Monthly Archives: June 2014

Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell 1978 / 568 pages rating 8.5/ 20th cent lit In 1937 Walter Blackett is the owner of a large rubber plant and export firm in Singapore where he lives with his wife Sylvia and … Continue reading →

The Hanging Garden by Patrick White 2012- posthumously / 228 pages rating 8.5 / 20th cent fiction This is an unfinished novel by Australia’s Nobel Prize winner. I read and loved Voss but White’s other books seem to be more … Continue reading →

Death With Interruptions by Jose Saramago 2009 / 239 pages rating 5 (out of 10) /contemp fict If an author is too lazy to give characters names and use traditional punctuation and formatting (sentence- paragraph breaks) then I don’rpt see … Continue reading →

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich – 2003/ 355 pages rating – 9 / contemp fiction This is the third book I’ve read by Erdrich which focuses on the Ojibwa Indians of the … Continue reading →

How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher From Galillee by Bart Ehrman 2014/ 371 pages rating 8 / history of Christianity Although Ehrman is no longer a believer, he presents a fair picture of the “historical” Jesus … Continue reading →

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels 1979 /182 pages rating 8 / history of Christianity Interesting exploration of how the gnostic gospels interacted with orthodoxy and to shape the Christian church as it developed. Good book – it’s not about … Continue reading →

Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming by Anthony Barnosky 2008/ 288 pages rating 7 / non-fiction/ environment Not a top-notch anything, but pretty good for a freebie. The focus of Heatstroke is the effects of global warming on … Continue reading →

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz 2003/ 517 pages rating 7 (but parts are 10) / fictionalized memoir Perhaps I’ve just read too much Israeli history and lit to really appreciate this book. It started out quite … Continue reading →

Asunder by Chloe Aridjis 2013 / 192 pages rating 7.5 /contemp fiction By day Marie, like her great-grandfater, is a guard at the British Museum where she watches the paintings and patrons as well as thinks. After working hours she … Continue reading →

The Red and the Black Stendhal – 1830 rating- 10/ French Classic A bleak yet somehow charming and in the end complex satire of hypocrisy in love and politics (of all kinds) during the Restoration Era in France. Julien Sorel, … Continue reading →

A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Oziki rating 8.5 / contemp. There are at least two interwoven stories involved in this tale. The first concerns Yasutani Nao, a 15-year old Japanese girl, partly raised in California, who writes … Continue reading →

Posts right now only (no “pages”) as I’m working from my iPad alone, traveling with lots of time to read but very limited internet access other than the 3G.  This will likely continue for a couple months.