherwise temporal limitations, but by the end of the book I felt as if the ride was over. A very cleverly written book, one that gripped my attention from beginning to end, but one that I felt had an appropriate and timely end. I didn't feel as if their characters were at all romanticized; it was easy to grow annoyed with each of them.

The book prodded many questions that have been cooking inside of me. Here's one. At least in my own mind, I'm a romantic, and one who has dreamed about the mystery of the life and person today who may one day become a special part of me. How involved, if at all, am I now in that other life?

And also, as a five-year Chicago resident, I really could visualize some of the areas Niffenegger wrote about--the Monroe Garage, Andersonville with the Swedish bakeries, the wild diversity of Rogers Park, Park West. It's fun to read about the lives of interesting people who walk the same streets where you have once walked and perhaps even seen your heart soar and crack.

]]> 3.90 2003
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Brian
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2009/08/03
date added: 2009/08/07
shelves:
review:
You know those books that you reach the end of and are sad there are no more pages to read, but deep down you're glad to not have to read any more raunchy sex scenes that polluted the air along the way? This was not at all one of those books for me.

I'm glad to have joined Henry and Clare on their "timeless" experience, and even felt that the fervent sexuality of the pair was indeed beautiful, given Henry's otherwise temporal limitations, but by the end of the book I felt as if the ride was over. A very cleverly written book, one that gripped my attention from beginning to end, but one that I felt had an appropriate and timely end. I didn't feel as if their characters were at all romanticized; it was easy to grow annoyed with each of them.

The book prodded many questions that have been cooking inside of me. Here's one. At least in my own mind, I'm a romantic, and one who has dreamed about the mystery of the life and person today who may one day become a special part of me. How involved, if at all, am I now in that other life?

And also, as a five-year Chicago resident, I really could visualize some of the areas Niffenegger wrote about--the Monroe Garage, Andersonville with the Swedish bakeries, the wild diversity of Rogers Park, Park West. It's fun to read about the lives of interesting people who walk the same streets where you have once walked and perhaps even seen your heart soar and crack.


]]> 1618 226 Mark Haddon 1400032717 Brian 4 3.89 2003
author: Mark Haddon
name: Brian
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/07/30
shelves:
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]]> 7603 Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

]]> 356 Azar Nafisi 081297106X Brian 5 3.64 2003
author: Azar Nafisi
name: Brian
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/07/12
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]]> 3495748
Potter Mays retreats immediately after college graduation to the safe house of his childhood home. Like clockwork each morning, his mother makes him eggs, lovingly fried into hollowed-out pieces of toast. His father, in the midst of a campaign to revitalize downtown St. Louis, promises to “poke around� for gainful employment for his son. Potter’s best friend, Stuart—an “Independent Thought Contractor� working out of his parents� lavish pool house—is willing to serve as a kind of life coach, provided, of course, that Potter pays for his services all summer.

However...

Altogether elsewhere, Potter’s (former? future?) girlfriend, Audrey, is backpacking around Europe with her beautiful bisexual traveling companion, Carmel. Potter was not invited, and getting a good night’s sleep has recently become an issue for him.

As enigmatic packages arrive from Audrey, the refuge of life at home soon proves illusory. Potter’s parents are oddly never in the same room together, the neighbor girl is looking quite adult, and Stuart’s much-needed counseling service is subcontracted to a third-party denizen of the pool house with an agenda all his own. And just what are those noises coming from the attic?

Kyle Beachy has woven a uniquely affecting story of the long and hard, then quick and hard, struggle to grow up.]]> 287 Kyle Beachy 0385341857 Brian 4 3.57 2009
author: Kyle Beachy
name: Brian
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2009/02/23
date added: 2009/02/23
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]]> 162192 The story of four modern American Catholics who made literature out of their search for God

In the mid-twentieth century four American Catholics came to believe that the best way to explore the questions of religious faith was to write about them - in works that readers of all kinds could admire. The Life You Save May Be Your Own is their story - a vivid and enthralling account of great writers and their power over us.

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk in Kentucky; Dorothy Day the founder of the Catholic Worker in New York; Flannery O'Connor a "Christ-haunted" literary prodigy in Georgia; Walker Percy a doctor in New Orleans who quit medicine to write fiction and philosophy. A friend came up with a name for them - the School of the Holy Ghost - and for three decades they exchanged letters, ardently read one another's books, and grappled with what one of them called a "predicament shared in common."

A pilgrimage is a journey taken in light of a story; and in The Life You Save May Be Your Own Paul Elie tells these writers' story as a pilgrimage from the God-obsessed literary past of Dante and Dostoevsky out into the thrilling chaos of postwar American life. It is a story of how the Catholic faith, in their vision of things, took on forms the faithful could not have anticipated. And it is a story about the ways we look to great books and writers to help us make sense of our experience, about the power of literature to change - to save - our lives.]]> 555 Paul Elie 0374529213 Brian 0 to-read 4.29 2003
author: Paul Elie
name: Brian
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 987297 256 Dan Stolar 031242390X Brian 3 ]]> 3.71 2004
author: Dan Stolar
name: Brian
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2008/12/10
date added: 2008/12/25
shelves:
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Writing about St. Louis neighborhoods that I drive everyday, Stolar interested me before I even read one word of this collection of short stories. Once inside the book, I was impressed by some of his works. Some seemed repetitive and inconsequential, but "Crossing Over" was one of the best stories I've read this year. "Jack Landers Is My Friend" was also a treat to read. It told a story of the awkwardness of recapturing high school crushes that seems particularly potent for any natives in and around St. Louis for the holidays. "The Trip Home" was another story I enjoyed reading.

]]> 12530
In these short essays, Annie Dillard—the author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and An American Childhood—illuminates the dedication, absurdity, and daring that characterize the existence of a writer. A moving account of Dillard’s own experiences while writing her works, The Writing Life offers deep insight into one of the most mysterious professions.]]> 111 Annie Dillard 0060919884 Brian 4 3.99 1989
author: Annie Dillard
name: Brian
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2008/12/25
date added: 2008/12/25
shelves:
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This was a very quick, enjoyable read. Dillard puts forth an interesting perspective on what it is like to be a writer. Some of her anecdotes were more helpful than others to me -- some made me wonder if this was any more than an exercise in self-pity that sought sympathy for her "burden" as a writer -- but all in all her stories were engaging and, most importantly, quite well written. The way she chose to end this memoir, with the story of a stunt pilot she once knew, was what I found to be a fascinating way to discuss the metaphysical role of the artist and writer.
]]> 88295 192 Ethan Canin 0618004149 Brian 0 4.06 1988
author: Ethan Canin
name: Brian
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/11/28
shelves:
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]]> 251374
In short, fiction of dazzling emotional range and absolute authority.]]> 206 Tobias Wolff 0679402187 Brian 0 4.18 1995
author: Tobias Wolff
name: Brian
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/11/28
shelves:
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]]> 4806 Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest. The "longitude problem" was the thorniest dilemma of the eighteenth century. Lacking the ability to measure longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea.

At the heart of Dava Sobel's fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and horology stands the figure of John Harrison, self-taught Yorkshire clockmaker, and his forty-year obsession with building the perfect timekeeper. Battling against the establishment, Harrison stood alone in pursuit of his solution and the ÂŁ20,000 reward offered by Parliament.]]> 184 Dava Sobel 0802714625 Brian 0 3.97 1995
author: Dava Sobel
name: Brian
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
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]]> 187020
Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles� soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything� includes Miles himself. In Empire Falls Richard Russo delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace]]> 483 Richard Russo 0375726403 Brian 3
The only real problem I had with this otherwise enjoyable read was something akin to spending time with distant family you haven't seen in a long time. It's great to spend time with them and hear about what varied adventures they've been on, but by the end of it, you're a little tired and ready to recapture some of your own space and time.
]]> 3.93 2001
author: Richard Russo
name: Brian
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2008/08/17
date added: 2008/08/17
shelves:
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Like his contemporary John Irving, Russo commits himself to painting quite a detailed portrait of New England blue-collar life. Having read Risk Pool years ago, and having taken up some Irving books in more recent years, I expected interesting characters, and I wasn't disappointed. I became invested in at least a few of them, though certainly Russo's blend of sentiment and dry wit helped appeal to my own sensibilities.

The only real problem I had with this otherwise enjoyable read was something akin to spending time with distant family you haven't seen in a long time. It's great to spend time with them and hear about what varied adventures they've been on, but by the end of it, you're a little tired and ready to recapture some of your own space and time.

]]> 88263 239 Tony Earley 0316198951 Brian 5
My favorite parts of this story are Earley’s descriptions and treatment of specific moments: how the town became known as Aliceville (a story that we get the impression is told over and over by one of Jim’s uncles), how Ty Cobb, the Georgia Peach, may or may not have watched a game of catch with Jim and his pal, Carson Penn, that became more than either child ever expected, Jim’s vantage point in watching how electricity first came to Aliceville, and of course the final journey and images from up on Lynn’s Mountain. For me, these moments take a heartfelt, captivating story and make it exceptional.

I read this book almost entirely while sitting in sight of the Atlantic from a coastal town in South Carolina. While my situation on a beach vacation with my brother's family was certainly different than Jim's, I still feel equally as awed by the majesty of the ocean as Jim and his uncle Al. What's on the other side? What's lurking under the surface? And who can't relate to Jim concession on the final page on the book? Sometimes a young boy says it best.

How will Jim handle a burgeoning consciousness of the world? I’m told that Earley picks up that thread in The Blue Star, the continuation about Jim’s later teenage years. With a loving family and a well-meaning soul, I suspect Jim will come out okay, but I’m eagerly waiting to find out for myself.

One of the quotes I wrote down while reading:
“He had heard every story his mother and uncles had to tell about his father so many times that over the years his father had become less vivid. It was as if each story was a favorite shirt that had been worn and washed and hung in the sun so often that its fabric, while soft and smooth and comfortable, was faded to where its color was only a shadow of what it had once been.� –p. 103-4
]]> 3.83 2000
author: Tony Earley
name: Brian
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2008/07/30
date added: 2008/07/31
shelves:
review:
Jim the Boy is a refreshingly simple story about a 10-year-old boy, Jim, navigating the Depression-laced waters of Aliceville, North Carolina. Jim’s lost his father, but what he lacks from his absence he arguably makes up with the love and care from his three uncles. And I should say that the simplicity of the story comes with the prose, making it a fast read (though I’d imagine this book could, and perhaps should, be sipped and savored), but the heart of this book should satisfy even the most erudite (and sentimental) of readers.

My favorite parts of this story are Earley’s descriptions and treatment of specific moments: how the town became known as Aliceville (a story that we get the impression is told over and over by one of Jim’s uncles), how Ty Cobb, the Georgia Peach, may or may not have watched a game of catch with Jim and his pal, Carson Penn, that became more than either child ever expected, Jim’s vantage point in watching how electricity first came to Aliceville, and of course the final journey and images from up on Lynn’s Mountain. For me, these moments take a heartfelt, captivating story and make it exceptional.

I read this book almost entirely while sitting in sight of the Atlantic from a coastal town in South Carolina. While my situation on a beach vacation with my brother's family was certainly different than Jim's, I still feel equally as awed by the majesty of the ocean as Jim and his uncle Al. What's on the other side? What's lurking under the surface? And who can't relate to Jim concession on the final page on the book? Sometimes a young boy says it best.

How will Jim handle a burgeoning consciousness of the world? I’m told that Earley picks up that thread in The Blue Star, the continuation about Jim’s later teenage years. With a loving family and a well-meaning soul, I suspect Jim will come out okay, but I’m eagerly waiting to find out for myself.

One of the quotes I wrote down while reading:
“He had heard every story his mother and uncles had to tell about his father so many times that over the years his father had become less vivid. It was as if each story was a favorite shirt that had been worn and washed and hung in the sun so often that its fabric, while soft and smooth and comfortable, was faded to where its color was only a shadow of what it had once been.� –p. 103-4

]]> 1617 Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must simply never be allowed to happen again.]]> 120 Elie Wiesel 0374500010 Brian 5
Recently, something pushed me to revisiting a book I had read for class while I was in high school. The book, Nobel Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel’s Night, gives a straight forward account of the author’s trip as a 15 year-old Orthodox Jew in a small village in Transylvania to the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Night seems to be in a genre entirely to itself; Wiesel claims it’s a deposition of unvarnished truth, others have difficulty believing that such a young boy could recall every conversation and detail under the weight of such an unbearable pain. To me, the argument is mute. With what is known about the Holocaust, Wiesel’s story could be true, and that should be enough to haunt even the most callous among us.

Written with devastating simplicity, the short book never gives you even a moment to breathe. By the time I reached the end of it, sitting on my couch at 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon, I slammed the book down to the ground in anger and cried into the couch pillows. I don’t remember the last time - if ever - a book has ever had this effect on me.

As well as being an exposed, raw account of what may go down as the darkest moment humanity has ever seen, the book touches poignantly on the problem of evil. Namely, how can a just, loving, merciful God exist in the face of such calamity and calculated destruction? How could Elie, a previously pious Jew, continue worshiping an all-powerful, all-loving God that lets his mother and sister go up in smoke? Who lets another boy kill his own father over a scrap of bread, only then to be beaten to death himself for the same scrap? Here’s a clue: he can’t, and he has no qualms about admitting and lamenting his loss of faith. Really, how could anyone possibly blame him? Read the story, sit with this question, put yourself into Elie’s shoes, and just see how you might answer this question.

So what does such a strong, visceral reaction to a book mean for me? Five minutes of tears and then personal absolution? I sure hope not. Saying “never again� and then going about my day-to-day life? How sad that would be. Honestly, I’m not yet sure what my response should be. But the final sentences of the book, said after U.S. liberation, seal a lasting impression:

“I wanted to see myself in the mirror. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.�
]]> 4.38 1956
author: Elie Wiesel
name: Brian
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at: 2007/04/01
date added: 2008/07/29
shelves:
review:
(I just found this reflection I had written after I last read the book, probably in the spring of 2007.)

Recently, something pushed me to revisiting a book I had read for class while I was in high school. The book, Nobel Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel’s Night, gives a straight forward account of the author’s trip as a 15 year-old Orthodox Jew in a small village in Transylvania to the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Night seems to be in a genre entirely to itself; Wiesel claims it’s a deposition of unvarnished truth, others have difficulty believing that such a young boy could recall every conversation and detail under the weight of such an unbearable pain. To me, the argument is mute. With what is known about the Holocaust, Wiesel’s story could be true, and that should be enough to haunt even the most callous among us.

Written with devastating simplicity, the short book never gives you even a moment to breathe. By the time I reached the end of it, sitting on my couch at 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon, I slammed the book down to the ground in anger and cried into the couch pillows. I don’t remember the last time - if ever - a book has ever had this effect on me.

As well as being an exposed, raw account of what may go down as the darkest moment humanity has ever seen, the book touches poignantly on the problem of evil. Namely, how can a just, loving, merciful God exist in the face of such calamity and calculated destruction? How could Elie, a previously pious Jew, continue worshiping an all-powerful, all-loving God that lets his mother and sister go up in smoke? Who lets another boy kill his own father over a scrap of bread, only then to be beaten to death himself for the same scrap? Here’s a clue: he can’t, and he has no qualms about admitting and lamenting his loss of faith. Really, how could anyone possibly blame him? Read the story, sit with this question, put yourself into Elie’s shoes, and just see how you might answer this question.

So what does such a strong, visceral reaction to a book mean for me? Five minutes of tears and then personal absolution? I sure hope not. Saying “never again� and then going about my day-to-day life? How sad that would be. Honestly, I’m not yet sure what my response should be. But the final sentences of the book, said after U.S. liberation, seal a lasting impression:

“I wanted to see myself in the mirror. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.�

]]> 5297
In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.]]> 272 Oscar Wilde Brian 0 4.13 1890
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Brian
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 0
read at: 2008/07/22
date added: 2008/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 12996 319 William Shakespeare Brian 0 3.89 1603
author: William Shakespeare
name: Brian
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1603
rating: 0
read at: 2008/06/20
date added: 2008/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 252669
In 1906, a beautiful seventeen year old postulant enters the convent of the Sisters of the Crucifixion in upstate New York. When she begins to bleed from her hands, feet, and side, the entire community is thrown into turmoil. Is Mariette a cunning sham, or sexually hysterical, or does God stalk her like a pitiless lover?

Mariette in Ecstasy is a stunning immersion into the society of a small convent at the turn of the century, where a mysterious and ultimately harrowing world lies beneath the lovely, placid surface of everyday life. With Mariette In Ecstasy, critically acclaimed author Ron Hansen again powerfully demonstrates his gift for brilliantly recreating time and place. As intriguing as The Name Of The Rose, as sensually hypnotic as Marguerite Duras' The Lover, this is an intimate portrait of a fascinating young woman in the grip of an intractable fate, and it raises provocative questions about the complex nature of passionate faith.

Exquisitely crafted, Mariette in Ecstasy is a spellbinding novel that marks a new level of achievement in one of our most gifted writers.

~ from 1991 hardcover dustjacket]]> 180 Ron Hansen 0060981180 Brian 3
This book probably won't sell movie rights anytime soon, but that's not to say it's a story without some juicy drama. To his credit, Hansen leaves the ultimate question hanging like the outstretched arms of one of his 35 Sisters of the Crucifixion, all deeply moved, one way or the other, by Mariette, the pious, young postulant. Answers certainly aren't handed over as readily as we or the sisters might prefer.

Though the constant stream of new, undeveloped characters (in such a short book) did discourage me at times, I think it's fair to say that ultimately Mariette is the only character that matters. Can her injuries be psychosomatically explained? Or did she really receive the mystical stigmata? Predictably, the reaction among the sisters is mixed: even among the pious, there are some willing to believe much more readily than others.

Of course, though the story of Mariette is fictionalalized, the same fierce debates about purported stigmatics have been going on since St. Francis of Assissi (my patron saint!) received the first well-documented stigmata in the thirteenth century. But, I believe Hansen to be posing much bigger questions to us than the immediate subject matter.

In a society where people profess a sense of spirituality much more readily and openly than any fond sentiment for religious establishment, can one have a meaningful connection to God outside of the walls of a designated holy place? To me, the passionately devout Mariette doesn't belong in the convent. Why do people who have such an insatiable appetite to connect to the divine have to withdraw from the world? And what's with the underlying connections between religious rapture and sexual energy? This cannot be brushed under the rug.

Then, turning his lens to the reader, where do we fall on our own belief? What constitutes truth? Refusing to answer any of our questions (Is she a manipulative liar, a well-intentioned dupe, or a faithful recipient?), Hansen invites us to consider our own suspicions and inclinations. Are we prone to belief or skepticism? Faith or doubt? Would the truth of the situation even make as profound a difference to our belief as the characters think it would?

To me, it seems I view the question with my mind subconsciously made up. I read the story and fit it to my world-view, one of optimism and trust. What do I have to lose if I am wrong? Why do I need a miracle to believe? Fact or fiction, the passion that oozes off these pages (especially with Mariette's letters to Père Marriott) is unmistakable and inspiring.

Overall, a very provocative read that hits on some unresolved chords of human existence. ]]> 3.75 1991
author: Ron Hansen
name: Brian
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2008/06/12
date added: 2008/06/14
shelves:
review:
I picked this up off my bookshelf at home when I visiting the parents last weekend. I read it as part of a theology in literature seminar in college, and after including it on my independent book list for my juniors this year, I thought I'd give it another go, remembering it moves along very crisply. Besides, I didn't want to be "that" guy, you know, the guy without a little religious ecstasy on the summer book list. I will admit a bit of anxiety reading this book at lunch today, waiting for someone to raise an eyebrow over the admittedly prurient cover art.

This book probably won't sell movie rights anytime soon, but that's not to say it's a story without some juicy drama. To his credit, Hansen leaves the ultimate question hanging like the outstretched arms of one of his 35 Sisters of the Crucifixion, all deeply moved, one way or the other, by Mariette, the pious, young postulant. Answers certainly aren't handed over as readily as we or the sisters might prefer.

Though the constant stream of new, undeveloped characters (in such a short book) did discourage me at times, I think it's fair to say that ultimately Mariette is the only character that matters. Can her injuries be psychosomatically explained? Or did she really receive the mystical stigmata? Predictably, the reaction among the sisters is mixed: even among the pious, there are some willing to believe much more readily than others.

Of course, though the story of Mariette is fictionalalized, the same fierce debates about purported stigmatics have been going on since St. Francis of Assissi (my patron saint!) received the first well-documented stigmata in the thirteenth century. But, I believe Hansen to be posing much bigger questions to us than the immediate subject matter.

In a society where people profess a sense of spirituality much more readily and openly than any fond sentiment for religious establishment, can one have a meaningful connection to God outside of the walls of a designated holy place? To me, the passionately devout Mariette doesn't belong in the convent. Why do people who have such an insatiable appetite to connect to the divine have to withdraw from the world? And what's with the underlying connections between religious rapture and sexual energy? This cannot be brushed under the rug.

Then, turning his lens to the reader, where do we fall on our own belief? What constitutes truth? Refusing to answer any of our questions (Is she a manipulative liar, a well-intentioned dupe, or a faithful recipient?), Hansen invites us to consider our own suspicions and inclinations. Are we prone to belief or skepticism? Faith or doubt? Would the truth of the situation even make as profound a difference to our belief as the characters think it would?

To me, it seems I view the question with my mind subconsciously made up. I read the story and fit it to my world-view, one of optimism and trust. What do I have to lose if I am wrong? Why do I need a miracle to believe? Fact or fiction, the passion that oozes off these pages (especially with Mariette's letters to Père Marriott) is unmistakable and inspiring.

Overall, a very provocative read that hits on some unresolved chords of human existence.
]]> 1008176 Ultimately, it is this love that sustains the Finnerans, for at the heart of THE TENDER LAND lies a catastrophic the suicide at fifteen of the author's younger brother after a public humiliation in junior high school. A gentle, handsome boy, Sean was a straight-A student and gifted athlete, especially treasured by every member of his family. Masterfully, the book interweaves past and present, showing how inseparable they are, and how the long accumulation of love and memory helps the Finnerans survive their terrible loss.
THE TENDER LAND is a testament to the always complicated ways in which we love one another. In the end, the Finnerans are a family much like the reader's like every other family, like no other family.]]> 285 Kathleen Finneran 0395984955 Brian 5
In this relentlessly honest and human account of a bittersweet past and an uncertain future, Finneran has sprinkled dazzling moments where things often assumed to be trivial or banal (a card game, a piece of clothing, a particularly moving scene involving a record and a book) vividly transport her back to a time when things were, well, just different.

Though this book is subtitled as "A Family Love Story", nothing about it takes on any airs of romance or aggrandisement. Just like any family, Mom, Dad, and children are all flawed creatures.

On a personal level, Finneran's level of recollection makes me envious and frankly, a bit scared. Do I have the same depth of meaning associated with my own family upbringing? Do I have the same connection to my past?

The final chapter cements this book as something to behold. Now talking directly to her brother, Finneran takes a stab at explaining things as best she can. Time passes, and the family has moved forward without moving on. Sean lives in each and every one of them, and at least for the author, that's just enough to help pull her along through another day.

Frank gave this book to me sometime before Christmas. I hope he wasn't tracking overdue fines. ]]> 4.50 2000
author: Kathleen Finneran
name: Brian
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2008/06/05
date added: 2008/06/05
shelves:
review:
What an absolutely gorgeous collection of writings. Centered entirely around the past suicide of her teenager brother, the golden child of her Irish-Catholic family, Finneran beautifully blends past triumphs and desolations with her present vacillating attitudes toward life and her immutable struggle to find contentment and acceptance, if not happiness. In Finneran's world, not only is the past inextricably linked with the present, but so is the yearning for life with the ever-present hand of death.

In this relentlessly honest and human account of a bittersweet past and an uncertain future, Finneran has sprinkled dazzling moments where things often assumed to be trivial or banal (a card game, a piece of clothing, a particularly moving scene involving a record and a book) vividly transport her back to a time when things were, well, just different.

Though this book is subtitled as "A Family Love Story", nothing about it takes on any airs of romance or aggrandisement. Just like any family, Mom, Dad, and children are all flawed creatures.

On a personal level, Finneran's level of recollection makes me envious and frankly, a bit scared. Do I have the same depth of meaning associated with my own family upbringing? Do I have the same connection to my past?

The final chapter cements this book as something to behold. Now talking directly to her brother, Finneran takes a stab at explaining things as best she can. Time passes, and the family has moved forward without moving on. Sean lives in each and every one of them, and at least for the author, that's just enough to help pull her along through another day.

Frank gave this book to me sometime before Christmas. I hope he wasn't tracking overdue fines.
]]> 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Brian 5 3.99 1961
author: Joseph Heller
name: Brian
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 5
read at: 2008/05/01
date added: 2008/06/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 850256 The Testament of Gideon Mack is James Robertson's acclaimed novel exploring faith and belief.

For Gideon Mack, faithless minister, unfaithful husband and troubled soul, the existence of God, let alone the Devil, is no more credible than that of ghosts or fairies. Until the day he falls into a gorge and is rescued by someone who might just be Satan himself.

Mack's testament - a compelling blend of memoir, legend, history, and, quite probably, madness - recounts one man's emotional crisis, disappearance, resurrection and death. It also transports you into an utterly mesmerising exploration of the very nature of belief.]]> 386 James Robertson 014102335X Brian 4 3.83 2006
author: James Robertson
name: Brian
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2008/05/01
date added: 2008/06/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 6288
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,� are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]> 241 Cormac McCarthy 0307265439 Brian 4 3.99 2006
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Brian
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2008/03/01
date added: 2008/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]>