Life Studies by Robert Lowell
More than sixty years since publication, it is hard now to see why this book was groundbreaking. It contains many poems and an autobiographical piece of prose. Strangely, the autobiographical piece is what was groundbreaking formally and a few of the poems in the last…
Call of the Great Spirit by Bobby Lake-Thom
I read this book to learn more about Native American spirituality and I definitely got that from it. As a book it felt amateurish; the writing weak, repetitive and somewhat impersonal despite it being a life story. Yet despite all that, it has great sincerity,…
My Struggle Book 1 by Karl One Knausgaard
I am rereading the Hades section of Ulysses where Bloom and the others attend Paddy Dignam’s funeral while also reading Knausgaard’s first volume that focuses so much on him and his father. Both books dive deep into the lonely, scary, lively and disgusting nature of…
How I Became a Tree by Suman Roy
More than a year ago I gave up my car and became much more earthbound getting places more frequently by foot or bike. I am no longer so frequently in that unreal, disembodied state that comes with driving 25 or 30 miles an hour in…
Also a Poet by Ada Calhoun
I remember exactly where I bought my first collection of Frank O’Hara poetry. It took me a long time to read all of it which I did grimly at times since poetry wasn’t yet my natural reading material. Since then I have branched out considerably…
Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
‘Origin of the Species’ was written more than twenty years after many of his observations were first made on the Beagle’s voyage. However, what he observed about geologic formations, flora and fauna served as the basis for his theory that all life was subject to…
The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House by Ben Rhodes
The Obama years were a blur to me particularly with foreign policy. I didn’t pay much attention because I felt that we were in good hands. Now that we aren’t in good hands, I found myself wanting to learn more about what Obama faced and…
Tracking the Marvelous: A Life in the New York Art World by John Bernard Myers
I came to this memoir of the post WW2 New York art scene via a Frank O’Hara biography. I was intrigued to hear what it was like on the ground in those formative years and to a lesser extent, I am interested in how out…
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon
There is much more than that in, “The Noonday Demon” but for me, when I read the book and was struggling with how to cope with my own depression, one insight was enough. Depression is a progressive disease. If you don’t treat depression with medication…
Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
Ballard’s dystopian fiction has more to offer than a vivid imagining of future civilizations. The author captures subtle, powerful and mostly believable reactions to the savagery that would erupt post civilization. His characters don’t just enter a state of shock or emit wild screams of…
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