A fine book with which to begin the new year, as it involves a "life-review" of sorts, patterned (in part) after the old TV show, "This Is Your Life." If that sounds all too cute, I urge you to press on as Evison manages this territory with a gracefulness that appears effortless. Parenting, marriage, aging, family, loyalty, secrets, honesty, sacrifice, caregiving (I also enjoyed Evison's novel: The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving)...In a relatively short novel, all these areas are visited through the life and memories of Harriet as she takes an Alaskan cruise. All aboard!

Like picking up someone's diary and trying to fathom their own coded language. It's interesting, frustrating, and sometimes breaks through into vivid snapshots of experience. Kerouac knew how to make a printed page sing the blues. These are early practice sessions.

I thought this was an interesting "illumination" of the classic Andersen story (which I know mostly by cultural osmosis rather than actually reading it or hearing it read). Part of what I liked is the structure of the story, following what is incidental in one story and making it a focus of the next, then returning and intertwining.

Was good (although "good" doesn't seem quite the right word) to be back in Wallander's world. I read the first couple in this series years ago and appreciated Wallander's flaws as much as his expertise at his job, and his personal battles as well as the police work. This is no exception. As he seeks a place to "get away," he is put right back into the thick of it. Ain't that how it goes?

A fascinating look at the role that alcohol (and our many conflicted feelings around it) has played throughout American history. I love Susan Cheever's books, not least of all because she's always writing about people/topics that interest me (e.g. Bill Wilson, the Transcendentalists, e.e. cummings), and also because she does it in a way that draws me in and inspires continued exploration--in this case: what details get left out of our history, and for what reason(s)? Bravo, Susan Cheever! May you write many more books. (This is a great companion volume to Trip to Echo Springs, which is referenced here).

I love this kind of uncovering of misguided cultural assumptions. "The road less traveled" has become such a well-worn phrase that I felt like I knew what Frost's poems was about. Turns out, I hadn't a clue. This is a great exploration of the interpretation and misinterpretation of literature, not to mention an investigation into human nature, free will, memory, the life of Robert Frost, and...well, for a short book, there's a lot here. Highly recommended.

Powers pushes prose to its poetic limits in telling a story of war, loss, alienation, displacement, love, loyalty, courage, cowardice...Language stretching to contain/explain things that defy ordinary description. I wasn't always tracking with the author, but I always trusted the intention. Glad I read it. Would read more by him.

Wow! Read this book. Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, I can (nearly) guarantee that you will be captivated by the story/stories and drawn into a thoughtful examination of our relationship to drugs and addiction. A book which, by moving deeply and respectfully into its focus, ends up with ramifications that reach well outside of the particulars to touch all of us.

Picked this up for the Chautauqua setting and found a touching and keenly-observed story of a family revealed over the week of a vacation. Not many authors can move smoothly from the mind of one character to another, across gender and age and personality, but O'Nan did a pretty good job such that it wasn't until I finished the book that I even thought about how he pulled it off. I believed the characters. On to the sequel: Emily, Alone.

Have to admit, I've started a few of McGuane's novels in the past and didn't get very far. This may have had more to do with timing than with McGuane's writing. Reading this collection of stories makes me want to read more. These are realistic, unsparing yet compassionate tales about human relationships (family, friends, lovers). Unpredictable (like life), I found myself eager to return to his world and his people, curious to find what would happen to them, even though the stories could be a little bleak. Glad I gave McGuane another shot.

I found this a really enjoyable and educational read. Beyond the straight talk about evolution, Nye helped me to understand some of the issues surrounding genetically modified crops, the search for life on other planets, and cloning that I had not understood before. Nye is the science guy for a layperson like me.

Some really good stuff (ideas) and some cringe-worthy moments (male / female conversation), this is one I've been meaning to read for many years, and I'm glad I did. The latest mention of it came from Bill Nye's new book...

"Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain." In Asimov's able scientific hands, the alternate universe energy production is fascinating and the stubborn behavior of humans (creatures?) to willingly not see what interferes with their comfort is--sadly--completely believable.

Checking off the list of Hugo / Nebula winners from past years, this is a quick read not to be missed.

This is a powerful, dark, deeply reflective work about religion, faith, commitment, suffering, judgment, "universal" truth...well, you get the picture. You may think you know where this relatively slim work is going, and how to assess the characters, but keep reading. This novel seems especially important as religious persecution rises in a variety of places across the world. I noticed Graham Greene respects Endo's work greatly, and it reminded me of some Greene novels. Also purportedly provides the basis for Scorcese's next outing. Whereas Wolf of Wall Street was incredibly noisy, get ready for...well, Silence.

Read this right on the heels of The Terrible Twos and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Reed gets even wilder here (e.g. at one point, a conversation between a mosquito, a turtle, and "one of the old ones," Bro Lobster). Much of the satire, though the names have changed, is dead on for our present circumstances. Learn a little about Black Peter and St. Nick. Find out what a "surp" is. Prepare yourself. Read Reed.

Heartbreakingly beautiful, courageous, tragic and (somehow) triumphant.

Robinson is a great interior writer, capturing the rhythms of the stories we tell ourselves, moving over time, circling important events, leaving us never quite "all here" but also living in our pasts. And she writes a much more lucid sentence than the previous. That said, I don't always completely believe in her characters as real people. The combination of the Iowa setting (where I grew up)and a minister as a main character (I am a minister) made me pick this up right away, not to mention that I've read all Robinson's other novels. Some beautiful passages (thoughts) and scenes...well worth the price of admission (e.g. time/attention).

This was a fairly enjoyable "sequel" to Pride and Prejudice, with a little mystery and courtroom drama thrown in. While it was somewhat satisfying to catch up on some of the characters, sadly Elizabeth and Darcy just became irritating in James' description of their still-perfect-harmony-after-all-these-years. "If this was not a happy marriage the words were meaningless." Really?? Is that the best you could do?

I found this an enjoyable read, with a story and characters that kept me interested and looking forward to opportunities to read more. It was nothing incredibly deep but held some nice reflections on loss, memory, love...how events change shape in restrospect. I also liked the speculation on the types of religious groups that may form in the wake of a "rapture-like" event. They seemed fairly plausible to me.

Part of my mission to go back and read books I'd left unfinished for no good reason. This was one of the featured selections in the very first month of my Science Fiction Book Club subscription (in 1974). The collection is a bit raggedy and uneven, but sometimes brilliant and bold and moving. Ellison takes risks, and I admire the effort even when it doesn't work and sometimes marvel at the results when it does. This was from a time when "sci-fi" was morphing into "speculative fiction," making its bid as literature, experimental, political, graphic, and profound. It also brought back the whole time period to me, but that's another story...

Enjoyed this immensely. Johnston keeps a sort of breakneck pace through the depths of addiction and the slower, stumbling walk into the light of day...and retains an irreverent yet profound sense of humor about it all.

A powerful description of what depression feels like from the inside (a feeling which Styron says the very word "depression" does not quite capture).

Playwright Jean Kerr once described hope as "the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn't permanent." Styron writes:

In depression this faith in deliverance, in ultimate restoration, is absent. The pain is unrelenting, and what makes the condition intolerable is the foreknowledge that no remedy will come—not in a day, an hour, a month, or a minute. If there is mild relief, one knows that it is only temporary; more pain will follow. It is hopelessness even more than pain that crushes the soul.

He points out that, though depression is at least as debilitating as other illnesses, those who suffer from depression are expected to press on; to act normal; to function in the world as if their illness did not exist, or more accurately as if their illness were something that they could choose to change.

Leaves one with a lot to think about, and though Styron is not afraid to explore very dark places, he ends on a hopeful note.

It was not quite the "Theater of the Absurd" jolt I had hoped for...in fact, I finished it feeling confused and remembered feeling confused with reading--long ago--many plays of the Ionesco, Beckett, Genet, Pinter variety. (Some I felt like I sorta got...And all, I felt, were reaching for something important). And yet, though this isn't necessarily one of the best, it does--as one reviewer mentioned--work on the reader like a remembered dream with a similar logic. People that are almost recognized; dialogue that circles without illumination, etc. Wish I could see the production going on now (along with Waiting for Godot) starring Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart and Billy Crudup.

Many times, I will dip into a short story collection, read a few, and set it aside. I read straight through this one. Munro is brilliant at capturing the fleeting emotion; the thoughts percolating under everyday life; the growth, quirks, and fall of relationships...I am tempted to quote some brilliant lines from the stories, but they are so much better within the stories themselves as you are pulled into the world of whatever characters she is following. A Nobel Prize well-deserved. (Brett Easton Ellis WISHES he could bring this kind of wisdom to life in a story.) I am glad that I have many more collections of Munro's stories to read. This is what I wish I could write.

Thoroughly enjoyed this study of the Gospel according to John by a writer who has been hugely influential in how I approach the Christian and Jewish Scriptures ever since I read Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism many years ago. His introduction explains all of the reasons that I've shied away from studying John much, and then he proceeds to walk the reader through his speculation/interpretation of what John is really about. John's Jesus is very unlike the Jesus found in the other Gospels. He doesn't use parables. He speaks in long, self-referential speeches. "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." Spong reminds me that "I" has a very different connotation in mysticism than in everyday usage.
Great stuff. I'm only sorry that this could be Spong's last book.

"I began the story wondering how much of what we do is encouraged, discouraged, or otherwise guided by what we are genetically," Butler writes. And she does that beautifully, hauntingly in this short piece. I am a big fan. Haven't read her in a while (since The Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Talents many years ago). This reminds me of why I am a big fan. I'll be exploring more of her early novels (The Patternist series; Lilith's Brood...)

Describing Francis' death, Chesterton writes: "...there was a sudden stillness...for the stopping of the great heart that had not broken till it held the world." In a mere 150 pages, Chesterton captures a phenomenal character, making many interesting asides along the way. He (Chesterton) is without any equivocation an apologist for the Catholic Church, but he does it with the sort of grace that makes one think twice. I am happily Unitarian Universalist, but if I ever became a Catholic it would be because Chesterton led me there. (Though I recommend that the present Pope not hold his breath :-)

This book was recommended by ministerial colleagues who said it gave a pretty accurate (humorous, biting) look at liberal ministry of a certain time. I enjoyed it. It was not the laugh-out-loud variety for me, but some insightful descriptions of people and places and attitudes, as well as some so-bad-they're-good witticisms voiced by the main character (often delivered in my favorite form, the bad pun, e.g. hearing the thunder of a prayed-for rain and calling it "Jehovah's wetness.") It had an underlying sadness in its courageous exploration of death and suffering, which I find to be a trademark of some of my favorite "humor" writing. I look forward to reading "The Blood of the Lamb."

A collection of sermons spanning Bonhoeffer's all-too-short ministry, with helpful biographical introductions that place the sermons in the context of Bonhoeffer's life and world (and World War II) events. Some of the later pieces are especially gripping, making one wonder how Bonhoeffer's theology may have developed from there and what kind of challenges he might pose in our present time. Merry Christmas!

Sadly, I am running out of books to read by Richard Yates. I enjoyed this collection, full of deftly drawn characters, keen perception of the everyday, and a dark view of life in general.

When I asked colleagues to share advice on leaving a congregation, each and every one of them, in the course of sharing their own experiences, asked, "Do you have a copy of "Running Through the Thistles?" I do now. And they were right; it's a good read to ground one in the hard, rewarding work of saying goodbye.