Miscellany Buffet

Knockemstiff by Donald ray Pollock
July 7 – July 19

( 4 stars)

Most people who do any reading will tell you they have read a book (or several) that take place in a locale that they then want to visit.  Based on the author’s descriptions of the places and the people in them, after the book is done you’re drawn to the place.  Knockemstiff refers to a real town in Ohio, but based on the author’s depiction of the place and its denizens, I’m thinking it is a place to actively avoid.

In all seriousness, Pollock mentions in the acknowledgements section of the book that the town of Knockemstiff was his hometown, was a nice place and had many good people.  Why none of them made the book is up for debate  .  A collection of interconnected short stories that take place between the early 50′s and present day, Knockemstiff is rife with drug addicts, pedophiles, welfare defrauds, alcoholics, abusive spouses, and deviants of other varying ilks.  The town resembles a wasteland from a Cormac McCarthy novel, a place with fallen down structures, escaped opportunities, and an almost pathological acceptance of the freaks and criminals that the book centers on.

The stories are well written, direct, and in most cases leave you wishing for more details despite the raw and unpleasant subjects they cover.  Not a book for the easily offended, Knockemstiff is a good read for a night (or a day, or week, or month) when you’re feeling dissatisfied with your fellow man, your surroundings, and life in general.  Use this as an elixir in those situations and you should come out of it with a solid “things could be a lot worse” recovery.

See the whole 2011 List…

2010 list…

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
June 20 – July 7

(3 stars)

Set in a modern-day Irish boarding school, Skippy Dies was funny, quirky, but rather slow at times.  The characters are likable, but predictable.

Even though the main character (or one of them) dies in the first few pages of the book, the story really just begins there – even for Skippy, himself.  There is adolescent wit, adult intrigue and regret and even a bit of sexual tension.  There are priests and Catholic dogma, bureaucracy, and domestic lack-of-tranquility.

I suppose you’d say there is a little something for everyone in Skippy Dies. Not what you’d call a page-turner, but not a bad read, overall.

See the whole 2011 List…

2010 list…

I stumbled upon this list at artofmanliness.com and wanted to re-post it.  Red text indicates the ones I’ve read.  Blue means I read the title but not all or it.  Black means I’ve yet to get to it.

1. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli
3. Slaughter-house Five – Kurt Vonnegut
4. 1984 – George Orwell
5. The Republic – Plato
6. The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
7. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
8. The Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith
9. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
10. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
11. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
12. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (more…)

I’ve never been a great maker of New Year’s resolutions, but I made one this year.  I promised myself that I would read 52 books by the end of 2011.  That, of course, works out to one per week.

Through March I was off and rolling.  With my new Kindle in hand and some Winter free time, I was blowing away titles at the rate of two a week.  It’s a good thing, too, because since baseball season has started, not to mention Summer in general, I’ve slowed considerably.

The good news is I just went through and tallied up and right now I’m reading my 27th book of the year.  Being that it is exactly midway through June, that puts me about two books ahead.

Right now I’m reading “The Psychopath Test”, by Jon Ronson.

Assuming the rest of the summer will be slow, I’m looking for a good push between the end of the World Series and the Christmas week to bring me home.

Wish me luck.

In reading the book What’s So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D’Souza (I’ll do a review when I’m finished,) I came upon a quote from Richard Dawkins, a British biologist who, as a devout atheist, has made a career out of espousing pure Darwinism and not just arguing against religion and Creationism, but lampooning the concepts and railing against them.

Obviously, I don’t agree with Mr. Dawkins’ views.  I am a Christian and make no apologies for such.  I respect his right to his views.  But it seems clear from this quote that Mr. Dawkins does not respect my right to mine, nor that of my right to raise my children.

He has referred to monotheism (the belief in one God) as “The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture…” and has suggested that “atheists” should start being called “brights” instead, the obvious insinuation being that the rest of us would then be the “dulls”.

This quote, though, made a chill run up my spine. In his book The God Dellusion (snappy title, huh?) he wrote:

“How much do we regard children as being the property of their parents? It’s one thing to say people should be free to believe whatever they like, but should they be free to impose their beliefs on their children? Is there something to be said for society stepping in? What about bringing up children to believe manifest falsehoods? Isn’t it always a form of child abuse to label children as possessors of beliefs that they are too young to have thought out?”

As a parent and an American, I find the assertion that my parental rights do not include teaching my children about my beliefs, let alone that doing such would constitute abuse as patently absurd.  The idea that an educated and, as such we then assume intelligent man, would suggest such a thing borders on psychotic.  Is Mr. Dawkins so afraid of the opposing side on his argument that he would really espouse criminalizing a basic tenant of childrearing?

If it were not for the constantly repeating evidences that show us that even the most absurd idea can gain support, I would brush off such radical and absurd posturing by an advocate of a position that (despite what atheists contend) losing support, not gaining it.

In the end, my response to Mr. Dawkins, now, as it is usually is simply this:  I’ll keep you in my prayers.

Nothing particularly interesting to post today, but it’s been awhile, so I’m gonna throw one in here about the current book I’m reading…

While certainly not the caliber of his father Michael’s The Killer Angels, this sequel and picks up right after the battle of Gettysburg is similar in style and very readable.

I’m only about 1/4 of the way through it (it’s been a busy week), but I’m looking forward to finishing it.

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Check out the newest page of Miscellany Buffet… my reading list.  What I’ve been reading and what I think about what I’ve been reading.

Reading List

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