Recommended: Forever by Pete Hamill

Overview:

 

This widely acclaimed bestseller is the magical, epic tale of an extraordinary man who arrives in New York in 1740 and remains ... forever. Through the eyes of Cormac O'Connor - granted immortality as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan - we watch New York grow from a tiny settlement on the tip of an untamed wilderness to the thriving metropolis of today. And through Cormac's remarkable adventures in both love and war, we come to know the city's buried secrets - the way it has been shaped by greed, race, and waves of immigration, by the unleashing of enormous human energies, and, above all, by hope.

Recommended: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Overview:  

 

A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero is one Ignatius J. Reilly, "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times)
(Grove Press)

 

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Side Note:  One of my favorite books. A true masterpiece. A brilliant writer, with so much promise; Toole left us too soon.

Review: Ink by Hari Kunzru

Overview:

A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Original Selection

The Wall Street businessman is about to become very wealthy—serious money, you understand—but while flying from New York to Silicon Valley to officially sell his startup, he has a very damaging, very disturbing, possibly destiny-altering dream.

In this new story from Hari Kunzru, the explosive, wildly inventive, stunningly ambitious author of the acclaimed novel Gods Without Men, a titan of industry mustn't forget that he was a boy once; and an English public school past can continue to haunt far after graduation. “Ink” is a cautionary tale rebooted for the startup age.
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Review:

This short story was surprisingly gripping. As the narrator introduced his life to the reader, I could not image where the story was heading. Then suddenly the memory of a bullied childhood classmate takes hold in the narrator's mind. Along with his personal act of cruelty towards Babcock. In light of all the bullying discussions of late, this was an interesting interpretation. I kept trying to project ahead, believing the plot more predictable than it is. I was wrong on all counts.

Overview:

 

In Life After Life Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In A God in Ruins, Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula’s beloved younger brother Teddy – would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.  

 

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Review:

 

Kate Atkinson is one of my favorite authors, and with A God in Ruins she continues to dazzle. This is truly a beautiful novel about life's possibilities, how one life impacts another, and the effects of war on many lives. It may be a companion piece to Life After Life, but A God in Ruins  certainly stands on its own. While the ending was surprising, it unfolded so gracefully it felt completely natural. I could continue gushing, but fear I'd give too much away, while not doing this extraordinary work justice. Atkinson just keeps getting better.

Recommended: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Overview:

 

Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father’s antiquarian bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The request takes Margaret by surprise — she doesn’t know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels.

Late one night while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer.

As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Miss Winter’s account and finds herself more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story.

Both women will have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets... and the ghosts that haunt them still.  

Overview:

The enchanting biography of Reverend W. Awdry, a devoted pastor and family man, who adored trains. He started to tell stories about Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends, in order to entertain his son Christopher. Those stories have gone on to entertain generations of children around the world. A convinced pacifist, Awdry was thrown out of one curacy and denied another during the Second World War, because of his beliefs. He was a man of courage, who believed that you should live by certain rules. He built his imaginary world on the island of Sodor on these rules, and showed how those who transgressed them would always be 'punished, but never scrapped', as he said. The Thomas the Tank Engine Man is a charming biography and a fascinating insight into the life of Reverend W. Awdry.

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Review:

Overall I thought the book was a little boring. Learning the history of Thomas the Tank Engine's creator was interesting, though it often felt that Rev. W. Awdry's life was being explained between Railway Series quotes. There were quite a few unnecessary and long winded anecdotes that had little to do with the biography's central plot. Awdry was a father, husband, son, brother, clergyman, friend, and railway enthusiast.  The majority of the book focuses on a chronological reporting of the Railway Series, not the life of the man who was wrote them. In many ways, it felt like for all the stories biographer Brian Sibley, few spoke to the life and character of the subject.

 

All that said, reading about Awdry's writing process and methodology was very interesting. His research for the Island of Sodor and its residents is extremely impressive. I had no idea that Awdry ranked with Tolkien and authors who have developed vast worlds parallel to our own. I'd be interested to learn more about Sodor and Awdry, through a different lens.

* I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Recommended: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Overview:

 

Foucault's Pendulum (original title: Il pendolo di Foucault) is a novel by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988; the translation into English by William Weaver appeared a year later.

Foucault's Pendulum is divided into ten segments represented by the ten Sefiroth. The novel is full of esoteric references to the Kabbalah. The title of the book refers to an actual pendulum designed by the French physicist Léon Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the earth, which has symbolic significance within the novel.

Bored with their work, and after reading too many manuscripts about occult conspiracy theories, three vanity publisher employees (Belbo, Diotallevi and Casaubon) invent their own conspiracy for fun. They call this satirical intellectual game "The Plan," a hoax that connects the medieval Knights Templar with other occult groups from ancient to modern times. This produces a map indicating the geographical point from which all the powers of the earth can be controlled—a point located in Paris, France, at Foucault’s Pendulum. But in a fateful turn the joke becomes all too real.

The three become increasingly obsessed with The Plan, and sometimes forget that it's just a game. Worse still, other conspiracy theorists learn about The Plan, and take it seriously. Belbo finds himself the target of a real secret society that believes he possesses the key to the lost treasure of the Knights Templar.

Orchestrating these and other diverse characters into his multilayered semiotic adventure, Eco has created a superb cerebral entertainment.  

 

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Side Note: This book provided one of my favorite quotes:

 

“There are four kinds of people in this world: cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics…Cretins don’t even talk; they sort of slobber and stumble…Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation…Fools don’t claim that cats bark, but they talk about cats when everyone else is talking about dogs. They offend all the rules of conversation, and when they really offend, they’re magnificent…Morons never do the wrong thing. They get their reasoning wrong. Like the fellow who says that all dogs are pets and all dogs bark, and cats are pets, too, therefore cats bark…Morons will occasionally say something that’s right, but they say it for the wrong reason…A lunatic is easily recognized. He is a moron who doesn’t know the ropes. The moron proves his thesis; he has logic, however twisted it may be. The lunatic on the other hand, doesn’t concern himself at all with logic; he works by short circuits. For him, everything proves everything else. The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars…There are lunatics who don’t bring up the Templars, but those who do are the most insidious. At first they seem normal, then all of a sudden…”