Category: books (Page 4 of 7)

Overrated.

We’ve been enjoying this series for quite some years now. Lorrie Moore picked this collection, and a very nice one it is. Stories I especially liked: “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie, “Intervention” by Jill McCorkle, and “All Saints Day” by Angela Pneuman.

John Irving’s first novel feels a little green to me, but only in comparison to the brilliant work he’s done since.

Just finished racing through Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, three novels set in the 17th century. As early modern European history was my undergrad major, and technology my current occupation, this series was a real treat (which can explain how I finished 3000 pages in 3 weeks).

Barbary Corsair pirates, the birth of the commodities markets, the debate over the origins of the calculus, defenestrations of all kinds. What a riot.

I liked William Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain so much that I convinced my book club to try another of his travel books.

The short review: it’s not as good as Mountain but still worth a read. This is his first book, for which he became (justifiably) famous while still an undergrad. It feels a little “green” compared to Mountain — I’m chalking that up to Dalrymple’s relative youth and it being his first book. I hear traces of what will become excellent writing 10 years later.