ivanfuller

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #12: Caste

Wow! The week I spent reading this one has brought me low...appropriately so. I’ve been doing a lot of self-education about this world we’re living in and the huge inequities and inhumane treatment that fills it, but this one wins the prize! I’m both depressed and committed thanks to the eye-opening stories in this vitally important book. I’m so glad to see that it’s been at the top of the NYT Bestseller list for a few months now. It deserves to stay there! Not only is it incredibly “readable,” but it helps the reader understand this country in an important new way. Yes, many of us have a solid understanding of the problems that continue to need solving, but Wilkerson has provided a very fresh and inspiring way of even better understanding exactly what’s gone wrong AND what it will take to turn the tide. It’s not an easy panacea that she gives us...and it may not happen in our lifetime, but it is inspiring nonetheless. And for that, I’ll hold onto hope that the injustice -- the inhumanity -- that so many show to so many, can be corrected.

“Even the longest lived of our species spends but a blink of time in the span of human history. How dare anyone cause harm to another soul, curtail their life or life’s potential, when our lives are so short to begin with?”

“Radical empathy...means putting in the work to educate oneself and to listen with a humble heart to understand another’s experience from their perspective, not as we imagine we would feel. Radical empathy is not about you and what you think you would do in a situation you have never been in and perhaps never will. It is the kindred connection from a place of deep knowing that opens your spirit to the pain of another as they perceive it.”

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #11: The Killer Angels

FIRST LINE REVIEW: “He rode into the dark of the woods and dismounted.” Full of short, clear, often poetic, often piercing sentences, this classic novel about the Gettysburg battle was both moving and educational. When I toured Gettysburg a few years ago, I added this novel to my reading list and it finally rose to the top. Now I need to return to Gettysburg and walk the fields with the new depth of perception provided by this power novel. Both horrific and deeply human, it presents the events of the three-day battle through the very personal eyes of some key figures who were there, trying to survive and, more importantly, understand what it was all about.

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #10: Hail to the Chin

FIRST LINE REVIEW: “My mom, even though raised in the Midwest, was a huge fan of Westerns and had a deep fondness for the world to the west of Detroit.” So Bruce heads West and away we go! I’ve been a huge Bruce fan ever since the first Evil Dead film back in the 80s. His spot-on comic ham delivery always works for me. And his memoirs fit his style just right. He and his oeuvre isn’t for everyone, but if you find him as “groovy” as I do, then you’ll love this Second Act to his life story.

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #9: Easy Prey

FIRST LINE REVIEW: “When the first man woke up that morning, he wasn’t thinking about killing anyone.” Been a fan of Sandford’s escapist crime novels for many years, very gradually working my way through them. At the rate of one about every two years, I don’t expect to ever finish them all, but that’s okay. For me, they’re solely meant to be a momentary diversion from a more challenging reading diet. Brain candy after a peaty scotch. 

This was the 11th in the series and it was “okay.” A quick read, but not as exciting and inventive as others. It did its job and so my time wasn’t wasted. And Lucas’ character continued to evolve in ever-so-incremental ways. But Minneapolis is still a really COLD place!!

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #8: Just As I Am

FIRST LINE REVIEW: “I know instantly whether I should take a role.” She waits for the “tingle” and if it doesn’t happen, then she knows it’s not the role for her. And she’s seldom been wrong about what she’s agreed to do. That doesn’t mean all of her projects have been critically successful, but it does mean that she’s tried to take on roles that mean something...that present positivity.

This is a pretty special memoir, finished in the midst of our pandemic and the BLM movement. And published just months before Ms. Tyson finally left the stage for good at the age of 96! Hers was a life of import and she tells her story with humility and deep gratitude for a life well lived. 

Now it’s time to revisit some of her greatest roles!

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #7: Strange, Beautiful Music

Love Joe’s music, but not enough to love this book which was deep into explaining the technical side of his recordings and VERY shallow into telling his story. The subtitle of “A Musical Memoir” is pretty accurate. This is all about the music and very little about the musician. For example, his wife is mentioned in passing without ever telling us that he got married. Ditto for his son. And so on...

Just not what I was expecting at all.

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #6: A Promised Land

FIRST LINE REVIEW: “I began writing this book shortly after the end of my presidency -- after Michelle and I had boarded Air Force One for the last time and traveled west for a long-deferred break.” Can’t tell you how many times during the last four years I’ve said how much I missed Obama. And this wonderfully honest, warts and all, first volume of his memoirs reminded me how much he strove to make a positive difference for ALL of us. And it further highlighted the dangerously divisive America that is currently running rampant. Gone are the days of honestly working together for the sake of Americans. Obama’s memoir helps us understand the inner workings of that divide, his sincere attempts to compromise and work across the aisle and the adamant refusal of Republicans to even consider such a move. 

As we enter a moment when Democrats are back in the White House and Congress...I’m left to wonder and watch and worry...how long will it last before we lose something precious and fleeting.

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #5: Machines Like Me

FIRST LINE REVIEW: “It was religious yearning granted hope, it was the holy grail of science.” As in every one of the Ian McEwan novels I’ve read over the years, this one traveled unique territory while still living in a “world” that felt very familiar. This time we’re in an alternate-reality 1980s that is far more advanced than the ‘80s we all know (or knew). Kennedy narrowed missed being assassinated, the Beatles reunited and are no longer popular, cell phones are common and...the hub of this novel...artificial intelligence has been put into humanoid robots that can fall in love...among other things.

It all makes for a quick, but rather profound and probing read, pushing the envelope on ethical/moral challenges and how we might have acted had we lived in that world.

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #4: The Pilgrim’s Progress

FIRST LINE REVIEW: “As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream.” And for the next 175 pages or so, the dream is shared with the reader. Impressive as a 17th century work of religious literature, telling through allegory the tale of Pilgrim on his travels to the City of God. Much like the Morality play, “Everyman,” all characters are allegorical and the purpose is a sermon about the pathway to heaven. I wouldn’t call it a particularly compelling read, though I did appreciate it as a work of historical literature.

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #3: Commonwealth

FIRST LINE REVIEW: "The christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin." Boy, did it! And that party isn't the only thing that takes a turn. Everything that follows in this powerful, creative and deeply insightful novel turns on Albert's arrival at the party. I flew through this brilliant book and am so grateful that it fell into my lap. A potent reflection on the fragility of life.

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #2: Good Omens

FIRST LINE REVIEW: “It was a nice day.” In this case, “nice” isn’t necessarily a positive attribute. As I’ve discovered with people who might be called “nice,” there’s often something unexpected, masked, even twisted lying under the pleasantries. The very same could be said about this rather brilliant, very funny and ultimately profound novel about the end of the world...as we know it. Chances are fair that the world - as you know it - won’t look quite the same after seeing it through the mind-meld of Gaimon & Pratchett. I’ve been very familiar with Neil’s work, but this was my first exposure to Terry. And I’m now looking forward to spending time in his Discworld series of books. 

[ivanfuller]

2021 Book #1: Gotham

FIRST LINE REVIEW: "'O this is Eden!' exulted the Dutch poet Jacob Steendam." Wow! It's not a terrible stretch to compare reading this weighty tome to reading the entire Bible. While the content is SIGNIFICANTLY different, the depth, richness and LENGTH is very comparable. I loved the immense challenge of researching, writing (and reading) this impressive history. I learned so much and was constantly struck by the passage of time and the evolution of this great city. My only complaint is that it could have easily been broken up into two volumes.

[ivanfuller]

2020 Book #55: Nature

FIRST LINE REVIEW: “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society.” Or put more directly, get away from your desk/computer, avoid people and go for a long walk in the woods. I had to take my time with this collection of philosophical writing from the early-mid 1800s in order to follow Emerson’s ideas. I’m no philosopher, but my take-away was a constant refrain of the above opening line, coupled with a focus on trying to be the best person you can be for yourself and for others. Love, nature and selflessness were all constant refrains. So was the need to unstick ourselves from bad habits and traditions. As one of the founders of transcendentalism, he seems to be saying that we need to evolve/transcend just as nature does, rather than rigidly/conservatively refusing to do so. Makes a lot of sense.

[ivanfuller]

2020 Book #54: Sonny Rollins: Meditating on a Riff

Big fan of this jazz giant and I love musician biographies. Been slowly working my way through Sonny’s music collection so it was time to learn more about his life. This book was NOT the one to choose. But it should have been. Hugh Wyatt is a close friend and had access to many family members, friends and associates of Sonny. Their quotes about his life and music are great. The problem (and I keep encountering it with these types of bios) is that an editor was desperately needed. This book could have EASILY been half as long as it was. The amount of repetition was staggeringly bad! Over and over again we would be told the same facts, not only from one chapter to the next, but within the same short chapter. The assumption is that Wyatt had no faith that his reader could remember anything just read. And that just makes me incredibly grumpy!  The chapters actually felt like they were written to be stand-alone articles, published in different magazines, rather than a sequence of events being spun out as part of a unified life-story. By the end of the book I was making unconscious grunts of frustration every time I had re-read something I already had been told many times earlier. But I pressed on solely out of respect for the great Sonny Rollins. He deserves much better than this!

[ivanfuller]

2020 Book #53: Colonel Roosevelt

My Teddy adventure comes to a sad end with this final chapter of Morris’ trilogy. Quite a brilliant and epic journey through the life of an American giant. Unquestionably flawed and equally bold, brave and driven. More often than not, driven in the right direction, but Morris doesn’t ignore the human weaknesses and mistakes of this larger-than-life, Mt, Rushmorian figure. 

This final book covers life after his presidency ends. It includes his African safari, life-threatening exploration of central Brazil, another run for presidency with the new Progressive Party, and his fight to convince America that they needed to prepare for WWI before it was too late. Told with a great balance of literary power and thorough research, This is the trilogy to read if you, like me, are working your way through presidential biographies.

[ivanfuller]

2020 Book #52: The Reckless Oath We Made

I loved this book! On so many levels. It’s the latest from Bryn Greenwood and the third of hers that I’ve read. If you want a fast-paced thriller with deep heart, unique, flawed and captivating characters, edgy issues and freshness out the wazoo...look no further! All of her books have placed social misfits front and center, making them the stars of these glorious stories. This is no Harlequin romance. It is uniquely REAL and totally original at the same time. Gentry and Zee will be staying with me for quite awhile. 

If you like medieval fantasy, modern-day crime and imperfect romance...then this is the perfect mashup for you!

[ivanfuller]

2020 Book #51: The Pioneers

I picked up this book several years ago and then put it right back down, deciding it was going to be too clunky and slow for me. Well, I was very wrong! Or maybe it’s 18th C. clunkiness was exactly what I was ready for this past week. I found this classic tale to be a very compelling adventure saga set at the beginning days of America in upstate New York. Great characters, well-paced, and only a little uncomfortable racial insensitivity that was part of the unfortunate historical fabric of that age. 

I get the sense (or am hoping) that this first of The Leatherstocking books represents the point where all the other books will now be leading because I was left with the sense of many great tales that preceded this one...starting with The Last of the Mohicans. I’ll find out soon enough because I’m putting this collection into circulation on my reading list.