Books 67 - 69 / 100
67. Common Sense - Thomas Paine
One of Paine's pamphlets encouraging the American colonists to rebel. This one mostly lays out why it was "common sense" to do it and do it at the time he was writing. He talks about such things as population size and military skill being in the favor of the colonists to strive for freedom. I guess he was right! And he talks about tyrants and the unnaturalness of hereditary monarchy, which seems to be a common complaint in his writing.
68. Empire Falls - Richard Russo
The Pulitzer Prize winner for 2002. About a dying factory town in Maine and the people who live there. The main character is Miles, a middle-aged man who works at the one restaurant in town and who is getting a divorce. He spends his time being sad about his divorce, worrying about his daughter, and being complacent about nearly everything else. But it:'s interesting, I swear!
I really enjoyed reading this book and raced through it in a day and a half. Can't say why, though, since it wasn't terribly exciting, although there were a few mysteries and conundrums to keep me trying to figure stuff out. Stuff like that always gets me reading so fast I start skipping lines and paragraphs.
69. The Years - Virginia Woolf
This story is about the Partiger family from 1880 to the mid-1930s. They start off as children and young adults and the story skips rather abruptly through time, starting in 1880, then moving to 1891, etc. At first I wasn't paying enough attention, and the time jumps were disorienting. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't terribly thrilling or emotional for me. I was mostly sad at the way things didn't work out, the way people changed, and how quickly they aged. Which I suspect was one of the effects for which Woolf was aiming.
One of Paine's pamphlets encouraging the American colonists to rebel. This one mostly lays out why it was "common sense" to do it and do it at the time he was writing. He talks about such things as population size and military skill being in the favor of the colonists to strive for freedom. I guess he was right! And he talks about tyrants and the unnaturalness of hereditary monarchy, which seems to be a common complaint in his writing.
68. Empire Falls - Richard Russo
The Pulitzer Prize winner for 2002. About a dying factory town in Maine and the people who live there. The main character is Miles, a middle-aged man who works at the one restaurant in town and who is getting a divorce. He spends his time being sad about his divorce, worrying about his daughter, and being complacent about nearly everything else. But it:'s interesting, I swear!
I really enjoyed reading this book and raced through it in a day and a half. Can't say why, though, since it wasn't terribly exciting, although there were a few mysteries and conundrums to keep me trying to figure stuff out. Stuff like that always gets me reading so fast I start skipping lines and paragraphs.
69. The Years - Virginia Woolf
This story is about the Partiger family from 1880 to the mid-1930s. They start off as children and young adults and the story skips rather abruptly through time, starting in 1880, then moving to 1891, etc. At first I wasn't paying enough attention, and the time jumps were disorienting. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't terribly thrilling or emotional for me. I was mostly sad at the way things didn't work out, the way people changed, and how quickly they aged. Which I suspect was one of the effects for which Woolf was aiming.