Ryan’s Review of Books

This summer I had a lot of time on my hands. A lot. Probably more than I have had for as long as I can remember. Even finding things with which to fill my time, I had a lot of time to travel around Albania and read a lot of books. I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about a few of the books that I read over the summer. Maybe, depending on how this one goes, I will do this again in another year, or in another six months or so, and see how my opinions or reading lists have changed.


Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
This book was really good. An account of an Everest summit where everyone dies. Who wouldn’t want to read this. I am sure that I am a latecomer to this book and that you have all read it anyways, but I think that its good.

Against All Enemies – Richard Clark
I like this book, and would probably like most books that bash our current president, but I think that he brings up a lot of good points. Clark seems like a smart guy and not just someone who is out to make a few bucks and stick it to the administration that fired him. I think that any political book like this should definitely be taken with a grain of salt, no matter how convincing it can be, but for all its worth it was a good read.

The General of the Dead Army – Ismail Kadare
The most famous book by the most famous Albanian writer. I never would have read this if wasn’t living here in good ole Shqiperi. Most people think that his writing is amazing, but I would say that it is good. It is about two men, Italian I think, who come into Albania to collect the bodies of the solders that were killed here during the Second World War. One is a General and the other is a priest. They travel around Albania and discuss some of the places here and discuss the history and what they feel is the character of the people. Kadare was one of the few authors who was allowed to publish in Albania under communism, so his writing obviously goes along the party line. Now people say that he was an anticommunist and you can see the subtle undertones in his work. I have only read this one but whatever it is would have to be very subtle. I like him enough, however, to say that I would read whatever else of his I could get my hands on though.

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This book was amazing! I had heard of it before, and just picked it up as I was browsing for a few books to bring to Albania with me. Once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. It is about the birth and death of both a small town and a family somewhere in the Americas. There are some weird parts of the book, but there are also some weird parts of life. I would highly recommend this book to everybody and think that it should be on any reading list.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon
Meh. It was alright, a quick read. I don’t have a lot to say about it though.

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
This book exceeded my expectations in fact. But they were quite low. This was my first foray into Dickens, but I have always heard that he is dry and boring. This book wasn’t what I expected at all. It is divided into three parts. The second part – where Pip is living within his expectations – kind of drags a bit, but the rest of the book was really good.

Running With Scissors – Augusten Burroughs
Really messed up childhood. Anybody with a childhood like this probably needs to become a writer. It was pretty entertaining, but strange enough where I haven’t really felt that I could recommend it to anybody.

The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
Really good book. It is divided into four sections, the first one is really hard to get into because you have no idea what is going on, but if you can plow through that chapter and continue on through the book, it is definitely worth it. This book is really amazing, but in some ways I feel that it worked on a level that I didn’t really understand. I think that this is one that I might try to read again in time.

Bluebeard – Kurt Vonnegut
I love Vonnegut, and this was a really good book. Classic Vonnegut.

Freakonomics – Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner
This book was really entertaining. I think that it is best for those analytical people because what the authors do is try to apply economic theory to random things like a correlation between baby names and future success, sumo wrestling, or real estate. It doesn’t really go into deep theory (or maybe my intense minor in economics helped me to understand its intricacies). This book was informational and entertaining.

The Runaway Jury – John Grisham
Do I need to write about Grisham here? He is entertaining and I can breeze through a book in a day. That’s why I read him so I don’t have to think.

Founding Father – Richard Brookheiser
This is a biography of George Washington. It was pretty readable, which is good for history books, but not very critical. He is an editor at the National Review, which is apparent in the book. He does a great job of praising Washington. It was still entertaining and I learned a little bit about our first president.

Player Piano – Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut’s first novel. It was actually really good, you can tell reading it that Vonnegut was still in the early stages of developing as a writer. His later books are far more complex, but many of his overriding themes and ideas can still be found here. This isn’t Vonnegut’s best work, but I hold it to higher standards.

Bless Me Ultima – Rudolfo Anaya
I think this is a book that most people read in high school. It was good, but some parts were a little dry. It is about a boy growing up in New Mexico I believe, and an older woman, a healer, comes to live with them. This boy learns a lot from Ultima and he also has a chance to get in touch with his roots as he is trying to figure out who he is and to grow up.

Seabuiscit – Laura Hillenbrand
I don’t know if this was a history book, a biography, or a sort of novel. It was kind of a mix of all three. I think that a reporter was trying to write a history book which kind of turned into a sort of novel. Where she tried to be academic, she failed, but where she tried to write a good story she succeeded. I don’t know why she didn’t just stick with what she was good at. It wasn’t a great book, but it was a good topic. I never knew that one horse had so much impact on the nation at such an incredible time.

A Movable Feast – Earnest Hemmingway
Great book detailing Hemmingway’s early years as a struggling writer in Paris. He is a great writer and the book was great. It was written posthumously – sometime in the 70’s or 80’s I believe. This book also contains some of his insights into other writers that lived at the time that I can’t remember right now.

The Old Man and the Sea – Earnest Hemmingway
I had never read this before. It was really good. I read most of it on a bus coming back to Kucove – its short – but I love how Hemmingway can capture human nature. I think that this is the struggle for writers, and why many of them fail. I love when a great writer can really capture the essence of people and their innate responses, reactions, and desires. Hemmingway is great at this art.

How we are Hungry – Dave Eggers
This is a book of short stories published by Eggers, but it was the first work of his that I’ve read. I don’t really think that you can judge a novelist by their short stories. I need to read another of his book to see how I feel about him. They were good stories though.

Jailbird – Kurt Vonnegut
Another Vonnegut. This was probably one of the best Vonnegut novels that I have read. It is about the least famous guy involved in Watergate. This is another writer who can really capture human nature, but everything is random and happenstance. People are irrational and kind of directionless, and their lives are composed of these random events that happen to them. Its hilarious, but I think that it really reflects life sometimes.

Frankenstein – Mary Shelly
Everybody said that if you read this book expecting the movie, you will be disappointed. I have never seen the movies so I didn’t really know what to expect. I still didn’t really like it. It’s so Victorian. A guy makes another living person, gets scared and lets him free. This living thing quickly learns to read the classics while living in a hovel and within a few years is more eloquent than the guy who made him. Because everybody is scared of this monster he decides that he needs to kill people unless the guy who made him also makes him a wife. I don’t really understand why this book is still so popular.

Bee Season – Myla Goldburg
This was better than I though it would be. I was kind of expecting a chick book, but it was pretty good. There were a few weird twists at the end that I wasn’t expecting. I would recommend this, it was a pretty good read. I wont say what its about though.

Slapstick – Kurt Vonnegut
I’ve noticed that I’ve read a lot of Vonnegut since I’ve been here. Another theme of Vonnegut’s is the fact that everybody is always looking for acceptance and looking to find other people that are like them. Maybe these are to replace our imperfect families. The main character – the former president of the United States after the world kind of collapsed – had created new random families for people during his term as president. They were successful because everybody is looking to reach out to other people. This guy is probably the greatest living writer. Hi ho!

The Brothers K – David James Duncan
Great book. This is one of the ones that has been passed around the volunteers for a while and is written in and underlined, but I received it with high recommendations. It is about a family – three sons, two twin daughters, a father who was supposed to be a successful baseball player but was injured, and a kind of crazy mother who is a part of the Seventh Day Adventist church – and the difficulties that they have to face in the tumultuous times that were the 1960’s. You can really see how the strengths and weakness of the parents have affected and been ingrained into the children. The similarities with the Brother Karamozov are surprising. Not in number, but in the subtleties that the two books share. There were some connections that I assumed would be there but weren’t. There were other connections that it took me a while to notice. I don’t really know what to say about this book, but just read it.

Life if Pi – Yann Martel
This book was really entertaining. It was about a kid trapped in a boat at sea for almost a year, but he was with a tiger. The book chronicled the complex relationship that one would obviously form with a tiger in a small space. I think that the worst part of the book was then end where I had to come to terms and wonder if this was a true story or not.

A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
This is a book that I have been meaning to read for a long time. I have to admit that I am not actually done with this book, but only about half way. I was reading it and needed a break. I’ll probably be picking it up again before too long. It’s a project, but I think that I made some pretty good strides. Even the part that people said were boring like the rise of socialism and opposition in the late 19th century I thought was great. I have just come to the part about World War II, and I think that the modern stuff will be even more interesting

Light In August – William Faulkner
Lastly, the book that I am currently reading. Maybe it is premature to add this to my list, but I’ll do it anyways. Where The Sound and the Fury was really difficult to get into, I got into this one right away. Racial tensions in the South, especially around 100 years ago is a subject where I don’t claim to be an expert, but reading Faulkner you can feel like you are there. I am really liking Faulkner, more than I thought I ever would. I always assumed that there were Hemmingway people and Faulkner people, but why the dichotomy? Can’t we all just get along and be Hemmingway and Faulkner people?