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June 16
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Charles
gave
 
to:
The Jane Austen Book Club (Hardcover)
by Karen Joy Fowler
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Charles said:
"superficial, more or less inoffensive fun, in the vein of a hollywood romantic comedy.
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June 07
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Charles
added:
The Persian Expedition (Penguin Classics)
by Xenophon
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Charles said:
"An adventure tale from the world of Ancient Greece. Its a well told war yarn, and the pages turn themselves...
Xenophon writes the story in the third person despite having played a key role in the events of the story. This might be a convention...more
An adventure tale from the world of Ancient Greece. Its a well told war yarn, and the pages turn themselves...
Xenophon writes the story in the third person despite having played a key role in the events of the story. This might be a convention of the day (I have no idea), but the narrative is very much told from his perspective.
There's a pattern in the story: First, Xenophon judiciously leads his fellow soldiers through harrowing straits. Once they are safe, they turn on him. Xenophon saves the day through an elegant speech, reminding them of his past heroism on their behalf and pointing out their dependence on them. The soldiers quickly come around to his point of view, and set aside their enmity.
This cycle repeats itself over and over again. He portrays himself as a judicious and selfless leader, working tirelessly and thanklessly on the part of the Greek fighting force.
This would all seem like a exercise in self-exculpation and self-glorification, but its not anything near as tiresome as that sounds.
What rescues the work is two things: First, Xenophon is an excellent storyteller with a very modern, insightful point of view.
Second, Xenophon's speeches are fascinating pieces of rhetoric. He's a master of reframing a debate (to use a trendy term). He can analyze a situation from every party's vantage point, working through the subtleties of every possibly outcome. Once he's done speaking, the stakes have changed and his arguments seem inevitable. And it reads like a speech by Obama.
...less
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April 27
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Charles
gave
to:
Gravity's Rainbow (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Thomas Pynchon
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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February 17
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Charles
gave
to:
In the Freud Archives (New York Review Books Classics)
by Janet Malcolm
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Charles said:
"One of my favorite books of all time. Janet Malcolm writes with a poison pen, but sees with extreme lucidity. She is a searchlight in a greenhouse, withering whatever catches her attention. Here, she turns her vision on a favorite subject: the wor...more
One of my favorite books of all time. Janet Malcolm writes with a poison pen, but sees with extreme lucidity. She is a searchlight in a greenhouse, withering whatever catches her attention. Here, she turns her vision on a favorite subject: the world of psychoanalysis.
A controversy between a trio of psychoanalysts becomes an exploration of ambition, intellectual obsession, the practice of and institutions around psychoanalysis, the problems of history...
The subject of the conflict is the birth of psychoanalytic theory in Vienna. Three men become obsessed with its historical interpretation: heroic origin myth or secret scandal. The battleground is the Freud Archives, the collection of Freud's unpublished works, housed in his last home and carefully guarded by his daughter, Anna Freud. The three men go at each other like three knights each trying to climb braids hanging from a tower.
The keyphrase here is: "the truth is better than fiction, it is just harder to write well."...less
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Charles
gave
to:
The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (Paperback)
by Lewis Hyde (Goodreads author!)
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Charles said:
"This book is more than a pleasant, thought-provoking read; it inspires and edifies. That's not what I usually look for in a book, and don't get me wrong: this is not a self-help book.
It is a cross-cultural look at the sociology of gift-giving,...more
This book is more than a pleasant, thought-provoking read; it inspires and edifies. That's not what I usually look for in a book, and don't get me wrong: this is not a self-help book.
It is a cross-cultural look at the sociology of gift-giving, but it doesn't read like an academic text. Lewis Hyde's own gift is for tying together disciplines in a learned but amusing way.
I've often recommended or loaned this book with success; there are currently 3-4 people in my office working their way through this book....less
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Charles
gave
to:
Stepping Stones to Go (Paperback)
by Shigemi Kishikaw
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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has a copy to sell/swap
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Charles
gave
to:
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (Paperback)
by Barbara Wertheim Tuchman
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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has a copy to sell/swap
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Charles
gave
to:
A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age (Paperback)
by William Manchester
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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has a copy to sell/swap
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Charles
gave
to:
The Andy Warhol Diaries (Paperback)
by Andy Warhol, Pat Hackett
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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has a copy to sell/swap
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