This book is quite simply the most enthralling work of fiction that I have read in the last twenty years. The building of a cathedral in itself is not terribly interesting; what is interesting is the way in which individuals thrown upon their own resources struggle to survive in a harsh medieval world. And the …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/03/11/the-pillars-of-the-earth-by-ken-follett/
Feb 20 2013
The Dark Half by Stephen King
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 …
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/
Oct 26 2012
Bag of Bones by Stephen King
This is the WORST Stephen King novel I have ever read. No zombies, no vampires, no demons, just a writer dealing with writer’s block. No doubt this is Stephen King’s worst nightmare, but it hardly makes for an interesting story for the general reader. There are some ghosts and haunting going on, but most of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/10/26/bag-of-bones-by-stephen-king/
Oct 14 2012
Spain: The Root and the Flower by John Crow
The best book on this little-studied corner of Europe I have read so far. The author sees Spanish history mostly as a series of tragedies and disappointments, implying that while the rest of Europe was forging ahead on the path to progress, Spain lagged irremediably behind. But he is full of admiration for the qualities …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/10/14/spain-the-root-and-the-flower-by-john-crow/
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/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire