by Rawi Hage Taking place in the midst of the Lebanese civil war in the late ’70s, Beirut Hellfire Society follows Pavlov, the son of an undertaker. After the sudden passing of his father, Pavlov agrees to carry on his life’s work helping an underground organization perform last rites for those denied proper burials because…
Read more
by Kurt Vonnegut I don’t think I can fully express how important this book is to me. The first time I read Breakfast of Champions was sometime around ’07 or ’08, when I was an impressionable University student building up my knowledge in areas unrelated to literature of this sort. And it seriously blew my…
Read more
by Evelyn Waugh Understanding the importance of getting the best man to cover the impending civil war in the small African nation of Ishmaelia, Lord Copper, owner of the Daily Beast newspaper, follows the advice of a dinner companion to enlist novelist John Boot to go. Miscommunication and misunderstanding causes his staff to send the…
Read more
by Tom Wolfe This one’s been on my shelf for a long time now. It seemed like a timely thing after reading a Paul Wells article suggesting that The Bonfire of the Vanities was the key to understanding the Donald Trump mentality, at least early on in his presidency. However, the book’s long, so it…
Read more
by Frank McCourt Angela’s Ashes is McCourt’s famous memoir describing his staggering poverty growing up in Ireland in the 1930s. While this may at first glance sound similar to something I recently reviewed, I assure you this is a different thing entirely, both with regard to style and focus. McCourt chronicles a life of severe…
Read more
by Robert A. Heinlein Oh, Heinlein. I had my doubts about this one after my last foray into his work, but mention of Stranger in a Strange Land being on the bookshelf of an author I respect within another book I loved made me think that it might be worth a look. (Besides, the copy…
Read more
by J. D. Vance Hillbilly Elegy is Vance’s memoir describing his uncommon escape from poverty in America’s Rust Belt to eventually graduate Yale Law School. The author takes us through his experiences to describe what he sees as drivers of poverty to help readers better understand why so many become trapped in the lower class,…
Read more
by Dave Eggers A Hologram for the King is about Alan, a failed American businessman up to his eyeballs in debt. Previously superficially making the acquaintance of the nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Alan manages to get a place among the team from the massive tech firm, Reliant, to pitch their new hologram…
Read more
by Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl is Frank’s personal diary kept during the two years spent in hiding in a small apartment in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during WWII. Upon hearing the Dutch government was seeking out personal accounts of the conflict for later publication, she wrote and rewrote many passages with the intention…
Read more
by Waubgeshig Rice Moon of the Crusted Snow explores an apocalypse from the viewpoint of a secluded Anishinaabe community in Northern Ontario. As it’s already only loosely attached to metropolitan Canada in the south––cell and internet service is relatively new and patchy, at best; the recent connection to the Hydro grid is just as reliable,…
Read more