Audiobook. At the young age of 58 this biblical scholar received a cancer diagnosis that he thought signaled the end of his life. The immediate effect was to stop the music of everyday life, an effect that moved him to try to address the pivotal question put by the subtitle of this book, “On the Foundations of Religious Belief.” While there is much of great interest to me in the...
Audiobook. Once again the storyteller makes it happen. I don’t know how he can make characters come alive in so few words. Scully is a hardworking, rough-looking Australian who has landed in Ireland, after traveling throughout Europe for several years with his wife and 5 year old daughter, Billie. She was a University trained ambitious bureaucrat who married a good-hearted working-class...
Audiobook. Before I decided to read this Man Booker prize winner, I read some strongly worded dismissals of the book and the author. But John Self (no relation) at Asylum said it was funny so I went with that. And I’m glad I did. The focus is mainly on Julian, a 50ish nebbishy fellow and his connections with Sam Finkler, his very successful friend from school days, and Libor, their...
Audiobook. After spending a several weeks in Reformation England with Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall), I decided to move ahead to 1605 and acquaint myself with Guy Fawkes to learn why the British have bonfires with effigies of him on November 5. It remains something of a mystery that it is Guy Fawkes, who came late to the conspiracy to blow up Parliament, kill the king and his family, and...
Audiobook. While reading much of this book, I was conscious of its cleverness, and some of the bits made me think of Tina Fey. I think that means I haven't seen Steve Martin do a comic turn in a long time. The characters are well-described, but for much of the time, not too real. For example, Mirabelle, the shopgirl, in contrast to the completely unreflective...
Audiobook. I was moved to listen to this book by a mention of it by Lilia, who found it remarkable that her American husband read this Russian classic in college. I had read it years before, but fear that I had carelessly erased that tape from my brain. Bazarov and Arcady have just finished their studies and make their way to Arcady's home out in the countryside for an...
Audiobook. This is another wonderfully plotted book (as was Seven Types of Ambiguity). The most prominent voice is the widower, a 70 year old retired librarian who worked in the Reference Room at Widener Library at Harvard. The New England accent and the crotchety old fashioned outlook was reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. Just as I was growing...
Audiobook. An Object of Beauty tells the story of an ambitious young woman in the art market. It's not that Lacey overcomes her idealism to make money; she never displays any hesitance to do whatever it takes to further her career. She begins work in the 1990s at Sotheby's and the novel ends after the 2008 collapse of the financial market and its aftermath. ...
Audiobook. Each chapter of Tom Rachman's book focuses on a single imperfect person; all of these people are connected to an English language newspaper published in Rome. The trajectory of the life of the newspaper itself is told in flashbacks separating each chapter from its beginning in the 1950s to its demise in 2007. The newspaper life is a useful setting for...
Audiobook. Joseph Ellis drew heavily on the letters between John and Abigail to write about these two, so we know less about their views during the times they were together as no record exists. Happily for us, they were separated for years as John was off becoming or being a statesman. And when they were together, their letters to others do provide insights. It was delightful...