This one of the better books from the period that I tend to think of as the Decline of the Master. Naturally, the bad guy is the most interesting character; the other characters are quite bland and uninteresting. King employs his usual device of supernatural phenomenon without a shred of explanation or plausibility, but we …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/02/20/the-dark-half-by-stephen-king/
Dec 10 2012
Burmese Days by George Orwell
This book deals with many important and socially relevant issues, such as racism, imperialism, colonialism, and the White Man’s Burden. Unfortunately, these important issues fail to compensate for the fact that this is an exceedingly dull story. There were parts of this book that made me feel profoundly disgusted, but other than that it left …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/12/10/burmese-days-by-george-orwell/
Sep 22 2012
A Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell
Most of us are familiar with Animal Farm and 1984; this story of a clergyman’s daughter living in 1930’s England is far more grim and depressing than any of Orwell’s totalitarian dystopias. Orwell the freethinker sees the Christian life as nothing but unrelieved hypocrisy, cant, and flummery, a way of making you feel like you …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/09/22/a-clergymans-daughter-by-george-orwell/
Aug 21 2012
De Anima by Aristotle
I think of “soul” as another word for consciousness, but Aristotle says remarkably little about consciousness in this book. For Aristotle the primary characteristic of the soul is that it moves or animates the body. The secondary characteristic is that it is endowed with perception through the physical sense organs. By the time he comes …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/08/21/de-anima-by-aristotle/
Aug 04 2012
Six Days of War by Michael Oren
Excellent book. If anyone wants to know how a pitifully small nation, surrounded by implacable enemies, hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, can resoundingly defeat those enemies in six days, this is the book to read. The author is a card-carrying Israeli Jew, but he gives a thoroughly balanced treatment of the events leading up to the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/08/04/six-days-of-war-by-michael-oren/
Jul 13 2012
Just After Sunset by Stephen King
Uneven, but some of these stories were pretty good. The scariest story was about an obsessive-compulsive whose condition is contagious. There is more than one story that is basically a revenge fantasy, which makes me wonder what goes on in King’s head these days. And there is more than one story featuring the stock King …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/07/13/just-after-sunset-by-stephen-king/
Jul 12 2012
Einstein by Walter Isaacson
I read this book several years ago; on rereading it I was much more interested in Einstein’s science than his life story. Yet the story is still inspiring; it is a testimony to what an unconventional mind and a lot of curiosity can accomplish. Einstein remained a determinist throughout his life, and on reading a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/07/12/einstein-by-walter-isaacson/
Jul 09 2012
Pulp by Charles Bukowski
When I first read this, I thought it was the worst novel I had ever read. On a second reading, however, it comes off remarkably well. It’s much funnier than I remembered the first time around, and somehow the ending seems more poignant now. It’s not one of Bukowski’s best, but it’s still Bukowski: funny, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/07/09/pulp-by-charles-bukowski/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/06/18/the-march-of-folly-by-barbara-tuchman/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/05/13/the-proud-tower-by-barbara-tuchman/
Al Singh
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The Shire